The question was no longer whether the underground infrastructure mattered.
The question was what it contained.
At 1:26 p.m., Thomas Reed sent Daniel a message.
I found the boxes. There are hundreds of pages. Some documents have a red classification stamp, although I don't know what it means. Can you come over this evening?
Daniel replied immediately.
Yes. Don't discard or alter anything. Keep the boxes where they are, and I'll bring Laura into the discussion if we find something relevant.
Thomas answered with a thumbs-up.
Daniel put the phone down.
Then the doorbell rang again.
This time, the security camera showed a woman in a dark coat standing at the gate.
She was holding a small envelope.
Daniel recognized her from the previous night's footage.
The woman who had stood near the fence with a flashlight.
He opened the front door but remained behind the screen.
"Can I help you?"
The woman looked past him toward the living room.
"I'm sorry to bother you," she said. "My name is Helen Ward. I used to work for the city engineering department."
Daniel studied her face.
"Why are you here?"
"Because I heard that someone has started asking questions about the old pumping station."
"Who told you that?"
She glanced toward the street.
"I can't tell you that yet."
Daniel kept his voice even.
"Then I don't know why I should let you inside."
Helen nodded as though she had expected the response.
"You shouldn't. Not until you know who I am."
She held out the envelope.
"There's a document inside that may help you understand why Westbridge is interested in your property."
Daniel did not take it immediately.
"What's in it?"
"A copy of a report that was never included in the public closure records."
"Why are you giving it to me?"
"Because I was part of the team that discovered the problem, and I made a mistake twenty-three years ago."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"I thought the people responsible would correct it. I believed the system had been properly sealed, and I accepted the official explanation when the project was closed."
She looked toward the ground.
"Now I think I was wrong."
Daniel slowly opened the screen door.
"Come inside."
Helen entered the hallway and sat at the kitchen table.
She placed the envelope between them but kept one hand resting on it.
"Before you read this," she said, "you need to understand something. The report doesn't prove that Westbridge has done anything illegal. It doesn't prove that your property is dangerous. It documents a problem that was identified and never conclusively resolved."
Daniel nodded.
"All right."
Helen released the envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of a municipal engineering report dated twenty-three years earlier.
The first page described an inspection of the abandoned pumping station. The second contained a map of the underground network.
The third page included a warning.
UNVERIFIED INDUSTRIAL CONNECTION โ POTENTIAL CONTAMINATION PATHWAY. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REQUIRED BEFORE FINAL SITE CLOSURE.
Daniel read the sentence twice.
Helen watched him carefully.
"The connection was supposed to be inspected before the station was closed," she explained. "But the contractor's final report did not include the required sampling results. The city was under pressure to transfer the site, and several officials believed the remaining uncertainty was minor."
"Was it?"
"We didn't know."
"What was connected to the line?"
Helen took a breath.
"A small industrial facility that operated east of the neighborhood. It handled chemical cleaning and metal-treatment processes. The facility closed before the pumping station was decommissioned."
Daniel looked down at the map.
The line appeared to run beneath the seven properties marked on Westbridge's acquisition plan.
"Are you saying there could be contamination beneath my house?"
"I'm saying the historical records show a possible pathway. We need proper testing to determine whether any contamination exists and whether it has moved beyond the original industrial site."
"Why wasn't the report made public?"
Helen lowered her eyes.
"I can't answer that with certainty. The report was circulated internally, but the final closure summary omitted the unresolved connection. I believed the omission was an administrative mistake. Later, I learned that the issue had been discussed in meetings I was not invited to attend."
Daniel felt anger rising inside him.
"People bought these houses without knowing about this."
"Yes."
"Families have lived here for decades."
"Yes."
"And the company trying to buy the properties knows about the underground system."
Helen nodded.
"At least some people within the company know. Martin Vale was involved in the original project. If he's now advising Westbridge, he may have access to records that other people never saw."
Daniel thought of the diagram.