Page 26 of Family Ties and Alibis

“What happened?”

“We heard a loud snap, like the building was going to come down.”

“I told you…”

Elvira cut her off. “I know. I know. So, after the second snapping sound, Dernice, Rambo, and I got the heck out of the building. We ran into the alley to see if the crack had spread. At first, I thought it was a false alarm because I didn’t see anything. You know how these old Savannah properties make settling noises.”

“True. What you’re trying to tell me is your building was settling and not making your crack worse.”

“Not quite.” Elvira hesitated. “The initial crack kind of traveled.”

Carlita’s scalp tingled. She recognized the tone in her former tenant, now neighbor’s voice. “Traveled where?”

“To the pawnshop.”

She grabbed the wall to steady herself. Pete, noticing the color had drained from his wife’s face, reached for her hand. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll let you know in a minute, after Elvira finishes telling me what she’s done.”

“Is Pete there?” Elvira asked. “He probably should be because this next part of the story gets a little alarming.”

“It was alarming from the moment you texted me about a small situation.” Countless random thoughts ran through Carlita’s head, namely her building being condemned and deemed structurally unsafe due to her neighbor’s reckless actions. “What happened to the pawn shop?”

“You have a hairline crack in the foundation, from the corner of the basement window to the ground.” Elvira hurried on. “I was gonna tell the employees about it, but by the time we realized what had happened, they were gone and closed for the night.”

“Did you let Tony know?”

“Yeah. I called him first thing this morning. I begged him not to say anything to you until I had a chance to explain.” Elvira told her she’d already had a structural engineer come by and look at both her crack and the second one in Carlita’s pawn shop window. “He said the structures are still safe, but we should get the cracks fixed ASAP. He referred me to a company with almost a hundred five-star reviews. There is a smidgen of good news.”

Carlita tapped the speaker button. “I have you on speaker. Pete gets the gist of what has occurred. Please do share the good news.”

“The company’s quote is reasonable. It’ll cost you less than a thousand bucks to repair the damage.”

“Me repair the damage?” Carlita yelled. “YOU are the one who caused it.”

“It was an accident. I can’t help it if it traveled across the alley.”

“You most certainly could have prevented it.” Having completely lost her cool, Carlita lectured Elvira, telling her she was the most irresponsible, reckless, and destructive person she’d ever met.

She stopped to catch her breath, slowly counting to ten, only to realize there was complete silence on the other end of the line. “Elvira?”

“I’m here.”

“I think we need to end this conversation and discuss it again when I’ve calmed down. Please send me the name of the company, the report from the structural engineer, and photos.”

“I snapped a few pictures. I’ll send them to you. For the record, Tony seemed less stressed about the entire situation.”

“He’s probably still in shock that you almost took our building down. Did the engineer check the whole building, all four corners?”

“Yes. All sides of yours and mine,” Elvira confirmed. “There is one more tiny thing I need to mention before I send the photos.”

Pete tapped his foot on the floor, slowly shaking his head. “That woman.”

“What is it?” Carlita asked.

“Your basement window broke when the structure shifted.” Elvira made a clicking sound with her teeth. “Dernice and I covered it with plywood and secured it.”

“Send the photos.”