“Strong,” I said.

“Straight and well balanced.”

She smiled, bent down by the base of the new lilac planting, and picked up a tiny scrap of loose bark.

Harry Caldwell had been led away in handcuffs after his felony arrest for document forgery, and his son Trent had quietly left the neighborhood.

I’d chosen to stop the physical threat with restrained, defensive moves and to expose the legal fraud through public township records instead of through violence.

Arthur Peterson kept his home in peace, since I’d refused to press the HOA misconduct charges that would have wrecked the retired principal’s pension.

Emily went back to her track training full of confidence, knowing her father had made their home safe for good.

One purple lilac leaf lay against the dark brown garden mulch in the afternoon sun.

At long last, the fence line was quiet again.