She spent the next six weeks looking at the pond differently. She compared aerial photographs from different years and laid old farm maps across the kitchen table until their corners curled beside the sugar bowl. She noticed that the pond's northern edge held water through drought while the southern shallows sometimes retreated, and that the grass above the ridge-side bank stayed greener late into summer. She collected water in labeled bottles from three locations and kept a notebook of odors, temperatures, and rainfall. The notes did not give her an answer, but they gave her enough questions to stop pretending that nothing unusual was happening.
When she first called Warren Stokes, he asked whether the pond was threatening the barn foundation. She said no, and he asked why she wanted to drain it. "Because my husband left me a warning he couldn't explain," she answered, "and because the cattle know something about that water that I don't." Warren was silent for a moment before telling her he would come and look. He did, walked the bank twice, and said an inspection could be done only with proper precautions because disturbing the spring, if there was one, could create erosion or affect a regulated wetland.
The paperwork took longer than she expected. The county needed a site plan, a controlled discharge route, erosion controls, and a determination of how the exposed bottom would be protected if the project uncovered anything unusual. Adele had to call Warren's office twice to make certain she understood which work could begin under the initial authorization and which activities would require a separate review. She did not resent the questions. She had spent her life paying the cost of shortcuts taken by people who assumed a small farm had no need for careful records.
By the time October arrived, she had saved enough to cover the controlled drawdown and the first stage of inspection, though doing so left almost nothing in her maintenance account. She was still making payments on the north pasture loan, and the bank had reminded her that the next installment was due before winter. Tobias offered to send money. Adele said she appreciated the offer but wanted to understand the cost of the excavation first. He asked if she was certain she was not simply missing his father and looking for something he had left behind, and she had no answer that would satisfy either of them.