I let every one of them believe, for as long as I could, that their intimidation was working exactly as designed — because a Prescott who believed I was cowed was a Prescott who would keep talking, keep threatening, keep committing recorded felonies before a man he had dismissed.

My apparent compliance was not surrender.

It was bait.

Every moment they spent believing they had won was a moment they spent lowering their guard in front of the one man in that county equipped to destroy them.

The most dangerous person in any room controlled by cruel people is very often the one who appears most thoroughly defeated, because appearing defeated is how you get the powerful to relax enough to hang themselves.

I appeared defeated for two days.