Читать книгу Klick, the Dick - Milam Smith - Страница 12

The doctor was having a hard time getting a handle on Klick. The guy was really sending mixed signals. Klick’s posture had changed completely in the half-hour he’d been in the office. He’d looked like a time-bomb ready to go off at first. You could see the depression on his face. Now he smiled here and there. At moments Rivkin felt like he was in a school debate. Clearly, though, Klick had some kind of radical belief-system.

“Mr. Klick, I really don’t see what that has to do with the way you’re feeling about yourself.”

“You kidding? Good-looking chick like that and practically not-so-subtly tossing herself at any thing walking and you don’t see it coming? Well, I didn’t either. But her and her boyfriend and her husband, they’re the whole story. Okay, Beth’s part of it. And my wife. But what happened….”

“Not the way you’re explaining it.”

“Excuse me. I ain’t never claimed to be no Ernest B. Hemingway.”

“B.? I didn’t know his middle initial was B.?”

“Yeah, for Bigshot. Ha ha ha ha.”

“Really Mr. Klick.”

“Look, I’m not a people-person. I thought I made that clear. I also thought I made it clear Mrs. Ross was kind of, what, exposing herself without taking off her clothes. And to me.”

“Maybe she is just over-sexed. That happens—”

“Ha ha, Doc, you got that right. I thought the psyco word for that was nymphomaniac?”

“Really Mr. Klick. We try to stay away from those old-fashioned words.”

“Excuuuuse me. But nympho’s the word for her. But that’s later. And it does have something to do with the real reason I’m here. You know, doubting myself. Lack of confidence. Not following my instincts. That can be deadly—and I do mean deadly—for a P.I. I mean, am I sticking my neck out on purpose? What I’m here for is, I’m afraid some cracked cog in my head is making me subconsciously putting my butt on the line, setting me up on the personal level too. I am not afraid of dying. But I would like a little happiness that would be steady, you know? Like Beth. There could be a chance there. But she’s so different. And so much the same too. I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Klick. I do.”

“For some reason, Doc, that doesn’t soothe my nerves any.”

“Trust me.”

“Uh huh, right.”

“So what else happened with this client?”

“Well, her lover, you’re not going to believe this…”