Episode 19 · Three Questions

When Varren brought the dessert, Krista cleared the plates. Soles pointed her toward the sink and carried over the empty glasses with his good hand.

The string around the dessert box had tightened into a stubborn knot. Varren tried to loosen it, then asked for a knife.

— Not worth it, Krista said. I tried too.

— You already ate some?

— I checked what I bought.

Varren cut the string. Maxim pulled his dessert plate closer.

— Very good. Personally, I appreciate quality control.

Maxim noticed the photograph on the windowsill.

— Is that it?

Soles brought it over with the date the archivist had written down. Krista moved the dessert box aside. Maxim found Kerr without help and pointed to Serren.

— And this one recommended him?

Soles explained the ledger entry. Krista supplied the wording about the appendix and its absence from the file. Varren set down his fork.

— So they have an archive they don’t show people too.

— They have documents we haven’t seen, Krista said.

— Doesn’t seem like much of a difference.

— I asked for exhibition material. They had no reason to give me every club document.

Soles checked the appendix number on his phone.

— It still has to be somewhere. Someone has to check whether those conditions were met.

— Maybe it’s at the committee office, Maxim replied. In a cupboard. It doesn’t have to be a room underground.

— I don’t care about the room. I care what it says about Kerr.

He heard his own tone. Maxim had only suggested where to look.

— I could go in with Krista. Talk to Serren, but also find out where the files are. If he knows nothing, at least we leave with more than a photograph.

— Finding out where they are is one thing, Krista said. Starting to search through offices is another.

Varren rested his forearms on the table.

— If the request goes through you, it would be simpler. You already have access for the exhibition. Soles can come to help you.

— With an appendix about a member’s admission?

— You don’t have to start with the appendix. Ask for a few exhibition files, Varren continued. If one lands on the table by mistake, you read it. By the time they check, you have the information.

— And when they check? Krista asked.

— You give an explanation. You’ve mixed up a number before.

Maxim gave a short laugh.

— Nicely divided. We learn what we want, she gives the explanations.

— You’re right, Varren said to Krista. I rushed it.

— I don’t even mix up my own numbers for free, she said.

The proposal had seemed good to Soles until Maxim pointed out whose name would stay on the request. Krista had signed the consultation log. If they questioned another request, she would be the one explaining herself, with her own work still unfinished.

— I don’t want to put you in that position, he said.

— Then tell us exactly what position you do want to put us in, Maxim replied. So we know too.

Varren began saying they need not decide everything that night. Krista asked what Soles intended to tell Serren. Their voices overlapped. Soles could hear one clearly on his right; the other broke apart against the ringing in his left ear. He wanted a moment in which he could hear them both.

He pressed his palm against the edge of the chair.

For an instant, the wood seemed curved and smooth, warmed by a hand that had rested there for a long time. He straightened without thinking. Beyond Krista’s voice came the creak of a heavy door. He turned toward the wall on his left, expecting someone to enter.

The cupboard with the plates was there.

— One at a time, he said.

Varren stopped with one hand above the table. Krista left her question unfinished, and Maxim looked up. Soles had barely spoken above his usual voice. The ease of it steadied him. For a moment, he knew exactly how to proceed.

He had asked for their help. So far, he had only offered ways to do what he wanted. Decimus had sent men out with an order that fitted on one sheet. Krista’s name would fit on one too.

— What would make you stop? he asked.

Krista tilted her head slightly.

— Stop what?

— Helping me. What don’t you want me to ask of you?

Maxim set down his glass.

— Don’t ask me to cover for you when you tell me one thing and do another.

— All right, Soles said. Krista?

— You don’t use my name to enter a place when I don’t know what you’re doing. And I don’t want us using the exhibition as an excuse. The people there still have to work with me after you leave.

— Varren?

— Don’t go to this man alone and make us learn afterward what happened.

Soles turned back to Krista.

— What do we tell Serren before we ask to meet?

— Who you are. That it’s about Kerr. He may send us to the committee office, but if we pretend we’re there for something else, I’ll look as though I brought him into a trap.

— Then we tell him about Kerr. That I’m trying to establish his ties to the club and that Serren’s name appears on the recommendation.

Krista moved the photograph where everyone could see it.

— What do we need when we walk out? Soles asked.

— The appendix, Varren said.

— If he gives it to us, Soles said.

Maxim touched the edge of the photograph with one finger.

— I’d start with the last time he saw him. And what Kerr did for him.

— We don’t know that he did anything, Krista interjected.

— Then how they knew each other.

Soles fetched a clean sheet from the cupboard. He wrote down three questions for Serren: how he knew Kerr, why he had recommended him, and when they had last spoken. He added the appendix number.

— We ask for the document too. If he says he doesn’t have it, we ask who does. If he won’t give it to us, we find out what approval we need.

— And if he lies to you? Varren asked.

Soles studied the page. Serren might lie, but an answer gave them something to check.

— I let him finish. I don’t tell him everything we know at the start.

— But we also don’t assume that everything we don’t like is a lie, Krista added.

— No.

Varren reread the questions while Maxim asked Krista about access to the pavilion. Looking at a ledger with permission did not entitle them to walk into a committee office. Soles let her explain, keeping his own question until she had finished.

Maxim stood and picked up the empty water bottle.

— Do you have another one cold?

— Stay.

The word came out before Soles understood why he had said it.