“Nobody important, sweetheart,” I said, light and honest and free. “Just a ghost.”

And we walked on into the bright afternoon, and the leaves came down around us, and I did not think about that man again for eleven days.

End of Part One.

Part Two

I spent seven years believing I had closed that case methodically, lawfully, and completely. Two weeks after they pinned the star on me, a lawyer in Washington filed a motion arguing that I had done exactly one of those three things, and he was right.

Chapter 10 — Notice of Inquiry

The envelope was on my desk on a Tuesday morning, eleven days after the Senate confirmed me.

I had a new office by then, a new task force, a new secure phone, and a nameplate that still smelled of adhesive. I had been a brigadier general for a week and a half and I had not yet gotten used to the way rooms changed when I entered them.