NINE
Early the next morning, Frank Oliver paid Paul Mustang a visit, ostensibly about a file, but it ended as abruptly as it started when Frank launched into a tirade about Ken Hargrove, which Paul deflected with a series of “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Oliver stormed back to his own office after about thirty minutes. Paul waited a discrete amount of time, then followed the maniac’s trail until he reached Clint Raymond’s office, where he turned off. Joey was with Clint, still Monday morning quarterbacking the latest blow-up. No one had ever tried to calculate the lost billable hours spent post-morteming the conflicts and Frank’s irrational behavior, but surely it was running into the thousands of billable hours by now. A few more would go out the door today.
Paul entered the
