The manager removed it because the store had a policy against political and neighborhood notices.
Walter supported the decision when he heard about it.
The controversy did not give his group a right to use someone else’s property without permission.
He found the small consistency reassuring.
It was easy to defend consent when his own yard was involved.
It was harder and more important to respect it everywhere else.
The district attorney’s office requested an interview with several homeowners after receiving a referral concerning the recorded instruments.
Nina explained that a referral did not guarantee prosecution and that the office would decide independently whether the evidence supported criminal charges.
Walter attended as a witness and brought copies of the documents he had personally obtained.
An investigator named Reuben Cole asked him to distinguish what he saw, what someone told him, and what he concluded.
Walter appreciated the structure.
He described Brenda’s call to police while he planted flowers.
He described the six certified deeds and the signatures bearing Brenda’s name as witness.
He explained that each homeowner had later disputed the document attributed to them.
When Cole asked whether Walter had seen Brenda forge a signature, he answered no.
When Cole asked whether he had seen her submit the packets, Walter again answered no.
He could identify the public filing records but not the person who physically delivered every page.
Cole asked about the dark sedan that left the corner on the first morning.
Walter admitted that he had written down only part of the plate and could not identify the driver.
He did not try to fit the car into his theory merely because its departure seemed suspicious.
After the interview, Walter waited in a hallway beside Sofia.
She stared at a bottle of water without opening it.
“What if the questions never end?” she asked.
“Then we answer the ones we can,” Walter said.
“I hate that it sounds so simple.”
“It isn’t simple,” he replied.
“It’s just the work.”
Later the investigator interviewed Evelyn, Martin, Leonard’s former assistant, and other witnesses separately.
The homeowners did not exchange details of those interviews afterward.
They knew stories could become contaminated when witnesses repeatedly rehearsed the same version together.
A month later the investigator requested further information about the notary image and the electronic origin of certain scans.
Nina coordinated the response.
The office did not disclose every step of its inquiry.
Walter learned to live with that uncertainty.
