Thomas did not shout.
That seemed to make Linda more uncomfortable than shouting would have.
He stood on the porch with the phone in his hand while the video continued playing.
Linda watched herself cross the lawn.
She watched herself point at the window.
She watched herself bend down.
Then the brick appeared in her hand.
The recording caught her entire motion.
There was no missing second.
No convenient angle.
No uncertainty about what had happened.
The image was as plain as a photograph.
Linda folded her arms.
“I was trying to get your attention.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You threw a brick through my window.”
“I didn’t know it would break.”
He glanced at the shattered glass visible through the opening.
“It was a brick.”
Linda’s jaw tightened.
She looked again at the camera.
Thomas lowered his phone.
“You said I was watching you. What exactly do you think I’ve been doing?”
Linda hesitated.
That question was harder than the accusation.
She had spent weeks noticing the camera whenever she walked through her backyard. She had convinced herself that the angle was intentional. She had noticed Thomas occasionally looking toward his driveway and had interpreted it as another piece of evidence.
But she had never actually seen him watching her.
She had only believed he was.
“That camera sees too much,” she said.
“Then you could have talked to me.”
“I tried.”
Thomas remembered one brief conversation three days earlier. Linda had complained that the camera was pointed toward the wrong direction. He had told her it was a standard doorbell camera and offered to show her its field of view.
She had walked away before he could finish.
Now he remembered something else.
“You never asked me to move it,” he said. “You told me to take it down.”
Linda’s face reddened.
“Because you were using it to monitor me.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No. I was using it to monitor my front door.”
The distinction suddenly felt enormous.
He opened the recording settings and showed her the camera’s view. Most of the frame contained his porch, driveway, and front walk. Only a narrow portion showed the neighboring property.
Linda stared at the screen.