He said she described the folders as materials that Northstar had a right to review under a joint consulting arrangement.
I had never signed such an arrangement.
The investigator asked why Owen continued when he saw my firm’s name on the files.
He said he was afraid of losing the only reliable income he had.
He admitted that fear was not an excuse.
Owen then produced text messages in which Elise instructed him to erase temporary logs after completing the transfer.
One message referred to a payment that would be released when the library proposal was submitted.
Another warned him not to speak with me because I was supposedly under investigation for financial misconduct.
That lie made me angrier than his confession.
Elise had not merely recruited him to steal information.
She had made him believe that helping her was a way to protect the company from someone dishonest.
Simone told me not to confuse being manipulated with being innocent.
Owen had made choices that harmed me, and the law would evaluate those choices separately from Elise’s conduct.
I understood her point.
I also understood that a truthful witness did not have to be a sympathetic one.
At the end of his statement, Owen mentioned a locked storage cabinet at Harbor Signal.
He said Elise kept labeled memory cards there after each neighborhood inspection.
The labels used street names and house numbers.
For the first time, I realized the camera in my clock might have been one part of a much larger operation.
Chapter 23: The Town That Wanted a Villain
The newspaper story appeared on a Thursday morning under a headline about secret cameras and a neighborhood lawsuit.
The reporter had interviewed both sides and included Patricia’s denial of wrongdoing.
Even so, the story spread through local social media before breakfast.
By noon, strangers were sending me messages that ranged from sympathy to threats.
A man I had never met offered to organize a protest outside Patricia’s house.
I told him not to do it.
Another person suggested publishing her address, although everyone in the neighborhood already knew where she lived.
I refused to participate in any campaign designed to frighten her.
Simone said the strongest evidence would mean little if I allowed the dispute to become harassment.
I closed my social accounts and concentrated on work.
Then a client canceled a renovation consultation because he worried my firm was distracted by litigation.
Another asked whether the allegations about financial misconduct were true.
I spent an hour explaining that the rumors came from a disputed neighborhood matter.
I hated how easily a false suggestion could become a question I was expected to answer.
