When the identification pad lit up and the door unlocked, Ellie stopped for a few seds. “I take it red dehings that have beeed, yellow questionable and green means the city use what’s in it.”

  “How did you know that?” Noah scratched what little hair he had. “I didn’t have the ce to..” He paused when she poi the red box beled ‘Stri’. “Ah, it was more that you beat me to the punch.” Turning to leave, Noah looked at his watch. “I will be here a little te this evening, so let’s call it about 5:30?”

  Gng at the clo the eviden, Ellie hat she had about two hours. “Assuming that I make sense of the mess here, that should be suffit. Thank you, Noah.” Ellie watched the man wave and walk away.

  Opting to use the overhead lighting rather than just the dim red light, Ellie flicked the switd waited a few seds while the fluorest lights blihen bathed the room in their soft white light. A cursnce over the boxes didn’t give Ellie any indication of what was in them and she khat it was done on purpose to fuse the opposing side by burying important files in other things that mean virtually nothing.

  -Discovery is the polite way of telling someoo fuck themselves.-

  Ellie muttered to herself and picked a yellow box beled ‘Misc reports’ and pulled the top free. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ellie was happy to see that the folders within the box were clearly beled and even had full names rather than shorthand references. Thumbing through the files slow enough to make sure that she wasn’t overlooking anything important, Ellie reached the middle and stopped when she saw ‘Clorox’ written on a bel.

  -What the hell? That is bleach. I got it, this is . Wait, that is too easy, Tatum would have caught that easily.-

  Going with her hunch rather than the skeptical thoughts, Ellie plucked the file from the box and began sing the paperwork within. Minutes after she’d started her browsing, Ellie khat there was signal to her within the boxes. Desigo be as useless as possible to any other attorney, Ellie cluded that the yout was set much like searg the i without a specific topid getting lots of junk iurn.

  -An exercise in futility. Don’t give the opposition anything.-

  Deep withiters of request from the state asking for various maps and city pns, Ellie found a set of bd white photocopies of peared to be the sewage and water lihat surrounded Phantasmagoria. Slipping the odd paperwork from the metal clip that held the dots, Ellie spread the grainy images out and lihem up to what she’d seen from pictures that Deputy Director Powell showed her.

  -Wait a sed. The trucks…-

  Ellie quickly looked down in her leather satchel and double-checked herself to be certain.

  -I’ll be damned. The trucks are right at access points to the water line. Angelie, what the heck were you all doing?-

  Once she’d itted the images to memory, Ellie read further and found that the trucks were all standard tankers and held a little over six thousand gallons a piebsp; bined with the short interview with Tatum, Ellie rubbed her while mulling over mild fusion.

  -Water. Tatum said water. All they found was water. If I am right about twenty-four thousand gallons of water.-

  Catg herself staring mindlessly at the few bullet points that she’d scribbled into her personal notebook, Ellie hat hours had passed as she had tried to make sense of the various interviews and studies that revolved around the case. Leaning ba the chair and stretg her arms, Ellie sighed as she was no closer to the ahan she really started with. Looking down at her notes and seeing a few little pencil dots around where she’d been tapping, Ellie sighed again.

  -Salt water. Why salt water? Where did they get it? The beach is roughly two hours away and it would have been noticeable to just have four trucks from Petersburg just grabbing up sea water.-

  Sensing that her time was about up, Ellie began pg everything bader the big clip when she spotted something she’d not sidered before. Before her the pns for Phantasmagoria were staring her ba the face.

  -How the hell did I miss this?-

  Without quite knowing why, Ellie quickly snapped a few pictures of the blueprints before she ahe myriad of paper back the way it was when she found it. Gathering all of her gear, Ellie left the secure room and made her way back to the front desk. “Noah, Thanks for letting me have time back there. If I wao e baorrow, how much time would I have?”

  Looking up from his desk and over-top of his gsses, the bald man ughed. “No time at all, as I uand it.” He paused and put down his pen where he’d been writing. “The truck is scheduled to be here at about 6am, so I have to be here early to open.” He stood up and looked down the hallway, “You made sure the door was locked? Since I have to be here so early, I would really like to get the hell out of here a something to eat.” Taking a small oah stared hopeful at Ellie. “Care to join me? I will pay of course.”

  Overe by a sudden sneeze before she could respond, Ellie frantically dug in her bag to find a tissue when she felt a handkerchief make its way into her hand. “Th-Thank you.” She stuttered and blushed a heavy red. Taking a mio collect herself, Ellie smiled. “Oh boy, I didn’t expect that, I apologize.” Watg as Noah tucked the hanky ba his pocket, Ellie finally answered him. “Dinner sounds lovely. I haven’t had anything but ses and tea all day, so I could use something substantial.” She ughed and winked, “I am not a daier, be prepared to pay for real food my friend.”

  Chug to himself, Noah nodded with an obvious pleased look on his distinguished face. “I will keep that in mind.” Pulling a sheet of printer paper from a small tray, He scrawled out a small map and an address and expined what was on the page. “We are here, the polid municipal plex. If you are familiar with the Martin Luther King Bridge that ects Petersburg to ial Heights then this will be simple.”

  “I am. I got turned around on the way here and ended up by some old train station.” Elle replied.

  Cirg the building Ellie had just referred to, Noah tapped the pen on the paper. “Eveer. That is a restaurant. It's called ‘The Station’ of all things.” He slid the paper over to Ellie. “Not a very inal name, I agree. However, it does have very good food.” He looked around and half frowned, “I have a few more things to close up here, I will meet you there in say twenty minutes?”

  “It might take me that long to get there, so that’s fine.” Ellie looked over the handwritten map and itted the street o memory. “Thank you, it will be good to have a little pany other than my thoughts.”

  Relieved that her day had e to an end, Ellie drove herself to the restaurant with the map without any fanfare. Noting that she had roughly another five or ten minutes before meeting Noah, Ellie took a couple seds to type out a text to her boss indig that she was trying to follow leads ing the trucks and water used.

  -That should do it, o mention Tatum.-