"Maybe not," he conceded from the door. "But the guy in the jam would have been me, not you."
I turned my swivel around and stared out the window at the Mall and didn't move until the light scent of Anita's perfume reminded me that I had asked her to come in.
I swung around. "You watch out for that Fred Plaice," Anita said, almost scoldingly.
"You mean, start watching my back, like I never did before? How did I get this far?"
Her frown softened a little. "You don't miss many bets," she said. "Not my Gypper. But this thing of Fred's holding back on the other telepath he picked up last night has all the earmarks of a real slippery move."
"Did Fred tell you anything about it on the way out?"
"Just that he was bringing the telepath from the City Jail right back with him, and that you wanted to see her at once."
"This snake is a woman, aged fifty-eight, Anita," I told her. "She gave the name of Maude Tinker and says she's my mother," I added, without any particular expression.
Anita laughed. "Oh, no!" she said. "What they won't think of next!" But her face sobered in an instant, and she bent forward, almost whispering the rest: "Gyp! You mean that Fred Plaice took her seriously! That he was trying to get rid of her?"