Chapter 67: A Quiet Dinner With Melissa
Melissa invited Ellie and me to dinner at her home after the school term ended.
Her father had recently celebrated his eighty-third birthday at the care facility.
She showed us a photograph of him standing beside a vegetable garden he had kept for decades.
He had grown tomatoes in the same corner where Ellie planted hers.
That small connection made the house feel less like disputed real estate and more like a place with a history older than our troubles.
Melissa told Ellie that Arthur used to give away more vegetables than he could eat.
Ellie promised to bring him a tomato when ours ripened.
After dinner, Melissa admitted that she had avoided visiting Bellwether Ridge because the sale of her father’s home had been painful.
The investigation had made the place seem even more complicated.
But meeting us changed her relationship with the property.
She could picture a child laughing in the kitchen instead of an empty house full of boxes.
I told her that we were grateful for what Arthur had built and maintained.
She looked toward Ellie, who was helping clear the plates.
“He would like that,” she said.
Chapter 68: When the Rumors Turned on Patrick
A social media account accused Patrick Price of hiding missing equipment at his storage yard.
The post included a photograph of his trucks and claimed that investigators had already confirmed a secret warehouse.
The statement was unsupported by the public record.
Patrick issued a short response through counsel describing his cooperation and denying the allegation.
I refused to share the post even when several neighbors sent it to me.
Harold asked whether I believed Patrick.
I said the documents he supplied could be evaluated independently of my feelings about his brother.
The answer disappointed Harold because he hoped the story would become simpler.
Then he nodded and admitted that simplicity had caused trouble before.
Patrick eventually called Mara to thank me for not spreading the accusation.
He did not ask me to defend Nolan.
He only wanted his own work and records considered separately.
I understood that request because I had spent months asking the neighborhood to make the same distinction about me.
Chapter 69: The Day of the Interviews
A regional newspaper published a detailed article about the disputed resilience program.
The reporter interviewed Celeste, Thomas, Melissa, several engineers, and representatives willing to speak for Meridian.
The article distinguished between alleged misconduct, documented administrative deficiencies, and unresolved questions.
It also described the vandalism without treating it as proof of every other accusation.
My photograph appeared only with my consent and did not show Ellie.
Vivian declined to answer specific questions but supplied a statement defending her commitment to emergency preparedness.
The article attracted attention beyond Bellwether Ridge.
Some comments were thoughtful.
Others invented motives or demanded punishments unsupported by any findings.
I stopped reading after a few minutes.
The story was now public enough that strangers could argue about it without knowing where the houses stood.
I had no obligation to supervise those arguments.
