CHAPTER EIGHT: PETER’S SHOP

Peter Sloane’s bookshop occupied a former bakery on a narrow residential street.
Its front window displayed secondhand novels and a handwritten sign asking customers to close the door quietly.
Nora entered without announcing her connection to Walter.
Peter stood behind the counter, arranging postcards with careful hands.
A pale scar crossed the side of his neck.
Nora purchased a worn collection of short stories before asking whether he had worked in radio theater.
Peter’s expression changed so quickly that she regretted the question.
He asked who had sent her.
Nora told him about Walter’s dinner at the diner and the invitation that followed.


Peter listened until she mentioned the planned performance.
Then he asked her to leave.
Nora apologized and turned toward the door.
Peter called her back before she reached it.
He said that Walter had always known how to make other people feel responsible for his unfinished business.
Nora answered that she had no intention of defending Walter.
Peter studied her for a moment.
He asked whether she had seen the stage.
She said that she had.
Peter asked whether the old trapdoor still opened from the left.
Nora did not know.
Peter laughed without amusement.
He said that the theater’s grand history had survived better than its ordinary safety procedures.


Nora asked whether he wanted the building demolished.
Peter said that he wanted the building to stop being used as an excuse.
He had spent years hearing that the accident was tragic but nobody’s fault.
He had also spent years hearing that Walter was a monster.
Neither description gave him back his ability to work onstage.
Nora asked what he wanted people to know.
Peter said that he wanted the surviving crew to answer one question in front of him.
He wanted to know who had moved the scenery wall after the accident.
Nora promised that she would ask.
Peter told her not to promise what she could not control.


He offered a smaller request instead.
She could tell Walter that Peter was willing to attend a meeting without cameras or reporters.
Nora agreed.
As she left, Peter placed a theater ticket inside her book.
He said that it was from the night he had expected to become an actor.
Nora carried the ticket home without looking at it until she was alone.

CHAPTER NINE: A MEETING WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE

Walter arrived at Peter’s shop two days later with Daniel and Nora.
Peter had insisted that the meeting take place after closing.
He had also insisted that nobody bring a recording device.


Walter accepted both conditions.
For several minutes, the men stood on opposite sides of a table covered with unsold books.
Walter finally said that he had rehearsed an apology for years.
Peter told him to forget the rehearsal.
Walter took a breath and said that he had failed to stop the production when the crew reported trouble with the scenery.
He had believed Malcolm’s assurances because he wanted the show to open on schedule.
Peter asked whether Walter had ordered the damaged frame removed.
Walter said that he had not.
Peter asked whether he knew who had.
Walter admitted that he had suspected Malcolm.


The admission seemed to drain the air from the room.
Peter asked why Walter had never said so publicly.
Walter replied that he had no proof and that accusing Malcolm would not erase his own responsibility.
Peter struck the table with his palm.
He said that refusing to accuse someone without proof was not the same as refusing to investigate.
Walter lowered his eyes.
He agreed.
Peter asked whether Evelyn had known about Malcolm’s role.
Walter said that she had suspected him but believed Walter was protecting him.
Nora watched the men struggle to speak across decades of accumulated anger.


She had expected a dramatic confession.
Instead, she saw two people discovering how many ordinary questions they had avoided.
Peter opened a drawer and removed a folded sketch of the old stage.
He pointed to a narrow storage cavity beneath the scenery track.
He said that the original frame could not have been carried through the public doors without being noticed.
Someone might have lowered it into the service cavity before the inspection.
Walter stared at the sketch.
He said that the cavity had been sealed after the theater closed.
Peter asked who had ordered the sealing.
Walter answered that Malcolm had supervised the renovation.