He didn’t say anything, just closed the door and led me into his study. This time he didn’t sit at the coffee table. He took the power position—the tall leather chair behind his desk. He didn’t offer me a seat. It wasn’t to my advantage to stand before him like a soldier under his command, so I sat anyway. “Why have you been avoiding me?” His tension was palpable. And contagious. “Our agreement was that I report to you biweekly,” I said. “It hasn’t been two weeks since my last visit.” His face flushed. “I made it very clear that I was buying sixty days of your life.” And his voice was getting louder. “If I call, you answer. And if I tell you to report, goddamn it, you report.” “I’ve been a little busy,” I said. “Perhaps you’ve seen the news.” Richmond shot to his feet and stabbed the air between us with his index finger. “You’re fucking right I’ve seen the goddamn news! And I want a full explanation.” This was a very different Isaac Richmond than I’d seen previously and I didn’t intend to give him anything until I learned why.
