I walked down the quiet hallway toward the exit by the administrative wing, needing forty minutes to clear my head before Toby came out of recovery.

The afternoon heat outside was heavy, clinging to the brick walls of the hospital courtyard.

I drove six blocks south to the county courthouse downtown to pick up the last of my mail from the administrative wing.

The administrative offices were mostly dark at five thirty, but Arthur Evans, my former supervising clerk, was still sitting at his oak desk behind the high reception counter.

He looked up from a stack of manila folders and adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses.