Her words stayed with me longer than the police encounter had. In uniform I was familiar with official scrutiny. Records were examined; decisions were reviewed; someone questioned whether a required step had been taken. That kind of oversight could be irritating, but it was at least connected to an identifiable responsibility. Emily was describing something different: the exhaustion of having no confidence that the rules would be applied predictably.
One evening she came home and found me sitting on the sofa with Odin practicing a quiet settle beside the coffee table. She sat next to us and let the dog rest his head against her knee. For several minutes neither of us said anything. Then she asked a question that made me think more carefully about what we were doing.
"Suppose the board withdraws the notice tomorrow," she said. "What do you want after that?"
"I want them to stop sending unsupported accusations."
"Just to us?"
I considered her expression. "What do you mean?"
"You told me Linda said she watches residents who need extra attention. Do you think she only says that to you?"
I looked down at Odin, whose eyes had closed as though he had reached an opinion about the conversation. "I don't know."
"Then maybe that's what we should find out."
I didn't want to launch a crusade on the basis of one ugly recording. Linda might have an unusual talent for provoking me without behaving the same way toward anybody else. She might also have been using the board's authority to settle personal disagreements for years. The second possibility was serious enough that I didn't want to treat it as proven without checking. What we had in our favor was a simple, nonintrusive question we could ask neighbors who already knew us.
The following weekend I saw Gary near the parking spaces behind building three. He was leaning into the bed of his pickup, securing a toolbox beneath a weatherproof cover. Gary was a broad-shouldered man with a quiet sense of humor, the kind of neighbor who offered a hand with heavy furniture before asking whether you wanted one. We'd spoken a few times about car repairs, the local weather, and the sad condition of the building's shared hose connection.
"Hey, Mark," he called. "You survive the grill police?"
"So far."
He laughed. "Heard they actually sent two cars."
"The board called. They checked the situation and left."
"That's an impressive amount of attention for lunch."
I leaned against the fence a comfortable distance away. "Can I ask you something? Has Linda ever gotten particularly interested in your unit after you disagreed with her?"
Gary looked at me for a long moment, then laughed again, though this time without much humor. "Which time?"
He told me about his truck. When he bought it, the vehicle had a ladder rack that extended above the cab. He parked it in his assigned space and kept it in good condition. Linda told him the rack violated appearance standards, though she couldn't point to a provision specifically prohibiting it. Gary asked for the rule in writing, and the conversation became heated when she called his questions disrespectful.