He shook his head.
“Not in the form the invoices describe.”
She sighed.
“Perhaps you weren't paying attention.”
Harold stared.
“I took the minutes that night.”
For a moment, Cynthia didn't answer.
Then she smiled tightly.
“I'm sure this is an administrative misunderstanding.”
Harold didn't argue.
He simply requested an independent reconciliation.
Cynthia delayed.
First, the management company was supposedly changing software.
Then Martin's business was updating its invoices.
Then the relevant records were said to be with the association attorney.
Harold became more concerned.
He contacted another director, Denise Coleman.
Denise was a fifty-year-old Black American accountant who had served on the board for three years.
She had already questioned several compliance charges issued against homeowners.
When Harold described the spending, she asked for copies.
They reviewed the invoices together.
One document claimed that Vale Property Services performed emergency stabilization work near the drainage corridor on a date when Harold had personally walked the area and observed no work crew.
Another referred to extensive equipment use without identifying the equipment.
A third charged for disposal of contaminated materials without attaching the necessary supporting documentation.
Denise looked toward Harold.
“This needs an independent audit.”
He nodded.
“I agree.”
Then she asked a question he hadn't considered.
“Why is Cynthia so determined to blame the Walkers' pool?”
Harold looked toward the invoices.
For a moment, he couldn't answer.
The transactions were associated with the eastern drainage corridor.
The location Cynthia repeatedly claimed was being affected by Andre's property.
Denise continued.
“If the drainage problem is coming from somewhere else, then the reason for those charges might not be what we've been told.”
Harold stared at the papers.
For several seconds, he remained quiet.
Then he nodded.
“We need the original work orders.”
They formally requested them.
Cynthia responded with a lengthy message accusing the directors of undermining emergency maintenance.
She warned that questioning the drainage contractor could expose the HOA to additional liability.
Then she began pressuring the management company to limit access to certain records.
The management company refused to alter its retention obligations.
But the dispute stalled the board's review.
Cynthia needed time.
And she believed she could create a new incident that would justify everything she'd been saying about Andre Walker.
A visible sanitation emergency.
At his swimming pool.
If inspectors arrived to find contaminated water on his property, perhaps the focus would move away from her guesthouse.
Perhaps the HOA could claim his pool was the source of the neighborhood's problems.
Perhaps she could renew the demand for a drainage cooperation agreement.
And perhaps the pressure would finally make him stop asking questions.