“If you’ll excuse us,” he mumbled to Cybil.

“Of course. I’ll telephone your office for an appointment,” she called after them as Gideon escorted her to the door.

The street outside was quiet as they walked down to the avenue, where they could find a cab. When they were far enough away, Gideon whispered, “What was Cybil up to? I hardly knew what to say to her.”

“You did beautifully, darling. And Cybil is so clever! I never even thought of it myself. She just gave herself a reason to visit you from time to time in case we need to communicate. We don’t dare go to one another’s houses in case Madame Ophelia has someone watching us.”

“Why would she have someone watching us? I know Jake was concerned, but she can’t have people following all of her clients around the city all the time.”

“She wouldn’t need to, although I’m sure she does it sometimes to get information about them that she can use in her predictions. But I’m different. I’m trying to convince her I’m a real medium, and she’ll naturally be at least a little suspicious that I’m faking it. If she knew Cybil was my aunt, she’d know for sure that I’m a fake.”

“I see, so you don’t dare go visit her or speak to her outside of Madame Ophelia’s sight.”

“Exactly, but now Cybil can go to see you whenever she needs to.”

“And I suppose all that nonsense about her uncle sending someone to advise her didn’t refer to me.”

“Not at all. I’m sure Madame is quite put out that Cybil has already fixated on you, but that was also very clever of Cybil. Ordinarily, they would probably let some time go by before Cybil encountered the person who is going to con her out of her uncle’s money, but now they’ll have to speed things along so you don’t find a legitimate place for her to spend it before they get to her.”

“I’ll have to instruct Smith not to be too prompt in scheduling her appointment, then.”

“Yes, give them a few days. I’m sure someone will be along soon to convince Cybil he knows exactly how she should spend all that lovely money.”

—

Jake couldn’t help yawning as he walked to his office the next morning. Why did people think having a job was such a great thing? No matter how much fun you had the night before, you still had to get up early, get shaved and dressed, and go to some business where people expected you to be pleasant and do some work. Going to an office was bad enough. At least he didn’t have to actually do any work.