Chapter 16: The Quiet Witness
A few days later, an elderly neighbor named Samuel Greer knocked on my door.
He had lived two houses away for thirty years and rarely attended neighborhood meetings.
He said he wanted to tell me something about the first night my pipes were damaged.
Samuel had been awake because his wife was recovering from surgery.
He had gone to the kitchen window for a glass of water and noticed somebody carrying a flashlight near my side yard.
He assumed it was a contractor until the person crossed back toward Valerie’s gate.
He could not identify the face.
He did remember a bright patch on the back of the jacket.
Valerie owned a raincoat with a pale reflective square near the collar.
That resemblance was not proof, and Samuel knew it.
He had waited because he didn’t want to become involved in a feud.
But after hearing about the second incident and the threats, he decided silence was no longer neutral.
I asked him to speak directly with Ortiz.
He agreed.
Before leaving, he showed me a notebook where he recorded the times his wife’s medication had been given.
On the night of the flood, he had written that the backyard light disturbed him at 12:43.
The note was made before anyone knew about the damage.
It was more useful than a memory formed after hearing gossip.
I thanked him for coming.
He looked at the boarded kitchen window.
“I should have said something sooner,” he admitted.
I told him he was saying it now.
