ABSTRACT
It was a brisk autumn day, only one month after I had uncovered Paulk, when I entered the opulent Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, DC. Elegant chandeliers gracefully hung from the immense lobby's artistically sculpted ceiling above the long marble floor. The lavish surroundings could not, however, lend even a shard of respectability to the travesty of the conference that was taking place inside the hotel's bowels.
