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weren’t at any party with her. You didn’t get into her dress.”
    “That was a lie,” Max said, relieved that it was.
    “No, it’s a lie if you knew there was a party and pretended you were there. How did you even know there was a party?”
    I turned to Tauber. “Did she wear a green dress?” He nodded. “Was there a pocket inside?” He shrugged.
    I turned back to Mr. Dulles. “If he doesn’t know, how do you ? Is she some kind of enemy agent?”
    Tauber burst out laughing. “God help the country that employs her.” He turned to Max. “You’ve got to let him in.”
    Max scowled. “You know the answer. You got most of it while I was talking to her.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “What were you thinking—back then, while we were talking?”
    I tried to take myself back, to recover what was going on in my head at the time. “I knew you were lying.”
    “Right and that’s good,” he grinned. Most people don’t get all happy when you catch them lying, but I’d gotten over expecting anything sensible out of him. “But, after that? When I told her about the party? When I mentioned the green dress?”
    “I got confused then. I couldn’t figure out—”
    “Don’t do that,” he jumped. “These are rationalizations you made up after the fact. What did you think right then ? In the moment?”
    I tried to remember. I fished back for the look on the landlady’s face right then, her confusion—and for the expectant, offering expression on his face at the same time. “I was thinking…I was thinking you were reading…what to say…”
    “How?” he encouraged, like he knew what was coming.
    “Like you were reading it off her face.” It felt stupid to say it. It didn’t make any sense, but it was what I’d been thinking.
    “Good! Except I couldn’t read a green dress off the expression on her face, could I?” Was he making fun of me? It wouldn’t have been the first time.
    “I’m not making fun,” he added a second later and I shivered even before I realized I hadn’t said it out loud. “Gregor, you did great. You got as much of it as you could. You just explained it away instead of accepting the strangeness of what you knew.” He was giving me the stare but this time, the back of my skull was just tingling, not burning. “I couldn’t read a green dress in her expression, could I?”
    “No.”
     “So where’s the only place I could have gotten it?” His eyes were as big as the moon over the Gulf, when it’s clipping the horizon, shimmering the size of a container ship.
    “Just tell him,” Tauber interrupted.
    “No! It’s crucial that he knows what he knows!” Mr. Dulles spit, suddenly fierce. “Don’t worry about making sense. Don’t worry about sounding foolish. You know the answer. Know what you know . Take ownership of what your senses are telling you, even if it flies in the face of everything you believe. Where did I get the information? Where’s the only place I could have gotten it?”
     “Her head.” It burped out of me the same as the agent names, the same way I’d known where the box was in Dave’s office—autopilot, no thought behind the words, presentation before understanding.
    “That’s it,” he said. “You’ve got it,” as though everything was settled.
    “Got what? What have I got?”
    “We read minds, son,” Tauber answered, with a weary smile. “It’s what they paid us for, for a while.”
    “Oh, come on,” I moaned. It was such a comedown, after thinking they were going to explain. Tauber shrugged so I turned back to Mr. Dulles. “Okay, fine—read my mind,” I demanded.
    “Jesus, give me a break, I’m not a carnival barker.” I just stared back. If he could read minds, let him do it or shut up.
    “Okay, you’re thinking that I can’t read your mind, of course. You’re thinking you never trusted me, even when I hung around Dave’s because I wouldn’t play cards and I didn’t really take part in things. You’re thinking about