"That matter is with our attorneys."
"Then let's talk about the people paying those attorneys. Why did your board issue a twelve-thousand-dollar charge against someone who has never been part of this association? And why have Willowbrook homeowners been assessed to fund that effort?"
Cordelia's lips tightened. "You are deliberately trying to shift attention away from the safety risk."
"I'm asking the board to explain its bills. The same question Savannah has asked, and Dalton, and Preston, and people who are frightened of losing their homes."
Savannah stood. "I paid what I was told to pay," she said, lifting her ledger. "I want to know whether any of it went where you said it did."
A ripple of voices moved through the room. Cordelia raised her hand for silence, then told the security contractors to keep the microphone available only for authorized members. I stepped aside rather than argue. Dalton took my place and asked whether the association's unrestricted position was in fact nearly eight hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars in deficit.
The room went very still. Cordelia did not answer immediately. She looked toward Brantley's empty seat in the front row, as though expecting him to supply the kind of technical explanation she had relied upon for months.
"That figure is being deliberately misrepresented," she said. "The association has outstanding project obligations, and there are reimbursement mechanisms. Our financial health remains fundamentally sound."
"Then provide the actual statements," Dalton replied. "Let members see where the money went."
I returned to the microphone with a single sheet containing the names of the companies we could identify in the records already submitted through counsel. "What work did Blackthornne Landscaping Solutions perform for approximately two hundred thousand dollars? Who approved the payments? And why does the company appear to be connected to your family?"
Cordelia's composure broke in the smallest possible way. She looked down at the sheet as though it could not exist, then back at the audience. "You have stolen confidential records," she said. "You have engaged in a campaign of criminal harassment."
"They were found on my property after your demolition changed the water flow. My lawyer handled them, and investigators have the information they need. If the records are inaccurate, show the association what is accurate."
She pointed toward me. "Security, remove that man. This is a private meeting, and he is not a member."
Several residents rose before the contractors moved. Melanie Price, who had once defended Cordelia more loudly than anyone, spoke from the second row. "I'm a member," she said. "He's asking the questions I want answered. Are you going to remove me, too?"
The room filled with overlapping voices, some angry, some pleading for everyone to remain calm. Father Benedict moved toward the aisle and asked people to sit, while Dalton called for a proper record of the meeting. The contractors hesitated. One of them glanced at Cordelia, then toward a group of people near the exit who had become unusually attentive.