Chapter Eighteen - The Greenhouse

I didn't move.

The door was locked. I'd heard the click. The floorboard had creaked somewhere behind me, somewhere in the dark, somewhere close.

Earl's body lay at my feet, his eyes still open, his mouth frozen in a shape that might have been a word or a scream. The gardening trowel pinned the note to his chest. You're too late.

Another creak. Closer this time.

I turned slowly, my hand wrapped around the lockpick set in my pocket. The greenhouse was dark, the single bulb flickering overhead, casting shadows that jumped and danced across the glass walls. Rows of plants lined the walkway, their leaves brushing against each other, creating a soft rustling that could have been wind or could have been movement.

"Who's there?" My voice sounded small. Too small.

No answer.

I took a step back, toward the door. My shoulder brushed against a hanging plant, and it swayed, dripping water onto the concrete floor. The sound echoed in the silence.

Another creak. Behind me. Near the door.

I spun.

Nothing. Just the door. Just the lock.

But the lock had clicked. Someone had locked it from the inside. Someone was still here.

I reached the door and tried the handle. Locked. I fumbled with the lockpick set, my fingers shaking, my breath coming too fast. The picks slipped. I dropped one. It clattered against the floor, loud as a gunshot.

Then I heard it.

Breathing.

Not mine.

Somewhere in the dark, among the plants and the shadows and the rustling leaves, someone was breathing. Slow. Steady. Waiting.

I grabbed the pick and worked the lock. The pins clicked. One. Two. Three.

The breathing got closer.

Four.

I could feel them behind me now. Close enough to touch.

Five.

The lock turned. The door swung open.

I didn't look back. I ran.

The night air hit my face, cold and sharp. I didn't stop. Didn't slow. Didn't breathe. I ran through the trees, down the path, past the library and the dining hall and the dorm, until my lungs burned and my legs shook and I couldn't run anymore.

I collapsed against a tree near the quad, my hands on my knees, gasping.

Earl was dead.

Someone had killed him.

Someone had known I was coming.

The note said You're too late. But that wasn't true. I wasn't too late for Earl. I was too late for something else. Something he was going to tell me.

The names. He was going to give me the names.

Now he was dead, and the names were dead with him.

---

I didn't go back to the dorm.

I couldn't. Not yet. Not with Earl's face still burned into my memory, his open eyes, his twisted body, the trowel pinned to his chest like a message.

I walked to the library instead. It was closed, but I found a bench near the entrance, tucked under the overhang, hidden from view. I sat there in the dark, my phone in my hand, my thumb hovering over Detective Cross's number.

I couldn't call her. Not yet. If I called her, she'd want answers. She'd want to know why I was at the greenhouse. She'd want to know why I'd gone to see Earl in the first place.

And I didn't have answers. Not the ones she wanted.

I put the phone away.

At 2 AM, I walked back to the dorm. The hallways were empty. The door to my room was still locked. I let myself in, closed the door behind me, and leaned against it.

Ashley was asleep. Her breathing was soft and even. The curtain was still open. The note was still in my pocket.

I couldn’t sleep. It was my fault Earl was dead.

I stayed up all night remembering the lifeless body I had seen.

Morning came like a bruise.

Gray and aching. I'd been sitting on my mattress for hours, staring at the wall, replaying the greenhouse in my head. The lock clicking. The floorboard creaking. The breathing.

Someone had been there. Someone had watched me find Earl's body. Someone had locked the door behind me.

They could have hurt me. They could have killed me. But they didn't.

They wanted me to see him. They wanted me to know that they could reach anyone, anytime, anywhere.

It wasn't a threat anymore. It was a promise.

Whoever is doing this knows I’m close to the truth and they are trying to scare me. But a girl who had seen her mother’s casket going six deep underneath and grown without a father knew not to be afraid.

A sharp cry jolted me from my thoughts.

“Ahh.” It was Ashley. “Jesus Nova you scared me.”

I was too overwhelmed to say a word.

"And why are you still in your clothes from yesterday," she said, sitting up.

"I was too tired to change it."

“So are you going to tell me where you ran off to after dinner?”

“Fresh air, so I got lost in the night.”

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she got out of bed, walked over to me, and sat down on the floor beside me.

"Nova. Talk to me."

"I….I can't."

"Why not?"

Because if I talk to you, I'll have to tell you everything. About Alice. About Earl. About the photograph and the napkin and the warnings. And if I tell you everything, you'll be in danger too.

"I just can't," I said.

Ashley sat there, her shoulder touching mine, her presence a quiet comfort I didn't deserve.

"Okay," she said. "But when you're ready, I'm here."

The same words Myles had said. The same promise. The same patience.

I didn't understand it. I didn't understand how they could care about someone who was lying to them, hiding from them, using them.

Maybe that was the worst part. Maybe I was starting to care about them too.

---

Breakfast was quiet.

Me and Ashley sat at the table waiting for the rest. When they arrived I could feel them looking at me, Madden’s cast resting on her thigh, the same concern in their eyes, the same unasked questions.

Come to think of it, how did she get that cast? I remember her saying she tripped and fell, but how high and how hard could she have fallen. Maybe from a window or trying too hard to blackmail someone.

"You missed movie night," Madden said.

I didn't respond.

Myles pushed a cup of coffee toward me. Black. No sugar. The way I liked it. I wrapped my hands around the cup and let the warmth seep into my fingers.

"We were worried about you," he said.

"You didn’t have to."

"Too late."

We sat in silence. Ashley started talking about a paper she had due, filling the empty space with words that didn't matter. Madden nodded along. Myles watched me.

I tried so hard not to meet his eyes.

The only thing in my mind now was my next move and how to go about it.

After breakfast, I walked to the BioMed building.

I don't know why. I didn't have a plan. I just needed to see it. The hallway where I'd first seen Earl. The door with the keypad lock. The basement where he'd mopped the same spot over and over.

The building was busy now, students and faculty moving between labs, their voices echoing off the walls. No one looked at me. No one noticed me.

I found the hallway. The door. The sign that said AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

Earl had stood here, his hand on the door, listening. He'd known something. He'd seen something.

And now he was dead.

I turned to leave.

And walked right into Helena Vance.

She was taller up close. Blonde hair, cold eyes, the same perfect smile that had never reached her face. She was wearing a lab coat, and her hands were tucked into the pockets.

"Nova," she said. "Funny running into you here. Again.”

"I was actually looking for you, so I kind of got lost, again.” I let out a nervous laugh.

She tilted her head. "You really should work on that, so what can I help you with?”

“Uhm…I really love the good work you are putting into the science lab and I wanted to say a big congratulations.” Another nervous laugh.

“Ohh, thank you. That’s new.” She gave a big smile, the one that made her lip gloss pop. “I have to go now, we have a meeting. Apparently someone murdered the janitor of all people, from one case to another.”

My blood went cold. "What? Earl is dead?"

She blinked. "You didn't hear? Heart attack. Last night. They found him in the greenhouse this morning."

The greenhouse. Where I'd found him. Where someone had killed him.

Heart attack.

They were covering it up.

I forced my face to stay neutral. "That's terrible."

"Yes. He'd been here a long time. Twenty-three years."

I said nothing.

"He liked Alice," Helena continued. "She used to bring him coffee. Did you know that?"

"I didn't know Alice."

"No. Of course not." She smiled again. "Well. Be careful, Nova. This campus has a way of... giving surprise."

She walked away, her heels clicking against the floor, her blonde hair swinging behind her.

I stood there for a long moment.

Then I walked out of the building and didn't look back.