Then he looked toward Karen’s house and asked how many people had been frightened into silence.
I had no answer that I could prove.
That uncertainty bothered me more than the question itself.
A CAMERA WITH NO OWNER
Mara obtained records from the vendor listed on the property observation invoice.
The vendor operated a legitimate security consulting business with a small staff.
Its manager, Felix Warren, initially believed the assignment had involved documenting construction access conditions.
He produced the contract and the field report.
The contract described a behavioral observation of a resistant owner.
The field report listed my address and several dates when someone had watched the house.
One entry noted that the subject remained indoors after an exterior disturbance.
Another described an unsuccessful attempt to provoke a direct confrontation.
Felix said those phrases had not appeared in the original proposal his company approved.
A subcontractor had submitted the field report through a shared portal.
Felix had terminated the subcontractor after discovering that the assignment involved a private residence rather than a construction site.
He also preserved the billing records.
The subcontractor had used a camera mounted inside an unmarked vehicle.
Mara asked whether the equipment had recorded the morning of the brick attack.
Felix said the storage account had been closed, but a backup might remain under a retention agreement.
The request for that backup became the focus of several weeks of legal work.
I tried not to imagine what it contained.
The possibility that somebody had filmed my fear made me feel exposed all over again.
Sophie asked whether we should install taller curtains.
I told her that curtains would not change what those people had done.
She said curtains might change how safe we felt while the case continued.
We chose plain linen panels that Evelyn would have liked.
The first evening after we hung them, the kitchen felt less like a room on display.
I realized that a countermeasure could be something as ordinary as choosing what strangers were allowed to see.
THE EMAIL THAT CHANGED THE ROOM
The vendor’s backup arrived under a protective order.
Mara reviewed it with an independent forensic specialist before showing me anything.
The files contained several short recordings from the street.
One showed Karen approaching my driveway while a man waited beside the parked sedan.
Another showed the man checking his phone moments before Karen crossed the sidewalk.
The most revealing recording began before the brick struck my window.
