The First Metallic Snap
The first metallic snap came at 6:13 on Thursday morning.
Marcus Reed heard it from upstairs.
He was standing barefoot in his bedroom, wearing a dark charcoal bathrobe, one hand wrapped around a mug of coffee, when the sound drifted through the partially open window.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just wrong.
Metal against metal.
Then silence.
Marcus set the coffee on the dresser.
He did not rush downstairs.
That was the hardest part.
For seven days, he had been waiting for whoever was poisoning his pool to make one final mistake.
Now someone was in the backyard.
And Marcus already had a strong idea who it was.
He crossed to the nightstand and picked up his phone.
A secure camera application was already open.
Four small video feeds covered the screen.
Driveway.
Side gate.
Pool deck.
Rear patio.
Marcus tapped the side-gate feed.
A blonde woman crouched beside the wooden privacy fence.
Even through the camera, he recognized her immediately.
Victoria Hale.
Fifty-eight years old.
President of the Crestmont Ridge Homeowners Association.
Platinum-blonde bob.
Pearl earrings.
Salmon-pink lounge set that probably cost more than Marcus's first monthly mortgage payment.
And in both hands she held a pair of long-handled garden cutters.
Marcus watched without blinking.
Victoria squeezed.
The cutters bit through his padlock.
Once.
Twice.
The shackle snapped.
Victoria froze.
She looked toward the house.
Marcus stepped back from the bedroom window before she could glance upward and see him.
On the screen, Victoria pushed open the gate.
Then disappeared briefly from view.
A second camera picked her up.
She was carrying something now.
A large tan contractor sack.
Heavy.
She used both hands.
The bottom sagged.
Something hard shifted inside with a faint clinking sound.
Marcus felt his jaw tighten.
Glass.
He already knew.
Still, knowing and proving were different things.
And for the past week, Marcus had learned exactly how expensive that difference could become.
Monday had taken care of the anger.
Monday morning, Marcus walked outside before work and saw three green glass fragments resting at the bottom of the shallow end.
At first, he thought somebody had dropped a bottle.
He drained part of the pool.
Collected them.
Checked the surrounding deck.
Nothing else.
Tuesday, there were more.