Judge Vance brought down the gavel.

Patricia’s attorney stopped me at the end of the hallway before I had finished buttoning my coat.

He said his name was Halloran and asked if we could spare thirty minutes.

Arthur didn’t sit down.

“Say it standing up.”

Halloran said his client would agree to civil restitution if we agreed not to refer anything for criminal prosecution.

He used the word release three times in two sentences.

“Your client gives back four hundred eighty-six thousand dollars,” Arthur said, “and in return we stay quiet about a notary stamp.”