We’ll ask for a review of his medical history and the circumstances of his death, but we’re not going to invent a conclusion, however much it hurts.”

That hurt more than I expected.

For years I had wanted a simple explanation: a culprit, a confession, a sentence.

Now I had proof of corruption and a disturbing death, but no certainty that one had caused the other.

We still had to show who gave the orders.

On the last page of the notebook, Walter had written a file number and the initials “J.

P.” Joan recognized the format: it was the request he’d made to preserve documents in case of a lawsuit.