Mara reached Tess's building before Tess did. Mrs. Dyer from across the landing was bringing in shopping, so Mara held the outer door. Dyer asked whether the funeral had gone well. Mara could not find a measure for that and said there had been enough food. The older woman nodded as if this was the kind of answer a family could give the day after a burial.
Tess came up the stairs fast, carrying her work bag and the list folder. “Did you bring the whole thing?” she asked before taking off her coat.
Mara held up the two slips. “I brought what I found last night.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“The rest have names and places that don't belong in this conversation until we know—”
“Somebody is in a hotel room under my name. That's already in the conversation.”
Tess let Mara into the flat. The case sat on the dining table where it had been the night before. Mara had seen it beneath June's telephone table for years. In Tess's room it looked less like a private archive and more like a thing someone might try to take.
“Tell me exactly what the hotel said,” Mara said.
Tess played the voice note she had made after the hotel call. Mara listened with one hand on the slips. At the words checked in, she looked toward the work bag Tess had just brought through the door.
“A desk mistake,” Mara said when it ended.
“At least one desk mistake. She still asked for the packet.”
“At least she didn't get your accounts,” Mara said.
“I didn't say she did.” Tess opened her work bag and took out the hotel email. “I need to know who got close to June's package and why June put me on it.”
Mara set the slips on the table. The one from Alma's ride showed Nora at the handoff. Tess read it twice, then picked up the second. She followed the repeated last four digits with her finger.
“Where did you get these?” Tess asked.
“June kept duplicates in a gray folder. I made some of the originals when I dispatched a ride.”
“You told me she kept other people's private business in the case.”
“She did. The slips were outside it because drivers needed the next day's changes. I should have moved them somewhere safer when she got ill.”
“You were tending her. I don't need you to have done every job in that house.” Tess said it so quickly Mara knew she had not meant to sound kind. “I need to know which job you did do.”
Mara sat down before answering. “I arranged the clinic pickup for Alma and told Nora where to meet the car. June chose the destination after the pharmacy. I didn't have that address on my slip.”
“Would Nora have had it?”
“Maybe. She waited at the handoff. June could have called her again. I don't know.”
Tess kept looking at the slip. Mara waited for her to look up.
“Does this say Ruth?” Tess asked.
“The name was overwritten when June changed the fare. I can't swear to it.”
“Ruth is on the list.”
“That may be Ruth or part of a different name. The number could have belonged to the dispatch phone. We need somebody who remembers the person.”
“How many slips were there?”
Mara did not pretend she had missed the question. “More than these.”
“How many?”
“A folder. I can count them. Some have addresses I promised not to pass on.”
“You told me to bring the case back because it held other people's details. Now you're deciding which details I can see while someone asks for a packet addressed to me.”
Mara kept her seat at the far side of the table. Tess stayed standing. “I brought these because I recognized Nora. I should have told you I had more. I don't want to hand you a folder of routes and make every person in it part of this.”
“I don't want every person. I want a way to test the name. You made the selection before asking what I needed.”
Mara looked down at the paper. The second slip had a fare she herself had calculated. She remembered telling June the driver deserved waiting time after an hour outside a closed clinic. That was the work she could explain easily. She could not say that every destination was hers to expose because Tess's own name had appeared on a separate page.
“When Mum asked you to send someone,” Tess said, “did you ever say you couldn't?”
“Yes. When I was on shift and had no driver. Or when a host had already taken somebody that week.”
“Did she listen?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes she found a ride without me.” Mara remembered June returning from one such trip with a bag of oranges and a look of triumph that made Mara glad the route had worked. Tess had been at home waiting for dinner. Mara had told her June was late because the buses were bad. That might even have been true. “I didn't always ask afterward who carried the person.”
“Then the folder is only your part.”
“Yes.”
Tess slid the two slips back across the table. The locked case stood between them.
“I'll bring the rest tonight,” Mara said. “We'll cover addresses that have nothing to do with this, and you can see which names repeat.”
“I want the original folder, not a new selection you prepare for me.”
“All right.”
Tess finally sat. Mara opened the box of funeral effects. “I brought these too. June's keys and two envelopes she marked to keep. I haven't opened the envelopes.”
Tess looked at the key ring. “Does one open the case?”
“I don't know. We can try tonight, when I bring the folder.”
“You brought two slips instead of the folder. I'm not opening the case until we have it here.” Tess spoke without raising her voice. Mara looked at the key ring. She wished she had brought the folder.
“You'll go to the hotel?” Mara asked.
“Today. First I want the exact room error in writing. Then I'll collect the packet when they can compare me to the name on it.”
“I can come.”
“Come tonight with the slips. I can talk to a hotel clerk alone.”
Tess called to arrange the manager's written account. Mara gathered the two slips, then put them back down. “Keep these copies,” she said. “I'll bring the folder.”
Tess took a photograph of each. She did not thank Mara for the promise. Mara had made a smaller promise yesterday and broken it by deciding which part of June's work Tess could bear. On her way out, Mara left the funeral keys on the table beside the case. Tess's hand stayed on the phone until the door closed.