Immediate.
He started toward the stairs.
The investigator grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“She is damaging my roof.”
“She may be trying to make several hundred gallons of water and a steel tank come off your roof.”
“Exactly.”
“And you going outside beneath it would be unbelievably stupid.”
The homeowner stopped.
The investigator released him.
“Police are coming.”
The homeowner looked at the live feed.
The HOA President struck the support again.
A metal brace shifted.
Not much.
Enough.
The tank appeared to move.
The homeowner’s face changed.
“We need to get away from this side of the house.”
They moved toward the front.
Then a deep metallic groan rolled through the structure.
Both men froze.
The sound was unlike anything the homeowner had heard.
Steel under strain.
A dull bending noise.
Then something cracked.
The entire house seemed to react.
The investigator shouted:
“Move!”
They ran toward the foyer.
Behind them came a violent sequence of sounds.
A bang.
A grinding roar.
Then the unmistakable explosion of hundreds of gallons of water hitting hard surfaces.
Glass broke.
Wood splintered.
Metal crashed against concrete.
The rear of the house shook.
Then silence.
A second later, water began rushing somewhere outside.
The homeowner turned.
“No one was under it.”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
His dog had died the previous year.
No children lived with him.
Nobody else was in the home.
The investigator nodded.
“Stay here.”
This time, the homeowner ignored him.
He activated his phone camera.
Then walked toward the rear door.
“Don't.”
“I’m not going beneath anything.”
The investigator followed anyway.
They reached the kitchen.
Through the windows, daylight revealed the damage.
The tank had torn partly free from its support platform.
It had slid down the lower section of roof.
Then fallen over the patio edge.
It now lay on its side below, badly dented.
Water flooded the yard.
A section of patio furniture had been crushed.
One large chair had disappeared completely beneath the metal.
The guest-room exterior door had been struck by debris.
Had someone been standing outside it, the result could have been catastrophic.
The homeowner opened the kitchen door.
The investigator swore.
“You said you would stay inside.”
“I said that before she dropped a water tank into my yard.”
He stepped out carefully, remaining under the covered portion of the patio.
Phone recording.
Above him, movement.
The HOA President had reached the ladder.