She lived across the street and had been keeping an eye on Sophie since Ellen died.
When I arrived, she handed me a letter addressed to her late husband.
The envelope had been delivered by mistake that afternoon.
She had not opened it.
The return address belonged to Cedar Basin Development.
Her husband’s name appeared on the envelope because he had once owned the vacant parcel behind my garage.
Mrs Alvarez said her husband had refused several offers to sell an access strip before his death.
She remembered one visitor who became angry when he declined.
The visitor had been a man named Russell Whitlock.
Russell was Karen’s brother.
I asked Mrs Alvarez whether she would tell Mara what she remembered.
She said she would.
I carried the unopened envelope to the attorney’s office the next morning.
Mara explained that the letter belonged to its addressee or the appropriate estate representative and should not be opened by us.
She helped Mrs Alvarez contact the estate administrator.
The administrator later provided the relevant correspondence through proper channels.
The letter contained an offer to purchase an access easement from an owner who no longer held the land.
It was signed by Russell Whitlock as a project consultant.
The document did not prove that Karen had participated in the development deal.
It established that her brother had been involved in seeking access near my property.
Mara obtained additional public records showing that Russell had attended a zoning meeting on behalf of Cedar Basin.
I remembered seeing him at Karen’s barbecue the previous summer.
He had asked casual questions about my garage and the alley.
I had answered because I thought he was making conversation.
Now I wondered how much of that conversation had been ordinary curiosity.
Mara told me not to punish myself for being polite.
People should be able to answer a neighbor’s question without expecting a hidden agenda.
That evening, Karen appeared at the edge of my driveway while I was bringing in the trash cans.
She stopped beyond the boundary line and held up an envelope.
She said we could settle everything privately.
I told her to send any proposal to Mara.
Karen said lawyers would only make the situation expensive.
I repeated that she should contact Mara.
Her expression changed when she realized I would not approach her.
She said I was ruining the neighborhood over a strip of dirt.
I looked at her without answering.
She had just mentioned the very thing she had never openly discussed with me.
