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“You want us to get you off by proving you’re psychic?” I ask incredulously.
“Well, she is,” says the boyfriend. His name’s Poe, although I’m not sure if that’s the name he was given at birth or one he’s bestowed on himself. “She knew you were going to get married, didn’t she?”
“We’re not supposed to talk about that,” Josie says. It’s a surprisingly cooperative thing to say, so I’m already on high alert when she shifts her gaze to meet mine. “But he’s right. I did know that.”
“I’m sure you tell dozens of people the same thing. For many of them it will be eventually correct—for a while.”
“But I was right about the wedding night, too, wasn’t I?” she asks, giving me a knowing look. I don’t like that she’s thinking about what happened between Ruthie and me. Sure, she was right, but maybe that wasn’t so hard to predict either—there’s always been an energy between us. A combustibility. Josie the Great is less psychic than she is observant. A useful skill, to be certain, but there’s nothing supernatural about it.
I clear my throat, trying to bury the animosity I feel about her taking a shovel to my personal life. “Let’s focus on the issue at hand.”
Josie and her boyfriend exchange a glance that makes me want to break the desk in half, then Josie says, “You told me this case could get us some great publicity. You were right. Poe and I have decided this is our chance for a TV show. We’re going to prove I’m psychic, and when we do, the offers are going to come rolling in. It’s time to level up.” She says this with complete confidence, as if thousands of other people haven’t tried to prove they were psychic and failed.
“If it were possible to prove the supernatural, it would already have been done,” I say flatly, resisting the very strong temptation to add, by someone other than you. “There’s always another possible explanation. If anything, the people in the courtroom might think you’ve looked into their backgrounds. They might take it personally if you know things you shouldn’t.”
“Ah, but she doesn’t need to prove anything,” Poe says, leaning in. “She just needs to give the jury enough evidence for them to think there’s reasonable doubt. We can put past clients on the stand.”
Michael nods in his seat next to me, the traitor.
“Nevertheless, you can’t make a mockery of the courtroom,” I say slowly, trying to rein myself in. I feel like my fuse is being nipped shorter and shorter.
Poe heaves a sigh. “You’re thinking too linearly.”
“Good,” I say, because fuck me, that’s a compliment. “This is what we do—we prove the husband’s friend was interested in the wife before she ever went to you. The jury would deliberate for less than five minutes.”
Poe leans forward and props his elbows on the desk. “Look, man,” he says. “I was like you once.”
A laugh nearly escapes me, because I highly doubt it. His hair hasn’t seen a pair of scissors in months, and he’s wearing a flannel shirt over a band T-shirt.
Poe nods. “Yeah, I was. I worked at a place like this.”
Well, that explains it.
“And your girlfriend here showed you the error of your ways?” I guess. I get a flash of Ruthie in my head, giving me her patented you’re being an asshole look.
“She showed me that I’d placed artificial limits on what was possible. Most people do.” He pauses, watching me, and I’ll give him this—he has the timing down. Finally, he says, “You have to admit that her way could work.”
I glance at Michael, who seems to be enjoying himself. Then again, he’s used to pandering to fools out to waste their paycheck. This is at least something different.
“My third eye tells me this is what needs to happen,” Josie says, finding my gaze and holding it. I can’t deny I feel a little uncomfortable, but I’m not about to look away first. “And it also tells me you’re going to get some big news today. When you do, maybe you’ll change your mind about me.”
“That’s such a vague prediction, anything would fit it,” I say flatly, unimpressed.
“It’s news that’ll interest all of your friends.”
“Is it that I’m defending you? I’ve already told them. They’ve given me their condolences.”
She shifts in her chair. “They all like me. I’ve been incredibly helpful to them.”
“If you say so.”
“Well, if that doesn’t impress you, then how about this? Your wife and her daughter are going to move in with you next week. Her little dog too.”
“Now I know you’re full of—” shit almost comes out, but I hold myself back at the last moment. Still, she is full of it. I may be partial to that little dog, but I don’t want her shitting in my shoes. Besides, it would never work. Sure, I’d thought about telling Ruthie that she and Izzy should come stay with me for a while, but that was before we fucked.
There’s no way in hell I could stay under the same roof as her now. It would be…I’d feel like Tantalus with that fruit held just out of reach.
Josie lifts her eyebrows. “You wait and see. Both of my predictions are going to come to pass, lawyer man. Then you’ll know.”
