James adjusted his glasses and leaned back in the high-backed chair behind the heavy mahogany desk, the centerpiece of the study he’d transformed for the evening. The room, usually a cozy haven of books and family photos, now resembled a professor’s office at an Ivy League university. Shelves lined with leather-bound tomes framed the space, their spines gleaming under the soft glow of a brass desk lamp. A fountain pen and a stack of graded papers—props he’d meticulously prepared—sat ...