Absolutely, Positively

stopped at the entrance and gazed at her with a sense of wonder. She leaned against the pier railing, her honey-colored hair dancing around her vibrant face. She smiled with welcome when she spotted him amid the crowd of joggers, tourists, and lunch-bound office workers.

    Harry watched, bemused, as she waved and hurried toward him with the eagerness of a lover. Not just a lover, he thought. His future wife.

    “Here I am, Harry.”

    An indefinable sensation washed through him. As it receded, it left behind traces of raw vulnerability. But for some reason the knowledge did not terrify him the way it would have done a few days ago.

    “I'm starved,” Molly said breathlessly as she reached him.

    “Me, too.” He took her arm and walked her toward an outdoor café.

    “Something wrong?” she asked.

    “I'm not sure.”

    “What's that supposed to mean?” She gave him a look of anxious inquiry. “Harry? What is it?”

    “Probably nothing.”

    “Uh-oh. You've had another one of your insights, haven't you?”

    “Maybe. I'll tell you the details after we get our clams and chips.”

    Harry realized that he was no longer amazed by her perception. Somewhere along the line he had come to accept the fact that she would almost always recognize his various moods. She would know when he was merely feeling in a contemplative or reflective frame of mind and when he was seriously concerned.

    Not even his parents had understood him as well as Molly did. No one had ever understood him so well. It was an unsettling thought.

    Ten minutes later they sat down at a small, round table that was protected from the sidewalk traffic by a low, decorative barrier.

    Harry drizzled malted vinegar over his fried clams and considered where to begin. “I've been going through Kendall's notebook.”

    “Find anything interesting?”

    “Nothing more than what we already discovered. I've gone through every page of the book. There isn't any other reference to his plans to terrorize you other than those sketches of the machines he used to set up his damn pranks.”

    “No notes about his desire for revenge?”

    “Nothing like that. The brief descriptions of the pistol assembly and the goblin were all very businesslike.”

    Molly paused in the act of stuffing a french fry into her mouth. “Businesslike?”

    “You know what I mean.” Harry moved his hand in a vague gesture. “It's as if the plans for those gadgets were nothing more than just designs for ordinary, routine projects.”

    “Hmm.” Molly munched thoughtfully. “No passion in them, is that it?”

    Harry considered her succinct description. She had put her finger on what was bothering him. “Maybe that's it. You'd think a man bent on vengeance would display more emotion toward the project. An inventor's sketches are unique to the individual. They convey a great deal to the trained eye.”

    Molly nodded. “I've seen the differences in my sister's drawings when she's really excited about a project. Lots of strong, positive lines. There's an eagerness and enthusiasm in them.”

    “Exactly. I was once asked to examine some notebook sketches made by a man who planned to blow up a research lab because he believed the company had stolen his ideas. He had made some drawings of an explosive device he planned to mail anonymously to the research facility.”

    “And?”

    Harry ate another clam. “And there was something in those sketches that was not in his other work. An intensity, an outrage. You could almost feel the anger radiating off the page.”

    “Insight or intuition?”

    He scowled. “Neither. It was similar to interpreting someone's handwriting. You could see the rage and the craziness in it.”

    “You could see it, but I'll bet very few other people could. What happened to the crazed inventor?”

    “He got caught trying to mail the explosive device,” Harry said absently.

    Molly smiled. “He got caught because you deduced what he was about to do from his sketches and the cops staked him out, right?”

    Harry shrugged. “I was asked to give my opinion on the drawings. I told the cops that it was a safe bet the guy intended to kill someone with his device. I also told them that, judging from the skilled details of the sketches, the device would probably work.”

    “My, you do lead an exciting life, Harry.”

    “Actually, it was a rather placid existence until you came into it.”

    Molly grinned. “I don't believe that for a