Now the legal bill felt like the price of protecting my ability to speak truthfully.
On Monday morning, Detective Morse called and asked whether I could identify the woman in the green bathrobe from a photograph.
He did not send me an image.
He asked me to describe the person I had seen and the circumstances under which I had seen her.
I repeated the details from my notes without trying to improve my memory.
Then he asked whether I had seen anyone carrying suitcases through Vivian’s garage recently.
I told him about the white van and the grocery bags, but I had not seen suitcases.
He thanked me and ended the call.
I spent the next two hours wondering what question he was really trying to answer.
At noon, a moving truck parked across from Vivian’s driveway.
Its sides displayed the name of a local storage company.
Two men rolled out padded furniture blankets and waited beside the open rear door.
Vivian emerged carrying a folder and spoke to them for several minutes.
Then they began bringing small dressers and boxes from the garage.
I observed from my front porch and called Morse with the new information.
He asked me not to approach the truck.
I complied.
Twenty minutes later, two county vehicles and a patrol car arrived.
The storage workers stopped moving furniture.
Simone Park stepped out of the first vehicle with a colleague and approached Vivian’s door.
Vivian stood in front of the entrance with her arms crossed.
I could not hear their conversation.
I saw Simone present identification and a document.
Vivian looked at the document, then waved toward the movers.
The movers placed their boxes on the driveway.
For a long moment, nobody moved.
Then the door opened behind Vivian.
A woman in a green bathrobe appeared in the doorway.
She held the arm of the doorframe as if she were afraid the ground might move beneath her feet.
I recognized the robe from the photograph.
The woman looked directly toward my porch.
She raised her hand once.
I did not wave back.
I was afraid that even a small gesture might shift attention away from her ability to speak freely.
Simone approached and spoke to her at eye level.
The woman replied.
The conversation continued for several minutes while Vivian stood three steps away.
Then Simone’s colleague guided Vivian toward the other side of the porch.
The woman in green spoke again, this time without Vivian close enough to interrupt.
