Budget summaries.
Board meeting minutes.
And printed invoices from contractors.
Eleanor pointed toward a column in an annual financial report.
"Do you see this?"
I leaned closer.
The document listed a stormwater reserve balance of more than four hundred thousand dollars at the start of the reporting period.
Several large expenses appeared during the following year.
Their descriptions were vague.
Drainage improvement phase one.
Stormwater remediation consulting.
Emergency infrastructure stabilization.
I looked toward Eleanor.
"Did the work happen?"
She shook her head.
"Not the work described here."
I frowned.
"How do you know?"
She opened another folder.
Inside were photographs of the same clogged drainage channels I'd questioned at the board meeting.
She also showed me a contractor's inspection note indicating that major improvements hadn't yet been completed.
I studied the documents.
For several seconds, I remained quiet.
Then asked, "Who approved these payments?"
Eleanor looked toward the next page.
The authorizations included Vivian's signature and the name of an outside property-services company.
Stonebridge Grounds LLC.
I didn't recognize it.
Eleanor did.
She leaned back.
"That company concerns me."
"Why?"
She took a slow breath.
"Because when I asked to see the supporting work orders, Vivian told me I was undermining the board."
I looked toward the invoices again.
"Did the other directors know?"
"Some knew about the payments. I'm not sure they understood what was supposedly being purchased."
I nodded slowly.
Eleanor continued.
"When I pushed for a proper review, Vivian organized a vote to replace me as treasurer."
I stared.
"She removed you?"
"Technically, the board voted for new officers. But yes."
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Eleanor looked directly at me.
"Caleb, I don't know yet whether this is fraud, mismanagement, or something else."
She placed one hand over the documents.
"But the numbers don't make sense."
I remembered my father standing beside the stormwater canal.
The blocked opening.
The houses downhill.
And his warning that people rarely noticed the systems protecting them until something failed.
I looked toward Eleanor.
"Then we need to find out where the money went."
Eleanor refused to make public accusations without reliable evidence.
She was careful about the difference between a suspicious payment and proven wrongdoing.
A contractor might have performed work that wasn't visible from the street.
A reserve transfer might have a legitimate explanation.
And a confusing financial report wasn't automatically evidence that someone stole money.
So she began organizing the records properly.
She requested copies of association documents through the procedures available to homeowners.
She compared approved budgets with actual expenses.