When It Went Quiet

The officer stayed with Lena while a man came out of the workshop to ask where the folder had come from. He already knew her name. She explained which copies it held and which documents Cor had kept himself. He wrote it down and said he might have more questions later.

‘The box on the table belongs to Nora,’ Lena said. ‘Her father’s things. There were papers in it too, but we kept them separate.’

‘We’ll be speaking to her as well.’

Lena didn’t ask what Niels had told the police, though she wanted to know. Whenever a uniform appeared round the corner she looked at the hands, at whatever the person was carrying. Arend had to get back to work. He asked whether she minded if he got on at the other end of the shed. Lena thanked him. He moved the empty crate away from the door and said she could keep the chair as long as she needed it.

Niels came out of the passage between two officers, his hands cuffed behind his back. He no longer had his phone or the folder. At the corner one officer stopped him briefly to get past a parked bicycle. Niels looked up. Lena couldn’t tell whether he saw her or merely looked her way.

She kept the cup on her knees. At the police car he said something to the officer opening the door. She couldn’t hear it. Nobody turned to call her over. The conversation no longer involved her.

The car drove away. Lena looked at the space where it had stood. A van arrived and had to wait for the second police car’s open door. The driver raised a hand when he was waved through. A boy followed on a bicycle, a shopping bag hanging from the handlebars.

Anouk appeared from the main street a few minutes later, her coat open, a phone in her hand. She put it away when she saw Lena.

‘Niels has been arrested,’ she said. ‘For what happened here, and in connection with the ongoing investigation.’

Lena nodded. It was a limited statement, the only one Anouk could give her. Even so, it took time to sink in. Arrested. The word changed what she needed to watch for now.

‘I didn’t record anything,’ she said.

Anouk looked at her. ‘You didn’t need to.’

‘I told him the originals weren’t there. He only had copies.’

‘We have those. We’ll go through what you know properly in a while. For now, tell me if you’re in pain anywhere.’

Lena pointed to her side and said it was from Tuesday. Anouk asked whether she had been struck there again. No. She had bumped the edge of the table and hurried down the rear passage. She didn’t want every knock turned into an injury. The officer beside her recorded it anyway, carefully keeping the two days distinct.

Cor came to the shed with Nora beside him. He had pulled up his sleeve to show a red mark on his upper arm. Nora held the box while he explained to Anouk that Niels should never have got into the back room in the first place.

‘He walked past me while I was signing for that man,’ Cor said. ‘I thought he’d come for the job sheets. I didn’t think he was going to stop anyone leaving.’

Lena stood. Her legs were stiff and it took her a moment to reach him. She didn’t touch the mark. Instead she briefly held his other forearm.

‘You told me to go outside.’

‘And you needed to.’

‘I didn’t want to leave you.’

‘You got help.’

He looked over her shoulder at the chair. ‘Were you in there? I know him. I should have thought of sending you there.’

‘You didn’t have to think of that.’

Cor started on the supplier again, but Nora cut in. He needed to postpone his afternoon appointment and have his arm checked. She would take him, once she had locked the shop. Cor looked at Anouk as though asking for a ruling.

‘Someone will look at your arm in a moment,’ Anouk said. ‘We’ll rearrange your statement. You don’t have to sort both out now.’

Nora handed back the box and took her car key from her bag. Didn’t she need to get home first, Cor asked. The radio could wait in the car. Her son was being looked after. They were her arrangements to make. Cor stopped arguing.

Lena’s bag was still in the workshop. An officer brought it over once its contents had been checked. For now, the folder would stay with the material being recorded. They explained how she could ask for her things back later. She had to confirm that the phone still in her own possession was the one Niels had pointed at. It sounded needlessly precise until she thought how much could later hang on a small mistake in the wording.

Her coat lay over the bag. The ruler and the wallet of cards went with Nora. Lena looked at the pencil case on top of the box and was glad to see it zipped shut. Those things had been on the table when Niels came in. They were still Nora’s.

‘I don’t want his picture in the paper under my father’s name,’ Nora told Anouk.

‘That isn’t entirely up to us. But we won’t give a journalist your personal belongings or your address.’

‘I’ll ring Amir myself. Tell him what he can use from me.’

Anouk nodded. She had no objection, but reminded Nora to speak only about what she had seen or heard herself. Nora understood. Lena didn’t insert herself between them. Amir had Nora’s number with her permission; Nora could reach him without Lena.

