I took my phone out of my jacket pocket and checked the time.

“I’ve got a meeting at the reserve base in three hours,” I said.

“Take the audit with you,” Arthur said, pushing the heavy file into my hands.

“And don’t let your father’s lawyer lay eyes on it before the judge calls the case.”

Captain Samuel Holt was waiting in the little legal office at the back of the Oakridge Reserve Depot when I came in at eleven.

He didn’t offer me a chair, tapping his index finger on the edge of his metal clipboard while I stood at attention.