But I no longer had reason to believe every document in the shed had been taken.
A rainstorm struck Alder Hollow early Tuesday and pushed brown water along the roadside gutters.
The forecast had warned of heavy runoff, but nobody expected the creek to rise as quickly as it did.
At eleven in the morning Savannah called to say water was pooling behind her grandmother’s cottage.
I told her to contact county emergency services and not approach the drainage structure.
Hannah and I drove to the public road above the creek, where we could see the low ground without entering private property.
An emergency crew was already there, setting barriers along the flooded lane.
Peter stood beside a county vehicle talking with an engineer.
He pointed toward a thicket where the old service channel disappeared below the road.
I stayed behind the barriers and watched the water carry branches downstream.
Near the proposed access route, a section of the bank had eroded enough to reveal the corner of a concrete slab.
It looked like the structure Evelyn had described.
Nobody tried to open it.
The engineer photographed the exposed edge and requested a specialist assessment.
From the hillside we could also see bright markers placed by an unknown survey crew in the days before the storm.
Several stood close to the washed-out ground.
A worker in a county vest collected their locations without disturbing them.
The discovery was not proof of contamination.
It did show that a buried structure existed where the preliminary map had shown only ordinary soil.
Peter looked more tired than triumphant.
“I wish they’d listened before a storm had to uncover it,” he said.
I told him the important thing was that the site could now be examined safely by the right people.
He nodded.
A black pickup stopped beyond the barrier.
Meredith stepped out, holding an umbrella that bent in the wind.
She walked toward the engineer and demanded to know why a private development project was being delayed.
The engineer told her the road was closed for public safety and that questions about permits belonged with the county office.
She looked across the water and saw me.
Her face tightened.
“You brought them here,” she shouted.
“The storm brought us here,” I replied.
She started toward the barrier, but a worker asked her to remain behind it.
Grant arrived a few minutes later and persuaded her to return to the truck.
