“Change my mind about what?”

“You said I wasn’t the girl for the job, at first. What made you change your mind?”

Jackaby stopped arranging old boxes and looked me in the eye before answering. “Marlowe is a good man and a competent detective, but he notices what anyone would notice: the extraordinary. He spots bloodstains and mad men in red pajamas. I see the things more extraordinary still, the things no one else sees. But you—you notice mailboxes and wastebaskets and . . . and people. One who can see the ordinary is extraordinary indeed, Abigail Rook. Any other questions?”

I had just one more. “Why don’t you have a little notebook?” I asked.

“What? A notebook?”

“Yes, for jotting down clues and leads and things. Terribly handy for a detective, I should think. Marlowe’s got one. It has a leather cover and flips up top-wise. I wouldn’t mind a notebook like that, myself. We should each have one. We’d look more like proper detectives, then.”

“Firstly,” Jackaby said with a sigh, “a ‘proper detective’ is about the last thing a good detective wants to look like, most of the time. Secondly, it isn’t a bad idea on the whole, but I’ve used notebooks and I found them entirely useless. I’d give them to my assistants to type up, and none of them could ever decipher my handwriting. One of them rather rudely suggested it looked like the scribblings of a chimp.”

“Well then, you could always read it out for me to copy—or not copy it at all, just use it for your own reference.”

“Well, that’s no good.”

“Why not?”

“Because ‘chimp’ was generous. I can scarcely read a word I’ve written. I find it’s far simpler to skip the exercise entirely. I can dictate my findings to you at the end of the day in the comfort of the office.”

“Well, I should still like one myself, someday. I think I would look quite sharp with a leather notebook. Oh, and a magnifying glass. I would feel much more like a detective with a magnifying glass.”

“I do have several of those, but why should you need to feel like a detective? I’m hiring you as an investigative assistant, not a detective. Would a magnifying glass help you to feel like an investigative assistant? If so, I would be happy to lend you one as you get adjusted to the role.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, sir, but you have a way of taking the joy out of an occasion, do you know that?” I buttoned my coat against the cold wind. “Shall we be off, then?”