Chapter Fifteen B: Two Different Opening Times
Priya answered Becca’s call while standing beside a printer in the exhibition hall.
She listened without interruption and then asked Becca to repeat the names of the delivery companies.
Evan heard the printer begin rattling in the background.
“I’ve got three vendors here who were told to unload at five,” Priya said.
“Our official loading schedule starts at seven.”
Becca closed her eyes.
“That’s exactly what happened the first time.”
Priya asked them to meet at the hall before dawn.
She had decided to stop relying on the drawings and watch how the market was physically assembled.
Evan returned home to find Lila waiting in the kitchen.
She had prepared dinner, but neither of them touched the food until he finished describing the rental yard.
Iris appeared in the doorway carrying her damaged model.
She had repaired the crushed cardboard house with thin strips of masking tape.
“Becca stepped on this,” Iris said.
“She admitted it,” Evan replied.
Iris studied the crooked roof.
“Did she explain why she didn’t knock?”
“She believed Nolan had permission to take the banner.”
“That explains what she believed,” Iris said.
“It doesn’t explain why she believed entering through the basement was normal.”
Lila pulled out a chair for her.
“What are you trying to ask?”
Iris set the model on the table.
“If Nolan knew someone would be home, why did he choose such a loud distraction?”
Evan had been asking himself the same question since the attack.
He thought Nolan wanted Marla arrested or discredited, but that explanation did not account for the precise timing.
Iris moved a cardboard figure beside the miniature house.
“Maybe he wanted you to see Marla.”
“He certainly succeeded,” Evan said.
“But why would he want me to see her?”
Iris placed a second figure beside the basement door.
“Because if you saw a stranger running away, you would chase the stranger.”
She pointed to the first figure.
“If you saw your neighbor swinging an axe, you would stay and argue.”
Lila looked at Evan.
“And you did.”
The observation bothered him because it was true.
Nolan had not needed to predict every movement.
He had only needed to know which conflict would hold Evan’s attention longest.
Iris asked whether she could interview Becca for her film.
Evan told her the woman was willing to explain what she had done, but he would arrange a meeting in a public place.
“I don’t want a confession that makes everyone look foolish,” Iris said.
“I want to understand why the plan worked.”
Lila reached across the table and straightened the cardboard roof.
“Then you should also interview the people who refused to follow it,” she said.
Iris wrote the suggestion in her notebook.
She added another question beneath it.
“What happens when the distraction fails?”
