“He was quiet,” she said vehemently. “Women mistake quietness for maturity. He could have been mature, yes, but he could have been lonely, too.”

“Your Dr. Roberts is the one to see on that,” Leland said.

“Are you angry with me?”

“You’re not waiting for the facts, Norma. Now we might just catch something on the state of his mind in those days. His wingman could give us some ideas, if all else fails. That’s something to think about for later on. In the meantime, stop thinking. Leave that to me. It’s what you hired me for.”

“I think I’ll have to see Wendell for more than one thing,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m making myself sick over this.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he said.

“Well, he’ll know by looking at me. He knows my moods and the things that go through my mind. Don’t be surprised if he asks me to go over to his place tonight—without you—for an hour.”

He had picked up several things. “Then you’ve made an appointment,” he said.

“No, no. I talked to him this afternoon. We’re going to drop in on him right now. He has a class this evening, and he wanted to meet you as soon as he could.”

He didn’t answer. She seemed to have sprung it on him, as if she had thought that he would be displeased. Actually, he was. He wanted better warning. This made him think he was being drawn into something that was more than a job for a client whose company he enjoyed. A moment ago he had had to ask himself about the depth of her commitment to this Dr. Roberts. One thing he did not like was the idea of her surrendering her options so easily. If Roberts was to say she was sick—in trouble, more likely—she would accept it and offer herself up at the time he designated. For Leland there was something demeaning in it. It created a wariness of her he was not disposed to accept.

Leland tried to turn himself to the fact that he was here on a job like any other, and the job was his man, Colin William MacIver, whose recent color photograph was firmly imprinted in Leland’s mind. The tall, slender, carefully dressed young man who had known the ins and outs, and now was dead. The most important single thing about his whole life was his sudden death, and Leland was having difficulty keeping attention on it. He did not like it—or the way he was handling it, either.