CHAPTER SEVEN: CAROL’S SIDE OF THE FENCE

On Saturday, Carol returned from a meeting with her attorney and found Daniel waiting at the sidewalk near his own gate.
She stopped three yards away.
“If you have come to insult me, save your breath.”
“I am here to ask why you signed the emergency-water notice.”
“My lawyer told me not to discuss the tank.”
“Then you do not have to answer.”
Daniel began walking away.
Carol called after him.
“You think I did this for nothing?”
He turned.
“I think someone convinced you to damage a thing you knew other people might need.”
Carol glanced at the street to check whether anyone was watching.
“They said the replacement had already been approved.”
“Who did?”
“You know who.”
“No, Carol, I know a company name.

”
She stood motionless, squeezing the strap of her handbag.
“I was told the county would pay to remove the old tank,” she said.
“I was told somebody needed to make a formal complaint because your family kept delaying the cleanup.”
“My family received no removal notice.”
“They showed me papers.”
“Did the papers tell you to bring a bat?”
Her face flushed.
“They told me the tank was rotten and one hard strike would make the problem obvious.”
Daniel stared at her.
“That is not how safe equipment is evaluated.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it yesterday.”
Carol did not argue.
She looked toward the stain on Daniel’s backyard wall.
“There was money,” she said.
“A consulting fee for helping them get residents to support the new system.”
“How much?”
“Four thousand dollars.

”
The sum was less than the cost of the repairs and more than Carol’s yearly property-tax increase.
Daniel could almost imagine the calculation she had made, but the imagining did not make him sympathetic.
“They wanted you to look like an angry neighbor,” he said.
“You already know how to play that part.”
Carol flinched as if he had struck her.
“I had complaints about the tank before ReadySpring came.”
“You had complaints about my garden, my porch light, and the color of my bins.”
“I did.”
“This time you destroyed something.”
Carol lowered her eyes.
“Vaughn told me it would be replaced within a week.”
“Then why did you lie to dispatch about knowing it?”
She looked up.
“He told me the county would ignore a complaint from someone already listed as a volunteer contact.”
The answer chilled Daniel more than any of her earlier insults.
It suggested that Vaughn had studied not only the tank but Carol’s public reputation and the way neighbors would respond to her.
“Tell that to Sergeant Keene,” Daniel said.
Carol gave a brief, frightened laugh.
“And you will forgive me?”
“I am not promising you anything.”
“Then why should I?”
Daniel glanced down the street at Maribel’s stroller outside her door.
“Because next Wednesday all seven houses need a reliable plan.”
Carol said nothing more.
Daniel went home knowing he had reached the limit of what he could learn from an unwilling witness without turning himself into her interrogator.
He called Keene and reported the conversation instead.
Keene thanked him, then warned him not to conduct another private interview.
“Let us obtain a statement through counsel,” she said.
“You have enough at stake without becoming part of the dispute over her testimony.”