CLOVER

Blooming Gardens

The train stopped at its last station exactly at 2:30. He had walked all the way to the agency by foot. It was too early. The agency was closed, and no one seemed to be inside. He hoped he wasn't late and that Jennifer was still alive. He decided to go stay at his house until the agency opened. He hadn't been home for weeks. He even missed the annoying barks of Max. As soon as he reached the front yard, Max came running to his feet. "Hey, hey! I missed you too, Max!"-he smiled while petting his head. Max didn't seem to enjoy it, but instead, he started acting really weird. He started running around the garden as if he wanted to show William something. "What's wrong, boy? Did you lose something?"-he walked towards him. Max started barking loudly. He kept barking as he was sniffing the ground. William got shocked by his behavior and decided to sit on the ground, but when he did so, Max bit his jacket, pulling him to stand up. "Is there something down here, Max?"-he asked, curious of what was wrong. Max started digging on the ground. It was 3 of the morning! What could have he possibly found under the garden of their house. Some of the neighbors looked out of their windows, trying to understand what was ruining their sleep this early. Max kept digging, and then he finally stopped. William took a step closer to see what he had discovered, and to his surprise, it was a piece of fabric. Everything went black. His blood dropped on his feet, and his face turned as pale as a ghost. His eyes widened in horror as he noticed that it was a tie. A tie, around a neck which belonged to the body of a man. A man was buried under his garden! A terrible smell started spreading around the neighborhood as Max started digging more and more but at different spots of the garden so much so that the whole garden was now a disaster. Everyone who saw started screaming. Not one body, but 48?! His heart started beating faster in every glance that he gave to each body. It didn't take long for Beddington and a group of officers to show up in front of him after the calls for help that the whole neighborhood had made. One of the officers went vomiting in the back as the others were looking around the whole mess in terror and fear. Beddington was in a loss for words. As much as he tried to, he felt paralyzed to speak. William's body went numb. He was never affected by seeing dead corpses lying in front of him, but this was different. There were 48 of them. All the 48 men that Clover had poisoned terribly. Who would even think that the place where she hid all the bodies was so close to him, and he never realized that. Not once! Max stopped barking and sat near William's feet. "William?!"-Beddington asked with difficulty. He did not answer. He was too shocked to do so. Even though he had discovered everything, the whole truth, the garden blooming full of dead bodies, would make everything sound as a made-up lie. The officers covered the area and inspected the bodies. Some of them were already decomposed, and it was hard to tell which body belonged to who. Beddington reached closer to William as the neighbors started whispering.
"That is why he never caught her on time!"
"What a disgusting man!"
"Who would ever think that he was helping that filthy woman!"
William wiped his face with his hands, still finding it hard to speak. "I know that you did not do this, but you better have a strong argument to prove your innocence."-Beddington turned him around and handcuffed him. "Until then, you are arrested." William walked with another group of officers standing behind his back as the others, along with Beddington, confiscated the entire house, and they took the bodies out, wrapping them in plastic bags. William and the others reached the agency in a short while. While he was about to get in, he saw Scarlett standing inside, waiting with her hands crossed over under her chest, smiling at him slyly. His teeth clenched hard, trying to hold all the anger and tears of betrayal inside him. He had to be strong no matter how much she provoked him. The officers locked him in a cell next to Jennifer. She was asleep but woke up shortly after hearing the clanking sounds of the metal bars. As her vision finally cleared, he saw William sitting inside the cell next to hers. She rubbed her eyes hardly, not believing what she had just witnessed. "William? What in the world happened?"-she asked him, shaking the bars next to him to get his attention. William closed his eyes, trying to zone out from everything. Jennifer understood that he needed to have a little moment to calm himself down. He was having one of his panic attacks that he always tried to pass by staying calm and quiet in a corner where no one could bother him. A cracking sound of heels was coming near them. She saw him standing in complete misery and pain and decided not to talk but slide a box between the gaps of the cell's doors. Jennifer looked at her in complete confusion and tried to calm William somehow so he could notice the box that was now sitting next to him. It was a golden box with a big clover symbol stamped to it. On the side, it had a lever that could be twisted. William breathed slowly, his eyes half closed. He tilted his head towards the direction of the box and reached for it in frustration. He looked at the box in a weird way and then took the lever and twisted it.