A few people laughed because they thought I was joking.
Patricia did not laugh.
She said the matter was subject to litigation and should not be discussed.
Simone rose beside me and explained that she was not asking the board to decide the lawsuit.
She wanted to know whether any official authorization existed.
Harold adjusted his glasses and looked toward the secretary.
The secretary, a woman named Ruth Calder, opened a thick binder.
She said she could find no vote approving indoor surveillance.
Patricia interrupted and said the security committee had delegated authority.
Ruth looked up sharply.
She said there was no security committee.
A murmur moved through the room.
Patricia accused Ruth of misunderstanding the bylaws.
Ruth turned the binder around and pointed to the current committee list.
The only standing committees were landscaping, events, and architectural review.
Harold cleared his throat and asked Patricia to explain.
She said she had acted in the neighborhood’s best interests.
I asked whether that included recording me inside my living room.
Patricia stared at me for a long moment.
Then she said the recordings would show what kind of man I really was.
The room fell silent.
Simone wrote down the exact words.
Chapter 8: The Contract That Disappeared
The city finally cleared my firm of the anonymous allegations on a Friday afternoon.
The letter stated that investigators had found no evidence of falsified references.
It did not restore the library contract.
The project had already been awarded to another company.
Its name was Northstar Civic Design.
I knew the company because its managing partner, Grant Halden, had once tried to recruit my senior project manager.
He had also attended a dinner at my house the previous winter.
I had never trusted him, but I had no reason to connect him to Patricia.
That changed when Simone obtained a copy of the residents association’s annual vendor disclosure.
Patricia’s daughter, Elise Voss, was listed as a marketing consultant for Northstar Civic Design.
The relationship was not proof of wrongdoing.
It was enough to make Simone request additional records.
I spent the weekend reviewing old emails and calendar entries.
Three days before the inspection, I had received a confidential call from a city engineer about the library project.
We discussed a structural weakness in the oldest building and a cost-saving repair method my firm had developed.
I took the call from my couch.
The next week, Northstar revised its proposal to include a nearly identical method.
At the time, I had assumed the company reached the same conclusion independently.
Now I could not stop thinking about the camera above the fireplace.
