I called Mara before opening the map again.
She asked me to photograph both sides and leave the original untouched.
I followed her instructions and placed the map inside a clean folder.
For the first time, I saw a possible connection between Karen’s harassment and the strip of land behind my garage.
The vacant parcel had been an empty patch of weeds for years.
A developer had purchased it during the previous winter.
I had never met the new owner.
I had also never considered that anyone would need my property to reach the alley.
Mara requested the public parcel records and scheduled a meeting with a licensed surveyor.
She warned me that the red line on the drawing did not prove a scheme.
It only gave us a question worth investigating.
I spent the afternoon replacing the temporary board over the kitchen window with a new pane of glass.
The repairman worked quietly while Sophie studied in the dining room.
He asked whether I wanted a stronger security film on the lower windows.
I said I wanted ordinary glass and an ordinary life.
He nodded without offering advice.
When the work was finished, the room looked almost normal again.
The small dent in the cabinet remained.
I left it there because the carpenter could not come until the following week.
That night, a car slowed in front of the house and continued down the street.
I recognized the dark sedan from the porch incident.
I wrote down the time and saved the camera clip.
I did not follow it.
The following Monday, Luis Ortega arrived at Mara’s office carrying a brown envelope.
He was a careful man with weathered hands and a habit of checking every date before answering a question.
He said Karen had hired him to inspect the rear fence after a storm.
The fence had been sound, but Karen asked him to prepare an estimate for removing part of it.
She claimed I had agreed to the work.
Luis requested written authorization from me.
Karen told him that paperwork would only complicate the project.
He refused to proceed.
Two days later, someone left a message on his business phone accusing him of discrimination against the neighborhood association.
Luis had saved the recording.
He played it once while Mara took notes.
The caller did not identify herself, but the voice sounded like Karen’s.
Luis said he could not be certain.
Mara thanked him for making that distinction.
