Ashford, sit down, or I’ll have the bailiff help you do it.”

She sat.

Her rings clicked on the arm of the chair.

Thomas pushed a fresh copy of the order across the table to me.

The red seal on the manila envelope had been cracked open that morning, and the flap curled upward like a dried leaf.

I laid my hand flat on the page.

It didn’t feel like two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

It felt like an ordinary sheet of paper.