“Are you lost?” asked the squat man behind the counter. His British accent wasn’t nearly as posh as I expected, and his mouth twitched as his bravado wavered. Of course, I’d seen this paper-tiger posture in shop owners, clerks, and bartenders before. He was afraid a robbery would soon be in progress, and if he had a gun tucked under the counter, he wasn’t sure he had the nerve to use it.
