Chapter 14

Chapter 14
Garden
Night


"Step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid.”
~Tolkien


The Doctor stood there, in the front room of the Yard, waiting for the Inspector to be done with Evelyn. They had been caught the night before outside the Tower and now they faced the reckoning.
The Memory came unbidden to his tired mind; it seemed as if a dream.

The hands that gripped both the Doctor and Eve jerked them up as a rough voice spoke, "What are you doing here?"
Both of their eyes whipped around, their faces barely keeping up to see a tall dark figure standing over them.
"What are you doing?" The voice asked again.
The Doctor, standing now, looked at Vespars who was holding he and Eve by the wrist.
"Unhand her Vespars." His voice, quiet and low, still spoke volumes.
"Doctor, what are you two doing here?" He did let them both go, but kept his substantial body in the way of them leaving.
"I think, we had the same thought you fellows did at the Yard. Evelyn and I thought the Tower might be broken into tonight."
His words had no effect on Vespars, he didn't move or change his expression.
"I think you must have have the same thought, seeing as you two are guarding the Tower yourselves."
The Doctor finished, a not of impatience creeping into his voice.
"What's happening here Vespars?" DuMont had approached unnoticed and now stood next to Vespars who didn't react to his arrival.
"Looks like we caught a couple interlopers DuMont. I'll stay here; can you take these two to the Yard and stay with them until Seth arrives?"
The big man just nodded and gestured to the two of them to accompany him.
"Vespars, I must insist..." The Doctor started to say when he was interrupted.
"...And Doctor, I must insist you go with DuMont. I was told to report and bring back anyone we caught around here. We caught you. So if you would oblige?" His voice, tight and controlled, did not brook much argument.
A moment later they both left with DuMont.
They had waited in a small room of the Yard for a number of hours, both seemingly unable to sleep, yet feeling every moment as that was the only thing they wanted. DuMont had stood guard outside, until Seth had arrived.  After an indeterminably long wait, the Inspector had arrived and had spoken with them both, and then separately.
Now, waiting after he had been questioned, the Doctor was both anxious and impatient while Eve was questioned in their small prison of the night.
He was also tired, but no more tired than he was normally after a rough night. He had been having a lot of rough nights these past couple years so he was used to being tired in the morning like this.
The door opened,  and Eve and Mondieu appeared.
He almost laughed at the sight of them, but he choked it back the emotion.
Mondieu's face was reminiscent of a thundercloud in its darkened way, while Eve seemed the counterpoint of lightning.
He did laugh then; he knew what had happened, he had seen faces like that before. Evelyn must have sparked something to anger the Inspector so.
He walked out of the Yard with Evelyn, while the Inspector said something.
He blinked  and they were outside in the peace of Garden's street.
"We were too late. It's already happened."
"What?" Evatt looked up and shivered.
"Do you feel that? It is actually cold in Garden; something is wrong with the weather." She shivered then too.
"We were too late."
"We were right though." He responded. "Now we know what is going to happen next."
She only nodded to what he said.
The silence that represented their task stretched between them for a second.
"What did the Inspector say?" He asked Eve.
"I think probably the same thing he asked you Evatt."  She sighed and then asked, "Where are we going?"
"I was planning to head to my lab, I need to get my lab and my notes, then I was going to offer you a ride back in my barouche if you like." He smiled at her, but the smile didn't touch his eyes.
"Evatt you're exhausted. Just go home, get some sleep. I will just walk home myself."
This time it was he who sighed. "I am exhausted, but I need to talk to you and I think it would be prudent if we did it now rather than later." This time he made the smile extend to his eyes.
"What did the Good Inspector say?"
She laughed, and suddenly, Evatt felt less tired.


