“I know.”

Rebecca looked toward the excavator.

“Then what exactly does she think she's doing?”

I watched Marianne.

“Looking for something.”

Rebecca followed my gaze.

“What?”

“I don't know.”

“That's comforting.”

“She keeps asking about a second foundation wall.”

Rebecca frowned.

“How does she know your foundation layout?”

I looked at her.

“That is the first useful question anyone has asked today.”

The property had belonged to my uncle before me.

Henry Cole.

Architect.

Developer.

Obsessive record keeper.

Difficult man.

Henry never married.

Never had children.

He left the property to me because, according to his will:

Nathan is the only person in the family stubborn enough not to sell it to people who will ruin it.

I had always assumed he meant developers.

Now I wasn't so sure.

Years earlier, Henry had occasionally said strange things about the house.

“Never sell the western wall.”

Or:

“If someone ever tells you the association owns part of this place, ask what year they learned to lie.”

I had dismissed those comments as the eccentric opinions of an aging architect.

Henry hated homeowner associations.

He once called them:

“Municipal government without elections and with worse landscaping.”

But Marianne's crew wasn't searching randomly.

She had old plans.

Incomplete plans, perhaps.

But plans.

That meant Henry's warnings might have contained more than sarcasm.

The Safe Behind the Wall

Inside the house, the workers discovered a safe behind my office wall.

Small.

Steel.

Old.

The moment Marianne saw it, she became animated.

“There.”

The foreman hesitated.

“It’s secured.”

“Cut it loose.”

I stepped toward the property.

Caleb blocked me.

I stopped.

Then raised my voice.

“Marianne.”

She looked at me.

“If that safe leaves my property, you're no longer pretending this is an inspection.”

She smiled.

“Anything recovered during the operation belongs in association custody until ownership is determined.”

I stared at her.

“Would you mind repeating that?”

She laughed.

“For your phone?”

“No.”

I pointed toward Caleb's chest.

“For his body camera.”

Marianne looked at the camera.

Then smiled.

“Wonderful.”

She stepped closer.

“Anything discovered during this authorized operation will be held by Briar Ridge pending our internal review.”

I nodded.