Arthur laughed bitterly.
“Because confronting Lorraine is exhausting.”
Daniel stared.
Arthur nodded.
“I know how pathetic that sounds.”
“It sounds familiar.”
Arthur looked up.
Daniel continued:
“Apparently an entire board made the same decision.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Daniel said:
“Being difficult to confront is not the same as being impossible to stop.”
“No.”
Arthur nodded.
“I learned late.”
Daniel thought of the drugs beneath his rosemary.
“Very late.”
Arthur left.
No handshake.
No reconciliation.
But his admission mattered.
It helped Daniel understand how systems like Lorraine's formed.
Not because everyone agreed.
Because too many people outsourced discomfort.
Let her handle it.
Let her make the calls.
Let her write the letters.
Let her decide.
And every time nobody stopped her, authority expanded in her imagination.
Until a volunteer HOA president believed she could step into a man's backyard with illegal narcotics and decide what the police would believe afterward.
The criminal case took seven months.
Long enough for outrage to cool.
Long enough for neighbors to become interested in other things.
Long enough for Daniel to discover that living inside an unresolved story was more exhausting than the original incident.
He hated the garden.
For weeks, he could not look at the rosemary without seeing Lorraine's gloved hands.
Eventually he removed the plants.
Then regretted letting her change his yard.
So he replanted.
New rosemary.
Same location.
Maya thought that was psychologically healthy.
Daniel told her not to practice therapy without a license.
Work helped.
Travel helped less.
Every hotel room made him wonder who was near his house.
He upgraded cameras.
Then upgraded again.
Then realized he was checking them fourteen times a day.
That frightened him.
Elena noticed during a follow-up interview.
“How often do you monitor your cameras?”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“You checked twice while we've been talking.”
He looked at the phone.
“Habit.”
“New habit?”
“Yes.”
Elena nodded.
“Don't let her keep living in your yard after she's legally barred from it.”
Daniel stared.
“That sounds like therapy.”
“Police wisdom.”
“Same billing?”
“Worse.”
He laughed.
Then took the advice.
Notifications only.
No constant live feed.
It helped.
Prosecutors eventually offered Lorraine a plea agreement.
Maya explained potential charges in broad terms.
Possession.
Attempted fabrication of evidence.
False reporting implications.
Trespass.
Obstruction-related theories depending on proof.
Daniel did not control the prosecution.
He provided a victim statement.
The prosecutor asked what outcome he wanted.
Daniel struggled.
Jail?
At first, yes.
Immediately after the incident, yes.
Months later?
He wanted something else more.
Public acknowledgment.
No quiet narrative where Lorraine became a misunderstood volunteer who made a paperwork mistake.
No euphemism.
No “miscommunication.”
She tried to frame him.
He wanted that truth permanent.
Lorraine rejected the first offer.
Then discovery deepened.
Investigators linked the anonymous police tip to a prepaid phone purchased with cash.
That alone proved little.
But surveillance footage from a convenience store showed Lorraine buying it.
Not illegal.
Then cell-location data placed the device near Fairmont Ridge during the call.