Chapter 2 - THE FENCE DAVID NEVER APPROVED
The police arrived twenty-three minutes after Emily called.
By then, nearly half the mixer load was sitting inside what had once been a clear blue swimming pool.
Frank had finally stopped pouring.
Not because Emily convinced him.
Because Mark’s orange stake scared him.
Officer Daniel Reeves walked into the yard, looked at the truck, then the pool.
He stared for several seconds.
“I’m going to ask the obvious question.”
Emily nodded toward Katherine.
“She ordered it.”
Katherine immediately crossed her arms.
“That pool has been a neighborhood nuisance for years.”
Officer Reeves looked at her.
“That wasn’t my question.”
Frank stepped forward.
“This is a civil property dispute.”
Reeves glanced toward the concrete.
“Filling somebody else’s pool with concrete generally goes a little beyond arguing over a fence.”
Katherine scoffed.
“It’s our boundary.”
Mark finally spoke.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
He held the survey tablet against his chest.
“The recorded line runs approximately eight feet inside what is currently being used as the Walsh property for most of this backyard.”
Frank’s face tightened.
“That’s impossible.”
Mark looked at him.
“I’m standing on the monument.”
“What monument?”
“The original iron pin.”
Frank stared.
Mark pointed toward a small excavation beside one orange flag.
“The fence was not installed on the legal line.”
Katherine said, “That fence has been there forever.”
Emily looked at her.
“No, it hasn’t.”
Silence.
Emily remembered now.
The original fence had been cedar.
Shorter.
Weathered.
David repaired it every spring.
Three months after his death, a storm knocked down one section.
Frank offered to replace the entire fence “as a neighborly favor.”
Emily had barely been functioning then.
Funeral paperwork.
Insurance calls.
Two grieving children.
Mortgage documents.
David’s clothes still hanging in the closet because Emily could not bear to move them.
Frank handled the fence.
Katherine brought muffins.
Emily thanked them.
The new fence appeared two days later.
She never questioned why her backyard suddenly felt slightly narrower.
Until now.
Mark moved along the line.
“The replacement fence is off by seven feet nine inches here.”
He walked farther.
“Eight feet three here.”
Then toward the rear corner.
“Nine feet one inch.”
Officer Reeves whistled softly.
Frank said, “Your equipment is wrong.”
Mark looked almost offended.
“It isn’t.”
“You using county GIS?”
“No. Recorded plat, two surviving monuments, control points and the original subdivision survey.”
Katherine turned on Emily.
“You planned this.”
Emily did not deny it.
She had.
Not the concrete.
The survey.
Four days earlier, David’s old friend George had been visiting.
He stood near the patio drinking coffee and casually said, “Didn’t your lot used to go farther past that maple?”
Emily asked what he meant.
George pointed.
“David and I planted that tree five feet inside your line.”
The maple now stood on Katherine’s side of the fence.
Emily called Mark the next morning.
The complete boundary survey was scheduled for that afternoon.
Katherine had simply chosen the worst possible morning to destroy Emily’s pool.
Frank looked at the pool house.
The structure was large.
Expensive.
Stone exterior.
Outdoor kitchen.
Second-floor guest suite.
A project Katherine had spent a year showing off to everyone in the neighborhood.
Mark walked to one corner of the foundation.
He measured.
Then another.
“How much?” Emily asked.
Mark looked at her.
“Preliminary?”
“Yes.”
“Almost a third of this building appears to cross your property line.”
Katherine laughed.
But it sounded wrong.
“That’s ridiculous.”
Mark pointed toward the orange stakes.
“Concrete foundation doesn’t change where the deed line is.”
Frank suddenly walked toward the pool house.
He did not argue.
He started examining the foundation.
Emily noticed his hands.
They were trembling.
And that was when she understood something.
May you like
Frank was surprised by how much Mark had found.
But he was not surprised that the fence was wrong.
