Phones appeared.
Marcus kept recording.
Pamela saw the gathering audience and straightened.
Some people shrink under witnesses.
Pamela performed for them.
She raised her voice.
“Everyone here has had to comply with community expectations.”
Marcus replied calmly.
“Name the violated rule.”
Pamela turned toward the neighbors.
“This resident has repeatedly refused HOA authority.”
Marcus asked:
“What rule?”
She ignored him.
“Contractor vehicles.”
“What rule?”
“Improper storage.”
“What rule?”
“Unauthorized modifications.”
“What rule?”
Pamela spun back.
“You don't get to interrogate me.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“Actually, if you're destroying somebody's car over a rule, identifying the rule feels like a low bar.”
A neighbor laughed.
Quietly.
Pamela heard.
Her face went rigid.
She pointed the bat toward Marcus.
“This vehicle will be removed today.”
Marcus looked at the shattered Rolls.
“I imagine its owner will have opinions.”
“You are the owner.”
“No.”
“You've been lying since I arrived.”
“I told you it belongs to a guest.”
Pamela stepped closer.
“Don't insult my intelligence.”
Marcus looked straight into his phone camera.
“I won't comment on that.”
The neighbor laughed louder.
Pamela swung around.
“Mind your own business, Tom.”
Tom raised both hands.
“I'm standing on my property.”
“Then stay there.”
Marcus looked at Pamela.
“You have no authority to order neighbors inside their houses.”
“I have authority to enforce community standards.”
“With a baseball bat?”
Pamela turned back toward the Rolls.
Then something in her expression changed.
She had lost the argument.
She knew it.
So she sought a new action.
Her eyes moved toward the windshield.
Marcus saw it too.
“Pamela.”
She raised the bat.
“Don't hit the windshield.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Or what?”
Marcus kept the phone steady.
“Or the video gets worse.”
She smiled.
“This is my documentation.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
Pamela tapped the bat against her palm.
“Evidence of corrective enforcement after repeated noncompliance.”
“Your defense is that vandalism becomes legal if you call it paperwork?”
“You have been fined six times.”
“Four were rescinded.”
“Because you threatened litigation.”
“Because they weren't supported by the covenants.”
Pamela’s mouth tightened.
She lifted the bat again.
Marcus said:
“The police have already been called.”
That stopped her.
Not because Marcus had called them.
He hadn't.
Tom had.
Marcus saw him speaking into his phone across the street.
Pamela looked toward Tom.
Then back.
“Good.”
Marcus blinked.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
“Then we'll finally settle this.”
She pointed at the Rolls.
“I’ll have them tow it.”
Marcus stared.
“You want law enforcement to arrive while you’re holding the bat?”
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Tom shouted from across the street:
“You smashed three windows!”
Pamela snapped:
“Stay out of it!”