Board dependence taught her nobody would seriously challenge her.
Package collection began as something she could describe as help.
At some point, help became permission.
Permission became habit.
Habit became theft.
The exact moment of that transition might never be known.
Maybe the first package she took genuinely went to the clubhouse.
Maybe the twentieth did too.
Maybe she opened one accidentally and realized nobody would know.
Maybe taking valuable items began later.
The criminal case could prove specific acts.
It could not reconstruct every private decision.
Tasha was comfortable leaving unknown things unknown.
That, too, was something Cypress Haven had needed to learn.
Not every suspicion required certainty.
Not every rule required enforcement.
Not every problem required a person cruising the streets searching for violations.
Sometimes a blue planter was just a blue planter.
Sometimes a box was just a box.
The Reeds eventually got the dog.
Avery named him Biscuit, though the dog was a black Labrador mix and looked nothing like a biscuit.
He destroyed one of Damon’s new planters within three days.
Damon stared at the broken pot.
“Navy blue.”
Tasha looked at him.
“Do not make this symbolic.”
“I’m just saying Cynthia would have hated this.”
Biscuit dragged a plant across the porch.
Avery laughed from the doorway.
Damon replaced the planter with another navy-blue one.
No architectural application.
The current board ignored it.
Mostly because Tasha was on the board and knew the latest design guidelines did not regulate small movable pots.
Also because nobody cared.
That felt healthy.
One Saturday, Tasha came home to find three packages stacked by the door.
A large one.
Two small ones.
Biscuit barked at them from inside.
She stood on the driveway for a moment looking at the boxes.
A year earlier, she would have opened the camera app before touching anything.
Now she simply carried them inside.
One belonged to Damon.
One to Avery.
The third was hers.
She opened it at the kitchen counter.
New shoes.
Nothing more.
No evidence marker.
No tracking plan.
No police report.