(Historical Notes: I’ve said on numerous occasions that the biggest challenge in trying to write a clever, intelligent character is that the character can generally only manage to be as clever or intelligent as the person writing him… which is not a good thing if you’re me.  The best I can usually do is to cheat by stacking the deck, specifically setting up a situation ahead of time so that Ichabod can walk in knowing stuff the reader doesn’t and thus appear to be more observant than I’d ever actually be in the same situation.  That takes on a unique dimension when it comes to Ichabod interacting with other characters.  Since I obviously know these characters inside and out, I can present Ichabod as knowing JUST the right thing to say to get a character like Mooney to react the way he wants.  Again, I’M not able to work people like this, I have about the same understanding of other humans that a lost space alien would, but it’s easy to make it look like Ichabod could.  Of course, even then, Ichabod only manages to run circles around SOME people.  See pretty much every time he’s ever interacted with Layla.  But Mooney?  Yeah, this kid’s probably a lot easier to figure out.)