Misplaced Blame

Fleur had asked Ruben to collect the delivery schedule. Hester only learnt this when he came into the foyer at a quarter past three and said he was passing anyway. She took the two sheets from the desk and saw Daan appear behind him, a small microphone stand under his arm. She had asked him not to bring it for now. Apparently for now had not counted as an agreement.

'Well, it's here now,' Daan said. 'It's only in the way at school.'

'Put it with the other equipment. Not upstairs.'

'I wasn't going to.'

He went down the side corridor. Ruben examined the list and pointed out an error in the address for the panel supplier. Hester corrected it by hand. He asked if she wanted to photograph the correction for her records.

'I'll send the new version shortly.'

'Good. Otherwise someone ends up with the old sheet again.'

She barely remembered such easy cooperation from their past. They had been good at staying up late and making plans they both called too big, to avoid beginning them. Now they could fix a delivery error. A strange, modest improvement.

Daan returned and stayed by the door, looking at the papers in Ruben's hand.

'Tessa's contact sheet,' he began.

Ruben laid the schedule on the desk. 'What about it?'

'I heard you've been looking at it.'

'We? I haven't seen a contact sheet.'

Daan looked at Hester. She said she had examined material with Tessa, and Tessa decided how it was used. There was a picture of the yard and path. Ruben asked whether he was in it. Hester said yes, adding that it established no exact time.

'Nobody's asking that,' Ruben said.

She said nothing. He turned to Daan.

'Why don't you just say you saw me? You don't need a photograph.'

'I haven't said I didn't see you.'

'No. You're very carefully saying nothing.'

For a few seconds Daan seemed to want to return to the storeroom, but stayed. He set his bag beside the desk. Hester thought it was a start. Then he said the argument had made everyone think things about Ruben. Not a start, only a group to hide behind.

'I didn't argue with you,' Ruben said. 'Not that night. Brecht and I were angry with each other. I left. You were outside. Those aren't complicated sentences.'

'Not for you.'

'What made them complicated for you?'

Daan opened and closed his bag's zip. He answered without looking up.

'She was lying there. That complicates things.'

'That made it awful for everyone. It didn't give you the right to blame me.'

Hester watched Daan open his mouth and close it. She knew the urge to translate the conversation. Ruben meant this; Daan had been grieving; surely they could acknowledge that. Instead she took the papers off the desk so they no longer lay between them. Unnecessary, but at least she stayed out of their conversation.

Robin emerged from the hall. In place of yesterday's roll she carried a flat wooden frame, and asked where the screws for the hanging battens were. Nobody answered. She looked from Daan to Ruben and rested the frame against her leg.

'I can come back.'

'No,' Daan said. 'Perhaps we should be doing this with you—'

'No.' She cut him off before he finished. 'I've got two frames to make, then I'm going home. I'm not deciding which of you was hurting most.'

'That's not what I meant.'

'I don't know what you mean. But if you know something about what you saw, you can tell the police. Or Ruben. I don't need to stand between you.'

She did not look to Hester for support. Hester pointed out the storeroom and the box of fixings. Robin thanked her and went on. Daan watched her, hurt on his face, and Hester would not excuse it. He had been the adult when Robin was two; she did not have to manage his pain now.

'You wanted someone to blame,' Ruben said.

Daan looked up. 'You don't know what I wanted.'

'No. That's why I'm asking.'

'That wasn't a question.'

'Then I'll make it one. Did you want it to be my fault?'

A moped accelerated outside. Daan pulled his bag over his shoulder. Suddenly he looked like someone who had missed a train and did not want to catch the next one either.

'I can't do this now,' he said.

'You've managed to keep that up for twenty-two years.'

Daan passed him on the way out. He did not touch Ruben, even with his bag. The door closed with its usual pneumatic hiss. Ruben kept looking at the place where Daan had stood. Hester waited before saying she was sorry.

'For what, exactly?' he asked.

She had not meant to say the important thing here. People were in the corridor, Fleur was on the phone in the kitchen. Her correction should not be an aside after Daan's departure; but that was another practical reason to postpone a difficult moment.

'For going along with it then. I need to explain something to you. Not something you have to believe just because I say it.'

Before she could continue, Jasper came downstairs. Apparently he did not need to hear their conversation to know the source of the tension. He looked towards the front door and asked where Daan had gone.

'Away,' Ruben said.

'I noticed.'

