Patrick whispered something to Brenda, but she stepped away from the microphone and refused to respond.
Sandra reminded everyone that the meeting concerned a proposed development application, not the legality of private dues.
She nevertheless offered to collect written concerns and forward them to the relevant offices.
I watched people line up at the table and realized the meeting had accomplished more than my confrontation with Brenda ever could.
The neighbors were asking questions in their own names.
The project could no longer be described as a plan accepted by everyone.
Outside, Martin Sykes waited beside the parking lot under a streetlight.
“Daniel, we should talk,” he said.
Tessa stayed beside me.
“You can communicate through counsel,” she answered.
Martin looked at her, then sighed.
“I didn’t forge anything,” he said.
“Nobody has accused you in this parking lot,” Tessa replied.
He rubbed his forehead.
“Brenda told me the owners were all going to be compensated after the gate was approved,” he said.
“She said it would make the rentals more valuable and help with security.”
“Who told you Daniel signed the acknowledgment?” Tessa asked.
“Patrick showed me the electronic version,” Martin answered.
“I assumed it was genuine.”
His explanation sounded possible, but it did not answer why he kept the charges from me or represented Brenda as having authority over the leases.
Tessa gave him her business card and invited him to make a written statement with his own lawyer present.
He folded the card into his wallet and walked away.
Mara waited until he was out of earshot.
“He knows more,” she said.
“Maybe,” I replied.
“But we need him to tell us what he knows, not what we want to hear.”
Over the next week, the city requested additional information about the proposed gate and drainage alterations.
The developer could not proceed with construction while those questions remained unresolved.
That did not settle ownership, but it prevented a rush to create facts on the ground before anyone had examined the old easement.
Nadia completed the boundary survey and placed it alongside the recorded legal descriptions.
The seven lots formed a continuous private strip behind the homes, interrupted only by the old drainage and utility rights.
The proposed access road crossed five of the lots.
Its entrance would also have required a change to the public street approach, a matter outside Brenda’s personal control.
Nadia’s report stated those facts without declaring the association unlawful in every possible respect.
