Dolled Up for Murder by Jane K. Cleland

asked Fred as he straightened the pile’s edges. The stack looked to be about a half inch high.
    â€œYup,” Fred said.
    â€œWhich might mean megabucks or it might mean nothing worth mentioning,” I said. “We should scan one in, so I can e-mail it to Barry.”
    Fred used the scanner located next to Gretchen’s desk; then I attached the image to an e-mail and dialed Barry’s number.
    When a male voice answered, I said, “Barry? I hope you remember me … Josie Prescott. I used to work at Frisco’s.”
    â€œSure, I remember you. You moved up north somewhere, right? How you doing, Josie? What’s it been? Five years?”
    â€œCloser to eight, believe it or not. Yeah, I opened my own business in New Hampshire, and it’s going very well. God, Barry, do you remember those ancient Roman coins?”
    â€œDo I ever. In pristine condition. A hundred thou a pop. Not bad for a day’s work.”
    â€œI’ll say. Listen … I’m sorry to bother you at home and so late, but I have a kind of situation here and I’m hoping you’ll do me a favor. Can I e-mail you scans of the front and back of a bill?”
    â€œSure,” he said and rattled off his personal e-mail address. “What is it?”
    As I typed in his address and hit SEND, I said, “An American 1862 one-dollar bill.”
    â€œConfederate or Union?”
    â€œIt just says ‘United States.’”
    â€œLet me get to my computer,” he said. “Got it. Give me a sec.”
    â€œOkay. Barry, I’m going to put you on speaker, okay? I have some other folks here who need to hear what you say.”
    â€œSure.”
    I held on for what felt like minutes but was probably only seconds.
    â€œOf course, I’ll need to authenticate it,” Barry said, “but this sure looks like the real deal. Where’d you get it?”
    â€œI’ll tell you later. For now, give me a one-minute overview.”
    â€œThis is Union currency, issued to support the Civil War. It’s way rarer than Confederate money, because fewer bills were printed. Best guess is that there’s only between three and five thousand extant. If this is genuine, it’s an example of the first ever federally issued one-dollar bill. Think on that … the first ever. That’s Salmon Chase on the front. He was secretary of the treasury under Lincoln and is considered the man who bankrolled the Civil War. In as good condition as this appears to be, which is to say uncirculated, it’s worth two thousand dollars, maybe more.”
    â€œWhat would it do to the value if a hundred bills in this condition hit the market all at once?”
    â€œTell me it’s true.”
    â€œIt’s true, but not for publication.”
    â€œI don’t know. I’d need to gauge buyer response. We wouldn’t want to flood the market, that’s for sure, so I’d keep the total number available on the q.t.”
    I understood his point. If Barry offered one of these bills for sale and got thousands of offers, the value of all one hundred would hold their value or increase in value. If he offered one for sale and got fewer than a hundred requests, that wouldn’t bode well. If he went ahead and put the other ninety-nine on the market, the value would probably drop. Supply and demand.
    â€œWant to FedEx me a few so I can begin the process of authenticating them?” he asked.
    â€œYes, but I can’t. Not yet. Soon, I hope.”
    Barry went pit bull on me, and it took me a full two minutes to get off the phone. He’d gotten a whiff of an unprecedented find of rare currency, and he wasn’t letting go without a fight. I understood. In his shoes, I’d act the same.
    I felt Fred’s and Ellis’s eyes on me.
    As soon as I hung up, I said, “Two thousand dollars times a hundred … two hundred thousand dollars.”
    Fred leaned back,