Chapter 2: A Time That Suits

“Yes. After school.”

“All right, then.”

She let the answer stand. There was no need to turn it over until he wished he had given another.

“And Thursday?” she asked. “Still as we arranged?”

“Yes.”

His thumb caught at the seam of his pocket. She thought again of the message on his phone, the quick smile she had failed to keep. She would have to become better at asking in time, before he had built his day around something she had merely assumed.

“I’ll have the bag ready,” she said.

He nodded and took out his key. She went inside before he could feel obliged to wait for her.

In the kitchen, she wrote the church hall booking in her appointment book. Beside the time she added, after school. The later entry for Nora Bell was still clear; there was nothing to add to it.

At the front door she crouched and opened the bag. Beneath the folded cloth was an old packet of polishing rags she had carried from job to job without using. She took it out, then removed a catalogue softened at its corners. She closed the fastening and lifted the bag once to judge the difference.

It still needed carrying. She set it down where he would find it, and put the spare things away.