"Then the investigators can review that authority."
"We can resolve the damage ourselves."
"No."
The simplicity of the answer unsettled her more than anger would have.
County investigators arrived twenty-two minutes later. Detective Isabel Ruiz led the response, accompanied by a uniformed deputy and an evidence technician. Ruiz was in her early forties, compact, patient, and had the steady expression of someone who disliked being hurried into other people's conclusions.
Duncan met her outside the gate.
"Before we start," he said, "I need this handled as if I were any other complainant. My federal job has no bearing on title."
Ruiz nodded. "Good. Because title is where I am starting."
She took control of the loading bay without drama. Everyone who was not essential moved outside. Evan voluntarily surrendered his phone number and agreed to provide a statement. Marissa remained with a newly anxious look, clutching the thick folder that had seemed so powerful an hour earlier.
Ruiz asked her first question while the evidence technician photographed the cut marks on the old gate hardware.
"Ms. Crowley, what legal instrument gave Stonebridge Ridge possession of this property?"
Marissa opened the folder. "There are years of unpaid assessments, a road maintenance lien, and a historic access easement."
"That was not my question. Do you have a court order granting possession?"
"The association's rights are established through -"
"Yes or no."
Marissa's eyes flicked toward Duncan. "Our legal counsel has been handling that side of the process."
Ruiz wrote something in her notebook.
"Did you have a court order when you cut the chain?"
"We were acting on legal advice."
"Whose?"
Marissa did not answer directly.
Ruiz did not argue. She simply wrote down the exact response.
Duncan opened his laptop on a cleared corner of the loading table. He logged into the camera server and began reviewing footage by date. Until that moment, even he had not seen all of it.
The first clip showed Marissa and Trent outside the fence Tuesday morning, studying the gate. Ruiz watched without comment.
The second showed the locksmith's van and Trent cutting through the chain while Marissa stood three feet away.