She nodded slowly. She had a notebook out. "You know who it was?"
I told her. Skeet Fisk. And that he did work for the HOA. And then, because there was no way to tell the rest of it without telling all of it, I told her about the meeting, and the amendment, and the bath, and the fine, and the ten-day notice period that, by my count, had seven days left on it. I told her I had footage of the man doing it. I didn't tell her about the van yet. I don't know why. I think I was saving it, the way you save the one measurement you're sure of until the end of the argument.
She was writing all of this down, carefully, when the front door of the house next door opened and Debra Pelletier came down her walk.
She'd dressed for it. That's the thing I noticed. A pale blue blouse, pressed. Slacks. Her hair done. Her reading glasses on the beaded chain. She walked right up to the edge of her lawn, where the river rock met my gravel, and she stopped exactly on the property line, the way a person does who knows exactly where it is. She had a manila folder in her hands.
"Officer," she said. "I'm the president of the homeowners association. Mr. Fisk was acting on the board's authority. Those cameras were in violation of our community rules. I have the amendment here."
"Ma'am, a rule from your HOA doesn't give anybody the right to go onto another person's roof and remove his property."
"I understand that, Officer. I do. And I'd like to explain why it was necessary." She took a breath. "That camera on the side of his house has been filming into my bathroom while I bathe."
Hendricks went very still. She looked at Debra for a long moment. Then she looked at me. I don't know what my face was doing. Then she closed her notebook, and opened it again to a new page, and her voice changed, became careful and flat and formal in a way it had not been a minute before.
"Okay," she said. "Ma'am, that's a serious allegation. If that's what's been happening, that's a crime in Idaho, and a significant one. I need to take that seriously. I'm going to take that seriously." She keyed the radio on her shoulder and asked for a second unit. Then she said to me, "Mr. Dupuis, I'm going to ask you to stay right here." And to Debra: "Ma'am, I'm going to need to get some details from you."