I learned zoning. Housing code. Grant language. State reporting rules. Intake liability waivers. Food-service guidelines. Confidential address protections. I turned George’s careful hidden recordkeeping into formal operational policy. Helena learned alongside me, rolling her eyes at my binders while secretly beginning to depend on them. I learned from her how to ask questions that did not feel like interrogations. She learned from me how to document in ways no lawyer could flatten into doubt later.
In the middle of all that, Clare gave her statement.
Deputy Torres came out in plain clothes and sat at George’s kitchen table with a recorder between them and a box of tissues untouched off to the side. I stayed in the pantry doorway where Clare could see me without feeling watched. Helena sat at Clare’s left shoulder. The statement took three hours.