Just a foolish, cruel old man beginning to comprehend the size of what he had done.

Officer Torres gestured toward the corridor.

“Mr.

Vance, I need you to come with me to the station to give a formal statement regarding the child endangerment.” And Arthur turned to me then, and I saw in his eyes the thing he wanted, the thing he had come to expect from decades of being a Vance, of being wealthy, of being powerful.

He wanted me to step in.