He sat on the toilet in a locked stall with the suitcase across his legs, opened it, felt through the layers of clothes, brought out the .38 and slipped it in an outside pocket of Max Hoffman’s blazer. He locked the suitcase in a locker, walked outside to the taxi queue and took a cab to 681 Park Avenue at 68th Street. Hess had come here six months earlier with the Durer, left it on consignment with Jurgen Mauer, a former gallery owner from Berlin Hess had done business with over the years. Mauer knew wealthy private collectors who would be interested in an original Durer. The arrangement was: Mauer would sell it and take twenty-five per cent. The artwork, charcoal and colored chalk on paper, was estimated at $250,000, maybe a little more. Several weeks later the Durer was sold to a Japanese millionaire for $270,000. Hess had received $50,000 in cash, the first installment. Mauer had owed him an additional $152,500, the bulk of the sale, and had been holding out for months, but now he needed it.
