I'll press. Then let's build it the right way. Sheriff Buford Thrasher was a harder phone call. Buford and I had known each other since the Roswell precinct in the9s. He's 6'5, 62, drives a 1994 GMC Sierra to work because he doesn't trust new trucks.
I told him what I needed. He told me he'd have a search warrant for the Lockwood residence in Witz commercial real estate office prepared by Thursday afternoon. He told me he'd have three deputies on standby for execution. He told me he'd buy me a steak at the Texas Roadhouse on Atlanta Highway when this was done. I drove home that Wednesday night and walked to the garage.
Tate had just finished waxing the Mustang's hood. The brass dash plaque caught the overhead hallogen. I touched the rivets Margarite had set with her own thumbnail in 2017. The next morning, I issued a press release through the Cedar Veil Police Department's public information officer. The release announced the second annual forcythe county restored classic showcase at the coming fairgrounds sponsored by Cedarville PD's youth outreach division.
The showcase was scheduled 6 weeks out. The release included a photograph of three restored cars participating in the event, one of which was my 1968 Mustang Fastback photographed in my garage with the Brierwood Glenn Estates monument visible in the soft background of the shot. I knew Hadley read the Foresight County News. I knew Hadley subscribed to Cedarvil PD email updates because all Brierwood Glenn residents did. I knew she would see that photograph by Thursday morning.
And I knew exactly what a woman like Hadley Lockwood would do when she saw the car she'd been trying to take from me publicly showcased by the same police department whose dispatch line she'd been hoping to weaponize. She would move faster. She would file the false report sooner. She would make her mistake on a timeline I could control. The takeaway is simple.
The fastest way to catch a person who only acts in private is to give them a public reason to act in public. I told Tate the plan over chicken thighs and rice on Thursday night. He listened the whole way through. He asked one question. Dad, where do you want me Saturday?
Upstairs window. Phone camera. Don't come down unless I call your name twice. He nodded. He cleared the plates.
He went up to his room. I heard him close his door and call his best friend on speaker. He used the same low, calm voice his mother used to use to settle a litter of rescue kittens. I sat on the back porch in the cool October air and looked at the moon over the long leaf pines. Hadley Lockwood would call dispatch on Saturday at 1:47 in the afternoon.
I would be ready by 1:30. The press release ran in the Forcy County News on Thursday morning. By Thursday evening, Hadley Lockwood had made four mistakes. The first arrived in my mailbox in a beige envelope. A formal HOA lean, $12,400 in cumulative fines, late fees, community remediation sir charges, and vehicle compliance penalties.
The lean was filed with the Foresight County Clerk of Court. Whit Lockwood's signature was on the cover page as treasurer. I forwarded the lean to Cassandra at the DA's office. She forwarded it to the clerk. The clerk called Hadley's HOA office Friday morning to inform her that the lean was procedurally invalid under the Georgia Property Owners Association Act because the HOA had failed to provide statutory 30-day pre-lean notice.
The lean was withdrawn within an hour. The clerk's office sent me a stamped copy of the withdrawal. The second mistake arrived on Friday at 1:00 in the afternoon. A Foresight County code enforcement inspector knocked on my door. Polite, apologetic.
He'd received an anonymous complaint that the property at my address was in significant disrepair and constituted a public nuisance under Georgia Title 41. He walked the perimeter. He looked at the pine straw beds I'd ra the previous Sunday. He looked at the painted garage. He looked at my hostas.
He went to his truck. He came back. He had a no violation observed report in his clipboard. Chief, I'm sorry for the visit. I owed it to the complaint to walk it.
Have a good afternoon. He drove away. The third mistake came on Friday afternoon in the form of a next door post written by Hadley herself. The post described, without naming me, a resident who had been showing off his vehicles publicly to provoke neighbors and who was openly disregarding HOA leadership requests. The Post invited residents to attend a special HOA meeting Saturday at 6:00 in the evening to discuss concerning patterns of community disruption.
47 residents commented. I screenshotted the post. I sent it to Hol. Holt added it to the manifest. The fourth mistake was the one she did not see coming.
That night at 9:15, my son Tate's phone rang. The caller was Caspian Wells. Tate's friend from Lambert High School. Quiet kid plays trumpet in marching band. Caspian had been one of Bryson Lockwood's casual friends from the country club pool.
Tate took the call in the kitchen. I was at the counter with a cup of decaf. I could only hear Tate's side of the call. Hey, Cass. Uh-huh.
Wait, what? Slow down. Who did say that again? Cass, are you serious? No, no, I won't say anything.
Cass, you should call my dad. He looked at me. Dad, Caspian needs to talk to you. Caspian Wells was a 16-year-old boy with a wavering voice and a steady moral compass. He told me in pieces that Bryson Lockwood and Hadley had sat him down at the Lockwood kitchen island that afternoon and asked him to sign a witness statement on a type document that said he had been present when Sterling Howerin sold the Mustang to Bryson Lockwood for $35,000 in cash on August 14th of this year.
There had been no such sale. Bryson had not paid for anything. The signature on the document was a forgery of mine. Caspian recognized it because his father had been a notary and coming for 22 years and Caspian had grown up looking at signatures. Caspian had refused to sign.
He'd told Hadley he had to go home for dinner. He'd called Tate the moment he got into his car. I asked him three things. Was he willing to come to the station tomorrow morning to make a sworn statement to Detective Holt Bramwell? He said yes.
Did he know if anyone else had signed the document? He said, "Yes, Bryson had signed. " Bryson's girlfriend, Cassidy, had signed. Did he know what Hadley was planning to do with the document? He said, "Mrs. Lockwood said she was filing a stolen vehicle report tomorrow afternoon. " I thanked him.
I hung up. I looked at Tate. He looked at me. I said one sentence. She just gave us the exact time.