Brighter bulb than I thought, maybe. I don’t know if I prefer him to be a bumbling idiot or someone capable of calculation. Bleak pictures, both. “Maybe that was something separate, and he can still refuse the White Out contribution. It might still be coming.”

Silence falls between us. The moment is long, both of us working the problem.

John finally speaks. “Does it offend you, as a black man?”

My face wrinkles of its own accord. “What kind of question is that?”

He shrugs. “Optics.”

“It offends me, along with every black and brown human being on the planet, and hopefully a good portion of the white ones.”

John sighs.

“Look, it’s cash in exchange for a lynching. They’re essentially saying that Shae Tatum deserved to die because of the color of her skin. No due process. They want to reward Henderson’s extra-legal judgment solely on the grounds of race.”

“It makes him look guilty.”

“He is guilty!” Whoa. Breathe. Objectivity has left the building. “You wanted my opinion, as a black man.”

John nods. Lets it slide. He has his reasons for everything. You won’t see him fly off the handle. And I can’t afford to, as a black man in the corporate landscape. Can’t afford to be labeled “angry.”

“What would you like to see come of it?” he says. “What would take the edge off?”

Honestly? To see every person with white supremacist leanings scorched off the planet. But John is asking from a PR perspective. “I don’t know. He could donate it. Preferably to a black charity.”

“From a damage-control standpoint, that would be best.”

I nod. “Something camera-friendly. An after-school program. Probably not SCORE.”

John laughs. “Something more neutral.”

“He can’t keep this money. It is the height of stupidity to think otherwise.”

“From a PR perspective?”

I shrug. “That, and more.” John looks expectant. “Legally, it opens up the door for him to be sued successfully in civil court. He’s accepted money from a group that thinks black people deserve death for existing. It’s perfectly legal to hold that ideology, in theory, but it’s not legal to actually kill someone for the color of their skin.”

John frowns. “If he acted in the line of duty, feeling his life was under threat, and those actions were made free of bias…”

Now he’s getting it. “Right. It could be argued that accepting this money is an admission that that might not have been the case.”

“The legal side is not our problem. But if Henderson’s legal trouble gets worse, it becomes our problem.”

I raise one shoulder. “Tell him to pick a charity and give generously, without being splashy about it. No one has to know how much he was really given, if it’s coming in cash.” My solution is rife with guilt, complicity, compromise.