A Different Programme

On Sunday morning Hester set out twelve chairs and stopped. The old hall could easily have held five times as many visitors. Now a broad strip of floor remained clear between the works and the table. Where Fleur had wanted a lectern lay a stack of loose sheets with the correct names and a short explanation of the selection. There was no point in the programme when everyone would have to stop and listen.

Sanne came in at eleven and hung her coat on the same hook as yesterday. First she asked whether Hester had slept. Then she asked whether the instructions had changed. Hester liked that order: concern without permission to forget the rest of the day. She gave Sanne a fresh sheet. Upstairs remained out of use. The small gathering was only for those who still wanted to come after the new confirmation. There would be no photographs in the foyer. Sanne read it and asked who had the office key.

'The owner,' Hester said. 'We don't need to go up there today.'

The officers had documented the materials and the different accounts. Hester did not know everything that had been decided afterwards. Ellen had called back briefly on Saturday evening, confirmed that the new incident was being investigated and asked her to report any further approaches. Marjan had been taken in for questioning. That did not mean Hester now knew the legal outcome of the past, or even what the coming week would look like. It did mean she no longer had to put their mother opposite Merel on her own and call it a family conversation.

Fleur arrived with the co-owner's final written decision. The gathering could go ahead under the agreed conditions. Saturday's incident report would be sent to him separately; any changes to the sale would be dealt with through the business parties involved. Jasper would not vote on that on behalf of the old volunteers. Fleur read the businesslike reply aloud and sighed at the last line, which asked for the final invoice.

'That's part of it,' Hester said.

'I know. I'm just finding I want somebody to write in an official email that this is dreadful.'

Hester straightened one of the selection sheets. 'He doesn't need to find words for us. Just a decision we can use.'

On Saturday evening Fleur had suggested cancelling the gathering altogether. Hester had said that was possible, provided those who had brought materials could retrieve their work safely. Robin had phoned to say she particularly did not want to rush her mother's drawings away. She wanted to come with Else, for an hour perhaps, not to describe what had happened upstairs but to see where the work was. That had determined the shape of today. No board could decide they now had enough truth for a party.

The first two visitors were the woman from the association and her husband. They had missed Saturday's message and did not quite know why it was so small. Sanne gave them the new sheet and explained that the advertised programme was not going ahead. They were welcome to look quietly and did not have to stay. The woman asked whether there would be anything to drink. When Hester pointed out the jug of water, she said with relief that that was fine and went to the first sketch. She had not asked for an account. Hester noticed how used she had become to expecting everyone at the door to want something out of them.

Finn arrived at half past eleven with a bag that looked as though it had changed shoulders at the station. A red impression of his sleeve marked his cheek; he had slept on the train. Hester went towards him, already wanting to say he need not have come. His nod stopped her, and she hugged him.

'I've come to help with that heavy tub from your studio,' he said. 'And you said you'd be around on Sunday anyway.'

'I'm here all day.'

'Good. Didn't take long to find you, then.' He looked into the hall. 'Would it be odd if I just had a look first?'

She showed him the selection sheets. He took one without asking what he was expected to think of the work. Yesterday she had told him his grandmother had been taken away by the police, and why. Not every detail, but that there was now a direct witness statement about the push and that Marjan had kept Robin from leaving. He had not tried to find an answer for his mother. He had asked whether she was alone and whether he could come today. He did not have to settle his own relationship with his grandmother here on this floor.

Tessa had sent her booking confirmation last night. Fleur signed it now: one hour from half past two, work and installation only, identifiable people solely by separate agreement. Tessa would report to Sanne when she arrived and ask the maker concerned before taking each photograph.

Else wore a coat much too warm for the hall. She held the collar shut with one hand and did not look towards the stairs. Robin asked where she wanted to begin. Else pointed to the blue sketch, not the photograph of her daughter. Hester brought a chair over to the work and left them to it. She went to the table where visitors could return their selection sheets.

After a while Else beckoned her. She was seated now, still in her coat. She pointed at a little note beside the set design. 'Those aren't dimensions. That's a sum of money.'

Hester bent over the line. She had mistaken the number for a width.

