My Neighbor Vandalized My House, Which Belonged to a New Woman, and She Noticed the Tattoo on the Woman’s Arm
PART FOUR: THE SUNDAY AUDIENCE
Chapter 25: The First Guest
At eight on Sunday morning, Elena found a folding chair outside her rear gate.
It had not been there when she checked the locks at midnight.
A paper tag tied to its back read RESERVED FOR THE FIRST ARRIVAL.
Elena did not touch it.
She called Officer Shah, then stepped inside and photographed the chair through the kitchen window.
The inspector’s warning notices remained on both gates, but someone had placed the chair between them.
Across the street, Lorraine’s curtains moved.
Elena resisted the urge to march over and demand an explanation.
Instead, she made coffee and waited for the person who had promised to call back.
Shah returned her call within minutes.
She had spoken to the event company late Saturday, and its manager claimed every invitation had been canceled.
The chair suggested otherwise.
Shah said a patrol unit would pass the property during the advertised arrival window.
She also advised Elena not to open the rear gate for anyone claiming to have a reservation.
At nine fifteen, a woman in a yellow raincoat arrived carrying a small suitcase.
She read the closure notice twice, then called a number on her phone.
Elena opened her front door without leaving the porch.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
The visitor introduced herself as Mara Quinn, a freelance stage manager hired for the preview.
She said the instructions had changed during the night.
Instead of entering through the workshop,
performers were supposed to wait outside until somebody gave a signal.
“What signal?” Elena asked.
Mara looked uncomfortable.
“Three knocks from the other side of the gate,” she answered.
Elena felt the skin tighten along her arms.
The gate opened into a yard that no event company had permission to use.
“Who sent the new instructions?” she asked.
Mara showed her a message signed with the initials G.B.
The message instructed the performers to avoid speaking to the homeowner because she was supposedly participating in the production.
Elena stared at that sentence.
“I’m not participating,” she said.
“I’m the person whose house they advertised without permission.”
Mara looked from Elena to the posted notice.
Then she opened her suitcase and removed a laminated schedule.
“There are six performers coming,” she said.
“And twelve invited guests.”
Chapter 26: The Wrong Script
Mara stayed on the public sidewalk while Elena called Shah again.
Within twenty minutes, a patrol car pulled up beside the curb.
Shah stepped out carrying a notebook and asked Mara to describe her assignment.
Mara explained that Westbridge had hired her to supervise an audience experience called The Vanishing Passage.
The performance was supposed to begin with guests being separated into two groups.
One group would enter a reconstructed theater hallway while the other watched from an observation area.
The hallway would shift, creating the illusion that a participant had vanished.
“Where is the observation area?” Shah asked.
Mara pointed toward Lorraine’s property.
Elena turned sharply.
Lorraine’s second-floor bedroom faced the workshop courtyard.
“The instructions say the observation position is in the neighboring house,” Mara said.
“I assumed the owners were cooperating.”
Shah asked Mara to keep the schedule available and remain outside the property.
Then she crossed the street with Elena.
Lorraine opened her door after the second knock.
Her face went pale when she saw the stage manager waiting beside the patrol car.
“What did you agree to?” Elena asked.
Lorraine looked at Shah before answering.
“Bell said he needed a view of the courtyard for the demonstration,” she whispered.
“He offered to pay for the use of my upstairs room.”
“When?” Shah asked.
“Two months ago.”
Elena remembered Lorraine insisting that she had received nothing from Bell.
“You told me he promised you nothing,” she said.
“You said you attacked my house because you were frightened.”
Lorraine gripped the doorframe.
“He offered the money before you moved in,” she replied.
“I never took it.”
“That doesn’t answer why you concealed the arrangement,” Elena said.
Lorraine stepped back into the hall and retrieved an envelope from a side table.
Inside was an unsigned location agreement.
It described her upstairs bedroom as a control position for an interactive installation.
It also listed Elena’s workshop as the primary performance space.
The owner authorization section contained a blank signature line.
Shah studied the document without making a conclusion about who had prepared it.
“Did anyone enter your house to install equipment?” she asked.
Lorraine hesitated.
“A camera mount,” she said.
“They removed it on Thursday.”
Elena thought of the fresh paint on the workshop door.
The company had been preparing a production on two properties while pretending the buildings were available.
“I want that agreement copied,” she told Shah.
Lorraine looked at Elena’s tattoo, visible beneath the sleeve of her jacket.
For once, she did not ask Elena to cover it.
