Chapter 1: The Gate Would Not Open
Karen yanked the oversized neon-pink handbag toward her so hard that the strap snapped against the metal barrier.
The Neighbor did not let go.
For one tense second, neither moved. Karen stood on the restricted side of the temporary barrier, her enormous handbag pressed against her torso, while the tall man in the faded navy work jacket kept one hand wrapped around the barrier and the other around the loose end of the bag strap.
Behind them, emergency lights flashed between the trees.
A thin veil of smoke hung over the protected forest.
“Why are you so desperate to get that bag back?” he demanded.
“Because it’s my property!” Karen shouted. “Let go of it!”
She stepped closer, invading his space, and pointed directly at his face.
“You don’t get to rummage through my things just because you’re playing detective!”
The Neighbor released the strap.
Karen immediately pulled the handbag against her chest and snapped the zipper closed.
His eyes went to the bag.
Then to her.
“Then why did you hide it the second I saw it?”
Karen’s expression hardened.
“You don’t even know what you saw.”
He raised his smartphone.
“I know you were at this gate before the smoke appeared.”
The words landed harder than the sirens in the distance.
Karen’s eyes flicked toward the forest.
Then back to him.
“You want to know what I’m hiding?” she said, her voice suddenly lower. “Fine. Ask yourself why you were already watching me.”
For the first time, the Neighbor hesitated.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Karen pointed at his phone.
“If you were watching me before the smoke even appeared, then why didn’t you stop it?”
The accusation hung between them.
Neither answered.
Then a uniformed park officer appeared beyond the barrier, walking quickly toward them.
“Both of you,” he called. “Step away from the gate.”
Karen turned.
The officer wasn’t looking at her handbag.
He was looking at the ground.
A few feet from Karen’s shoes, half-hidden beneath damp leaves, was a small metal access tag.
Karen stared at it.
The Neighbor did too.
The officer crouched and picked it up.
“This belongs to the old maintenance gate,” he said.
Karen’s face changed.
“That shouldn’t be there.”
The officer looked at her.
“Then maybe you can explain why you came back for something connected to it.”
Karen tightened her grip on the handbag.
“I came for something that belongs to my family.”
And that was the first time the Neighbor realized the object Karen had been fighting to recover might have nothing to do with the smoke at all.
But if that was true, why had she been so desperate to get it away from him?
