It was June 7th. A little after six, Mrs. Pile says — the light going gold the way it does in early summer — when three police cars pulled up to the curb in front of 233 Boogie Boogie Ave, the house next to hers.
What was happening has a name. A civil standby. It is when police come to keep the peace while one person removes their belongings from a home during a separation — a neutral presence, there so nothing escalates, so no one is threatened, so nothing is taken that should not be. That is all it is supposed to be. Neutral. The officers are not there to decide who owns what. They are there to make sure a hard moment stays calm.