I asked whether we should file a lawsuit.
Nora told me not yet.
She wanted the association’s complete financial records and the contract with Fairmont Residential Services.
As a homeowner, I had inspection rights under the governing documents, subject to reasonable procedures.
We submitted a written records request.
Karen answered within an hour.
“Your request is denied because of your hostile behavior toward association representatives.”
Nora read the email twice.
Then she smiled without amusement.
“That’s an interesting answer.”
I asked what she meant.
“She just created another record showing that she is making decisions personally.”
The following evening, my neighbor Mrs. Adele Porter knocked on the door.
She was seventy-six, walked with a cane, and had lived across the street since my father planted his first rosebush.
She carried a folder wrapped in a grocery bag.
“Your father always said you were stubborn,” she told me.
I invited her inside.
She declined tea and placed the folder on my kitchen table.
Inside were copies of association newsletters, payment requests, and handwritten notes.
Several pages contained the same Fairmont logo I had seen on Karen’s clipboard.
Mrs. Porter explained that Karen had begun collecting special assessments for a security upgrade.
Homeowners had been told the money would pay for new entrance cameras and improved street lighting.
The lights had never appeared.
Neither had the cameras.
“I asked where the money went,” Mrs. Porter said.
“Karen told me people my age shouldn’t concern themselves with bookkeeping.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
Mrs. Porter pushed a yellowed bank statement toward me.
“Your father used to be the treasurer,” she said.
“He taught me to keep every receipt.”
Chapter 6: A Missing Vote
Nora met Mrs. Porter at her office the next morning.
I attended as a homeowner, not as a police official.
Mrs. Porter brought an old metal cash box filled with association records.
She had saved them because her late husband had served on the original board.
The records showed that Ashford Ridge’s governing documents required a membership vote before the association could impose a major special assessment.
The security assessment had been announced without any recorded vote.
Karen’s newsletter claimed the board approved it unanimously.
But the minutes for that meeting contained only two signatures.
One belonged to Karen.
The other belonged to a board member named Peter Shaw, who had moved to Florida months before the meeting supposedly occurred.
Nora asked Mrs. Porter whether Peter had returned for the vote.
