CHAPTER NINE – CAROL’S SECOND VISIT
Carol came to Daniel’s house on Friday morning without a phone in her hand.
She stood at the bottom of the porch steps and did not climb them.
“I need to talk,” she said.
Daniel left the storm door closed.
“I told you not to come here.”
“That man is going to ruin me.”
“You can talk to the police.”
“I did.”
Her answer surprised him.
Carol said she had given a statement to an investigator the previous evening.
She had not admitted every detail immediately, but Vale’s visit frightened her enough to stop protecting him.
“He said nobody would lose anything valuable,” she said.
“He told me the building was already infested and they needed a public example.”
Daniel felt the familiar heat rising in his chest.
“So you chose my living room.”
“He wanted the coats.”
“Those coats were going to people who needed them.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew they weren’t yours then.”
Carol’s eyes filled with tears, but Daniel did not step outside to comfort her.
She described how Vale had approached her at a neighborhood meeting.
He offered a small consulting fee for identifying residents who organized donation drives or questioned pest treatment decisions.
Carol believed she was helping document unsafe secondhand goods.
Later, when Vale asked her to deliver the specimen cup, he claimed the insects were sealed and harmless as long as she placed them near the coats.
He expected an inspector to find them after an anonymous complaint.
Carol had balked at the last moment, but she had already pushed the cup through the window.
When it failed to open, she returned to retrieve it before Daniel discovered what she had done.
“I panicked,” she said.
“You called the police to force your way into my home.”
“Yes.”
Her admission came out as a whisper.
“And you lied about somebody being hurt.”
Carol nodded.
Daniel waited for an apology that would address the facts rather than the consequences to herself.
After a long silence, she said, “I’m sorry I put those insects in your house.”
“I accept that you said it,” Daniel replied.
“I don’t trust you yet.”
Carol looked away.
“You don’t have to.”
She held out a small business card.
“I gave them the number on this card.”
Daniel did not take it.
“Give them everything you know.”
“There’s a second collection tonight,” she said.
“Not Maple Court.”
Daniel straightened.
“Where?”
“Birch Landing.”
“How do you know?”
“Vale called me after he left here.”
She said the workers would arrive after dinner when the building’s manager was off duty.
A small group of elderly residents had been told to prepare for an overnight treatment.
Their belongings were scheduled for collection before the licensed inspector arrived the following morning.
Daniel picked up his phone and called Ortiz while Carol waited on the lawn.
Ortiz answered and listened carefully.
“Carol, stay where you are,” the detective said when Daniel put the call on speaker.
“Another officer is coming to take a detailed statement.”
Carol sank onto the lowest porch step, looking suddenly exhausted.
Daniel stepped back into his doorway.
For the first time, Carol was the person being asked to wait outside while somebody else decided whether she would be allowed in.
