Or else she didn’t want to admit that she could actually need or learn from something as “simple” as sex.

He sighed. He could only continue to do as he had been doing, and hope that sooner or later he would find another path, or she would find one. Until that happened, Kestrel was certainly a bitch to be around.

“I’m glad you called, Miss Talldeer.” The tinny voice did not sound terribly glad, but that could have been either Corporate Manner or simply the bad speaker in her phone. “You caught me just before I left for the day.”

“I was out on a case,” she said simply, hoping that it was either of those two. “I called as soon as I got your message. There was something about an investigation of trouble at a construction site? I hope you haven’t found someone else.”

She pulled pad and pencil to take notes within easy reach. Both lay in a patch of late sunlight on the warm worn wood of her desk. She hoped that the answer to her question would be “no.”

“No, we haven’t,” Sleighbow said, and she stifled a sigh of relief. “There aren’t many people with your particular qualifications; certainly not in the Tulsa area.”

Qualifications? That was an odd thing to say. And something she’d better check out before she took this job.

“I’m not certain what you mean,” she replied cautiously. “There are certainly plenty of competent private investigators in this area; I’m sure there are many you’ve worked with before. Has one of my former clients referred you to me?”

“Not exactly—” he temporized.

It took a good ten minutes of verbal song-and-dance before she finally got Sleighbow to cough up his reason for calling her, and no one else. Yes, she had come highly recommended by former clients—which was pleasant to hear, but not enlightening. Yes, her record was quite good. Yes, he was pleased that she had a good relationship—or at least, she didn’t have a bad relationship—with the local police. None of those were the reason why he had called her, nor the reason why Romulus did not particularly want to use one of their usual firms. And he wouldn’t tell her exactly what the job was; he kept asking her questions. She was usually pretty good about figuring out which “interview” questions were loaded, but this guy was slick; she’d have to have a voice-stress analyzer to get anything useful out of some of the things he asked her.