Chapter 38: Separate Tables
Jonah sat behind a different door so neither of us could borrow the other's memory.
On Tuesday morning, KRR used two interview rooms connected only through Samuel's process desk and our separate attorneys.
I could not see Jonah's screen, notes, or arrival path.
He could not see mine.
Even our waiting areas and departure times had been separated by written schedules.
Dana sat with me while Miriam remained with him.
Samuel explained that our prior contact created both useful chronology and contamination risk.
Vivian's written objection alleged we had coordinated a single story since the funeral.
The objection was not evidence, but the possibility deserved a method anyone could inspect.
KRR required separate contact logs from each attorney.
Dana's log listed every scheduled meeting, message routed through counsel, and material identifier exchanged with me present.
Miriam's log would do the same for Jonah without disclosing privileged advice.
The logs could disagree and still be useful.
Their purpose was to expose contact, not manufacture identical recollections after the fact or conceal differences behind attorney coordination or later convenience.
Samuel asked me to describe our March 10 boundary meeting without seeing Jonah's account.
I named the room, attorneys, purpose, and D02 locator phrase.
I did not guess what Jonah felt or intended.
When my memory of a time differed from Dana's calendar, KRR recorded both and flagged the calendar for verification.
No one invited me to harmonize the answer.
An inconsistency would become a verification task rather than a reason to combine interviews.
Samuel then asked what Jonah had told me about Issue 17.
I separated statements I heard from facts later supported by D03, D04, and L03.
That separation mattered because repetition could make a claim feel independently verified when it was not.
Across the hall, a door opened and closed.
I did not turn toward it.
KRR's runner carried only sealed material-number receipts between the process desk and each attorney.
Neither side received interview content.
The runner's receipt proved movement of identifiers while protecting everything either witness had said.
If Jonah identified a document, Miriam would transmit its number to KRR.
If I held a responsive Northline item, Dana would do the same.
The attorneys could discuss scheduling and custody without sharing legal strategy or witness answers.
I signed a no-joint-interview protocol.
It barred rehearsal, shared draft statements, and private comparison of testimony.
Jonah signed an identical copy in the other room.
His signature reached the register without passing through me, Dana, or any Whitmore system.
Samuel sent both signatures to the methods register without bringing us together.
The slower process cost us the comfort of correcting each other immediately.
It also protected both accounts from becoming a compromise version no record could test.
KRR compared the contact logs only for dates and disclosed material numbers.
One difference involved a call Dana remembered as twelve minutes and Miriam logged as eleven.
Samuel marked it immaterial pending the phone record.
Another involved whether a brochure had been visible before Jonah set the forty-eight-hour deadline.
He preserved the difference rather than choosing a better narrative.
That restraint made the process slower and the eventual comparison harder to dismiss as rehearsal.
At noon, procurement counsel's office confirmed Vivian's coordination objection would be answered through the published method, not argument.
KRR would disclose the separation protocol in its methods summary.
I remained free to challenge an inaccurate record through Dana.
I was not free to learn Jonah's answer first.
Samuel closed both interviews at the same recorded minute.
We left by separate corridors under the schedule our attorneys had chosen.
Before I stood, he displayed the next scope draft in my room.
It contained nine anonymous risk record IDs and no names.
Wednesday's hearing would decide whether all nine could enter the sampling pool.