Chapter 3

I stood there staring at the broken glass for a long time.

This time I didn't call the non-emergency line. I called 911.

Ten minutes later, two officers showed up. I walked them through all of it. The hole in the sliding door, the flowers snapped off in the yard, the word still painted across my gate.

Then they went next door and knocked, and Bianca came out.

The second she saw the police, the tears came right on cue. She sat down on her front step and started sobbing.

"Officer, you have to help me! There is something wrong with this woman! She keeps that gate locked so my son can't play. He only wanted to look at the flowers. The rock slipped out of his hand. And now she's calling the cops on me and my little boy!"

Bentley played along, hiding behind her and wailing.

The younger officer frowned. "However it happened, your son broke her door. You're his guardian, so you're responsible for the damage."

"Pay for it? Why should I pay for it?" The second money came up, she was off that step and pointing at my face. "She took the whole yard for herself. My son has nowhere to play. Do you have any idea what that's done to him? I should be the one asking her for money!"

Then something clicked behind her eyes, and she turned to the officers and the neighbors who had gathered around.

"Honestly, this is easy to fix. The door's already broken, so she just leaves the gate open. Or she gives me a key. Bentley goes in whenever he wants, he's happy, and nothing else gets broken. Doesn't that make sense to everybody?"

It was so ridiculous I didn't know where to start.

What really knocked the wind out of me was that people in the crowd started nodding.

Marla, from three doors down, jumped right in. "Officer, honestly, she's not wrong. That yard is sitting there empty anyway. Open the gate, let everybody share the landscaping, and none of this happens. She's the one who has to be different about it. No wonder the boy acts out."

Nadine sighed. "Sweetheart, take my advice. Give her a key and everybody stays on good terms. Don't burn your bridges. You have to see these people every single day."

I ignored them and turned to the officers.

"Her son destroyed my flowers last week. Today he put a rock through my door. I put that sign on the gate myself. It says private property, no trespassing. I sent her a cease and desist by certified mail. She signed for it, tore it up, and shoved it back under my door."

The younger officer nodded, and the way he looked at Bianca changed.

I thought I had finally gotten through.

Then Bianca pulled out her phone, found a photo, and shoved it in their faces.

It was the violation notice.

"Look at it yourself! The HOA put it in writing. That land is common area, and she put a lock and a sign on it without permission. The vice president of the board signed off on it!"

My ears started ringing.

The same piece of paper that fined me two hundred and fifty dollars was now her evidence.

The older officer looked at it for a moment, handed the phone back, and turned to me. His tone had changed.

"Ma'am, if the HOA has this on record as a boundary dispute, we're not going to settle that out here. This is a civil matter."

"What about my window?"

"What's the quote to fix it?"

"Seven hundred and forty dollars."

He shook his head. "Anything under a thousand is a misdemeanor. And he's eight years old. There's nothing to charge him with."

"Then I'll sue her."

"You can file in small claims," he said. "You're looking at three or four months before anybody hears it. You serve the papers yourself, you prove your case yourself, and if you win, you chase the money yourself. And I'll tell you right now, when a minor damages property on purpose, this state puts a cap on what the parents can be made to pay."

"Can I get a restraining order? Just to keep her off my property."

"That takes a hearing. Two or three weeks at the earliest. And with neighbor disputes, judges usually won't grant one."

More people kept drifting over. Marla was whispering to somebody next to her, and a few heads turned my way.

The younger officer stood there and didn't say anything. The older one closed his notebook.

I was standing in the middle of all that broken glass, and I started to laugh.

I laughed loud enough that everything around me went quiet.

"Fine." I looked at Bianca. "You want the yard? You don't like the lock?"

Bianca blinked, then lifted her chin. "About time. Would have saved everybody a lot of trouble if you'd figured that out sooner."

"Officers, sorry to drag you out here. I'm not pressing anything. I'll fix the door myself, and I won't lock the gate."

You could see the older officer relax. They took my statement and left. The neighbors gave me that look, the one that says now you're finally being reasonable, and slowly drifted off.

Bianca walked into my yard with Bentley and stood right in the middle of it.

"See that, baby? This is your yard now. Play however you want."

"Yes!"

I went and got a screwdriver out of my toolbox. In front of everyone still standing there, I took the padlock off the gate one screw at a time, then tossed the whole thing into the flower bed.

After that I went inside and shut the door.

I brought a sheet of plywood up from the basement and covered the hole for now. That basement is the only room in the house with no windows. I'd been planning to turn it into an office.

Once the glass was boarded up, I picked up my phone and dialed a number.

"Hi there. Quick question."

"How much can you fit on one truck?"