So I walked outside and stared at the birdhouse near the feeder.
After some investigation, I spotted a tiny lens staring back at me from a knothole. When Rios arrived, she nodded once. “That helps.”
I rubbed my arms. “I don’t want them inside,” I said. “I don’t want to be scared in the house she left me.”
Rios held my gaze. “Then we end it clean. If they come back, we’ll catch them.”
At 11:30, the backyard motion light clicked on.
Two nights later, I kept the living room lights off while I sat on the couch. Rios and an officer waited upstairs, listening through an earpiece.
At 11:30, the backyard motion light clicked on. Shadows moved along the side path, slow and practiced. The back door handle jiggled, and I heard more movement suggesting someone was up to no good.
Rios’s voice murmured in my ear. “Don’t move.”
On the camera feed, Mrs. Keller appeared in the harsh light, jaw clenched, and with a bag in her hand. Don Harris hovered behind her, eyes darting around nervously.
Sirens erupted so close they rattled the windows.
Lydia and Jared stood off to the side, hands twisting, whispering, “Hurry.”
Keller tried the handle again and hissed, “I know this gate doesn’t lock.”
Don tried the gate, bumping it with his shoulder in an attempt to force it open. “She can’t ruin us from the grave.”
Then Lydia’s voice shook. “Just jump over and check the back door. We have to get the papers. If they exist, they need to disappear.”
That seemed to be all the evidence we needed. Rios piped up in my earpiece:
“Now.”
Sirens erupted so close they rattled the windows. Flashlights flooded the yard, and officers poured through the gate, shouting commands.
Lydia started crying, mascara streaking.
“Stop right there!” an officer yelled.
Keller spun around, face pale, and snapped, “This is ridiculous! We were checking on him!”
Don pointed at her instantly. “It was her idea,” he blurted. “She said the letters were dangerous!”
Lydia started crying, mascara streaking. “I’m not even really in on this,” she said. “He was the one who always moved the gate to scare the old lady.”
From the fence line where he’d silently been hiding, Jared stepped into the light. “I told you not to do this. It was way too risky,” he said.
When the cars finally rolled away, the street went dark again.
Rios came down the stairs and stood beside me. “You’re on camera,” she called through the door. Keller’s eyes cut toward my window, hate flashing hard.
“She was a liar,” she spat. “That old woman made things up.”
My voice rose before I could stop it. “She was alone,” I shouted, “and you took advantage of that!”
Keller flinched, then lifted her chin. “We kept this neighborhood safe! And all we wanted to do was scare you away,” she said.
Rios stepped closer. “You kept it needlessly quiet,” she replied. “And now you’ve just admitted to trying to intimidate this resident.”
Keller tried to pull away as they cuffed her, and Don kept talking like speed could save him. Lydia sobbed, repeating, “I didn’t mean it,” over and over.
“They thought she was easy to bully.”
When the cars finally rolled away, the street went dark again. I stood on the porch with Rios, watching taillights fade. “Was it really coordinated?” I asked, voice thin.
Rios nodded once. “They isolated her and made her look unstable,” she said. “They wanted any complaint from her to sound like a rant.” I swallowed. “Why her?” I asked.
“Because she noticed things,” Rios said. “And because they thought she was easy to bully.” I looked back at Grandma’s dark windows, feeling guilty that I’d never been aware of how difficult things were for her.
“We copied everything.”
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