Chapter 5: The Missing Survey
Daniel couldn’t find the original survey.
The copy Margaret had saved was enough to raise questions.
But the original would be stronger.
He called the county office again.
The clerk confirmed that their official record matched Margaret’s copy.
That changed everything.
The association’s map was not the controlling document.
Daniel had been right about the property.
But he still wanted to understand how the newer map had appeared.
Thomas agreed to investigate.
Meanwhile, Linda stopped coming to Daniel’s house.
She also stopped speaking to him.
That silence was almost more unsettling than the confrontation.
Then Daniel received an envelope in the mail.
No return address.
Inside was a single photocopy.
It was a page from an old association meeting record.
A sentence had been underlined:
Approval pending final confirmation of Mercer parcel boundary.
Daniel read it again.
The date was fifteen years old.
At the bottom was a handwritten notation.
Survey unavailable.
Daniel called Thomas.
Thomas sounded shaken.
“The survey wasn’t unavailable,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“It was in the association’s files.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Then where is it now?”
Thomas didn’t know.
They searched the association storage room.
Nothing.
But another file revealed that Linda had requested access to the association records two days before she entered Daniel’s garage.
She had signed the request herself.
Daniel finally understood the sequence.
Linda hadn’t randomly wandered into his garage.
She had been searching multiple places for the same document.
And she believed Daniel had it.
The confrontation at dinner had been an attempt to pressure him.
The accusation against Emma had been a distraction.
Daniel looked at the empty folder where the original survey should have been.
Then he remembered Emma’s earlier words.
She was looking for something.
He called his granddaughter.
“Emma, did Linda say anything when you caught her in the garage?”
Emma thought for a moment.
“She asked me if you had moved the blue box.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“What did you tell her?”
“That I didn’t know.”
Daniel looked at the boxes.
The blue box.
He suddenly remembered where he had put it.
Not in the garage.
In the house.
He opened the box.
Inside was the original survey.
Margaret had hidden it beneath a stack of old family photographs.
Daniel stared at it.
She had known.
She had known exactly how important it was.
And Linda had never found it.