Jasper stayed by the bottom step, a folder under his arm and the office key hanging from a finger. Hester asked if he needed anything from the delivery schedule. He said he cared little about the list provided they did not argue on his premises.

'We were talking,' Hester said.

'Everybody can hear your talking right into the kitchen.'

That was untrue; nobody had raised their voice. Ruben picked up the list and folded it in half. Hester saw his jaw move.

'I'll be back for the delivery on Wednesday,' he said. 'I'd like the address to be right by then.'

'Or just don't come,' Jasper said.

Ruben turned. 'What?'

'It's voluntary. You needn't hang round here if all you're doing is settling old scores.'

'I'm here because Fleur asked.'

'Fleur doesn't own the place.'

'We're hiring it for the foundation,' Hester said. 'We've agreed who's working here.'

Jasper glanced at her and let the key drop from his finger into his palm. 'I'm talking to Ruben.'

'Without overruling my arrangements.'

Ruben raised a hand between them, not towards her. 'Leave it. What do you want, Jasper?'

'For you to stop making people sound as though they did something back then. You weren't exactly calm yourself.'

'I said Daan saw me outside.'

'And tomorrow everyone thinks that makes him a suspect. The day after, it's my turn. I remember things about you too. The way you used to go off. You work for some housing organisation now, don't you? Reliability matters to people.'

Hester laid down her pen. 'Jasper, stop.'

'I'm just saying people can tell stories about you too.'

'You're linking his job to what he says here.'

'Don't be so dramatic.'

Ruben moved towards him, stopping at arm's length. Hester did not step between them like two boys needing separation. She only opened the hall door wider, so the space was not a closed corner. Fleur came to see, still holding her phone.

'What's going on?'

'Ask the owner,' Ruben said.

He looked at Jasper. 'Ring my employer if you want. Then they'll hear exactly what you're trying to do. I'm not changing my story for you.'

Jasper drew back his shoulders. 'Your choice.'

'It is.'

Ruben went outside. Hester followed, not to bring him back. He stood on the pavement, breathing through his nose. A man with a dog walked round them.

'Has he done this before?' she asked.

'This sort of thing? Hints. Jokes. First time he's mentioned work.'

'I heard it. I'll write down the words and report them to Ellen.'

'Don't make arrangements for me.'

'I'm reporting what I heard. You decide whether to respond if she rings.'

He studied her for a while, then nodded. 'That's better.'

She asked if she could talk to him later that evening. Not about Jasper. About her own statement. Could it wait until nine, Ruben asked; first he was having dinner with a colleague who was nearby. Hester agreed. Her guilt gave her no priority in his diary. They chose the little place by the station square where he could have a drink before his train.

Before going in, Hester sent Ruben the contact number on her card. She added the report reference without telling him which statement she thought he ought to give. He replied at once: received. One word was enough. She put the phone away and went back to the people still inside.

Through the window she saw Robin lift the wooden frame. It was too wide to turn into the corridor in one go. Robin set it down, moved a crate and tried again. Hester held the front door open so she would not have to drop anything to make room.

When she entered, Fleur stood facing Jasper. She said he did not need to threaten visitors or staff to prove he owned the building. Jasper replied that everyone was much too worked up. Hester did not interrupt. She fetched her notebook and recorded the exchange as precisely as she could, including where she had stood, whom she had seen come in, and that she did not know what Fleur had heard before that.

Robin came into the foyer with two finished frames. She looked at Jasper and said she was getting her things. He did not step aside until asked. Then he did.

'I don't do this as a sideline,' she told Fleur. 'I want to be sure of the hours we've agreed.'

'You can be,' Fleur said.

Robin went out to the street. Hester rang the number on the card, gave the report reference and described the remarks about Ruben's employer. Ellen was unavailable. The staff member recorded the incident and asked whether Ruben had left safely. Hester confirmed it. There had been no physical contact and nobody had been prevented from leaving. She said Ruben already had the reference so he could make contact himself.

Then she emailed Fleur the actual working agreement: everyone scheduled for the foundation had to be able to work without pressure; a repetition would mean suspending the activity concerned and discussing it. No accusation against every owner, no diagnosis of Jasper's intentions. Fleur confirmed it in writing.

It took another hour to close the working day. Hester counted the supplier confirmations and prepared Wednesday's kitchen list. Jasper did not come down again. Closing her laptop, she saw a message from her mother. The potatoes went on at a quarter to six. Hester put the notebook with the recorded words in her bag and went outside. She had twelve minutes until dinner.