Chapter 3 - Declared Dead, Declared Crazy
"They can't put me under guardianship if I'm dead," I said.
June gave me a hard look. "Maybe dead is exactly how they want you."
We spread the photograph across her tablet screen. The petition claimed I wandered, hallucinated, threatened relatives, and could no longer understand basic financial decisions. Attached were medical evaluations from two doctors I'd never met.
A judge was supposed to review it at nine the next morning.
"They were building a cage," I said. "Then they decided a coffin was quicker."
June called her nephew Eli, who worked nights repairing boats. He arrived with sweatpants, a dry jacket, and a battered pickup that smelled of motor oil. He didn't ask why I needed to hide under a blanket in the back seat.
On the drive to Ashford, I watched Daniel's number flash across June's phone. She put it on speaker.
"June?" he said. He sounded hollow. "Have you heard anything about Mom?"
"Only that the lake's dangerous," she answered.
A terrible silence followed. "Stacey says we should let the search teams do their job."
"Then maybe you should listen to her," June said, and hung up before I could scream at him.
The storage facility sat behind a shuttered grocery store. Robert's key fit unit 214. Inside were a folding chair, a yellow toolbox, and three plastic tubs. No cash. No secret gun. Just the methodical clutter of a man who'd been a civil engineer all his life.
The first tub held maps of Miller Valley. The second held water-quality tests marked HIGH BENZENE and an old county contract. The third held a small digital recorder.
I pressed play.
Robert's voice filled the dark room. "If Evelyn hears this, I failed to explain in time. The spill isn't a spill. Someone's been dumping upstream for years. I traced the permits to a company called Vale Development. I also found something about our son."
A click. Another voice, angry and close: "Dad, you don't understand what they'll do if you keep digging."
Daniel.
Then Robert said, "Tell me what you signed."
The recorder cut out.
A metal shutter clanged outside. Eli reached for the light switch, but June caught his wrist.
May you like
Through the gap beneath the unit door, a flashlight swept across the concrete.
"Unit two-fourteen," a man said. "Sheriff wants everything in it."
