Chapter 45: Shells in the garden

The girls finally got to the waiting room, where Madam Carmen was sitting. Her eyes and demeanor gave out whatever facade she was trying to preserve.

Clearing her throat, she sat up straight before speaking,

" Where have you girls been?" she asked.

" We're sorry madam Carmen." they both replied, standing.

'' I asked where your asses have been, I didn't ask you to apologize to me." She said. Then Morticia decided to speak up first.

" I went to the restroom and by the time I came_ "

" Don't you both know you're here for a reason?" Madam Carmen asked.

" We're sorry ma'am. W_ "

" You're sorry?" she chimed in. " Do you think you both are truly sorry? Even if your answer is yes, it's not gonna change anything. Apologies don't fix nothing!" Carmen exclaimed at the end.

" Apologies are just words you offer after you've fucked somebody's life and you can't do anything about it. You just feel you can tell a couple of words you don't mean to that person and expect their ass to be fine. Even when the person gets hospitalized you can't even dim it fit to come down in person to recite those fucked made-up words!" Carmen said, raising her voice at the last sentence.

Then, tears clouded her eyes, the type that promised to have no end by the time it started rushing out. But Carmen still managed to rant about her boy's father anyways,

" You apologize when you can't do nothing to change... when you can't do nothing to change the fact that you've... made an innocent ..." that was all she could say before she lost control over her voice.

Exchanging glances at each other, Morticia and Jenna both proceeded to sit by her side to console her.

Carmen didn't reject it at all. Infact, she leaned in when Morticia pulled her in as she relaxed her head on Morticia's shoulders while Jenna patted her hand.

" It's okay Madam Carmen. Everything will be fine.'' Morticia said to Carmen who was crying.

Morticia really did wish so.

After about three minutes, Madam Carmen sat up straight, but slowly, to show she wasn't pissed at them or anything of that sort.

" Thank you both." she said clearing her throat before nose blowing unto a face wipe.

" I would like the both of you to deliver that package to someone. I wanna stay here with my son. The doctor can only let me in for 15 minutes in hours to come, so please tell Belle (a senior staff at Madam Carmen's) to hold it down alone." Madam Carmen instructed nicely.

" Ok ma'am." Jenna replied this time.

Then madam Carmen went on to give them the address, after telling them not to say a word to anyone about the accident, especially at the restaurant.

That was one of the reason she had asked the both of them to follow her. Initially, she intended to talk to them, which was why she sent for them, but after learning about her son's condition, including John John, she couldn't anymore and so while she was contemplating if she could take the parcel with her, she decided that one of them could come with her to deliver it on her behalf.

But after she answered the phone call, she didn't want anyone to know about her son's accident anymore so she asked the both of them to follow her.

Carmen knew the way she stormed out would raise questions and she didn't want them to have answers, not after what she heard over the phone. So she asked both Jenna and Morticia to accompany her so that whoever was to stay back wouldn't tell anyone what she learnt.

But asides concealing that from any other person, there was another reason why it had to be the both of them.

_

" I feel pity for madam Carmen and her son too." said Morticia with a pout.

" Yeah me too. I just hope that whatever it is, they sort it out." Jenna said with a sad sigh as they sat in a taxi.

After a while,

" You do know that I'm not gonna drop it anytime soon, right?" asked Jenna who had Morticia knitting her brows.

" Oh please Morticia. Don't give me that face. You know what I mean, restroom girl." Jenna said with a teasing smile that rang alarm bells in Morticia's head.

" Nothing happened in there. It was all a misunderstanding, plus I was too quick to react. I should've waited for him to come out, but I was scared he was gonna come out without it. You know how crafty thieves are." Morticia said with a slightly red cheeks.

" Hmm. I see." Jenna said acting like she was thinking about believing Morticia or not.

Then Morticia went ahead to explain further, leaving out a lot of details, including how her cheeks grew hot, because of how Ken's breathe fanned her face and how it grew hotter thanks to the dirty advice from the crazy dude.

