"So I said to her, 'that's not possible, it was Tuesday!'" Carol Dallon said, met by hollow laughter, akin to a desperate cry of a child in an echoing cave, from people who had to pretend she was funny to keep their jobs.
The door to the office opened with such a force that it swung back closed again. After a second attempt, uniformed men and women stormed in headed by Armsmaster. "Mrs. Dallon, you're under arrest."
"Telling a joke long after it stopped being funny isn't illegal," Alan Barnes, an associate at the law firm and devil's advocate, said. Carol did not find that funny.