Chapters 12 & 13 Summary

In Chapter 12, Joe Leaphorn travels to New York to interview people in the business of buying and selling pots of the sort that Dr. Friedman-Bernal studies. His first visit is to Nelson's, a company that auctions valuable pots, including the one that Harrison Houk sold and Dr. Friedman wanted to study. The auction house personnel, particularly the female director of public affairs, are resistant at first, saying that they must protect the identity of their buyers. When Leaphorn is nearly ready to give up and acknowledge that the trip to New York has been for nothing, he mentions that Dr. Friedman-Bernal is missing. In fact she vanished "as if Eleanor Friedman-Bernal never existed." The auction stance of the director of public affairs softens, and she gives Leaphorn a name and address of the collector who bought the pot Harrison Houk sold.

Leaphorn travels...