Chapter 57: The Missing Key
Brenda’s former assistant Sloane Fletcher remembered an unusual request from the early days of the rental business.
Brenda had asked her to order a set of spare gate keys from a local hardware store.
Sloane assumed the keys belonged to a legitimate rental property.
She collected the order and left it in Brenda’s office.
Daniel told investigators that he had never authorized copies of his gate key.
The hardware store retained an invoice, but its records did not establish how the original key had been obtained.
The invoice listed Collins Event Holdings as the customer.
Daniel wondered whether Brenda had taken a key while he was repairing the gate months earlier.
He could not prove it.
Priya discouraged him from presenting the theory as fact.
The key records were still useful because they showed preparations for repeated access.
The investigators considered them alongside the camera footage and booking history.
Daniel changed the entire locking mechanism after the original key’s status became uncertain.
He kept the old parts sealed and labeled with the locksmith’s invoice.
Chapter 58: June’s Birthday
June Talbot turned eighty during the autumn investigation.
Daniel wanted to thank her for the records she had kept, but he did not want the gesture to look like compensation for testimony.
He asked Leah for advice.
Leah suggested a simple birthday visit with flowers and a homemade cake.
They arrived on Sunday afternoon with a small lemon cake because June had once mentioned it was her favorite.
June opened the door wearing a blue cardigan.
She laughed when she saw the candles.
“You two are trouble,” she said.
They sat around her kitchen table while June told stories about the neighborhood’s early years.
She remembered the first families moving into unfinished houses and children riding bicycles on streets without sidewalks.
She remembered Walter helping a neighbor repair a broken porch railing.
Daniel had not known his father ever visited the neighborhood before buying the house.
June explained that Walter had helped her husband with a carpentry project decades earlier.
The revelation made Daniel smile.
The house suddenly felt connected to a history wider than his own memories.
After cake, June showed him an old photograph of Walter standing beside a wooden fence.
Daniel accepted a copy with gratitude.
For one afternoon, nobody discussed Brenda’s rental business.
They spoke about people they loved and ordinary things that had survived the years.
Chapter 59: A Call from the Platform
Logan Price contacted Daniel with another update about disputed payments.
