Dad asked who it was.

“Richard.”

“And?”

“He told me my job is safe.”

Dad nodded.

“I knew it would be.”

“How?”

“Because Richard is smart.”

Dad kept his eyes on the road.

“Smart people usually recognize when a situation creates unnecessary exposure.”

“You really knew all of this would happen.”

“No.”

“I knew the work was correct.”

He tapped the old spiral notebook sitting on his dashboard.

“I knew my records were complete.”

“I knew the box wasn’t mine.”

“I knew I had called the correct people.”

“And I knew that if somebody tried to use something against me, there wasn’t much there for them to use.”

He paused.

“That doesn’t put you in a powerful position.”

“What does it put you in?”

“A clean one.”

He smiled faintly.

“And sometimes a clean position is stronger than a powerful one.”

We continued driving through the late-afternoon light.

I looked at Dad’s worn jacket.

His aging truck.

The notebook on the dashboard.