The thought of that made Morticia's face glow in red tomatoes color and that didn't go unnoticed by Jenna. But she decided not to question further, for the moment at least, besides she was sure not much happened Jenna concluded with a barely noticeable smile.

_

When the girls arrived, they handed the parcel to an old man who was the only one that was permitted to enter the main compound of the house, despite all the procedures it took to pass through the main gate. That was a bit off to the girls but they shook it off their mind, after all, it could be just for security purposes, right?

~ Planora ~

" I had to threaten her." Gwen, Lily's friend said to Lily, trying to keep her voice down since they were at a garden for a can of soda, or so they told everyone they left at home.

" Did she tell you?'' Liliana asked, equally as curious as Gwen when she suspected her cousin sister was keeping a secret, too much for her to not share.

" She..." Gwen said trembling as she imagined what her dear cousin must have withstood to stay quiet so she could preserve her life that night.

" She what?! Gwen." Lily asked, slowly losing her patience.

" She told me, Doc Col...Collins killed a man. He...he_ "

" Wait! Hold on!'' He did what? Is this some prank or what cause if it is, then it's not funny!" Lily exclaimed.

" It's not! He stabbed him on the chest with a pen knife and...and he took the gun from the man and shot him in the head." Gwen said as her whole body was shivering at the words that were coming out her mouth.

She took metaphorical hats off for her dear cousin who witnessed every thing from the window without screaming. Gwen knew she would have screamed and probably fainted, which would've also been the end of her.

" What gun? What are you saying? Talk to me Gwen! Please explain it to me before I loose my mind." Lily said on the verge of actually losing her mind.

Gwen, to the best of her ability explained all that her cousin told her. Starting from when her cousin told her she felt Carter deliberately alerted her cousin up, as non of them were at home that day.

Now,

Her cousin sister didn't know Carter even existed, but he knew her from the trenches, also known as the Planora's golden town since it was the most popular trench town in all of Planora.

Her cousin happened to be the girl that helped Morticia run from Jinjin that afternoon. Tamara was well known in the community since that was where Carter took shelter while he plotted to kill Collins.

Carter lived in an uncompleted building and so nothing around him went by without his knowledge. The day he saw a Jeep which came to take Tamara, he did a little look-into and discovered she was taken to Gwen's family house.

But what actually lit the fuse for Carter was when he discovered that they were neighbors to Collins. He lost it! He began thinking of ways Tamara's presence would benefit him.

On that faithful night, neither Gwen nor her parents and siblings were at home. Gwen was sleeping over at The Prescott Mansion, her sisters both went to stay at their boyfriend's, since thier parents had travelled. They decided to have all the 'fun' while their parents were away.

But to Carter who had been monitoring what and who went in and out of the house, it was a miraculous turn of event.

The strange sounds Collins heard that night was to alert both him and Tamara. But Carter didn't stop there. From the garden that separated the two houses, Carter dropped shells from the door post of Gwen's house, in the garden as well till it eventually led to Collins' house.

Carter's plan was to alert Tamara incase anything went wrong. But if it didn't, she was going to assist him in cleaning up the mess, which would have been Collins' dead body.

The last thud Collins heard was the one to break his door open, since Carter thought he was going to meet Collins in his bedroom. He had an alternative of sneaking in somehow, but he did that to make it easy for Tamara to enter Collins' house.

As Carter found Collins in the Kitchen, he started talking unnecessarily so Tamara could hopefully get the message, which she did.

But what majorly fueled Gwen's questions initially was because of the leather of full of shells that Tamara had carelessly dumped, as she could barely make sense of anything around her that night and it even crossed her mind to do that since Carter had dropped a note on the first shell, asking Tamara to pick up every shell she saw on the way. Tamara also knew better than to give anyone a lead to her Uncle's house, that was while she was still thinking straight, and had not witnessed a first degree murder for the first time in her life.

_

" ...I was so scared Lily, I still am." Said Gwen to Lily who was speechless. Lily feared for Gwen who was a neighbor to such a person.

She was going to tell Gwen to maintain a neutral front, but that would be later. She still needed to recover.

While Liliana and Gwen tried recovering from shock and fear, however, it was rage for the third person.