Chapter 5 - The ListingThat evening, I posted a short message in our neighborhood watch group — not footage of them in the hot tub, since that felt unnecessarily humiliating, but footage of them entering our yard through the gate, with a simple explanation that we'd discovered people repeatedly accessing our property without permission.

The responses surprised me. Three different neighbors messaged me about Byron. One man said Byron had borrowed his pressure washer and returned it damaged while denying responsibility. Another neighbor said she'd repeatedly found signs Byron had been using her driveway when she wasn't home.

Then I got a private message from a woman named Odalys, who lived three streets away. What I know may be bigger than the hot tub. Can we meet privately?

We met for coffee the following Saturday. Odalys explained she helped manage a short-term rental property for her sister. Months earlier, while learning the booking platform, she'd searched nearby addresses out of curiosity and found Byron's house listed. Nothing unusual about renting out a property — except the list of amenities included private hot tub access.

Byron didn't own a hot tub.

Then she showed me the listing photograph. I recognized it immediately. Our backyard. Our hot tub. Our deck. Our hedge. Even part of our garage roof was visible.

Byron hadn't merely been using our hot tub with his family. He'd been advertising it to paying guests.

"How long has this listing been active?" I asked.

"About fourteen months."

Almost exactly as long as Priya said the noise had been happening.

Odalys showed me reviews. Several guests specifically praised the hot tub. One called the backyard the highlight of their stay. Another review had gone up eight months earlier.

"He's been sending strangers into our yard," I said.

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"It certainly looks that way."

The situation had just gotten much bigger. Byron had been earning rental income partly by advertising an amenity he didn't own. We paid for the water, the chemicals, the electricity, the maintenance, the servicing — and he'd been using our property to inflate the value of his own rental. He'd effectively built part of his business around our backyard.