I'll press. Then let's build it the right way. Sheriff Buford Thrasher was a harder phone call. Buford and I had known each other since the Roswell precinct in the '90s. He's 6'5, 62, drives a 1994 GMC Sierra to work because he doesn't trust new trucks.
I told him what I needed. He told me he'd have a search warrant for the Lockwood residence and Whit's commercial real estate office prepared by Thursday afternoon. He told me he'd have three deputies on standby for execution. He told me he'd buy me a steak at the Texas Roadhouse on Atlanta Highway when this was done. I drove home that Wednesday night and walked to the garage.
Tate had just finished waxing the Mustang's hood. The brass dash plaque caught the overhead halogen. I touched the rivets Marguerite had set with her own thumbnail in 2017. The next morning, I issued a press release through the Cedarvale Police Department's public-information officer. The release announced the second annual Forsyth County restored classic showcase at the Cumming Fairgrounds, sponsored by Cedarvale PD's youth outreach division.
The showcase was scheduled 6 weeks out. The release included a photograph of three restored cars participating in the event, one of which was my 1968 Mustang fastback, photographed in my garage with the Briarwood Glen Estates monument visible in the soft background of the shot. I knew Hadley read the Forsyth County news. I knew Hadley subscribed to Cedarvale PD email updates because all Briarwood Glen residents did. I knew she would see that photograph by Thursday morning.
And I knew exactly what a woman like Hadley Lockwood would do when she saw the car she'd been trying to take from me publicly showcased by the same police department whose dispatch line she'd been hoping to weaponize. She would move faster. She would file the false report sooner. She would make her mistake on a timeline I could control. The takeaway is simple.
The fastest way to catch a person who only acts in private is to give them a public reason to act in public. I told Tate the plan over chicken thighs and rice on Thursday night. He listened the whole way through. He asked one question. Dad, where do you want me Saturday?
Upstairs window, phone camera. Don't come down unless I call your name twice. He nodded. He cleared the plates. He went up to his room.
I heard him close his door and call his best friend on speaker. He used the same low, calm voice his mother used to use to settle a litter of rescue kittens. I sat on the back porch in the cool October air and looked at the moon over the longleaf pines. Hadley Lockwood would call dispatch on Saturday at 1:47 in the afternoon. I would be ready by 1:30.
The press release ran in the Forsyth County News on Thursday morning. By Thursday evening, Hadley Lockwood had made four mistakes. The first arrived in my mailbox in a beige envelope. A formal HOA lien. $12,400 in cumulative fines, late fees, community remediation surcharges, and vehicle compliance penalties. The lien was filed with the Forsyth County Clerk of Court.
Whit Lockwood's signature was on the cover page as treasurer. I forwarded the lien to Cassandra at the DA's office. She forwarded it to the clerk. The clerk called Hadley's HOA office Friday morning to inform her that the lien was procedurally invalid under the Georgia Property Owners Association Act because the HOA had failed to provide statutory 30-day pre-lien notice. The lien was withdrawn within an hour.