'She always did her sums on the wrong side of things,' Else said. 'I never had a clean envelope at home either. You'd turn it over and find she'd worked out how much paint she could still afford.' She looked at Robin. 'Write that in. Not because it matters to the police. Just because it's a sum of money.'

Robin found a pencil and noted it on the corrections list. 'We will.'

Hester straightened. She had recorded a width where Brecht had been costing paint. At least they could correct that mistake at once.

Daan did not come into the hall. He stayed with Sanne and asked whether Else wanted to see him. Sanne came to ask, exactly as agreed, without bringing him along behind her. After a glance at Robin, Else said he could come, just briefly. Robin went to the worktable at the other end of the hall. She did not have to remain in that conversation because it concerned her mother.

Hester saw that Daan did not simply take the chair beside Else. He asked first. She could not hear what they said and did not move closer so she could tell someone later. He stayed less than ten minutes. At parting he shook Else's hand. Robin looked up but did not approach him. Daan noticed, raised a hand briefly to her and left. Hester did not know whether it was better than the distance they had begun with. At least it was their own distance.

Jasper came towards one to give Fleur a key. He did not enter the hall when he saw who was there. He also laid an envelope on the counter containing a copy of the insurance for the current works. The old papers would have to be found through his business records; he would not simply give Robin a box of personal data. Hester said contact could go directly through the police. He nodded and asked whether his co-owner already had the incident report.

'He'll get it today,' Hester said. 'With my part in it.'

Jasper turned the envelope a quarter-turn. 'I shouldn't have started clearing things away back then as if that made it all right.' He looked at the stairs. 'I don't know how to put it any more clearly.'

'You don't have to find a better way of saying it to me now.'

He left without seeking thanks in the hall. Fleur stood holding the key. There were tears in her eyes, not evenly distributed: one cheek wet, the other dry. Hester gave her a tissue from her bag. Then she asked whether Fleur would like five minutes outside. Sanne remained at the door; Finn was helping a visitor read the selection sheet, having been asked. Hester could offer her client something without immediately abandoning the hall.

At half past one someone at the counter asked for a statement. He ran a regional website and a visitor from yesterday had told him of 'trouble'. Sanne did not let him in to ask around for himself. Hester joined her and gave the brief reply she and Fleur had prepared: the preview had been interrupted following an incident; those involved had spoken directly to the police; the organisers would not discuss their statements. Sunday's programme had been changed and attendance was voluntary. He asked whether Marjan Koster was involved.

'I'm not going through names with you here,' Hester said. 'And you can't make recordings inside without permission.'

He pointed out that the event had been publicly advertised. Hester kept to her answer. She did not offer a false story to spare their mother, nor hand Robin over to provide an image for the news. When he went outside again, she did not know what he would write. She noted his name and request in her report and put the notebook away. Towards half past two Tessa arrived. She left the camera in her bag while she first greeted Robin and Else.

Ruben arrived later than Hester had expected, and without tools. He took a selection sheet from its holder, looked at the works and spent a while beside the photograph he was not in. Finn recognised him from an old photograph Hester had kept at home. She introduced them without a joke about the past. Ruben asked what Finn did; Finn described his apprenticeship, then asked whether Ruben had hung the lamp over the table. He had not. They carried on talking anyway.

Hester used those few minutes to finish the report with Fleur. They named the staff present, the departure from the agreed arrangements upstairs, the time of the call and the steps taken afterwards. No feelings in place of facts. They recorded which tasks had been done and which promotional elements had been dropped. Fleur signed the amended commission. Hester did not need to comfort her by giving away her own hours.

Towards three Else wanted to leave. Robin had stayed until her grandmother had seen enough, not until someone else thought they had reached a fitting close. Tessa asked whether she could briefly photograph the sketches on their own. Robin agreed, provided the images went to her first and the letter was not included. The original remained where it belonged; the copy was in her bag. Nothing in that arrangement needed to be a performance for the visitors.

Hester held the front door for them. Else touched her forearm. 'Your mother still has a cardigan of mine,' she said. 'You don't have to get it back for me.'

Hester could find no suitable answer and merely nodded. Robin took the other side of her grandmother's bag. Together they went towards the street at the older woman's pace. Behind Hester, Finn asked where to stack the unused chairs. She showed him the place in the hall, well clear of the rear exit. Then she helped him put the first two together.