Mercer found himself thinking about the Ledger's words for days afterward, turning them over during council sessions when he should have been focused on tax proposals, during late evenings reviewing contracts when his mind kept drifting instead toward a particular conversation outside the council chamber.
He finally decided to act on it the way he approached most difficult decisions, directly and without excessive deliberation.
He found Isla at her own small office, reviewing reports from the investigation's final closure, and knocked on her open door rather than letting himself in the way he usually did.
"That's new," she observed, looking up. "Knocking, I mean."
"I wanted to ask you something, and it felt like the kind of question that deserved proper manners."
Isla set down her pen
