Late at night, Iris walked home from the police station carrying a box of Aster Winnow’s belongings, numb with grief and facing the undertaker’s bill. In the empty flat she sought traces of her mother and found only silence. She lay in Aster’s bed, recalling happier years before alcohol and Forest’s enlistment changed their lives, and cried herself to sleep.

Persistent knocking woke Iris late the next morning. Disoriented, she remembered the previous day’s events—learning of her mother’s death, identifying the body at Station Nine—and scrambled up, still in Aster’s room and sheets.

Roman Kitt called through the door, worried after Iris had left work early and missed the morning. Iris realized she had forgotten to lock the door; Roman tested the knob and it opened. He stepped into the bright, disordered flat, taking in Iris’s state as she hastily clutched her half-unbuttoned blouse closed, and misread the situation as if she were not alone.

Ashamed of the flat’s disarray and determined to hide her private pain, Iris avoided Roman’s eyes and claimed she had felt ill and overslept. Roman offered to help—fetch food, send a doctor, inform Zeb Autry—but Iris repeatedly refused, insisting she would return to work the next day.

Roman returned her trench coat and, sensing her distress despite her refusals, asked her to lock the door behind him. After a tense pause, Iris agreed. When Roman stepped back into the hall, she hesitated, then slid the bolts while he waited outside. Only after hearing the locks did Roman finally leave, and Iris stood alone again in her grief.