Only when she reached the edge of the street did Lena ring Tom. She began with what had actually happened, then told him where she was. She could hear his indicator ticking.

‘I’m pulling over,’ he said.

She waited. Silence on the line was easier than hearing him speak while judging the traffic. He said he could collect her. She told him her bicycle was behind the workshop.

‘That can wait. Do you want me to come now?’

‘Yes.’

‘All right. Fifteen minutes. Jip’s at my place. I’ll tell her you’re safely outside, unless you want to ring her first.’

Lena cleared her throat. ‘Tell her that. I’ll ring her in a minute.’

He didn’t blame her for making the appointment or say he had warned her. Was she alone now? Cor and Nora were still there, she said, and the police were taking her account. Tom told her not to walk out to meet him. He knew the address.

Jip answered before the first ring had finished. Lena could hear a tap running.

‘Your dad’s coming to get me,’ she said. ‘I’m coming there first.’

‘Did that man touch you?’

Lena leaned against the wall. ‘He blocked me with a chair and took my folder. I got out through the back. I haven’t fallen again.’

‘You sound funny.’

‘I’ve had a fright.’

‘Okay.’

The tap stopped. Jip didn’t ask what was in the file. She wanted to know whether Niels was still free to walk about. Lena said he had been arrested; she didn’t know what would happen legally after that. Relief wasn’t a reason to promise her daughter unlimited safety.

‘But he won’t be following you today.’

‘Today he’s with the police.’

Jip breathed out. ‘I’ve rung work. I’m not going in this afternoon.’

‘You don’t need to stay home for me.’

‘It was my decision. I’m going tomorrow. They had someone who could swap.’

Lena paused before answering. ‘All right. See you soon.’

During the drive Tom had asked one question: could she put her seat belt on without hurting her side? She had tried and said yes. He hadn’t asked her to tell the story as they passed the cycle bridge. She looked at the water and noticed her hands resting on her bag. The bag had come with her. The folder hadn’t, yet.

At the lights she asked whether he had told Jip it was over.

‘I said you were safe and the police were there. That’s what you told me.’

‘She’ll read things.’

‘Then she’ll ask us. We can’t have her thinking nothing’s happened and then reading about it somewhere.’

Lena nodded. The lights changed. Tom pulled away gently and turned the radio down. She didn’t need to account for every minute before she was allowed to be with her family again.

Tom’s house smelt of fried egg. Jip had a pan on the hob and immediately asked if Lena wanted to eat. Lena thought she might like to sit down first. Tom set a glass of water on the dining table. On a plate was a fried egg folded over at one side.

‘Third attempt,’ Jip said. ‘I can’t make the spatula do what I want.’

Lena sat and picked up the fork beside the plate. The egg had a hard, salty edge. She ate a few mouthfuls before realising she was hungry.

Tom asked what else the police needed to arrange. Her supplementary statement would be taken the following morning, Lena said, and they would let her know in good time. She had already given the first account of that afternoon. She laid her phone on the table with the sound on. Nobody asked her to tell it all again.

After eating, Jip sat on the sofa with her knees to one side. Tom took the pan off the hob. Lena started to get up and help, then stayed seated. She looked at the little scar on one of his fingers, from a glass he had once dropped. She still knew that hand. She could sit here for an hour and go home afterwards. Tom turned on the tap and asked whether she wanted tea. She did.

‘I’d like to go to my own place later,’ she said. ‘Can you take me?’

‘Yes.’

‘And I don’t want to drag Jip along without arranging it.’

Jip looked up from the sofa. ‘I’ve decided I’m eating at Dad’s. I’ll come to yours tomorrow. After your interview.’

Lena nodded. Tom dried his hands and asked whether she wanted someone with her that evening. She wasn’t sure yet. She would tell him before he drove back.

A message came from Cor. The red mark would turn into a bruise, he wrote. After a good deal of arguing he had let someone check his arm. Nora was driving him home and had locked the shop. Could Lena’s bicycle stay until tomorrow?

She said it could, then put down her phone. Jip had turned on a programme in which someone was trying to get a wardrobe through a stairwell that was too small. Lena watched. She missed the explanation, saw three people arguing over which end should go first and heard Jip laugh quietly.

A few minutes later Tom said the wardrobe would never make the corner that way. Jip said he’d said that last time, and it had fitted then. Lena stayed where she was while they argued. There was nothing left for her to measure on the wardrobe today.