He came home at the hour of the sheep.
I knew when to expect him — not because he had told me a precise time, but because I had learned, over the months of this investigation, how he moved through the procedural parts of his work. Formal proceedings had predictable shapes. The documentation had been submitted. The case had been presented. What remained was the formal deliberation and the announcement of the finding, and those, in a case of this nature, could not be extended past a certain hour without appearing to be something other than what they were.
