Chapter 5: The Men on the Porch
I pulled over before I reached my driveway.
The two men hadn't noticed me yet.
One was tall, wearing a contractor's vest.
The other was on his phone, pointing at the roofline like he was assessing something.
I called the sheriff's non-emergency line.
My hands were steadier than I expected.
"This is Sarah Collier.
I live at 414 Birch.
There are two men trying to enter the property next door — 416 Birch.
That property is currently in a legal dispute.
I don't believe they have authorization to be there."
"We'll send someone to check it out, ma'am."
I sat in my car and watched.
The taller man tried the door handle a second time.
The other one took photographs of the front windows.
A patrol car arrived in four minutes.
Not the sheriff this time — a younger deputy, maybe thirty, with a careful way of moving.
He spoke to the men for a few minutes.
I saw one of them show a document on his phone.
The deputy looked at it, looked at the house, looked back at the men.
Then he walked over to my car.
I rolled down the window.
"Ms.
Collier?" He recognized me, or had been told to look for me.
"Those men say they were hired by Douglas Higgins to conduct a property assessment.
They have a letter authorizing them to access the exterior."
"Exterior only?"
"That's what it says."
"Are they allowed to do that while the deed is being contested?"
He paused.
"That's a question for your attorney."
I called Marsh from the car.
He answered on the second ring.
"Exterior assessment is legal," he said, before I'd finished explaining.
"Douglas is building his case.
He wants photographs, condition reports, anything he can use to argue the property was neglected under Eleanor's care." A pause.
"Let them take their pictures.
It won't help him.
Eleanor maintained that house meticulously."
"He's moving fast," I said.
"He's been planning this for longer than two days," Marsh said.
"Eleanor knew that too."
I stayed in the car until the men left.
The deputy waited until they drove away before he did.
I went inside my house and stood in the kitchen.
The foreclosure notice was still on my counter.
I hadn't moved it.
I hadn't been able to look at it without my chest tightening.
I looked at it now.
Then I looked out the window at Eleanor's porch swing, moving slightly in the afternoon heat.
My phone buzzed.
A number I didn't recognize.
I almost didn't answer.
"Is this Sarah Collier?" A woman's voice.
Older.
Cautious.
"It is."
"My name is Ruth Patton.
I live two streets over.
I was Eleanor's friend for thirty-one years." A pause.
"I heard what Douglas is doing.
I want you to know — Eleanor talked about you.
More than once."
I sat down slowly.
"She talked about me?"
"She watched you for months," Ruth said.
"She saw how hard you were working.
She saw you come home late and leave early.
She saw you carrying groceries up those steps when you could barely manage it." Ruth's voice was steady but careful.
"She said you reminded her of herself.
When she was young and her husband had just left and she didn't know how she was going to keep the house."
My throat closed.
"She planned this," Ruth said.
"She wasn't confused.
She wasn't manipulated.
She made a decision and she made sure it would hold." A pause.
"I'll say that in court if I have to."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because Douglas called me an hour ago," Ruth said.
"He wanted me to say she'd been forgetful.
That she'd mixed up names.
That she'd asked him the same questions twice." A silence.
"I told him I wouldn't lie for him.
He didn't take that well."
"What did he say?"
Ruth hesitated.
"He said I should think carefully about what I was getting involved in."
Another threat.
Wider this time.
"Ruth," I said, "I'm going to give you my attorney's number.
Will you call him?"
"I already have his number," she said.
"Eleanor gave it to me.
She said I might need it."
Eleanor had thought of everything.
But I was starting to understand that Douglas had too — and that he wasn't finished.
That night, I double-checked every lock in the house.
I left the porch light on.
At two in the morning, my phone lit up with a text from an unknown number.
*Drop the claim.
May you like
Walk away.
This is your only warning.*
