The phone calls, the locked workshop, the sudden acceleration. They found out what he had, she said. I think so. Not everything. They didn't find the storage unit.
They didn't find the box in the yard, but they knew enough to know he was a problem. And then he died. And then he died. She pressed her lips together, looked at the ground, then up at me. Torres needs to know this.
I'll tell her when I come in for the statement. Tell her tonight. Call her tonight. I looked at the card in my hand. Then back at Clare.
Yeah, I said. You're right. I called Torres from my truck. Sitting in Clare's driveway before I pulled away. She picked up on the second ring.
I told her the theory, not as a theory, I laid out the logical sequence. The timeline, the acceleration of Daniel's behavior in those last 8 months, correlating with the reasonzoning application and the likely discovery that someone inside the operation had been keeping insurance records in his garage. The combination of Evans external documentos and the internal financial records. What that combination would mean to the people running the disposal operation. Torres listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she was quiet for several seconds. Then she said, "Mister Mercer, I'm going to need you to come in for that statement first thing tomorrow morning, not in a few days, tomorrow, 7:30. And bring the photographs. I'll be there." I pulled out of the driveway. The hazmat van was still there.
Two agents were still at the garage. The October dark had completely closed in and the yellow light from the porch of Clare's house was the only warm thing visible on the street. I was three blocks away when my phone rang again. Different number unknown. I almost didn't answer.
Something made me. The voice was male measured. Not threatening, just completely precisely controlled in a way that is its own kind of threat. Mr. Mercer, I understand you've been helping a neighbor with a property issue.
I kept driving, kept my voice even. Who is this? That's not important right now. What's important is that you understand something before tomorrow morning. My hands were steady on the wheel.
Everything else in me went cold and sharp. What's that? Daniel Bennett was a man who got involved in something that wasn't his business, and he ended up with a very unfortunate heart condition. The street was dark. I checked my mirrors.