CHAPTER 20: THE GATE AT THE BACK
On Wednesday morning, a contractor arrived to replace the mailbox post.
He worked carefully around the cracked concrete base and measured the distance from the road twice.
I had chosen a plain black model with a sturdy door.
The old blue box sat in my garage, still bent from Patricia’s hammer.
I kept it because Ortiz had asked me to preserve it until the case was resolved.
While the contractor worked, Mrs. Bell came across the street.
She said she had seen a woman at Patricia’s back gate after midnight.
The visitor carried a cardboard box and drove away in a white pickup.
I asked whether she knew the woman.
“I think it was Marian’s old friend, Carol,” Mrs. Bell said.
“I haven’t seen her in years.”
Mrs. Bell admitted she was uncertain.
I asked her to tell Ortiz rather than speculate with neighbors.
She nodded and returned home.
At noon, Claire called with troubling news.
A packet containing Owen’s childhood photographs had been mailed to a local radio station.
The station had contacted Owen’s lawyer before publishing anything.
The return address belonged to a vacant storefront.
Claire believed it was part of Patricia’s promised public campaign.
Nora said the mailing would be reviewed alongside the earlier threats.
I looked out at the new mailbox.
Its black paint gleamed in the sunlight.
A simple object had become the center of a conflict that stretched across two generations.
I had thought Patricia wanted to destroy a letter.
Now I understood she wanted to control who got to tell the story.
And she was willing to hurt a child if the adults refused to give her that control.
