Patricia had proposed such a committee the previous year.
The members had declined after she suggested a list of residents needing “special oversight.”
Malik showed me the minutes.
Several older residents had objected to having their routines shared with strangers.
Patricia resigned from the association’s events team the next month.
Yet she continued signing emails as neighborhood safety coordinator.
“Did anyone give her that title?” I asked.
“No,” Malik said.
“She gave it to herself.”
He did not smile when he said it.
He told me that Patricia had been arguing with residents about garage cameras, package deliveries, and whose visitors stayed too late.
He had treated it as an irritating personality issue.
Now he regretted allowing the title to spread unchallenged.
I told him that confusion was exactly what Patricia seemed to need.
A neighbor who believed she represented an official board might answer questions they would otherwise refuse.
A cleaning employee might let her into a room.
A frightened homeowner might hand over a device rather than argue.
We agreed to preserve the minutes and give the police copies.
Malik left me with the binder’s relevant pages and a quiet apology.
I told him he had not placed the camera.
He said that was true, but he still wanted to help remove the confusion that made it possible.
Chapter 13: The Second Name
Detective Sato called me on Friday with a question about a man named Wesley Pike.
I had never heard the name.
Sato said she could not explain every investigative step, but she wanted to know whether I recognized him as a customer, contractor, or neighbor.
I searched my records and found nothing.
An hour later Daniel called with a discovery of his own.
Wesley Pike had recently contacted the machine shop on behalf of a small investment partnership.
He wanted technical drawings, lease details, and a list of employees.
Daniel had declined to send him anything without a confidentiality agreement.
The timing made my skin crawl.
I told Sato what Daniel had found.
She asked him to preserve the messages and avoid contacting Pike directly.
Daniel agreed, but he sounded furious.
Our father had built the shop after serving as a toolmaker for twenty years.
We had argued about selling it because we cared about different parts of the same legacy.
Neither of us could stand the possibility that an outsider had listened to a private family discussion to gain an advantage.
Sato told us not to assume a connection that had not yet been established.
