CHAPTER TEN: THE SERVICE CAVITY
The preservation board granted the volunteers permission to inspect the stage with a qualified building engineer.
Imani insisted on following every safety restriction.
The engineer, Dr. Celia Marsh, arrived with protective equipment and a clear plan for the inspection.
She refused to let anyone enter the cavity until she had examined its access points.
Malcolm appeared shortly after the inspection began.
He claimed that the work threatened the building’s structural integrity.
Celia informed him that the city had approved her limited assessment.
She invited him to submit his concerns in writing.
Malcolm remained near the stage,
watching every movement.
Nora helped Imani carry chairs away from the inspection area.
She noticed a strip of newer wood beneath the old scenery track.
Celia examined the strip and found that it covered an unused maintenance opening.
She removed the panel carefully after checking the supports.
A narrow space appeared beneath the stage.
Inside lay broken scenery braces, several folded canvas backdrops, and a metal bracket attached to a length of timber.
Peter had been invited to observe from a safe distance.
He recognized the bracket immediately.
He said that it had belonged to the wall that fell during rehearsal.
Celia photographed the items and instructed everyone not to disturb them.
Malcolm demanded that the inspection stop.
He said that old theatrical equipment could not establish what had happened decades earlier.
Celia agreed that the objects alone proved very little.
She added that their condition and location deserved proper examination.
Walter looked at Malcolm with an expression Nora had not seen before.
He asked why the service cavity had been sealed.
Malcolm said that he had followed the building owner’s instructions.
Walter replied that he had been the building’s director and had given no such instruction.
Malcolm turned toward the exit.
Peter called after him.
He asked whether Malcolm had ever visited him in the hospital.
Malcolm stopped but did not turn around.
Peter said that the answer was no.
The room fell silent as Malcolm left.
CHAPTER TEN A: THE DOOR THEY LEFT OPEN
Nora had expected the discovery beneath the stage to make everyone more careful.
Instead, the discovery made the building suddenly crowded with people who had not attended a single volunteer meeting.
A local news van arrived before Celia had finished packing her equipment.
A reporter stood outside the fence and asked whether a decades-old injury had been covered up.
Imani answered that the engineer had recovered materials requiring further examination.
The reporter asked whether Malcolm Dyer had been arrested.
Imani said that nobody had been accused of a crime.
Nora watched the reporter turn toward the camera with visible disappointment.
A dramatic answer would have fitted the evening broadcast more neatly than an honest one.
Daniel emerged from the building carrying his father’s coat.
He told Nora that Walter had become dizzy during the inspection.
She asked whether Walter had eaten lunch.
Daniel admitted that his father had refused the sandwich he had brought.
Nora found Walter sitting in the auditorium with his good hand pressed against his forehead.
She sat two seats away and waited for him to acknowledge her.
Walter finally asked whether the reporter had found Peter.
Nora said that Peter had already left through the loading entrance.
Walter looked relieved.
She asked him whether he intended to eat before giving another interview.
Walter gave her a tired smile and said that she sounded like Daniel.
Nora told him that Daniel was right about lunch.
She offered him the wrapped cheese roll from her bag.
He accepted it without making a speech about gratitude.
While he ate, a young woman entered the auditorium carrying a coil of bright orange tape.
She introduced herself as Leona Price, a former apprentice from the theater’s final season.
Walter recognized her name and stood too quickly.
Leona asked him to sit down before he hurt himself again.
She explained that she had heard about the recovered scenery frame on the radio.
She had come because the broadcast mentioned a missing inspection.
Walter asked whether she remembered the accident.
Leona answered that she remembered the morning before it.
She had been sixteen and responsible for carrying rehearsal props from the loading bay.
A man she did not recognize had told her to leave a long crate beside the rear staircase.
She had obeyed because he wore a visitor badge with the theater’s emblem.
Walter asked whether the man had been Malcolm.
Leona said that she had seen Malcolm every day and would have recognized him.
The stranger had been younger, with a dark cap and a crooked front tooth.
She remembered him because he had apologized when the crate scraped her ankle.
Nora asked why she had never told anyone.
Leona said that nobody had asked about the crate.
The accident happened later, and the adults had begun shouting about cables and rigging.
She had assumed the stranger was an ordinary delivery worker.
Walter asked what the crate contained.
Leona said that she had not opened it.
She had noticed a painted number on one end, but the paint was partly covered by a shipping label.
Nora asked whether she remembered the number.
Leona shook her head.
She said that she remembered the label better than the paint.
The label carried the name of a local scenery company called Harrow Works.
Imani entered in time to hear the name.
She stopped beside the aisle and said that Harrow Works had closed before the accident.
Leona looked startled.
She insisted that she had read the words clearly.
Walter asked whether the crate might have been old equipment.
Leona said that the wood had looked freshly cut.
Imani wrote the details in her notebook and asked Leona for a telephone number.
Leona gave it willingly but refused an interview with the waiting reporter.
She said that she had already spent one afternoon being ignored by adults who believed they knew everything.
Nora accompanied her to the rear gate.
The reporter called after them and asked whether Leona had a sensational new allegation.
Leona kept walking.
At the corner, she told Nora that she had never forgiven herself for not speaking after Peter was hurt.
Nora said that a frightened sixteen-year-old had not been responsible for managing a dangerous stage.
Leona replied that she understood that now, but understanding had taken her a long time.
Before leaving, she asked Nora to tell Peter that she remembered him practicing his lines alone.
She said that he had been kind to the youngest apprentices when the senior actors were too busy to notice them.
Nora promised to pass along those words without turning them into another public performance.
