Chapter Five
An Unholy Absolution
I knocked on Dane Malbry’s door at seven o’clock on Friday evening. It was still light outside, but I could tell by the feel of the streets that the public was feeling the end of the day, a certain sagging weariness in their bones. For me, my day was just beginning.
“Come in,” my old counselor whisked me inside his office with a dignified bow. “You’re prompt.”
I nodded. I was terribly nervous. It was one thing to confess, another matter to take my relationship with Dane Malbry to the level of punishment we talked about. It seemed both scary and a little surreal. For three days, I’d mulled the scenario, and I still couldn’t imagine how this would play out.
It didn’t take long to find out. Malbry led me to the back of his office and through a door, whi
