Chapter 2 · 2 minute read
A mark on the rail
Ivo came for coffee on Friday before his maintenance crew started work. Vera asked about the brass plate.
‘That screw's been gone since June,’ he said. ‘Reported it twice.’ He raised two fingers, with a pastry wedged between them. ‘Why?’
She told him about the woman and the tin. He did not know her, but he had seen somebody attaching a phone to the handrail. The chalk was probably a position marker. Two parallel rubber marks were visible on the metal.
Vera looked at the photograph again. A departure board stood behind the men. The 23:14 went to the city. There was no date, but the cigarette machine beside the signal box had disappeared fifteen years ago. She had mistaken an old departure time for an appointment.
At half past ten she put the tin on the counter. The woman did not arrive until a quarter past eleven, breathless and without her coat. She wore a cardigan over a blouse with one cuff undone.
‘That's mine.’ She rested both hands on the lid. ‘I've lost my coat as well. Left it at my sister's. It's becoming a habit.’
‘It says Bas.’
‘My brother. I'm Ria.’
Vera indicated the photographs without taking them out. ‘I looked for a telephone number. That was all.’
‘Then you've seen the men. Bas on the left. My husband on the right.’ Ria tapped the microphone. ‘That belongs to the boy next door. He says I have to pay if I break it. Fair enough.’
‘Are you filming the bridge?’
‘Trying to.’
She said it so plainly that Vera felt ashamed of the dealer she had invented for her. Ria explained that Bas was recovering from a hip operation and could no longer climb the steps. He had worked nights at the station for years. An illness had left him deaf; they used video calls, with captions when her hands were busy.
‘Who's the microphone for, then?’ Vera asked.
‘Me. I worked here too.’ Ria drew the tin towards her. ‘But the film needs to show more than the things I want to hear again.’
Vera filled two glasses with water. Outside, Ivo struck a gate with his palm because it would not latch. The crack came sharply through the open window above the door.