Eye of the Beholder

fortune-telling session? Forget it."
    "I didn't tell your fortunes, I read your auras." The reader rose from her cushion. "Furthermore, this is no carnival sideshow. It's a serious business and I resent the implication that I'm a huckster."
    "This is a psychic fair." Trask swept out a hand. "Hell, all the booths are run by hucksters."
    "You're entitled to your opinion." The reader's veils shivered with the force of her icy indignation.
    "But I'm entitled to my fifty dollars. The sign out front clearly states the fee. If you didn't want to pay the price, you shouldn't have come in here."
    "Pay her," Alexa said through her teeth.
    Trask's jaw clenched in stubborn lines. "I'll be damned if I'll fork over fifty bucks for a two-bit performance."
    "This was your idea," she reminded him.
    "I'm not about to let this ... this charlatan take advantage..."
    "Okay, okay, stop making a scene." Alexa fumbled with the catch of her satchel. "We'll split it."
    "It's not the money, it's the principle of the thing," Trask declared.
    "Sure." Alexa got a twenty and a five out of her wallet. "That's what people always say when they're too cheap to pay the tab."
    "I am not cheap, damn it." Trask dug out his wallet. "I'll pay for the reading."
    "Just worry about your share." Alexa handed the reader the twenty and the five. "I wouldn't dream of forcing you to pay for my half. After all, this is a partnership, isn't it?"
    "I said I'll pay her." Trask ripped the two bills out of the reader's fingers and slapped them back into Alexa's hand. Then he gave the woman fifty dollars. "There. Satisfied?"
    "Yes," Alexa said.
    "Yes," the aura reader said.
    "Terrific. Let's get out of here." Trask shoved his wallet back into his pocket, seized Alexa's arm, and hauled her toward the entrance of the tent. "I think we now know why there was no line of people standing in front of this booth. Who in their right minds would pay fifty bucks for an aura reading?"
    "We did," Alexa said.
    The aura reader slipped the bills into her veils. "You get what you pay for."
    Trask did not bother to respond to that. He yanked open the tent flap and ushered Alexa outside.
    Once back on the garden path they blended quickly into the crowd. Alexa glanced around. She saw no sign of the man in the jester's costume. She relaxed slightly and looked at Trask's grim face.
    "I realize that was a bit awkward," she said. "Nevertheless, I think you're overreacting."
    "Fifty bucks to have some fortune-teller tell us that we're having an affair? Give me a break."
    "She wasn't a fortune-teller," Alexa said patiently. "And she didn't exactly tell us that we were having an affair. She said she just assumed as much because our auras resonate in certain ways."
    Trask gave her a speaking glance.
    Alexa exhaled deeply. "I think we've exhausted that subject. Let's get back to business." She surveyed the group of fair-goers on the path. "I don't see our jester friend."
    That got Trask's attention. He looked over his shoulder. "Neither do I ."
    "Probably a false alarm."
    "A false alarm that cost me fifty bucks," Trask muttered. "Resonating auras. What bull."
    Alexa glared at him.
    "Okay, okay."
    "The main activities of the evening are about to begin." Alexa glanced at her watch. "Webster's talk will start soon, and then they'll set off the fireworks."
    "Let's work our way toward the seminar building."
    Alexa acquiesced with a sense of relief. She decided not to tell him that she had a strong hunch "resonating auras" was psychic-speak for falling in love. She was having enough trouble coming to grips with the ramifications of the aura reader's words as it was.

30

    He had been right about the effect of Bell 's speech and the timeless allure of fireworks. The combination of attractions had emptied out the seminar building. Even the receptionist had left his post to wander outside.
    Trask stood in the shadows of the darkened hallway and took morose satisfaction in the knowledge that at least this part of the evening was going according to plan. After it was over, he would worry about the way the phony aura reader's mumbo jumbo had poleaxed him.
    He glanced down the hall behind him. It was shrouded in shadows. Only the lobby of the building was lit.
    It had been easy enough to get into the seminar facility without being noticed. He had simply joined the crowd milling around the Dimensions bookshop. When the others had left to see Bell , he had slipped into the nearest men's room and waited a few