He saved a still image and added it to the investigation folder.
Then he heard footsteps on the stairs.
Sophie appeared in the kitchen doorway, carrying her schoolbag.
"You're watching that video again?"
Daniel closed the laptop.
"Just checking something."
"Did somebody come back last night?"
He looked at her.
"How did you know?"
"I heard you talking on the phone."
Daniel had hoped she had slept through the incident. Apparently, she had awakened when he called the police.
"Someone came into the driveway area," he said carefully. "The police know about it, and we're taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Was it the same man?"
"I couldn't see his face."
Sophie lowered her bag onto a chair.
"Do you think he was looking for something?"
Daniel considered the question.
"That's what it looked like."
"What could be under our house?"
"Possibly an old utility pipe. The neighborhood has been here a long time, and some of the original records are incomplete."
She frowned.
"Then why doesn't he just ask you?"
It was a reasonable question, and Daniel had no satisfying answer.
"That's what I'd like to know."
He prepared breakfast while Sophie finished getting ready. He tried to keep their conversation ordinary, asking about her science project and reminding her to bring her lunch container home.
When she left for school, he watched her walk to the bus stop before returning to the kitchen.
At 9:02 a.m., Laura Bennett arrived.
She carried a leather briefcase and a large envelope containing copies of the documents they had collected. Her expression was serious, but she seemed more focused than alarmed.
"Before we go to the meeting," she said, "I want to make one thing clear. We have evidence of suspicious conduct, but we still don't know who visited your property last night. We should not accuse anyone without proof."
"I agree."
"And we need to distinguish the property dispute from the underground infrastructure issue. They may be connected, but the connection has not yet been established conclusively."
Daniel handed her a copy of the security footage.
"Understood."
Laura reviewed the still image.
"The reflective band is interesting, but it isn't enough to identify the person. I'll send the footage to the officer handling your complaint."
She placed the image in the envelope.
"Now, let's see what Helen Whitaker has to say."
The café Helen had chosen stood two blocks from the old courthouse, in a narrow building with green awnings and tall windows. It was a quiet place, popular with government employees who wanted breakfast before their shifts and lawyers who needed somewhere to meet clients without the formality of an office.
Daniel and Laura arrived ten minutes early.
At 9:57, a woman entered carrying a dark canvas bag.
She appeared to be in her late fifties, with short gray hair and a composed expression. Her coat was buttoned to the neck despite the mild weather, and she held the bag close to her side as she scanned the room.
When she saw Daniel, she approached their table.
"Mr. Mercer?"
"Yes. And this is Laura Bennett, my attorney."
Helen shook Laura's hand.
"Thank you for coming."
They ordered coffee, but Helen barely touched hers.
Instead, she placed the canvas bag on the table and removed a large envelope secured with an elastic band.
"This belonged to my father," she said. "I found it after he died, inside a locked cabinet in his home office."
Daniel looked at the envelope.
The front bore a handwritten label.
Eastern Service District — Supplemental Inspection Memorandum.
Below it was the date: October 17, twenty-three years earlier.
Laura did not immediately open it.
"May I ask how you established that this is your father's document?"
Helen nodded.
"I recognized his handwriting on the envelope. The signature on the memorandum is also his. I have other engineering reports he signed during the same period, and the handwriting appears consistent."
"Did you make any copies?"
"One. I scanned the pages before bringing the original."
"Have you altered the document in any way?"
"No."
Laura opened the envelope carefully.
Inside were twelve pages of typed text, several handwritten annotations, two engineering diagrams, and a sheet containing a list of measurements.
The first page identified Samuel Whitaker as the lead engineer responsible for a supplemental review of the abandoned pumping station.
The opening paragraph was straightforward.
The inspection team had discovered discrepancies between the official drainage maps and the physical layout of the underground system. Several connections appeared to have been installed during an earlier industrial project, but the records describing their purpose were incomplete.
Daniel read the paragraph twice.