Chapter 27: Twelve People at the Corner
By ten, the first guests had gathered near the corner shop.
Most were dressed for an unusual theatrical afternoon, not a neighborhood dispute.
One man wore polished shoes and carried a gift bag.
Two women compared invitations that promised a private historical experience.
Mara approached them before they reached Elena’s driveway.
She explained that the event was unauthorized and could not proceed.
A guest demanded a refund.
Another insisted the cancellation was part of the performance.
That remark unsettled Elena more than the argument.
Westbridge had sold an experience built around confusion, and the guests had been trained to distrust ordinary explanations.
She stood beside Shah and repeated that the property was private and closed.
The guests finally began calling the booking service.
Then a white minibus stopped at the curb.
Its side carried a temporary Westbridge Events decal.
A man in a navy jacket stepped out and announced that the preview would be moved to a different entrance.
Mara immediately recognized him.
“That’s Colin Mercer,” she told Shah.
“He’s the production coordinator.”
Colin spotted the officer and stopped smiling.
He said he was only there to collect equipment.
Shah asked him to identify which equipment and where it was stored.
“In the workshop,” Colin answered.
“The owner knows we’re coming.”
Elena stepped forward.
“I am the owner,” she said.
“And I told your company not to enter.”
Colin stared at her for a second before looking down at his phone.
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” he said.
“Our agreement was with the previous operator.
”
“The workshop was sold,” Elena replied.
“You knew that when you photographed my gate.”
Colin said he had not taken the photograph.
Mara asked why he had sent the performers new instructions after the cancellation.
He denied sending any instructions at all.
She held out her phone.
“Then somebody used your production group to send them,” she said.
Colin examined the message and frowned.
“That’s Bell’s old account,” he answered.
“He hasn’t been authorized to schedule anything since Thursday.”
The sidewalk fell quiet.
Elena had expected the company to arrive with a single explanation.
Instead, the people standing in front of her seemed to be working from incompatible versions of the same plan.
Chapter 28: A Rehearsal Without an Audience
Inspector Hsu arrived shortly after the minibus.
She had come because Shah reported a possible attempt to use the closed workshop.
Hsu examined the posted notices and instructed Colin to keep his workers outside the barrier.
Colin said the equipment belonged to Westbridge and had to be removed before Monday.
Hsu answered that ownership of equipment did not override a safety closure or the homeowner’s refusal of entry.
The collection would need a scheduled inspection and a safe removal plan.
A younger technician emerged from the minibus and asked whether the sliding walls were still powered.
Felix, who had come to help Elena secure the garden, answered from the porch.
“No,” he said.
“I disconnected the added outlet.”
The technician looked startled.
“But the rehearsal feed showed movement yesterday,” he said.
Elena stared at him.
“What rehearsal feed?”
The technician introduced himself as Owen Price.
He explained that Westbridge’s office had received a short demonstration clip on Saturday afternoon.
It showed the blue-and-gold hallway panels moving through a complete cycle.
The clip had been presented as proof that the mechanism was ready.
Felix shook his head.
“That mechanism hasn’t been powered through my outlet since Friday,” he said.
“And the inspector sealed the building.”
Owen pulled up the clip on his phone.
The moving walls looked convincing until Elena noticed a strip of orange tape on the floor.
She recognized it from the photographs Peter had shown her of Westbridge’s canceled prototype.
The clip had been recorded in a different location.
“That isn’t my workshop,” she said.
Owen enlarged the image.
He agreed that the wall finish did not match the building behind them.
Colin took a step away from the group and called somebody.
His voice rose when the call went unanswered.
“Bell has been telling the office the workshop is operational,” he said finally.
“We were told the new owner wanted to host the preview.”
Elena pointed toward the damaged kitchen window, newly replaced but still surrounded by fresh plaster.
“Your information nearly cost me my home,” she said.
“I need you to stop treating it like a stage.”
Colin had no immediate answer.
Hsu asked him to provide the company’s safety contact before leaving.
He complied, then directed the minibus driver to park farther down the street.
The preview was over before anyone had entered the gate.
But the reason for Bell’s urgency remained unexplained.
