“Mark told me the county recorder had a backlog on deed filings during the summer,” I said.

“There was no backlog,” Arthur said.

“He deposited the whole eighty-five-thousand-dollar draft into a commercial checking account registered to his personal marketing firm.”

I smoothed the wool over my knees with both thumbs.

“Where did it go after that?”

“By four o’clock that afternoon, fifty thousand dollars had left the account,” Arthur said.

“It went directly to a financial settlement firm in Chicago.”

“Whose debt was it?” I asked.