Jude Regional Medical Center.

By three o’clock, the main cafeteria on the lower level was nearly empty, filled only with the low hum of the refrigerators and the faint smell of bleach.

I sat at a small square table near the drink station with a cup of hot black tea, my thumb resting on the inside of my wrist as I counted my steady pulse.

A man in a custom charcoal suit pulled out the vinyl chair across from me and sat down without asking.