I wrote the follow-up beneath it.

We rehearsed the cross-examination for two hours, out loud, back and forth, until my questions stopped sounding like a man asking and started sounding like a man laying down floorboards.

At eight forty my phone lit up, and Chloe glanced over at it.

“Ms.

Vance called at six,” she said.

“She wants fifteen minutes off the record before we go in Friday.

She wants to talk settlement.”