By eleven o’clock, Julian’s truck was down at the high school construction project, and the long gravel driveway was empty.

I let myself in through the side garage door and went straight to his home office.

The brass key to his file cabinet was missing from its usual hook behind the desk lamp, so I used the thin letter opener from the top drawer to slip the lock on the top metal drawer.

The steel latch popped open on my second try with a quiet scrape.

I pulled open the bottom drawer marked Property Records and flipped through the heavy green hanging folders.