‘Things you hear, things you read. You know. I’m not saying, so just file that with my street address.’

He looked at me for a long time. It was the first time he’d used his eyes on me for anything but a flash glance. Then he picked up the bill.

‘What do I do first?’ I demanded.

‘What do you mean?’

‘How do we start?’

‘We started when you walked in here.’

So then I had to laugh. ‘All right, you got me. All I had was an opening. I didn’t know where you would go from there, so I couldn’t be there ahead of you.’

‘That’s very interesting,’ Stern said. ‘Do you usually figure everything out in advance?’

‘Always.’

‘How often are you right?’