"You seem to know a great deal about this," Loomis said. "I'd like to discuss this further, if you don't

mind. Only away from all these damn reporters. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?"

"You seem to know a great deal about this," Loomis said. "I'd like to discuss this further, if you don't

mind. Only away from all these damn reporters. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?"

.

"Oh, and speaking of reporters," Loomis added, as if in afterthought, "one of them turned up something

about you, Paul, that I found rather interesting. Why didn't you tell me you were a sensitive?"

Ramirez glanced at Loomis sharply. "It's not something that I like to talk about," he said. "It makes

people uncomfortable."

"I see," said Loomis dryly. "We're involved in a homicide investigation where the killer is a necromancer,

and you have the ability to read minds, but you didn't think this was something I should know about?"

Paul shrugged. "You're absolutely right. I should have told you. I'm sorry, Joe. It's just that . . . well, I

haven't used my gift in a very long time. I had disciplined myselfnot to use it. It can be . . . very

disturbing."

"You know what I'm thinking right now?" Loomis asked as they walked back toward the street.

"No, I don't," said Paul a little stiffly. "But I think I could guess."

"Oh, don't guess," Loomis said. "Go ahead. Tell me what I'm thinking."

"What is this, some sort of test?" Paul asked. "Are you asking me to look into your mind? Is that what

youreally want, Joe? Are yousure ?"

"I don't know," said Loomis a bit uneasily. "Does it really make much difference what I want? I mean, if

you wanted to look into my mind, I couldn't really stop you, could I? I probably wouldn't even know

you'd done it. Maybe you alreadyhave done it."

"As a matter of fact, I haven't," Paul said. "But you're quite right, if I wanted to, I could. I could easily

find out everything there was to know about you. I could discover all your deepest secrets. I could learn

things about you that you didn't even know yourself. And you would never know I'd done it."

Loomis stared at him.

"That makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it?" asked Paul. "It distresses you, makes you feel threatened.

You can't help wondering, has he or hasn't he? And if I say I haven't, how do you know I'm telling the

truth? And if I say I won't do it, how do youknow I won't?"

Loomis did not respond.

"You see how it is?" said Paul. "This is why I have concealed my gift for years, so that only a very few

know of it. Some people who knew me as a boy, some of my childhood friends, some fellow students . .

. and none of them have ever been very comfortable around me. And those are myfriends , Joe. Now

that you know, our relationship will never be the same."

"I didn't say—"

"No, don't protest," said Paul. "It's something you can't possibly help. You will never be completely at