“Oh, from a play, Henry VI, Part 2. Shakespeare came up with a fix for the lawyer problem back in the Elizabethan Age. Quote goes something like, ‘The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.’”

I watched closely while Merle got up and shuffled out the door, a dejected tilt to his shoulders that cried out that here was a man to whom life had delivered a crushing blow. Or perhaps his back hurt. Hard to say.

I round filed the mass of paper, reasoning that it would be embarrassing to have it show up later on, and wondered if Merle might ever put two and two together to come up with twenty-two, which would have been the right answer in this case. No, I suppose not. As I said before, brilliant scientists can be very child-like. It never would have occurred to him that I myself might have a law degree. I’m not proud of it, but it’s come in handy a time or two. And besides, there’s nothing wrong with my genes. I only suck blood on special occasions or from other lawyers.