Dalton continued walking his dog past her street because he had walked the same route for decades. Savannah continued tracking the association's assessments because they kept arriving in her mailbox. Preston continued preserving the records already in his possession and identifying which approvals appeared to conflict with meeting minutes. Our activities were not glamorous. They were the boring things a transparent organization ought to have been able to answer without anybody starting a campaign.
One evening, Preston brought a photograph of boxes being loaded into a rental van outside the association office. He had taken it from a public sidewalk while walking home, and he had no way of knowing whether the boxes contained records or holiday decorations. Marlo thanked him, noted the time and place, and told him not to follow the van. She had already sent formal preservation demands, and any destruction of material subject to lawful process would be handled by the authorities responsible for enforcing those obligations.
"I thought we should do something," Preston said.
"You did," she answered. "You saw something, documented it accurately, and stopped there. That's useful."
The distinction became important when rumors multiplied. Some residents claimed Cordelia had bought a luxury car with dues money, though the Bentley people photographed in her driveway turned out to be a rental. Others insisted she possessed a private airplane, which nobody could substantiate. One man told me she had transferred ten million dollars overseas; we did not even know whether ten million dollars had ever passed through the HOA's accounts. I discouraged the stories whenever I heard them, because a case built on facts can be poisoned by people who believe exaggeration is a form of support.
Autumn came home from her honeymoon to find that both her father and the creek looked older. She and Nolan visited on Sunday afternoon with the children, and we walked the safe part of the bank while I explained what the engineers were proposing. Avery wanted to know whether the fish would remember their old hiding places. Micah asked if there would still be frogs when the work was finished. Their questions were easier to answer than my daughter's.
"What happens if Cordelia never pays?" Autumn asked after the children ran ahead with Nolan.
"Then we make what the law allows us to recover and do the rebuilding as best we can."
"And if the court says the dam has to be changed from what Grandpa built?"
I looked across the damaged channel. "Then we'll change it. Jeremiah didn't build it to be a museum piece. He built it to do a job. If the job needs a better design now, we'll honor him by building it properly."
She watched the water for a while. "I think that's the first thing you've said about it that sounds like you're thinking about the future."