Evans, sat next to Arlene Vance, who had her reading glasses perched on top of her gray hair.

Gene Miller sat at the table six feet to our left, with a lawyer named Marcus Hayes in a sharp pinstriped suit beside him.

Gene checked his gold wristwatch, tugged at his linen cuffs, and checked the watch face again less than ninety seconds later.

At five past nine, Judge Vance stepped up to the raised bench and tapped his wooden gavel once on the sound block.

“We’re on the record in the matter of the Estate of Frank Miller, case number 90-412,” Judge Vance said.