“Define ‘problem.’”

“Drug deals. Underage drinking. Accidents originating therefrom—you’ve experienced the grade. Imagine you’re a dumb kid and high or drunk besides. ODs and even a few deaths back in the day.” Gabe rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. “And then along comes Gabe McGuire, the rich and famous Outsider, who buys the house right next door and, worse, moves in. Word gets around, rubbernecker traffic increases, the neighbors are unhappy.”

“Made even more so when Erik Berglund sets up an archeological dig at the foot of the trail,” Len said, with a glance at Gabe. “Because Erik is bent on establishing a traditional Alaska Native trail leading from the beach up the hill and all the way over the bluff, that he is going to prove has been used ever since there have been Alaska Natives living in the Bay. Which would be, give or take, ten thousand years. You’ll have noticed the rocky spur that runs out of the cliff and down the beach. Makes kind of a natural harbor.”

“He gave me the tour,” Liam said.

“In the meantime,” Gabe said, looking a little clenched around the jaw, “the rich and famous Outsider has approached the Borough to vacate the trail right of way in exchange for putting in another, more accessible trail, at his own expense, on the right of way between this subdivision and the next one south of here, Mountain View. Another exemplar of originality in binomial nomenclature.”

This time Len rolled his eyes. “Forgive the kid. Every now and then he reads a book and wants to make sure everybody knows it.”

Liam’s eyes raised involuntarily to the bookshelf that covered the entirety of one wall, floor to ceiling. There were no empty spaces, and all the covers were worn. “So you were trying to vacate the right of way to the beach.”

“This one, yeah.” Gabe shifted uncomfortably. “There have been some incidents.”

“What the kid means and is too embarrassed to say is that fans today have no boundaries, women fans in particular.”

“What about the gate? Don’t you close it?”

“They climb over it. One of them took the trail down to the beach, walked down it a ways, climbed back up to the edge of the cliff—” Len nodded at the yard which ended at the cliff’s edge “—and came over the top, herself in the altogether. If she’d managed to pack a platter with her I reckon she would have served herself up on it.”

“You mean she was naked?”

“Yep. I’ll never understand why she didn’t leave her clothes on for the climb and just strip after she got to the top. She sure was scratched up in some interesting places. I have no objection to naked women, mind you, but that was not a sight you want to see over your first cup of coffee in the morning.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.”

Liam digested this in silence for a moment. “So your plan was to vacate the right of way—”