For a moment I forgot about the steak, the grill, and the boundary line. Her answer had made a much larger issue visible. She wasn't describing a specific maintenance problem or a complaint that had come to the board. She was telling me that after our first disagreement she had begun treating our unit as a target waiting to produce evidence.
"Are you specifically looking for violations from our unit?" I asked.
"I'm saying residents who refuse to cooperate eventually make mistakes."
"Do you do that with every resident?"
"I pay extra attention to residents who need it."
"Like me?"
"Exactly."
Her voice was perfectly clear on the recording. I couldn't have constructed a cleaner statement of selective attention if I'd written a script for her. But the meaning didn't give me permission to lose my temper. I kept my hands away from her and tried to return the conversation to the actual question.
"Linda, if you believe something here violates a rule, we can review the rule together."
"I don't need your permission to enforce it."
"I didn't say you did."
She looked toward the cooler. "That needs to go too."
"Why?"
"Because you're storing your belongings illegally in the common area."
"This isn't the common area."
She moved a step closer and reached toward its handle. It was a heavy cooler with food, water, and a few loose items inside. I didn't want her lifting it, tipping it, or later claiming we'd struggled over it. I shifted into the space between her and the cooler without touching her.
"Linda, stop. Don't touch my property."
She froze with one hand extended. Her face changed almost instantly, anger giving way to an expression of injured offense. "You just threatened me."
"No. I told you not to touch my belongings."
"You stepped in front of me."
"Because you reached for my cooler."
"You're intimidating me."
"I'm asking you to keep your hands off my things."
"I'm calling the police."
"Okay."
My answer seemed to offend her more than anything else I'd said. She stared at me as if I were supposed to beg her not to involve law enforcement. Then she picked up her coffee, turned sharply, and walked away while dialing her phone. She continued speaking loudly enough that I could catch fragments: refusal, aggression, threats, association property.
I checked the grill. The food was cooking evenly. I glanced at the phone to confirm that it had captured the exchange and made a note of the time. Then I stepped aside to give a passing resident room on the grass. I had no desire for someone unrelated to our dispute to be pulled into it by accident.
Richard arrived about twenty minutes later. He spoke with Linda near the pool gate, his arms folded and his head bent toward hers. Both of them looked repeatedly at me. Linda pointed toward the grill several times, then toward the cooler, then at the strip beneath my feet. Richard appeared to ask a question, and she answered so sharply that he looked away before she had finished.