His breath smelled of coffee and peppermint.

“I always knew exactly who you were, Captain, and that’s precisely why I picked you for my son.”

My phone buzzed in my coat pocket.

Nicole’s name lit up the screen.

Gregory spun on his heel and strolled off down the polished corridor.

The water cooler hummed quietly next to my elbow, and somewhere down the hall the elevator bell chimed once.

By ten the following morning I was sitting next to Nicole in her Hartford office, two monitors angled toward me and a third angled toward her.