Chapter 72: The House Across the Driveway

Vivian’s property became quiet after Claire left.
A contractor replaced the broken garden gate, and a cleaning crew carried boxes out through the front entrance.
People on Wren Court disagreed about what Vivian deserved.
Some thought her cooperation with investigators should count for something.
Others believed she had knowingly protected the people who harmed my family.
Patricia asked me once whether I wanted the neighborhood association to remove Vivian from its committees.
I said that question belonged to the association and its rules.
I did not want my family’s suffering to become an excuse for secret decisions or public revenge.
Patricia nodded and said she would ask for a transparent vote.
At the next meeting, Vivian resigned her position before the vote took place.
Her letter acknowledged the camera damage and said she could no longer serve with the trust required of a board member.
The letter did not mention Eli or Claire.
Several neighbors criticized the omission.
I was one of them, although I did not attend the meeting.
Vivian had spent years treating other people’s silence as permission to protect herself.
Her resignation was an administrative consequence, not an accounting for everything she had done.
Still, when I saw her taking down the committee sign beside her mailbox, I felt no satisfaction.
The person I wanted to speak with was in my kitchen making toast.

Chapter 73: The Phone That Rang at Night

Eli kept his new phone on the table beside his bed, and he startled whenever it rang after dark.
At first, I offered to screen every call.
He declined because he did not want another person controlling who could reach him.
We agreed that he could silence unknown numbers without explaining himself.
One night, a call arrived from a blocked number while we were watching an old baseball game.
Eli stared at the screen until it stopped ringing.
A voicemail appeared a moment later.
He asked me to sit with him while he listened.
The caller said nothing for several seconds before a man’s voice asked for Evan.
Then the recording ended.
We gave the voicemail to Vega instead of trying to identify the speaker ourselves.
She advised him to preserve any further messages and report direct threats.
The following afternoon, the call was traced to a commercial answering service used by several businesses.
Its logs were incomplete, and investigators could not identify the caller from that information alone.
Eli felt angry that the uncertainty remained.
I told him I was angry too.
He asked whether being brave meant listening to every frightening message without reacting.
I said courage did not require him to surrender his peace to strangers.
He turned off notifications and returned to watching the game.