At the End of the Garden

Chapter Thirty-Five

After talking quietly with Perry for a while about what I should and shouldn't be eating/doing, Doctor Rash left to go back to his own flat. He was working tonight but promised to check up on me first thing in the morning. Not long after Perry left to go to the shops to get some food. She hadn't counted on guests today, but Ren insisted that they stay as long as possible. She promised to pay Perry back for letting them stay a while (they weren't going to stay overnight), but Perry only seemed slightly bothered. Sidney had been a liability for a while and she seemed pretty used to concept.
Before Perry left, she'd tried to lighten the mood by winding up Sidney (who she called Sid), saying that he was being a shit host. He hadn't offered anyone a drink.
We all knew Sidney, even if he seemed strange right now. Normally he'd play it off as a joke, laugh it off, make a snarky comment like 'it's your flat' or 'I don't even like these people.' He didn't do any of that.
Instead, he just narrowed his eyes and glared at her, which even took Perry by surprise. She knew Sidney too, probably better than me, which meant this side of him was new to her as well. She brushed it off pretty easily though, even added salt to the wound by flicking the side of his head as she passed him to leave.
The surprise of a grumpy Sidney had worn off a while ago, the big shock was how Angie was still in flat and hadn't made her escape yet. Even if she was being so quiet that I had to continuously check she was still there. Her ideal chance to get away would have been to sneak out with Perry, since everyone was pretty much expecting Ren's interrogation to begin as soon as Perry was out the door.
"I wonder if the know-it-alls would like to start talking." Ren said, meaning everyone but herself and Micheal.
Even though the information wasn't eager to jump out of my mouth, I nodded. It wasn't like the other two seemed interesting in sharing what they knew. "I'm not sure where to start..."
Sidney, who was leaning over one of the kitchen counters, sighed.
"I do." He said. "It was Mr Quinn, wasn't it?"
I nodded.
"Not just this, not just you. But Luka as well."
I nodded again.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Ren jumped in straight away. "What are you talking about?"
I took a deep breath. These words had been caught in my throat for weeks. "Victor Quinn... he..."
When I failed to finish the sentence, Sidney did it for me.
"Killed Luka."

"Shut up Sidney. I don't believe you." Ren said, though I noticed Michael's head drop. And while she looked angry, there was something similar to resignation in her eyes. Angie kept her mouth shut.
"I told you that me and Eden broke into his office, right? That why I was grounded." I said, now Sidney had done the hard bit for me, I found explaining myself a little easier.
Ren nodded, sceptically.
"Well, while we were in there, we found a private register that listed you and Angie as scholarship students. That why I was asking you about bursaries the other day."
Ren nodded again and started avoiding my gaze, Michael hadn't moved and I doubted he was listening. But this was going to hurt more if Ren, of all people, was going to cry. I'd break too.
"And then... well. It wasn't just that... Eden's mum also..." I shook my head, I still wasn't sure if Evelyn's suicide had anything to do with it. "But, I asked him... Really stupidly. Well, I told him about the ghost rumour and he... flipped." I coughed a little, not used to talking for so long.
"I actually ran into something trying to get away from him. Then I woke up in the shed."
When I looked at Angie, she was facing the door, but she hadn't actually got any closer to it. Her shoulders were high though, almost at her ears, like she was trying not to hear us.
Suddenly, almost out of nowhere. "Why..."
It was Michael.
"I don't get it." He was looking at me with tears falling right the way down to his chin, he'd been crying since I started speaking. Now he looked like he pleading with me, like I could rewind time and bring her back.
"Don't ask Marie." Sidney chimed in, I heard him shuffling about in the kitchen. When I turned around, he was getting a glass of the cupboard. "You all know about the coat... who do you think has the answers?"
The two of them looked to Angie.
"Angela." Ren spat.
I was watching Angie, waiting for her to do something, so I barely noticed the arm behind me holding a glass of water. A peace offering? I took it and thanked him quietly.
"Fine." Angie said, and composed herself to act like she was just being her usual moody self and hadn't been crying. Her façade didn't last long. "They're right."
She spun around but when she noticed the four pairs of eyes watching her, she didn't like it and turned back the other way. Promptly I heard her sniffling again and she rubbed her eyes. I couldn't imagine Angie crying either. Though I had learned recently that not crying didn't necessarily make you strong.
"The night you went back for your coat." Sidney kindly helped her out with a place to start. He hadn't gone back to counter and was instead leaning against the back of the sofa just behind where I was still wrapped in his duvet,
"Yes." Angie hissed. "We went back for my coat."
Then she mellowed out, just a little, as if returning mentally to the twelve-year-old that saw it all.
"We waited twenty minutes for the bus to take us back to the school, so by the time we got back the building was locked and pitch black. But... there were lights around the back where construction for the new building was still happening. Luka thought... maybe someone there could let us in. I don't know if any of you remember, but when they were finishing the building, they had that tent in the field." She paused, took a deep breath and carried on.
"Luka went running towards it, and in the tent was... Mr Quinn and two women. They were arguing, or Mr Quinn and one of the women. I tried to tell Luka not to bother, that maybe there were some construction workers around." She stopped to laugh. "This is Luka we're talking about. She wasn't afraid of him. She barged right in."
"I'm not 100% sure what they were talking about. Money, I think. I didn't hear as much because I didn't fully follow Luka in. There was a blonde women though, trying to tell him something was illegal. Luka obviously heard more, because she looked so shocked and once they noticed she was in there, she panicked and ran away. Mr Quinn tried to stop her. This was..."
Angie stopped. Clenched her fists. "I don't why I'm saying all this."
"Too late to stop now." Sidney said, sounding a bit like himself for just a moment.
Angie snorted, ungracefully. "This... was before the foundations for the shed were put down. But how was she supposed to know that? When Victor Quinn tried to call her back, she turned and didn't noticed where she was going. And she fell in. I really don't want to do this. You can work the rest out."
"Not really." Sidney said, being the most composed.
"She can't have died from just that." I said. I knew nothing about buildings, but I didn't think foundations were deep enough to kill a person.
"She didn't. Mr Quinn stood there for a bit then started filling the hole."

