"It's in the folder. On the front seat. With the bill of sale and the buyer's order. And a copy of the title. She gave me a copy of the title, the dealer. The original's in her safe, she's taking it to the tag office Monday."
"Don't reach in the vehicle."
"I wasn't."
"I'll get it." The officer stepped around him to the driver's door, which was still standing open, and leaned in and took the brown accordion folder off the passenger seat and stood with it in the open door, leafing through it with one hand while he kept his eyes on Alton about half the time. Alton watched him find the buyer's order and glance at it and turn it over. He watched him find the bill of sale, and the title copy, and the letter on Thuy Phan's letterhead from February, and the receipts, thirty-three of them, on pink carbon paper, held together with a binder clip. He watched the officer's face not change.
"Who's Phan?" the officer said, though it was obvious from his voice that he knew.
"The dealer. Thuy Phan. She's right there. You could walk over and ask her."
"Mr. Cole, I know exactly who Ms. Phan is." The officer closed the folder and tucked it under his arm. "Here's my problem. That paper on the back of your van, the temporary operating permit, came off her printer. That's her dealer number on the bottom of it. And her dealer number has got a flag on it from the state, because about two thousand of those things came off her printer and went on cars that nobody ever bought. So when you show me a bill of sale off that same printer, and a buyer's order off that same printer, and a copy of a title, a copy, that she gave you, all of that is paper, and paper is what she sells. You understand me? The paper is the product." He tapped the folder. "This is how it works. I've seen this exact folder. Not this exact one. But this."
"I've been paying on this van since February," Alton said. "Three hundred dollars every Friday. Those receipts are in there."
"Then I guess you'll be able to get it straightened out."
"Sir, my son—"
"Turn around for me. Hands on the back of the vehicle. You got anything on you I'm going to stick myself on? Knives, needles?"