The memorial was pale gray. The sample in the commissioner's papers was nearly black. Restorer Inez wondered whether the quarry supplied cheaper stone after the man who ordered it died.
The sample's underside carried a note about wetting the surface before judging its color. The stone darkened sharply under water, then faded as it dried. The commissioner's photograph had been taken in rain, while the finished memorial was usually seen beneath a shelter.
Inez found a second sample bearing a different grain and a rejected mark. The paperwork showed a choice between stones, but no substitution after approval. The suspicion had begun with two appearances of the same material under different conditions.
She photographed the approved sample wet and dry for the conservation record. The commissioner's granddaughter asked which appearance was the true one. Inez placed both photographs beside the stone. The question stopped needing a single answer. What mattered was preserving the conditions under which each image had been made, so the next comparison would begin with more than a difference in color.