38.

We all thought about that for a while. At least

Susan and I did. Vinnie continued to sleep. Hawk and Chollo were impassive, waiting for Susan and me. My first reaction was no! My second reaction was to find Alderson and break his back. My third reaction was the one I allowed out.

“What are you going to do?” I said to Susan.

She smiled.

“Right reaction,” she said.

“What other reaction could I have?” I said.

“Oh heavens,” Susan said. “I’ve known you too long and too intimately . . .”

“Please,” I said. “Not in front of my friends.”

She smiled again.

“The other reactions would have been about you,” she said.

“Not always a bad thing,” I said. “Sometimes you and I are pretty inextricable.”

“Yes, we are,” she said. “I told him I’d see him.”

“Alone?” I said.

“You know what I think about group sessions,” Susan said.

“When?” I said.

“Tuesday morning, at nine-fi fty.”

“We got the weekend to rig the offi ce,” I said.

“Rig?” Susan said.

“Listening device, surveillance camera.”

“No,” she said. “I cannot spy on a patient.”

“Even one who means you ill?” I said.

“We don’t know that yet,” she said.

From the couch, with his eyes still closed, Vinnie said, “I can put in an alarm button. I used to do electrical work.”

“Under the desk,” I said. “Where she can hit it with her knee?”

Susan nodded.

“That would be acceptable,” she said. “And I’ll have the gun you gave me. And you’ll all be here.”

“Why are you seeing him?” I said.

“It’s what I do,” Susan said. “He’s there. He’s of interest. I am interested.”

“Doesn’t this present some ethical problems for you?” I said.

“Many,” she said. “I plan to explain it to him.”

“About you and me?”

“Yes.”

“He knows that now,” I said. “Why do you think he’s coming to see you?”

“That would be one of the things I’d hope to discover,” she said. “I certainly won’t discover anything by turning him away.”

“No,” I said.

“At least while he’s here, we know where he is,” she said.

“Will you rat him out if you learn something?” I said.

“That’s not always considered good therapeutic practice,” she said.

“But . . .” I said.

“I will warn him that I have some allegiance to the law,” she said.

“Good,” I said. “As far as he knows, I’m a sleazy gumshoe trying to blackmail him for fi fty grand. That works for me.”

“I won’t tell,” Susan said.

“Okay,” I said. “Just remember he’s here in order to use you to get me to give him the tapes.”

“Probably,” Susan said.

“But if he’s going to try to leverage you,” I said, “it’s better that he do it here, where we can control the situation.”

“If your scenario is correct,” Susan said, “might he want to hold me hostage until he gets the tapes?”

“Yes.”

“So killing me is not at the moment in his best interest,” she said.

“No.”

“And you guys will prevent him from kidnapping me.”

“Yes.”

“So we’ll give it a try,” Susan said. “See what develops.”

I nodded. Susan looked around the room at the four of us, and smiled.

“Security arrangements seem impressive,” she said. Hawk said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait’ll Tuesday morning.”

Susan looked at her watch.

“I have a client,” she said.

“Who might not benefit therapeutically,” I said, “from fi nding you hanging out with gunsels and thugs.”

“This is true,” Susan said and turned back to her offi ce.

“Inextricable?” Chollo said to me when she was gone.

“Sí,” I said.

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