diff --git a/backend/internal/store/kill9_test.go b/backend/internal/store/kill9_test.go
index e946dcb9..cb96e022 100644
--- a/backend/internal/store/kill9_test.go
+++ b/backend/internal/store/kill9_test.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package store
 
 import (
 	"bufio"
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"math"
@@ -44,10 +45,12 @@ import (
 
 const (
 	killLoopEnv = "TM_STORE_KILL_LOOP_DB"
-	// killLoopRoundEnv scopes the helper's request hashes to its round. Checkpoints are idempotent by
-	// request_hash (ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING), so two rounds that generated the same hash would settle
-	// once between them, leave the count flat, and make the increment check below report a durability
-	// failure that never happened. The round makes each round's writes unambiguously its own.
+	// killLoopRoundEnv scopes the helper's request hashes to its round. The rest of a hash is the
+	// helper's pid and a counter that restarts at zero every round, so two rounds can only collide when
+	// the OS hands the second helper the pid the first one had. Checkpoints are idempotent by
+	// request_hash (ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING), so that collision would settle once between the two rounds,
+	// leave the count flat, and make the increment check below report a durability failure that never
+	// happened. The round makes each round's writes unambiguously its own.
 	killLoopRoundEnv = "TM_STORE_KILL_LOOP_ROUND"
 	// killLoopReady is printed by the helper exactly once, after its FIRST settle+checkpoint has
 	// committed. It is the whole liveness signal: everything the parent asserts afterwards is about work
@@ -111,12 +114,23 @@ type killHelper struct {
 	drained <-chan struct{}
 }
 
-// killAndReap SIGKILLs the helper and collects it in the order os/exec requires.
+// killAndReap SIGKILLs a helper that is expected to be running and collects it in the order os/exec
+// requires. A helper that has already exited means the round lost its subject before the kill landed,
+// so that is named rather than absorbed.
 func (h *killHelper) killAndReap(t *testing.T, round int) {
 	t.Helper()
 	if err := h.cmd.Process.Signal(syscall.SIGKILL); err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("round %d: SIGKILL: %v", round, err)
 	}
+	h.reap()
+}
+
+// reap leaves nothing of the helper behind. The signal is best-effort because reap also serves the
+// paths where the helper may already have exited on its own; what it guarantees is that a live helper
+// is stopped BEFORE the reader is waited on. The reader drains until EOF, and a process still running
+// never produces one — so waiting for it first would hang the test where it means to fail it.
+func (h *killHelper) reap() {
+	_ = h.cmd.Process.Signal(syscall.SIGKILL)
 	<-h.drained      // every read from the pipe has completed…
 	_ = h.cmd.Wait() // …and only now may Wait close it
 }
@@ -156,7 +170,14 @@ func startKillHelper(t *testing.T, round int, dbPath string) *killHelper {
 			}
 		}
 		if !seen {
-			ready <- fmt.Errorf("helper exited without ever committing a checkpoint (scanner: %v)", sc.Err())
+			// A scanner failure and a clean EOF are different facts about the helper — one is a broken
+			// read, the other a process that ran and said nothing — and the reader keeps them apart so
+			// the parent's diagnosis names which one happened.
+			if err := sc.Err(); err != nil {
+				ready <- fmt.Errorf("the helper's stdout could not be read to the end: %w", err)
+			} else {
+				ready <- errors.New("the helper's stdout reached a clean EOF without the commit marker")
+			}
 		}
 		// An over-long line would have stopped the scanner above; keep draining regardless so a stalled
 		// pipe can never be mistaken for a stalled store.
@@ -166,12 +187,11 @@ func startKillHelper(t *testing.T, round int, dbPath string) *killHelper {
 	select {
 	case err := <-ready:
 		if err != nil {
-			<-drained
-			_ = cmd.Wait()
+			h.reap()
 			t.Fatalf("round %d: %v — there was nothing for SIGKILL to land on, so everything asserted afterwards would be vacuous", round, err)
 		}
 	case <-time.After(killLoopReadyWait):
-		h.killAndReap(t, round)
+		h.reap()
 		t.Fatalf("round %d: the helper did not commit a first checkpoint within %s — the kill would have landed on a process that had done nothing, and everything asserted afterwards would be vacuous",
 			round, killLoopReadyWait)
 	}