“I’m Brenda’s brother,” he said.
Daniel kept the screen door closed.
“What do you want?”
“I know she’s been using your pool,” Cole replied.
“I told her to stop.”
Daniel said nothing.
Cole lowered his eyes.
“She says you promised to let her run events here until she could repay a debt.”
“That’s false,” Daniel answered.
Cole exhaled slowly.
“I thought so.”
He explained that Brenda’s event planning company had collapsed after a series of canceled weddings.
She owed deposits to several customers and had borrowed money from relatives.
Cole had helped her move into the house next door because she needed a place near work.
“She told me the pool was part of a partnership,” he said.
Daniel remembered the booking pages.
“She told everybody that.”
Cole nodded.
“She showed me papers with your name on them.”
“Did you see me sign anything?”
“No.”
Daniel asked Cole to share anything he knew with Priya or the investigators.
Cole hesitated.
“She’s my sister.”
“And those families brought children into my backyard,” Daniel replied.
Cole looked toward the covered pool.
“I’ll speak to someone,” he said.
Before leaving, he reached into his coat and withdrew a folded photograph.
It showed Brenda standing beside the pool at night, raising a glass with several guests.
The date printed beneath the picture was from eight months earlier.
Daniel recognized the corner of his house.
He accepted the photograph without touching Cole’s hand.
It confirmed that the timeline was longer than he had feared.
Chapter 12: The Meeting on the Sidewalk
Brenda appeared outside Daniel’s gate the next morning.
She wore a cream jacket and carried a manila folder.
Daniel remained on his porch.
“I heard you spoke to my brother,” she said.
“He came to me.”
Brenda held up the folder.
“I have an offer.”
Daniel told her to leave the documents with his attorney.
She ignored that instruction.
“I can pay you a percentage of past bookings and we can call this a misunderstanding.”
“You forged my signature.”
“That hasn’t been proved,” she snapped.
Daniel did not argue about what a court might eventually decide.
He asked why she had promised families a lifeguard.
Brenda’s jaw tightened.
“You keep acting like somebody was in danger.”
“A child was injured.”
“Children fall down all the time.”
Daniel felt his anger rise, but he kept his voice level.
“Then you should have been honest about the conditions.”
Brenda tried another approach.
She told him she could make the neighborhood believe he had approved the parties.
