Chapter 352: The Carrier’s Witness

Dole’s note asked Ren and Vesper to bring their junction records. Investigators had located one of the Bellcross shaft workers, and she wanted to check his account of the returned load against their observations.

The room at the Alliance office was smaller than the one they had used before. Dole sat at the head of the table, with Hask beside the open expedition file and the recorder waiting at the other end.

A man in a faded driver’s coat occupied the remaining side. His hands lay flat on the wood. He glanced up as they entered, then looked back at the papers before him.

"He’s already given his account separately," Dole said. "I’ve asked him to stay while we clarify the handover."

Ren set down his bundle. Vesper opened her notebook.

Hask found the crew entry in the registry booking.

"This places him at one of the shafts for the carriage of four-one-one-nine and four-one-two-zero. He wasn’t assigned to the earlier run."

The driver nodded.

"I took the wagon back to the yard."

"That’s the part we’re checking," Dole said.

— • —

Hask laid the driver’s retained docket beside the booking. The docket bore a yard stamp and the man’s signature. It listed two sealed crates and two lined boxes leaving on the wagon.

Ren untied his bundle and supplied the certified copy. The original remained with Dole’s case file; this copy recorded only the sealed crates changing hands at the junction.

"The driver says the lined boxes returned with him," Dole said. "There’s no separate return entry for them in the papers we’ve received. What did you see transferred?"

"The two crates," Ren said. "The crew moved the lined boxes aside to reach them. Then they lifted the crates onto the hand-cart, one at a time."

"Were the crates packed inside those boxes?"

"No. They were separate loads on the wagon. The boxes stayed aboard."

Vesper turned her notebook so Dole could see the junction sketch. The wagon and cart stood beside the boards, with both approaches marked and the ridge above them.

She pointed to her notes below it.

"I recorded the boxes being shifted before the crates came off. They were still on the wagon when the two workers pulled it toward the yard."

The driver looked from the sketch to Dole.

"I told you we brought them back."

"Yes," she said. "Their observations agree with that part of your account."

Hask marked the return detail beside the docket. The recorder entered which portions Ren and Vesper had confirmed.

— • —

Dole left the sketch on the table while she asked the driver about the withdrawal.

He had remained at the shafts when the shouting began. From below, he saw the escort move up the flank but lost sight of him near the crest. Later, the wagon leader ran down the second route ahead of the loaded hand-cart.

"The other driver picked up his shaft. I took mine, and we went back along the flags."

"Did you see either attacker fall?"

"No. I was watching the boards until we got the wheels onto the track. Then the ground ahead."

At the yard, another load stood waiting for departure. He helped secure the returned boxes and remained there while the yard staff dealt with the wagon.

"A man came with an order from the receiving station," he said. "The next departure was to wait until both crews had the new route. No junction handover. We were to take the load straight to the stone lip, and the papers would travel with the escort."

"You were assigned to that carriage?"

"They told me to take a shaft again. I asked to come off it." He rubbed one palm against the table. "They took my name off. I’m still owed for the work I did, but nobody answers when I ask."

Dole checked something in his earlier statement.

"You said the escort’s death affected your decision. How did you hear about it?"

"The man who brought the order told us."

The driver looked down at his hands.

"We’d shared bread at the yard. The escort and me. He sat on the boards with us before the run."

Ren remembered the man’s grip loosening on his sleeve, then his body falling beside the broken weapon. Across the table, the driver pressed a thumb into his palm and waited for Dole’s next question.

Ren left his own hands beside the copy.

— • —

"Where did the cargo come from before the yard?" Dole asked.

"The incoming sheet said survey depot."

"Did you collect it there?"

"No. It was already at the yard when I came on."

Hask entered that distinction, then brought forward the company’s dispatch records. Dole had obtained them after the earlier appointment. He matched the driver’s crew reference to the assignment that had been withdrawn.

"Here," he said. "Your name removed from the next carriage. The load remained on the board."

The driver leaned over the entry and confirmed it.

Hask followed the reference to another page. The same load appeared under a replacement crew, with direct delivery to Old Cistern entered as its route. Beside it were a dispatch time and the yard’s departure mark.

"This is earlier than the cancellation I sent you for the wagon leader," Dole told Ren. "They’re separate assignments."

He looked at the dates. The wagon leader’s later entry had still carried no replacement when her office sent it. Here, the yard had supplied another crew for the driver’s refused run.

"So this one left?" Ren asked.

"The yard recorded its departure," Hask said. "We haven’t confirmed its arrival."

Dole drew the dispatch page beside the driver’s statement.

"The direct route appears in both. We can check this carriage at the receiving end."

The driver remained bent toward the page. He had known the load was waiting when he refused it. The departure entry was new to him.

— • —

"If the escort carried the papers," Ren asked, "where was the handover supposed to be recorded? There was a box at the junction. Did the new order say what replaced that?"

The driver shook his head.

"Only that the papers went with the escort. I never drove the new route."

Dole noted the question beside the receiving instructions.

"We’ll request the receipt for this dispatch and check the delivery point."

"Let me know if there’s something else we can identify," Ren said.

"I will."

She asked the driver about the wagon leader before finishing. He had not seen him since his own last shift at the yard. Ren’s description of the man who attacked at the landing meant nothing to him; he had not been present there.

Hask compared the copy of the driving docket with the paper on the table, then returned the driver’s sheet. The man folded it along its worn crease and put it inside his coat.

Dole gave him her office contact before he left. He checked the name on it, tucked it beside the docket, and went out.

— • —

Once the door closed, Ren looked at the dispatch entry again.

"Does that bring you any closer to finding Mei?"

"It gives us a specific carriage to follow," Dole said. "He saw sealed cargo. Nothing he described places her in it or at the works."

Ren nodded. The destination had already been on the sheet he brought home. Now they had an account of the route changing and a departure recorded under the new instructions.

Hask was copying the dispatch reference and crew details onto the request for the receiving record. Ren gathered his certified copy and tied the bundle while Vesper closed her notebook.

Outside, the campus road lay in shadow. Vendors were packing the last of their stock as they walked toward the terraces.

His slate sounded before they reached the turn. He expected another note from Dole’s office, but Halvern’s name headed the message.

The meeting with your parents is arranged. Bring Lyra and Iris. Come to me first; I’ll give you the route.

A time followed beneath it.

Ren stopped beside the wall to read the message again. Vesper waited a pace ahead, then turned back.

"My parents," he said. "Halvern’s arranged it."

She glanced at the slate in his hand. "Both of them?"

"Yes."

He put it away and shifted the record bundle under his arm. He needed to find Lyra and Iris before the evening was over.