The locks were changed, the place cleaned out. Today, a renter from Brooklyn lives in the home. She found needles tucked behind the boiler, but otherwise, it has been quiet. Things around the neighborhood, though, seem different: Younger residents say they believe the police are now monitoring them for no reason.

“They said, ‘What are you doing over here?’ ” said Kate Barclay, 21, who was recently pulled over because the police said she did not use her signal. “They searched my entire car,” she added, including the occupants: one by one, a stop-and-frisk search that was, until this year, unheard-of in the neighborhood.

Eric, Joey, Steve, Andrew — all seem to have eluded arrest in this case, and have moved on.

Mr. Patterson pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a controlled substance and was released from jail on Nov. 20. He declined to be interviewed, as did his son. Mr. Patterson is suing the Police Department over what he says was a rough arrest at Wood Court.

Ms. Sperring was indicted on charges of selling heroin, and pleaded guilty in August. She will be sentenced in December, but after her time served, she anticipates being released in late February.

Life in jail has frayed her nerves. But without the heroin, she said she feels healthy again, staying busy with drug treatment programs, classes, a job in the jail and church services.

What seems to frighten her most is the prospect of getting out. She has no idea where she will stay. She hopes her ex-husband helps her so she can rent a room somewhere. Asked if she would contact Mr. Patterson, she paused for several beats.

“I don’t know,” she said. Then she added, “I’m not going to reach out to him, no.”

Her heroin use began and ended in less than four months. She does not want to return to that life.

“This is my last shot,” she said. “I can’t go out and do this again. I’ll be dead. I don’t want them to find me in a hotel with a needle in my arm.”