No answer.
Two days later I received a second warning.
That told me Brenda did not want questions.
She wanted obedience.
Then something stranger happened.
A black SUV began appearing near my house.
At first I assumed it belonged to a visitor.
Then it returned.
Late evening.
Different days.
Usually parked across the street.
One man inside.
Dark shirt.
Sometimes a black vest.
Mark noticed too.
“You got security now?”
“No.”
“That guy has been sitting there twenty minutes.”
“I know.”
“Who is he?”
I took a picture through the window.
“Let’s find out.”
The SUV belonged to a small private security company contracted by Cedar Grove.
I researched them.
Licensed for patrol.
Parking enforcement.
Common area security.
Nothing I found suggested they had authority to enter houses or seize keys.
The driver’s name, I learned later, was Darren Cole.
Darren was thirty seven.
Former nightclub security.
Some private security experience.
