The license plate check took 40 seconds. Raymond watched Puit walk back to the cruiser, prop the door open, and run the Chevelle's plates through the mobile data terminal. He was positioned at the right angle to see the reflection in the passenger window, and he watched Puit read the result. The car came back registered to Raymond A. Doss, 4117, Maplewood Court, Cedarwood Heights, the address of the house behind him.
Clean, no flags, no stolen vehicle report, no record of any kind. Raymond watched Puit sit with this information for seven or eight seconds. Then Puit climbed back out of the car. "Vehicle comes back registered," he said, approaching the driveway again. "I still need to verify occupancy of the residence."
There's been a pattern of squatting in this area. People presenting fraudulent documentation, occupying properties under false pretenses. He said it with the smooth delivery of a man who has learned that if you state an invented justification with enough confidence, enough people won't question it.
I'm going to need you to step away from the property while I conduct a welfare check on the residence. Raymond looked at him for a long moment. Step away from my property while I conduct a welfare check.
Standard procedure when occupancy cannot be verified. Occupancy has been verified. My name matches the registration. You ran the plates yourself. Vehicle ownership and residential occupancy are two separate issues.
Puit said with the tone of a man reciting policy he was inventing in real time. He moved between Raymond and the front door of the house. A physical repositioning that had no legitimate purpose and every illegitimate one. He was using his body the way a person might use a word they don't have to fill a space where an argument should be. Raymond did not try to walk around him.
He stood still. He cataloged the move, added it to what he was building. Officer Puit, he said, and the use of the name read directly from the name tag was itself a small and deliberate message. There is no legitimate basis for what you are describing. This is my home.
My wife is inside. I have owned this property for 6 years. I can provide a mortgage statement, utility bills, a driver's license, and four neighbors who will confirm my identity in under 3 minutes. But what I am not going to do is step away from my own house while you conduct a search of it without cause or warrant. You're obstructing an active investigation.