✏️ The Littlest Spy

22. New Neighbours

Bernard and Estelle's first view of Evergreen Estates was from high above. It was nestled in the valley, a sprawling array of suburban homes separated by many trees, which made it hard to count the number of buildings or streets. They were in a taxi for now; Bernard's new car had been ordered from a local dealership, and would hopefully be standing outside number 42 Tennyson Avenue already. But as the vehicle drew to a stop, they were still a long way from their new home. There was an archway across the road; decorative iron gates suspended from faux classical pillars.

Isadora looked up; and her mind went straight away to how easy it would be to climb over the wisteria that decorated the wall on either side of the gate, or the trellis supporting it. Or the odds of a sturdy 4×4 crashing straight through the barrier. This wasn't a serious attempt to isolate the homeowners; it was a status symbol, and and ostentatious sign that they were too right to share their air with people just passing through. Even Isadora, whose knowledge of fieldwork came straight from the books, immediately saw at least four ways she could have gotten inside undetected, and three more ways to demolish the barrier with only items that a typical traveller might have to hand.

Brock went for the simpler solution today; standing and walking over to the little gatehouse. Isadora wondered for a second if she should get out too, but by the time she'd thought about it he was already talking to the guy, his body language a pantomime of how far they'd flown and how late it was. He showed the security guard a letter, and his passport. A minute of two later, he was getting back into the car and tossing a couple of items into Isadora's lap. As they started moving again, Isadora investigated her prize. Two bunches of keys, each with the same four keys on. Front door, back door, garage, and mailbox? She wasn't really sure what the smallest one was for, but she could guess from the house number stamped on two mass-produced keyfobs that these were the keys to their new home.

The other item had a suction cup on the back, and looked like some kind of solar-powered radio gadget. Her only guess was that they should mount it in their car, to automatically open the gates when they got close. Like the transponders that some toll roads still used to identify regular customers.

"We'll need to get another one if you want a car too," Brock said with a smile. "Let's see if one car is enough for a couple of weeks before we decide."

"I'll probably be okay," Isadora said with a shrug. "Thanks, honey." It felt kind of weird, but she knew she would have to get used to using some term of endearment for him sooner or later. She was his wife now; Mrs Klein. And she wasn't sure if an airport taxi driver who'd come all the way from Fairhaven would even care who they were. But he was local, and the first person they'd interacted with since landing. The flight attendants didn't seem to count, somehow, because those people hadn't even asked their names.

As they drove through the new neighbourhood, Isadora felt overwhelmed by the size of many of their houses. The notes they'd already seen included a number of houses, and area, but they didn't really do the place justice. And overlooking the valley hadn't really painted a better picture. The trees between each property were old, and large. Hedges stretched high enough to completely separate some houses from each other, while others just had picket fences an implausible distance from the house. Where they saw private pools, it was clear that the size of the properties hadn't imposed any restrictions on the design. Every block seemed to have only a dozen houses, around a spacious park with immaculate landscaping, and the houses weren't the cookie-cutter suburban homes she might have expected, but expansive properties where it was clear that the owners could afford whatever improvements and additions they wanted in the name of individuality.

The taxi pulled up outside 42 Tennyson Avenue, its tires crunching on the perfectly manicured gravel driveway. The Kleins' new car was already parked in front of a double garage door, but there was no shortage of space to turn around. They didn't have as much grass as their neighbours, but Isadora already knew that most of their land was at the back of the house. Initially she'd imagined a front yard with a little strip of grass between the driveway and the row of bushes separating them from the street; but that was probably because she had imagined the driveway being about the width of a car, rather than paying attention to the scale.