“Truly, All The Way Down” by Clancy Martin
--page 6

        I was caught between them because I very much wanted David to handle the buy but now my big brother was sticking up for me.
        “Let me see the ring,“ he said. “Wow,” he said, when David handed it to him.
        “I know,” David said. “That’s what I’m saying.”
        Jim grabbed an ashtray from David’s desk and rubbed the ring around in the ashes. He looked at it, spat on it and rubbed it around again. Then he cleaned off the shank and handed it back to me.
        “Offer her five hundred bucks,” he said.
        “What? No,” David said. “No, no, no. No way.”
        “Look at her, David,” Jim said. “She’s probably twenty years old. She’s got two little kids with her. She doesn’t know what that ring is worth. She’s selling her wedding ring and her husband’s not with her. What does that tell you? She’ll just figure he lied to her about what it was worth. As usual. That’s what’ll she think. She’ll be so mad at him she’ll sell it for five hundred just to get back at him.”
        I did not want to do this buy at all.
        “Go on, Billy. Show them how it’s done. Show them how the Harpers do it. Five hundred. Five bills. We’ll make seven, eight grand on this deal. We’ll walk it up to Popper’s office together. Watch this, David. Just watch.”
        I went back onto the floor and told the woman we could offer her five hundred dollars. Her children were struggling and giving her trouble.
        “Five hundred? Oh no,” she said. “That’s not going to help. We need at least a thousand. I have to get a thousand dollars or I am in real trouble. Can you make it a thousand? It was his mother’s ring. It’s very old. It’s like an antique. It is supposed to be worth thousands and thousands of dollars. Couldn’t you do a thousand?”
        “We can’t pay that,” I said. “But listen to me. Across the street from us just a block up Houston is a place called Edelstein’s.” I leaned across the counter. I handed the ring back to her. That was something you were never supposed to do during a buy. I tried to block her out with my back so that they could not see what I was doing from behind the mirror. “This ring is probably worth at least five thousand dollars. But we will only pay five hundred. Take it over to Edelstein’s. They are Jews and they are smart buyers but they are fair. Take it over there and I bet you can get five thousand dollars or more.”
        “Wait a second,” she said. She was angry. “What are you saying? You are saying I will get more money somewhere else? Your ads say that you pay the best price in Fort Worth? You mean I came all the way down here with my kids just so you can send me somewhere else? If it’s worth five thousand dollars than you should buy it for five thousand dollars!” She was getting loud. This was not the reaction I had expected.
        “I understand,” I said. “You are going to get me in a lot of trouble. I’m just saying. Trust me. I can’t explain it right now. I am trying to help you. It’s only a block. A block that way.” I pointed with my thumb. “Take your ring there and say you need seven thousand dollars. Just trust me, okay?”
        She looked at me for a second like I was a person rather than some enemy behind a tie and a glass-and-brass counter and she saw I was telling her the truth. The truth went between us, I think you could say.
        “Okay,” she said. “I’m not saying thank you.”
        “Go,” I said. I tried not to look over my shoulder. “Hurry,” I said. She would not be safe until she was physically out the door. I knew those two. They would even run down the street to catch her.

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