Black Is Back (Quentin Black Mystery #4) by JC Andrijeski Page A

expression bordering on angry. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet.
    “Why didn’t you tell me about this guy, Miri?” he said.
    I looked at him, pursing my lips.
    “Because it’s my job, Nick. I followed protocol... pretty much by the book. I kept my peers informed as soon as it was appropriate. The guy I referred him to, Dave Esterhaus, got copious notes from me following his initial assessment. He’s no rookie with this stuff. He had Norberg pegged as a possible narcissist with misogynistic tendencies within the first session, and I hadn’t even told him anything yet, since we both agreed Dave should evaluate him cold first. He told me Norberg had ‘agenda’ written all over him from the second he walked in the room. Esterhaus knew the guy was going to try and manipulate him to get at me. He told me Norberg was already feeling him out for what he might be able to get him to do to harm me by proxy... and that he’d already accused Dave of being a castrated stooge. I would never have referred him to someone who didn’t have the clinical experience and the maturity to see Norberg for what he was.”
    Nick nodded. That tenser thing in his eyes dimmed.
    Even so, I couldn’t help but think how similar his question had been to Black’s.
    I folded my arms on the table, copying Nick’s pose. “If he’d escalated into criminal behavior, believe me... you would have been first on my call list. Well,” I amended. “The police would have been. If it got to you guys first, chances are, it would have been someone else reporting it.”
    Glen chuckled.
    Nick’s eyes were completely humorless when I glanced up.
    “That’s not funny, Miriam,” he said.
    Glen’s smile faded. I felt his puzzlement when he glanced at Nick that time. Usually Nick could dark humor with the best of them. Like paramedics and ER nurses, it was pretty much a cop thing to whistle in the dark.
    Glen thought Nick was acting pretty weird, I could tell.
    Even as I thought it, Nick glanced at his partner. “Can you give us a minute, Frakes?”
    Glen hesitated, giving me a fleeting look. Then he nodded, rising to his feet.
    “Sure thing.”
    He left the manila file folder and his yellow legal pad on the table, within an arm’s length of me. I stared at the file, having to fight the impulse to slide it over to where I could look at it. Some of that was morbid curiosity, but Nick also mentioned wanting me to go with him to see the body, so I also wanted to prepare myself for what I was in for.
    I’ve never been overly fond of dead bodies.
    “Miriam,” Nick said, sliding over so that he took Glen’s seat, the one directly across from me. “Was this guy dangerous? To you, I mean. Did you... you know. Assess him the other way?”
    I met Nick’s gaze. “Of course. But it’s not always clear when someone’s just thinking about doing something and when they’re really going to act on it, Nick. You know that. A lot of people are just bluster. And most narcissists are cowards.”
    Nick nodded, but I could tell something still nagged at him.
    “What about motives for Norberg’s murder?” he said. “Any thoughts?”
    I gave him a puzzled look. “Do you have any suspects I could check out?”
    “No. Not as yet.” Still watching my eyes, he added, “We’ll check out the woman you mentioned of course... and her husband and any other people in her life who might have moved against him. But we don’t have a lot to go on at this point.”
    I nodded, but continued to watch his face. “Well, if your L.A. detective is right, you might not need to look hard for a motive.”
    “True,” Nick conceded.
    “Do you still want me to look at the body?”
    “Yes.” He looked away finally, blinking and nodding as if he’d forgotten what he’d wanted to ask me. His face hardened as he stared down at the table. “...Although I guess it might make more sense to have Black come in to look at it. For the merc thing... but for the other thing too,