I shook my head. “Off the record means your name doesn’t enter any official files. But anything relevant will be passed along to Lieutenant Sturgis.”

“Well,” said Cohen, “I appreciate your honesty, don’t encounter it often in my line of work.”

He fingered his tie. “You say you don’t suspect Fellinger but you want to pry into his personal life.”

“If it has to do with Ursula Corey.”

He put down his spoon. “I don’t know why I agreed to see you. I’m getting the distinct impression you’re a young man who thrives on complications.”

“Just the opposite, Mr. Cohen. My goal is always to simplify.”

He studied me. “If you were a woman, I’d call you a yenta.”

“Busybody’s fine,” I said. “And it’s gender-neutral.”

Cohen laughed loud enough to draw attention from the counterman. He finished with a wheeze, stroked the section of his neck that had been hollowed out. “For a psychologist, you’re direct. Aren’t you people all about nuance?”

“What I hear you saying is that your feelings could be explained by emotional factors but on the other hand …”

He laughed again. “Wise guy. Listen, I’m a geezer who’s had two types of cancer and what the heck, what can anyone do to me? So here’s the dirt: one day I noticed Grant’s pudgy paw finding its way to Ursula’s shapely buttocks when he thought no one was looking.”

“Where did this happen?”

“In the elevator of his building. We were all riding down—Richard, Ursula, Grant, and myself—having finished a conference.”

“Fellinger groped her with Richard right there.”

“I imagine that was part of the thrill.”

“How’d she react?”

“Tiny little smile.”

“The meeting was in Fellinger’s office, but he left too.”

“He was accompanying Ursula,” said Cohen. “Going the extra mile, a gallant.”

“But the real reason was sticking it to the ex. For both of them.”

“That was my interpretation.” He lifted a quivering hand, curled knobby fingers. “Not just a tap, he was squeezing her repetitively.”

“And she was enjoying it.”

“She smiled throughout the process,” said Cohen. “The inescapable conclusion was a long-standing private joke. I realized Richard hadn’t been blowing smoke when he claimed Fellinger was having his way with her all through the process.”

Richard had claimed the same about Cohen. I said, “Thanks for the information. Anything else?”

“It offended me,” said Cohen. “Not the sex part but the fact that Fellinger would breach professional ethics so baldly. I’m old-school, Dr. Delaware. Work is work, play is play.”

“Did Richard ever tell you Ursula had cheated on him while they were married?”

“No, that was the point.”

“The point of what?”

“I can’t speak to their lives prior to the divorce but any sexual adventurousness on Ursula’s part that he cited occurred only after the divorce. Therefore, I advised him to mind his own business.”