Archie settled back down after tossing the spent napkin in the trashcan. He hesitated, trying to come up with something that didn't involve dipping too deeply into anything she'd shared in confidence.

"I can't go into specifics," Archie explained apologetically, "but sometimes she'd start to slip. Once she started saying 'I'm the queen' when I asked her directly about something but changed it to 'the mayor'. I didn't think anything of it at the time."