I placed the phone back on the table and lifted up my gaze.
He was gone.
Good.
"Apologies for the inconvenience," I said to Hargrove, "Shall we proceed?"
***
This was the best decision I could come up with. I kept telling myself that the entire drive over, with enough repetition that by the time my driver pulled into the parking lot, it had stopped sounding like a decision and started sounding like a justification.
I didn't wait for the door to be opened for me. I pushed it myself and stepped out, adjusting my jacket, and stood for a moment in the evening air doing a quick, quiet inventory of my own state of mind before I walked up to that door.
I had a hectic day at the office, but I stayed at the office until past seven. Not because the work demanded it — the work had been done by
