Chapter 2 : He said it out loud because he was running a meeting and that was his job, and he said it slowly because he was a civics teacher and when you read something aloud, you slow down.

Pat's hand was flat on the binder cover. It stayed there.

"Tell me about that corner," Marcus said. "Clerk."

Kayla Ortiz had been standing at the end of the table with her hands behind her back since she'd delivered the slip, which is what you do when you are twenty-six and the room has turned into something you did not sign up for. She said, "Yes, sir. When a violation is issued, the manager's office prints three copies. The white copy gets posted on the door. The yellow copy goes into the pending file at the office. The pink copy gets initialed by the issuing board member or officer and it stays in the management binder as the association's record."

"Initialed by the person issuing it," Marcus repeated.

"Approval block," Kayla said. "Bottom right."

"And who issues violations in this association."

"Whoever the board designates for the month," Kayla said. "It rotates. It's on the assignment sheet in the front of the binder."

Marcus turned a page in his spiral notebook and drew a line under something.

Pat took her hand off the binder cover and laid it over the binder, palm down, and the reading glasses swung against her shell blouse, and she said, in her meeting voice, "Marcus, this is a process question. If we're going to relitigate who initialed what, we're going to be here all night. The violation stands on the gate. The gate is the violation."

"The gate is the entry," Marcus said.

"Excuse me?"

"The violation is the gate," he said. "Nine twenty-nine B of the covenant. 'Failure to secure a common-area gate.' The gate is the violation. Not the person."