Several households had recently received unofficial notices claiming Ridgeline planned to charge them directly for required upgrades.
Those notices carried a modified version of our logo.
None had been issued by the company.
I asked whether Cynthia’s HOA was involved.
“We don’t know,” Lena said.
“That’s the part we intend to find out.”
Chapter 8: Judith’s Ledger
Judith Bell called me two days later and asked whether we could meet somewhere away from Pine Ridge Estates.
We chose a quiet coffee shop near the county library.
She arrived with a canvas bag full of binders and the exhaustion of someone who had stopped sleeping well.
Judith was seventy-two, had worked as an auditor for a hospital system, and had served as HOA secretary for five years.
She placed the oldest binder between us.
“Cynthia has been approving expenses without board votes,” she said.
I asked whether she had evidence beyond suspicious minutes.
Judith opened to a signed check register and showed me several payments to a business named ClearPath Property Compliance.
The invoices described neighborhood electrical inspections, though the HOA’s annual budget included no such program.
Some payments were for amounts just below the threshold requiring a second signature.
Others had been split across consecutive days.
Judith said she had repeatedly asked for supporting reports.
Cynthia answered that the inspections were confidential because they concerned community security.
“Did you bring these records with board permission?” I asked.
Judith looked startled and then appreciative.
“They’re copies of association records available to board members,” she said.
“I wanted another homeowner to know what I found, but I won’t ask you to hide them.”
I advised her to preserve the originals and seek independent counsel for the association.
She agreed and asked whether my legal team could represent the homeowners.
I told her that Ridgeline’s interests and the HOA’s interests might overlap but were not identical.
She would need an attorney whose duty belonged to the association, not to me.
Judith closed her binder carefully.
“I thought becoming secretary meant taking minutes,” she said.
“Now I’m afraid somebody has been using those minutes to take money.”
Chapter 9: The Second Meeting
At the next HOA meeting, Cynthia appeared behind the clubhouse table as though nothing had happened.
A small floral arrangement stood beside her microphone.
The room was unusually full, with residents standing against the back wall and children waiting in the hallway.
I sat beside Judith and kept my phone in my pocket.
Sophie had wanted to attend, but I asked her to stay with Leah because the meeting might become ugly.
