Your checking account and your pension account at First Tennessee Bank were frozen twenty minutes ago.”

Richard stood silently on the shiny linoleum.

The quiet, ordinary civilian life he’d spent six long years building was being taken apart piece by piece from thirty miles away.

“Can a county judge freeze a federal pension with no hearing?” Richard asked.

“In Davidson County, when you’ve got the sheriff and two circuit judges in your pocket, it takes about fifteen minutes,” Michael said.

“Ethan told the magistrate you were an unstable veteran and an immediate flight risk with his wife.”