Chapter 7 : Ramona was on the second floor at 8:05 Thursday with the strip's legal description written on an index card, and she handed the card to the woman at the desk, and the woman typed it into the terminal, and looked at the screen, and looked

"Nothing," the woman said.

"Nothing at all in the index?"

"There's a plat reference. There's the 1996 subdivision plat. There's no deed. There's no transfer. There's no lien. If somebody owned that strip, Ms. Vega, they'd be on the index and they aren't. As of this morning, that strip is either unclaimed or held by whoever the current fee holder is on the plat, and the plat shows it as common area off unit 14's east line."

"Can I get a certified copy of that?"

"Of course."

She got a certified copy of the plat page with the strip highlighted by the desk woman's yellow highlighter. She paid $4.50. She walked out at 8:42.

At 10:15, she was back in Carthage Savings with a copy of the certified plat and a copy of the deed and the recorder's receipt stub from 2016, and she asked to speak with the branch manager about a safe-deposit box.

The branch manager was a woman in her late forties named Yolanda Reese who had worked at Carthage Savings for nineteen years, and who blinked when Ramona said she was there about box 441.

"Box 441 is leased to Alder Creek Homeowners Association," Yolanda said.

"The HOA's president is a co-lessee," Ramona said. "I'm asking as a member of the HOA and as the owner of the parcel the HOA has been fining me to use. I want to know when the box was last accessed."

Yolanda looked at Ramona.

"Box access logs are confidential to the box holders," she said.

"Are they confidential to the HOA board?"

"The HOA board is a box holder. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"This is getting into a gray area," Yolanda said. "If you have a certified copy of HOA board minutes authorizing you to inspect the log, I can let you see the log."

Ramona set on the desk the copy of the board minutes from Tuesday's meeting, which Sonya had typed up Tuesday night and emailed to all members and also printed and signed, and which read, in the second paragraph: *The Board hereby authorizes any member in good standing to inspect HOA records, including bank records, on reasonable written request. Ramona Vega of unit 14 is a member in good standing as of April 15.*

Yolanda read the minutes. She picked up a phone and made a call. She put the phone down.

"I can let you see the access log," she said. "For box 441. For the last 24 months. I can't let you see what's in the box."

"I don't want to see what's in the box," Ramona said.

Yolanda printed the log. It was one page.