Marcus caught the exchange.
Fear had entered Tyler’s face.
Not fear of Marcus.
Fear of his mother.
That registered.
Then a voice came from the yard to Marcus’s left.
“Marcus.”
Everyone turned.
A man stood beyond the neighboring fence holding his phone.
Carlos Alvarez.
Fifty-four.
Accountant.
Lived two houses down.
He raised the phone.
“I recorded them.”
Brenda froze.
Marcus looked at him.
“What?”
Carlos walked toward his side gate.
“Give me thirty seconds.”
Brenda’s face changed.
“Carlos, mind your business.”
He disappeared.
Another voice came from the right.
“I got them too.”
Helen Chen stood on a small deck behind her house.
Sixty-two.
Retired pharmacist.
Phone in hand.
Brenda turned.
“You people are unbelievable.”
Helen descended the deck steps.
“I thought so this morning.”
Marcus looked between them.
“What happened this morning?”
Helen opened her gate.
She walked toward Marcus’s front side entrance.
Then another person appeared.
Denise Porter.
Across the rear corner.
She held up her phone.
“So did I.”
Brenda’s mouth opened.
No words.
Samuel looked at Marcus.
“How many people are recording these folks?”
Apparently not enough.
Frank Miller came from the opposite yard.
Seventy.
Former electrical contractor.
Doorbell-camera app open on his phone.
He raised one hand.
“Make it four.”
The backyard went quiet.
Even the children stopped talking.
Marcus looked at Brenda.
Her face had gone pale.
Carlos entered first.
He held his screen toward Marcus.
“Eight twelve this morning.”
Video.
Tyler dragging the same black garbage bin along the sidewalk.
Brenda walking behind him.
Pink blouse.
Same sunglasses.
They stopped outside Carlos’s side fence.
The video showed Brenda pointing.
Tyler lifted a bag over and dropped it beside Carlos’s hydrangeas.
Marcus looked up.
Carlos said:
“I thought somebody dumped illegally.”
Helen arrived.
“Nine oh-five.”
Her video showed Tyler pushing loose trash beneath a gap at the bottom of her rear fence.
Brenda stood behind him.
Denise entered next.
“Ten thirty.”
Her camera showed Brenda herself carrying two grocery bags filled with garbage and setting them behind Denise’s trash enclosure.
Marcus stared.
Then Frank approached.
His recording was the clearest.
Doorbell camera.
11:16 a.m.
Brenda stood directly in front of his property talking to Tyler.
Audio.
Clear.
Tyler said:
“Which ones?”
Brenda pointed down the street.
“Alvarez, Chen, Porter, then Reed.”
Tyler asked:
“All today?”
Brenda replied:
“Before anyone notices.”
Another line.
“These are the repeat problems.”
Marcus looked up slowly.
Brenda stared at Frank’s phone.
Nobody spoke.
Then Samuel said: