The Loose Railing

Jasper did not drape his coat over a chair. He folded it on his lap as he sat down. The cuffs stuck out like two hands that still wanted something to do. Hester set her phone beside her, screen down.

'I'm not recording,' she said, because he was looking at it.

'I didn't ask.'

'You were looking.'

'So do you. All the time.'

He was right. She shifted her chair so she was not facing him from the short end of the table. From the foyer came the sound of Fleur dragging a chair across the floor. The door stood open. Jasper glanced at the opening again and asked whether Fleur had to hear any of this.

'That's up to you. But if you want to say something about back then, you need to tell the police directly.'

'First I need to know whether you believe I didn't do it.'

'I can't give you an outcome in advance.'

He pulled the coat from his lap and put it on the chair beside him after all. His phone rang. He silenced it without looking. Hester thought of his invoices, his daughter's graduation, the ordinary attention someone would ask of him even on a disastrous day. She had to be careful those thoughts did not turn themselves into an excuse.

'I was at the bottom when I saw your mother,' he said. 'Not right down, I mean. I was by the stairs. She was up on the landing. Brecht was already down below.'

Hester did not look at the stairs. If she started using the room as a picture now, she might help him with a sequence he had to give himself.

'You didn't see the fall,' she said.

'No. I said that yesterday.'

'Then we'll leave it at that.'

He breathed in through his nose. 'There was a piece of scenery where people had to pass. Something low. Not a whole wall. Your mother said it had to go, or the ambulance crew wouldn't be able to get to her. I moved it aside.'

'Had anyone called by then?'

He lowered his eyes. 'I thought so. Or I wanted to think so. I know she asked afterwards who was calling. It didn't happen straight away.'

Hester looked at her phone. Not at the time, but at the possibility of letting someone listen who knew how to handle this better. She left it where it was. Jasper was still speaking.

'She came down,' he said. 'I saw her standing beside Brecht. Then she pointed to that piece of scenery. She looked at me. I thought I had to do something so I wouldn't be the one who did nothing.'

'Your mother said Brecht had tripped. That thing had to go. She told me not to stand there like a post, because everyone was looking at me. I'd loosened that railing. I was afraid she was right, that it was all because of me.'

'Did you see that Brecht had fallen over it?'

'No. She wasn't half underneath it or anything. I can't remember exactly how far away from her it was. I moved it. That's the point.'

She thought of the hall, people having to move aside. Something had been shifted before help arrived. That might have helped, or been intended to put something out of sight. Jasper repeatedly smoothing his coat did not tell her which.

'Did you tell anyone?'

'Not like this. I said I'd made room. That sounded good. It sounded as if I'd helped.'

Hester heard her own phrasing echoed, but did not want her shame taking over the conversation. She asked what he knew about the call. He took a sip from the water bottle he had pulled from his coat and immediately screwed the cap back on.

'There was time for fussing,' he said. 'Before we called anyone. Your mother was giving orders. People out of the hall, open the door, move that thing. I didn't say: I'm calling now. I asked her. I remember that. I asked whether anyone had called.'

'And?'

'She said I had to help first. Something like that. I can't get the exact words back.'

Hester kept her hands under the table. She had asked whether he knew exactly what had happened and for the first time he was giving her something uncomfortable to tell. It did not explain why Brecht had fallen. It was a reason to stop pretending the old story had consisted of seven separate observations.

'How long did that take?' she asked.

'I don't know.'

'Not in minutes?'

'No. Too long, I know that. But I can't give you a number of minutes. I'd have to make it up now.'

She nodded. He looked at the stairs. 'Would it have made a difference?'

'I don't know.'

'But you think it would.'

'I think someone who's injured needs help straight away. I can't say what would have happened otherwise.'

He pressed his thumb under the rim of the bottle cap. A short, hard click. 'I've often thought I'd be better off saying nothing at all. Because she was dead anyway. Because anything I tell will only destroy other people now.'

'You're here now.'

'Yes. And coming from you, that immediately sounds as if I get a point for it.'

'I don't mean that. I'm saying where we are.'

Fleur came to the doorway and stopped. She had a question ready, saw the bottle on the table and said she would wait in the foyer. Jasper did not beckon her in. Hester was glad Fleur had imposed that limit on herself; she could ask later, not decide now that she was the client for every conversation.

'What did you say to Ruben?' Hester asked.

Jasper twisted his mouth. 'That he had to stop. That other people knew how he treated Brecht. That people might still hear about it now.'

'That was a threat.'

'Yes.'

She had expected a denial and briefly had no next question. He set down the bottle. The label had loosened in the warmth of his hand.

'I thought he'd pull everything apart and then leave again. He could always leave. That's how it felt.'

'His being able to leave didn't give you the right to take it away from him.'

'I said yes already.'

'Then I'll stop.'

He looked surprised. Apparently he too had expected a string of sentences in which she finally explained how wrong he was. She was tired of it, of being right while giving the other person another opportunity to discuss her tone.

Jasper picked up his phone. 'I'll call that woman. Ellen.'

'Have you got her number?'

'I was asked to get in touch.'

Hester pushed back her chair. 'I'll give you a moment, then.'

'Stay. Not as a witness to everything. Just because otherwise I'll decide again that I have to go home first.'

It was a request she could grant without promising him anything. She stood by the window, far enough away not to hear every word. He gave his name, said he should have contacted them sooner and wanted to give an account of the evening in 2004. Then he listened. She saw his forefinger move over the table as though following a line.

He repeated an address, asked whether he should write anything down today and said he understood. When he hung up, he went on looking at the screen.

'I've got an appointment this afternoon,' he said.

'Good.'

'I'll call my co-owner and tell him I'll be late. I won't tell him you're keeping me here.'

'I'm not.'

This time he gave a short laugh. She had scarcely heard that sound from him since Monday without a joke meant to diminish someone.

He asked whether Hester was going to mention the loose railing in the exhibition. She said the exhibition was not a substitute for an investigation. There was no text about causes for now. The work would have the right names beneath it. He nodded and looked at the panels.

'That blue water,' he said. 'I had to scrub that paint off my hands. It was everywhere.'

'Brecht mixed that colour.'

'I know. She wouldn't let anyone else near the bucket. She thought we'd add white straight away.'

Hester did not remember that. She did not ask for more of the pleasant memory as though it were payment for the rest. Jasper stood and hung his coat over his arm. He picked up his bottle and phone in one hand.

He stopped at the door. 'I don't want you thinking I saw your mother and understood even then that something wasn't right. She was in charge. That wasn't something I had to work out. It was just how things were.'

'I understand.'

'Do you also understand there wasn't a list of orders? That I can't neatly say now what she commanded and I merely carried out? I did it.'

Hester looked at him. 'Tell Ellen that.'

He left without shaking her hand. His van was outside again, but this time he drove off at once. Fleur came out of the foyer with her bag already over her shoulder. She had to collect someone from the board. She no longer asked what it had been about.

'Are there consequences for the open day?' she asked.

'None I can establish yet.'

'That's a dreadful answer for a client.'

'I haven't got a better one.'

Fleur laid a spare key on the table. 'At least I'll make sure the key doesn't vanish into my bag. You'll be here at nine tomorrow?'

'Yes.'

Alone, Hester wrote a brief account of what Jasper had said, clearly marked as her own recollection of the conversation. Not a word-for-word statement. She noted that he had not seen the fall, that he had made contact himself and that she did not know the timing. It ran to more than a page because she kept crossing out words that gave more certainty than she had been given.

Then she called Ellen. This time she reached her directly and said Jasper had just been with her. Ellen knew about his appointment and, for now, mainly wanted him to give his own account. Hester could keep her notes. Was she afraid of her mother now, Ellen asked.

Hester looked at the front door. 'I don't think she'll physically hurt me.'

'That's not quite the same as no.'

'No. But I can't describe a specific threat at the moment.'

'If that changes, call. Don't go trying to prove who put up the notice yourself.'

Hester said she would not. She asked whether she needed to stay available to clarify her own memories. Ellen said they would contact her.

After the call, Hester did not put her folder on the chair Marjan had used yesterday. She put it in her bag. Two people passed outside and looked in; from the street, the hall still looked like an ordinary venue preparing for an event. In the corner lay a rolled banner bearing a false promise.

She switched off the hall lights and left the foyer lit. A proof was due back that afternoon. She messaged Ruben that the door was still open and, if it got too late, he could leave the sheet at the printer's. Then she fetched the arrivals book and checked who would actually need keys on Saturday.