April 2

April 2 is the investigation’s declared point of return and anticipated close: at five p.m., Mike Hoolihan is one hour from a meeting with Paulie No that she expects to settle the remaining questions. But the date does not guarantee certainty. As the case approaches its procedural ending, Mike questions whether she is seeing reality clearly or seeing what her own perspective leads her to see.

The Date and the Expected Close

Mike marks the moment precisely: it is five p.m. on April 2, and she will meet Paulie No in an hour. She plans to ask two questions and expects two answers; in her account, that exchange will bring the investigation to a wrap. This is a forecast of closure, not confirmation that the meeting will resolve the case as she expects. The passage that follows moves into the Decoy Room, where Paulie No is present at the bar, carrying the investigation from the announced appointment into its next scene.

Return, Doubt, and Procedure

The date is bound to the repeated declaration, “This is where we came in.” Its repetition makes April 2 feel less like a new beginning than a return to the point from which the case can be reviewed and brought to a conclusion. Yet Mike immediately tests the confidence of that ending, wondering whether the account is reality or only her own construction of it. The question matters because she has already recognized that an investigator’s agenda can affect what appears visible: a call made in the hope of winning may make the desired answer seem true. The planned meeting therefore sits between procedure and uncertainty. Mike intends to proceed through questions, numbers, and expert testimony—the method she calls “procedural ketchup”—while admitting that she may still be wrong.