A billing office doesn’t charge a patient that.”

“No.

That’s a transfer fee, not a billing charge.”

“Which means somebody set these up by hand, every month, for three years.”

Okonkwo wrote something on a sticky note, folded it over once, and tucked it into her top drawer.

“Bring me the subpoena,” she said, “and that drawer will be open before you’ve sat down.”

The subpoena would take David a week.

I had a quicker route, and it went through a sixty-eight-year-old man who had never once looked at me when he talked.