Arthur sat back on his stool. The silence of the alleyway pressed against the back door. He looked at the forty drawers, realizing there were thousands of vials.
"Got a fresh pick from an estate in Vermont," Silas said, wiping his hands on a rag that was darker than the floor. He pointed a heavy thumb toward the back of the dim warehouse. "A whole library and the contents of a private museum. The family just wanted the land cleared. I’m not breaking it up, Arthur. Take the lot or leave it." buy wholesale antiques
Arthur's heart did a small, familiar skip. This piece alone, once cleaned and waxed, was worth more than he had paid for the entire truckload. It was the jackpot that made wholesale buying a drug. Arthur sat back on his stool
By nightfall, the box truck was backed up to the alley behind The Reliquary . Arthur worked alone, his breath blooming in the chilly air as he used a crowbar and a hand truck to wheel the heavy pallets into his back room. He saved the mysterious black-wrapped pallet for last. It was, as Silas had promised, incredibly heavy. It took every ounce of Arthur's strength to lever it over the threshold. "Got a fresh pick from an estate in
Arthur looked at the remaining two pallets. They were wrapped so tightly the cardboard corners of boxes were crushed. One showed the edge of a heavy, ornate silver frame. The other was completely opaque, covered in black plastic instead of clear. "What's in the black wrap?" Arthur asked.
Inside were hundreds of tiny glass vials, each corked and sealed with red wax. Each vial contained a small roll of paper. Arthur frowned and pulled out a vial. He carefully picked away the brittle wax and pulled the cork. With a pair of tweezers from his workbench, he extracted the rolled slip of paper.