That is the thing I would tell anyone facing a man who has always, always won: do not try to beat him in the room where he is undefeated.

Take it to the room he has never had to enter, the one made of documents and statements and patient official process, where the only thing that counts is what can be proven — and let him keep preparing his performance for an audience that is no longer the one that matters.

Chapter 14 — The Knock

David stood frozen in the middle of the room, looking between his weeping father, his shattered mother, his sister, and the lights outside.

Then he turned to me with a desperate, pleading face.