Beyond the window, the early winter dusk was falling over the city streets, darkening the brick buildings against the cold gray sky.

“Go ahead and sign the final affidavit,” Frank said.

I set the pen to the white paper and signed my full legal name without a moment’s pause.

Frank took the affidavit from my hand, laid it flat in the red folder, and snapped shut the brass latch on his briefcase.

At ten o’clock the next morning, the conference room table had space for six, but only four chairs were pulled out.

Daniel sat across from me in a gray wool sweater I had bought him for his birthday two years earlier.