I wanted to throw up, but resorted to drinking the water Sidney gave me instead.

"Fuck off. Why did no-one stop him?" Ren said. "I still don't get it. Why?"
"The blonde woman did. No-one else paid attention until she started screaming, and by then..."
"The blonde woman?" I muttered, mainly to myself.
"She really did try." Angie said, then almost bitterly repeated. "She shouted at him, about how she was only Eden's age..." It was like she knew what I was thinking. Hah.
"But. Why?" Michael asked, "Why not help her?"
Angie clicked her tongue and threw her head back. "Don't know! He's a maniac! He locked Marie in a shed! Maybe it's genetic, that's all I could think of anyway when his son hit Sidney!" She looked directly at him and we both shuffled uncomfortably.
"Okay." Ren said, "fine, fine. Fine! Not if not fine. But what were you doing?"
Angie went back to looking at the door. "The other woman found me. After he... calmed down. She... took me home and promised me that... it would all go away, all I had to do was be quiet. In the end I wasn't allowed to say no because... she'd already spoken to my parents about it."
"Coward." Ren said.
"I didn't know what he'd do to me if I spoke out!" She retaliated rather childishly for her. She finally turned to look at Ren. "Look what he did to Marie."
Ren was crying. When Angie saw that, she shut up.
"The other woman." I jumped in.
She looked at me, knowing what I was going to ask.
"I don't know."
"Yes. You do..."
It made sense that Angie never wanted to come over to my house.
"You... you've seen pictures of my mum at least..."
"I don't know, Marie."
I sunk into the seat, disturbing the way Sidney was sitting on the sofa.
"Why... why couldn't he have just..." Michael asked, it wasn't really a question. It was more like he was trying to expell the pain out of him.
"She must have walked in on something she shouldn't have." Sidney said.
"I found a letter, saying that he had to be in court for some tax fraud thing about a year before." I added, doing my worst at comforting my friends.
And Angie's explanation about Victor Quinn being a maniac wouldn't surprise me either. I didn't think it was genetic like she said, even though I had a victim of Eden right beside me. Maybe because... Victor Quinn's wealth (like Eden's reputation) was more important to him then anything else and he couldn't lose it. Not for the life of a child, not for his wife, not for his lover's daughter. But I didn't really want to give him an excuse.
   "That still doesn't seem like a reason to..." Ren muttered, then stood up dramatically. "We should go." She wiped her eyes and repeated. "We should go."
Angie was already opening the door.
"Already? Do you know how to get back?" I questioned.
"We'll be fine." Michael assured.
He then shuffled closer and threw one of his arms around me awkwardly, for me at least.
"Thank you..." He said.
"I didn't do anything."
It was a long hug, a little uncomfortable at first. It was obviously more for Michael's sake then it was for mine because when he let go he managed to smile at me before chasing after Angie to make sure she didn't disappear by herself.
Ren was next. She placed a hand on my forehead, measuring how cold I was.
"Don't kill her." I muttered.
Ren laughed. "No promises."
She used the hand on my forehead to lift the hair covering my face out the way to kiss the top of my head. "Don't get worse."
"I won't." Though I was tempted to mimic her 'no promises reply.'
Then she was out the door too. Just like that.
I wish it hadn't been so sudden (and I wished I hadn't been left alone with Sidney). But it felt like they needed desperately to not be here in order to deal with their emotions. I didn't blame them. If it were me, all I'd want was my own pillow to cry into. Or maybe Ren was actually in the elevator, shouting at Angie or pushing her down the stairs. Who's to say?
But...
Angie confirmed that Evelyn was there the night Luka died. I remembered Evelyn's voice, even if it had been years since I'd heard it. I could imagine it screaming at Victor Quinn. Begging him to stop. Saying Eden's name. I wouldn't forget it now. It will be engraved in my head as if I was there.
I looked up, Sidney's chin was pointed in the direction of the door.
"How did you know it was Victor Quinn?" I asked.
He looked down at me, then quickly back up before shrugging. "When Angie made us go to the shed, I thought it had to be someone in the school. And I overheard you two yesterday, when she didn't want you to call Eden."
"Right..." I muttered. I suppose it was more obvious than I thought. "Thank you though, I'm glad I didn't have to tell them on my own."
He didn't answer, he just hummed in a way that meant absolutely nothing and then uncomfortably got up. Maybe only now realising we didn't have to be so close to each other when we were the only two left in the room. I wish he had stayed though, because when he disappeared into one of the other rooms I was left with Luka's suffocation, Angie's fear and the pain the drove Evelyn to kill herself.

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This chapter feels like info dumping, but lets all pretend it isn't.