I want to be precise about the word revenge, because people reach for it when they hear this story, and it is the wrong word.

Revenge is hot.

Revenge wants the other person to suffer, wants to watch, wants the satisfaction of the wound returned.

What I felt in that car was not hot.

It was cold and exact and almost administrative.

I did not want Conrad to suffer; I wanted him to be held to the same rules that would have governed any other executive who embezzled two hundred thousand dollars to house the woman who assaulted a shareholder.