“Teresa brought her own padlock,” I said.

“We matched the serial number on the brass case to a hardware store purchase on her credit card statement from three days ago, at the store on Camelback Road.”

Marcus picked up his heavy red ink stamp and pressed it onto the top right corner of our filing.

“Her attorney thinks this is a routine family custody dispute,” Marcus said.

“She thinks we’re going to panic and agree to her terms,” Mariana said.