When he answered, I told him everything, start to finish, from the man in the silk robe to my mother on her knees to the thirty minutes I had given them and the nine o’clock deadline I had set.

He listened without interrupting once.

When I finished, he asked me only two questions.

“Evelyn,” he said.

“Did you ever sign a lease with them?

Anything in writing, at any point, giving them the right to live there?” “No,” I said.

“Nothing.

Ever.” “And did they ever pay you rent?