Chapter 5: What Was Hidden in the Clubhouse
The storage room had been locked for years.
At least, that was what Glenn claimed.
Reed used the key.
The lock opened.
Inside were boxes of old HOA documents, landscaping records, security footage, contractor invoices, and homeowner photographs.
Mara stood behind Reed.
She saw folders with names on them.
Dozens of names.
Some contained photographs taken from angles that could only have been captured from private property.
She felt a wave of anger.
This was no longer about her.
It was about every homeowner who had been watched without knowing it.
Reed opened a folder bearing Mara’s name.
Inside was a photograph of her backyard.
Another showed her kitchen window.
A third showed her grandson playing near the side gate.
Mara’s hands trembled.
That photograph had been taken from inside her yard.
Someone had crossed her property.
She didn’t speak.
Reed closed the folder.
“This is evidence.”
Mara nodded.
For once, she didn’t need to defend herself.
The evidence was doing it for her.
But Derek remained missing.
Police learned that he had been seen near the neighborhood the previous evening.
His phone had been turned off.
The tracker on the cruiser had been registered through a prepaid account.
The mystery remained.
Then Tyler remembered another detail.
The hooded man had said something before pulling him away.
Not a threat.
A name.
“Glenn.”
That changed the investigation.
Reed brought Glenn back to the clubhouse.
This time, Glenn stopped pretending.
He admitted he had given Derek access to the storage room.
But he insisted Derek was responsible for the cruiser.
The motive became clearer.
Derek had discovered that the police cruiser was being used to respond to complaints connected to the HOA.
He believed that if the cruiser appeared to have been vandalized by someone in the neighborhood, suspicion would fall on Mara.
The fingerprint-covered vehicle was meant to create exactly that impression.
Derek wanted Mara blamed.
Glenn wanted the HOA records hidden.
And both had underestimated one person.
Tyler.
The boy had seen Derek leave the tracker behind.
He had followed him.
Then he had touched the cruiser.
That tiny handprint had not incriminated Mara.
It had nearly saved her.
But there was one more problem.
The tracker had been activated before Derek ever arrived.
Someone had been tracking the cruiser for another reason.
Reed checked the device’s activation history.
The earliest location was not the neighborhood.
It was the police station.
Someone had placed the tracker on the cruiser before Reed ever drove to the clubhouse.
That meant Derek had not started the scheme.
He had inherited it.
There was another person involved.
And that person had access to police vehicles.
