Chapter 4: What Marla Was Afraid to Admit
Marla finally spoke to Evelyn.
Not David.
Evelyn.
The conversation happened on a park bench two streets away, away from the HOA office and away from anyone who might overhear them.
Marla looked exhausted.
“I didn’t damage that bench.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“I swear.”
“Then why did you threaten David?”
Marla stared at the sidewalk.
“Because I thought he was watching me.”
“Watching you do what?”
Marla hesitated.
Then she opened her handbag and pulled out a photograph.
It showed the side of a garage.
There was a dark smear near the bottom of the door.
Evelyn frowned.
“What is that?”
“I found it three nights ago.”
“Where?”
“On my garage.”
Marla explained that someone had been leaving strange marks around her property for several weeks.
A muddy handprint.
A broken flowerpot.
A garden tool moved from one side of the yard to another.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing that police would likely consider urgent.
But enough to make her feel watched.
She had complained to the HOA.
Nothing happened.
So Marla became angry.
Then suspicious.
Then convinced that David was responsible.
Their recycling-bin dispute had made him the obvious target of her suspicion.
“I thought if I scared him,” she said, “he’d stop.”
“So you put the fake snake there?”
Marla shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn studied her.
“Why did you say you wanted him scared?”
Marla closed her eyes.
“Because I was trying to make him think I knew what he was doing.”
It was childish.
Reckless.
And completely different from what David had assumed.
But there was still a missing piece.
The burgundy fabric.
Marla reached into her handbag again.
She pulled out a pair of gardening gloves.
One glove was missing part of its cuff.
Evelyn stared.
Marla’s voice dropped.
“I lost this two days ago.”
“Where?”
“Near the walking path.”
Evelyn looked at the torn edge.
The missing fabric matched the strip found around the fake snake.
That changed things again.
Someone had apparently used Marla’s own glove material.
But why?
The simplest answer was that Marla had planted the snake.
The second possibility was more disturbing.
Someone had taken the glove, used it to stage evidence, and counted on everyone blaming Marla.
Evelyn called David.
Within an hour, the three of them were sitting in the HOA conference room.
Nobody looked comfortable.
Marla placed the glove on the table.
David placed the evidence bag beside it.
The two pieces matched.
Not approximately.
They matched.
The property manager stared at them.
“So someone deliberately used Marla’s clothing to connect her to the snake.”
Marla swallowed.
David leaned back.
“That means whoever did this knew enough about us to frame her.”
Silence filled the room.
The neighborhood dispute suddenly seemed much larger.
It was no longer simply David versus Marla.
Someone had been manipulating both of them.
And whoever that person was had been watching closely.
