“My client, Evelyn, holds the sole and unencumbered deed to this property,” he said, and he handed the officer a set of stamped documents.

“She purchased it outright.

Every utility account is in her name.

She pays the property taxes.

And she has never, at any time, signed a lease with these two individuals, written or spoken.”

Officer Davis took the documents and looked them over slowly, page by page, in no particular hurry, while Julian watched him do it with a muscle working in his jaw.

I understood, watching that officer read, that this was the difference Arthur had been talking about on the phone.