CHAPTER SEVEN: THE FAIRGROUND STUDIO
The next morning Daniel received a call from an investigator named Elise Varela.
She explained that he might need to identify damage to his home and describe any unauthorized visits he had noticed.
She told him the photography studio had been inspected under appropriate authority.
A veterinary team had removed additional birds and found shipping materials.
Some animals were healthy enough for immediate evaluation, while others needed specialized care.
The investigator did not give Daniel a total until the counts had been checked.
Daniel asked about Lewis.
“He’s being interviewed,” Elise said.
“We can’t share more until the necessary steps are complete.”
Daniel accepted that answer even though he wanted more.
He spent the morning documenting the kitchen for his insurer and asking a licensed contractor to inspect the wall.
The contractor, Wade Phelps, looked at the cavities and shook his head.
“Whoever built these cages did it around the studs,” Wade said.
“They didn’t remove the support wall, which is a relief, but the insulation and plaster will need to be replaced.”
He showed Daniel a narrow service opening behind the refrigerator.
It connected the wall cages to a flexible tube that ran toward Carol’s garage.
“That tube wasn’t here for fresh air alone,” Wade said.
“Somebody could slide small food containers through it.”
Daniel remembered hearing something clatter behind the refrigerator during late evenings.
He had thought a mouse was moving beneath the cabinets.
Instead, Carol had been feeding birds through a private passage from her garage.
The discovery made her regular complaints feel even more calculated.
In the afternoon Elise asked Daniel whether he would come to the county office to review photographs of the house before it was altered.
He agreed.
Marissa drove him because his truck was waiting for a replacement windshield after Lewis’s departing gravel had cracked it.
At the office, Elise showed him photographs of the inspection.
One image displayed a row of cardboard carriers with handwritten numbers.
Another showed a stack of brochures advertising sanctuary visits for children.
The brochures pictured colorful birds in spacious outdoor aviaries.
Daniel recognized some of the birds from the tiny cages in his wall.
“People donated money to send these birds to a sanctuary,” he said.
Elise nodded.
“We’re checking how the organization represented its work.”
“Did people actually visit the sanctuary?”
“There were visits at a different location,” Elise answered.
“We’re verifying what the public was shown.”
Daniel studied a photograph of a neat outdoor enclosure.
The image looked nothing like the cramped kitchen wall.
He asked whether Carol had been involved in the fundraising.
Elise said that question was under review too.
On the drive home, Marissa asked Daniel what he thought of Carol now.
He watched the houses pass.
“I think she made choices that hurt people and animals,” he said.
“I think Lewis used her fear to make those choices worse.”
“Both can be true,” Marissa replied.
Daniel looked at his scraped hands.
“I still want her to pay for my window.”
Marissa laughed once, without humor.
“That’s a sensible place to start.”
