She said Warren Bell had once helped with business paperwork for a small property-investment firm.

He was not currently licensed as an attorney in Texas, to her knowledge.

She advised me to verify rather than assume anything about his status or the documents he prepared.

I searched the firm’s public records with my new attorney the next day.

There was a trail of registered entities, a recently created management company, and a proposed agreement that would have given that company substantial control over the estate’s maintenance contracts and rental decisions.

The agreement was incomplete and had not been executed.