said, "it doesn't." What I didn't try to explain to Bert was that Evans's new wife was a projective psychic null. She negated most psychic abilities within yards of her. Evans was a lot calmer around her. She truly had saved him.
His small pale eyes narrowed at me. "That man out there, the boy, he's your boyfriend."
I nodded.
"Just your boyfriend?" he made it a question.
"What else could he be, Bert?" And it was my turn to have the innocent face.
He shook his head. "I don't know, but the noises from your office were a hell of a show, and that was without any visuals."
I didn't blush, because I was working too hard at keeping control of my face and eyes. "Do you really want to know, Bert, or do you want deniability later?"
He stood there for a moment, thinking, then shook his head. "I don't need to know."
"No," I said, "you don't."
"But you'd tell me the truth, if I wanted to know?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Why, why would you tell me?"
"To watch your face," I said, and my voice was soft, and not altogether pleasant.
He swallowed hard and looked just a little paler than his untanned face had a moment before. "It would be something bad, wouldn't it?"
I shrugged. "Ask and find out."
He shook his head again. "No," he said, "no."
"Then don't ask questions you don't want the answers to," I said.
"Don't ask, don't tell," he said.
I nodded, again. "Exactly."
He gave that roguish, I-know-something-you-don't smile. "But we get to keep the ten grand."
"For now. If Evans agrees to see the evidence, we'll need a bankroll."
"Is he that expensive?"
"He risks his sanity and his life every time he touches another clue. I'd make people pay for that, wouldn't you?"
A light came into Bert's eyes. "Does he have a business agent?"
"Bert," I said.
"Just asking, just asking."
I had to shake my head and give up. Bert had a real genius for making money from psychic gifts that other people thought of as curses. Would it be so bad if he could help Evans make more money? No. But I wondered if Bert understood that Evans was one of the most powerful touch clairvoyants in the world. That to brush against another person with his fingertip told him more about that person than most people would ever know. Bert would probably offer to shake hands, and the deal would be off. I only suspected what Bert was. One touch, and Evans would know for sure. In a way, if Evans didn't run screaming it would be reassuring for me. I would never offer to shake hands with Evans. One, you never offer your hand to a touch clairvoyant, just bad form. Two, Evans had brushed up against me before, by accident, and he hadn't liked what he saw. Who was I to throw stones at Bert, when he might pass Evans's radar unscathed, and I knew that I would go down in bloody flames?
Chapter 32~33
32
The rest of the afternoon appointments were damned boring compared to the Browns. Thank God. Nathaniel sat, quietly, in a corner of my office through all of them, just in case. Bert didn't argue now. I'd had two appointments with lawyers to discuss wills and other privileged material. They'd objected to Nathaniel, but I'd told them that legally the conversation with me wasn't privileged, so why did they care. Legally, I was right, and lawyers hate for a non-lawyer to be right. Or at least the ones I meet get cranky about it. So then, they'd wanted to know who he was and why he got to sit in on their meetings.
I told the first one, do you want this meeting, or don't you, and he let it go. The second one didn't let it go. My fingers hurt where I'd torn off the nails. My face hurt even if it was healing. My pride was hurt from having sex in the office. I was not happy, so I told the truth.
"He's here in case I have to have sex." I smiled when I said it, and knew that it didn't reach my eyes, but I didn't care.
Nathaniel had laughed and done his best to turn it into a cough.
The lawyer, of course, didn't believe me. "It was a perfectly legitimate question, Ms. Blake. I have every right to protect my client and his interests. You don't have to insult us with ridiculous lies."
So I stopped insulting him with lies, and we got down to business.
Every client, or group of