“You contacted the police about your own parents?”
“The sheriff’s office,” I corrected.
“And I contacted them about people who said they were entering my property after I told them no.”
Kyle finally moved from the edge of the porch.
“Claire,” he said toward the phone, “come on.
Everyone drove all this way.”
I looked at him on the screen.
Less than twenty-four hours earlier, he had responded to my refusal with laughing emojis.
“You knew I said no,” I said.
He shoved his hands into his pockets.
“I thought you were joking.”
“No.
You thought they would ignore me.”
He did not answer.
The deputy handed Dad his phone but remained between him and the front door.
“Sir, have you attempted to force entry?”
“Force entry?” Dad repeated.
“I entered the code.
It didn’t work.”
“How many times?”
Dad’s face reddened.
“I don’t know.”
The camera log knew.
The front keypad had recorded sixteen failed attempts.
The garage panel had recorded nine.
Someone had also pulled the side-door handle hard enough to trigger its contact sensor.
I read the numbers aloud.
Dad looked up at the nearest camera.
For the first time, he seemed to understand that the small black lens above the porch was not decoration.
Mom pointed at it.
“You’re spying on your family now?”
“It’s a security camera on my house.”
“Our family house,” she snapped.
The deputy turned back toward her.
“Who is listed on the deed?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
That silence changed the atmosphere more than any argument could have.
Several guests looked at my parents.
One woman near the steps quietly asked, “I thought you said the house belonged to all of you.”
Dad’s shoulders stiffened.
“It does, in every way that matters.”
“No,” I said through the speaker.
“It belongs to me in the way that matters here.”
The deputy glanced toward the gravel road.
Mrs.
Harper was walking across it in a pale jacket, carrying a travel mug.
She stopped near the end of my driveway rather than joining the crowd.
Dad saw her and muttered something under his breath.
The deputy raised a hand in greeting.
“Did you call this in?”
“No,” Mrs.
Harper said.
“Claire handled that yesterday.
I’m only here because she asked me to watch the property.”
Mom laughed without humor.
“Of course she recruited a witness.”
