More like notes written for someone who already knew the context. The second site is worse than the first. I've got soil samples from three locations along the north perimeter and all three are showing the same profile heavy metals. Prochemical residue, the kind of contamination that takes decades and doesn't get there by accident. Someone has been using this land as a disposal site.
The access road off Miller Creek Road shows recent tire tracks. Multiple vehicles, heavy load capacity. I went back on a Thursday night and counted three separate truck arrivals between 11:00 p. M. And 2:00 a.
M. I haven't filed the report yet. I need one more round of samples, and I need to know who owns the property before I go to the EPA. The deed records are a mess. Three LLC's stacked on each other.
Classic shell structure. If something happens before I can file, you'll know what to do with this. I set the letter down. Clare was watching my face. He was investigating illegal dumping.
I said industrial waste disposal on private land somewhere near here. That's what it sounds like. And he wrote this to Daniel apparently, which means Daniel knew. Before Evan died, Daniel knew what Evan was looking at. She nodded slowly.
And Daniel kept it secret for 3 years, right up until the last 8 months of his life. When something changed, something changed, she repeated. Or someone found out. The kitchen was very quiet. Claire, the phone calls, the locked workshop, the checking the backyard at night.
I leaned forward. I think Daniel found something or someone came to him. And whatever happened in those last 8 months, he spent them trying to decide what to do about it. And then he died. And then he died.
She pressed both palms flat on the table. My husband was not a weak man. He was not a careless man. He was 39 years old and he was healthy and he ran into burning buildings for a living. Her voice was perfectly steady, perfectly controlled.
And now I'm sitting in my kitchen looking at my dead brother's letters and a key to a storage unit I didn't know existed. And there are fresh screws on my garage vent. And someone was outside my window at 2:00 in the morning. She looked at me directly. So I need you to tell me honestly what do you think is happening here?
I looked at her for a long moment. I think your brother found something he wasn't supposed to find. I think he told Daniel about it. And I think someone didn't want it to come out. She didn't flinch.