CHAPTER NINE C: THE DINNER TABLE

Mark’s sister Claire drove from Dayton after he told her about the visitor in the dark suit.
She arrived with groceries and an overnight bag.
Mark protested that he did not need a guard.
“Good,” Claire said.
“Then I can just be your sister.”
They made pasta in the kitchen while the plywood door rattled in the wind.
Claire noticed that Mark had moved his dining chair away from the table.
“Is something wrong with it?” she asked.
“It came from Simon Vale’s shop.”
“That doesn’t make the chair dangerous.”
“I know.”
Claire pulled it back and sat down.
Mark watched her test the repaired joint.
“It seems sturdy,” she said.
He laughed, then stopped when a car door slammed outside.
Claire waited while he checked the window.
“You keep listening for trouble,” she said.
“I don’t know how to stop.”
“You don’t have to stop tonight.”
They ate slowly and talked about their parents’ old house, which had creaked whenever the temperature changed.
After dinner, Claire helped him sort the repair estimates from the case-related paperwork.
She put the insurance forms in one folder and the investigators’ contact details in another.
“You can answer the door without becoming responsible for the entire investigation,” she said.
Mark looked at the two folders.
“You make that sound easy.”
“It isn’t,” Claire replied.
“That’s why I’m staying until Sunday.”

CHAPTER NINE D: THE NEIGHBORHOOD RUMOR

By the second week after the break-in, stories about Mark had spread across the neighborhood.
One person claimed he had been working undercover for the government.
Another said he had hidden evidence in his basement for months.
A third insisted Helen had broken the door because Mark owed her money.
Louise Hart told Mark about the rumors while they waited for coffee at a bakery.
“People don’t like an empty space in a story,” she said.
“They fill it with whatever sounds exciting.”
Mark looked at the customers behind them.
“Should I tell everyone what actually happened?”
“You can tell them what happened to you,” Louise replied.
“You don’t have to explain an investigation you don’t control.”
Mark considered the distinction.
He had seen Helen break his door and threaten him.


He had given the damaged camera to the inspectors.
He knew that Martin had entered a van, but he did not know every reason behind the departure.
At the neighborhood association meeting, Mark stood and addressed the room.
He described the break-in in a few plain sentences.
He asked residents not to approach him with evidence or rumors and gave them the inspectors’ public contact information.
A man in the back asked whether Mark was hiding something.
“I’m not going to answer questions about other people’s private records,” Mark said.
“That’s not the same as hiding them.”
The room fell quiet.
Afterward, two neighbors thanked him for speaking.
A third said he had expected a more dramatic explanation.
Mark went home feeling strangely satisfied.
He had disappointed the audience and protected his own boundaries at the same time.