After the meeting, Patricia called an emergency board session with the help of two other directors. They voted to appoint an independent accountant and obtain legal advice from someone other than Vivian's usual counsel. They also requested all bank records and contracts for the previous eighteen months. Vivian opposed the motion, but she no longer had enough votes to stop it. That evening she posted online that a faction within the board was collaborating with outsiders to destabilize the neighborhood.
Sandra read the post, shook her head, and said, "She thinks the neighborhood is a kingdom and the board is plotting a palace coup." I laughed for the first time in days. It wasn't a particularly good joke, but laughter had become rare in our kitchen. Sandra looked pleased just to hear the sound.
The official investigation gained momentum too. County officers and environmental investigators interviewed Clearwater workers and examined the company's field records. Financial investigators followed the payment through the HOA accounts. The health department worked with the water utility on temporary supplies and treatment options. I spent hours speaking to lawyers, experts, and investigators, but I learned not to demand updates they were not authorized to give.
One evening Jim Patterson stopped by after a long day and looked across the lake. "People think these cases are solved when somebody identifies the truck," he said. "That only tells us who was there. Then we have to prove what they carried, what they did, who authorized it, what damage followed, and what each person knew." I asked whether we had enough.
He sighed. "We have a lot. But the difference between a strong suspicion and a courtroom finding matters. That's why the paperwork takes so long."
The waiting was brutal. I hated seeing the lake fenced off. I hated the dumpsters and sampling flags, the contractors coming through our gate, and the absence of birds near the most damaged shore. I hated hearing neighbors talk about illness while professionals worked to determine which symptoms, if any, were attributable to the exposure. And I hated that Vivian was still speaking as though the entire problem had been created by my refusal to get rid of a fishing dock.
Then came the evening she drove to our house with a briefcase full of money.
She arrived a little after sunset, alone, in her white Lexus. I saw the headlights cross our front windows before I heard the engine stop. Sandra was inside finishing dinner. I stepped onto the porch but stayed behind the rail, with the screen door closed at my back. I had started recording my interactions after discussing lawful methods of documentation with counsel, and on that evening I preserved the conversation without making a show of it.