Simon dreamed.
*He was on a cliff overlooking a deep sea. The cliff, steep and acute, did not end or begin; it just was there. He stood there, on the edge and looked down. All he could see was the maelstrom of water, moving and shaping in the deep below. He turned his head slowly and regarded what lay behind.
It was Garden.
No longer the green palace it was in the waking, it was mottled brown and black and looked to be burning. Small curls of smoke lay above the City, staying still, for there was no wind.
He turned back to the edge.
He took a step forward, closer to the treacherous depths of what lay below.
Simon took another.
He tried to take another, but he fell over instead.
He fell slowly, his movement arrested by a dreamlike quality. He did not fall towards the edge, but away and to the side. He attempted to arrest his motion with a rapid hand movement, but found he could no more than match his slow ascent. When he hit, the ground was soft and almost inviting, and he trouble remembering why he did not want to be here, lying down.
He sat up slowly, and craned his neck to see what had tripped him.
A root, the same brown colour as the present Garden, lay in his path. It was not large or ostentatious, but it had checked his motion and made him fall. He tried to reach out and touch it, but the that movement was checked as well. It was not the slow movement he had experienced before, rather it was a complete halt of all hand movement towards the root.
He stood up, slowly again and looked for the tree whose root it belonged. Off in the distance, not in the City, but not too far outside, was the closest tree. It was not brown or black, but a full straight green of life and living.
He turned his back to the sight and looked at the deep again. He was not close to the edge, but he still could see almost straight down, into the Maw of the deep. The currents eddied and shook, whitecapped in their frenzied motion. The water palpitating this way and that, Simon almost felt his own sense of reference start to judder.
He took another step forward.
It was the Maw that drew him; the sense of the infinite in the deep water that drew him on.
He took another step.
He was one small step away from the pure chaos of the maelstrom, he could feel it.

He woke, his mind reeling at the abrupt change. He gave himself a moment to reorient itself to his present surroundings.
He was sitting up in his small rented flat, the light faint from the mostly curtained window falling gently to his floor. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as if something had happened. He shivered gently for a moment.
He got up and threw open the curtain to the window.
It was dark and gray outside this morning, the normal bright Garden sun hidden behind opaque clouds of gray and white. He shivered again. It was colder, but only in the sense that Garden didn't get cold due to the weather system keeping the climate temperate year round.
*Looks like they were too late.* He thought to himself, turning away from the window and starting to dress.

He stepped outside his door and stopped. The weather was cold. No longer just cool, it had reached an uncomfortable point with a chill on the air. Simon shivered again and started to walk. He headed for the Market; he wanted breakfast, something to warm his stomach.
He pulled his light jacket a little closer around himself and increased his speed.
He didn't mind being cold, but his body had been tricked for the time he had been in Garden so far and he just had to adjust. He also reminded himself what season it actually was.
That gave him a thought that he realized he should have thought the instant he walked out the door.
*Why was it colder now?*

He puzzled about this on his way to the market. By the time he arrived, he had found himself with even more questions and less answers.
He ate quickly and while he did, he came to a decision.
*He wanted to see what was going on in Garden.
He was a detective after all*, he thought to himself chuckling without much real laughter in it.

This led him to start walking back the way he came, back towards the Yard. He had decided to start there.
He arrived a short time later, his breath now showing up visibly almost as steam in the cold air. He pushed his way inside without knocking.
Seth was seated inside, reading from a sheaf of papers, no one else was in sight.
Seth looked up when Simon entered, but put his head down almost instantly when he recognised who it was.
"Temple, what are you doing here?" His voice wasn't focused, it seemed almost to preclude his presence there.
"I could say the same for you Seth. There's a murderer out there and you're reading....with your feet on the desk." Simon put as much heat into his voice as possible, hoping to catch Seth off guard.
Seth, without looking up, swung his legs down, but that was his only response.
"Well, I need some information." Simon decided openness was the best course now.
"I can't give you anything Temple. I don't know what or who you are, and according to you, you want information for a different case. I could not give any less of a damn about your other blasted case."
Seth's voice had not risen in the least, but with his tone, it didn't need any of that.
Simon smiled, then said, "Fair enough. I'll come back later."
He had seen what he wanted to see though: the Yard's small calender had a two names on today's date, DuMont and Vespars.
He figured he knew what that meant, they were to be the ones guarding the IT Tower tonight and that is where he had decided to start helping.

He could not really put into words his decision to help the investigation; perhaps it was his easy comraderie with Mondieu, perhaps something else.
He decided not to think too much about what he was going to do tonight. He didn't know how he was going to accomplish entrance into the Tower.

They had walked back to his lab, slowly and tiredly, but the exertion had warmed them both up a little.
"I left a message last night for Tom to bring the barouche this morning. I had a thought that we might need it."
The Doctor explained to Eve as they drew abreast to his lab. He limped up to the door and reached in his pockets for his keys.
She found her gaze faltering a little and she dropped her eyes tiredly to an inspection of the cobblestones.
"Eve!"
The one word was enough to stop her. She stepped back, out of the Doctor's way, as he stepped back hastily.
"The door is unlocked. I am certain I left it locked last night."
She revived instantly, almost feverishly in the instant.
"Tom Robinson? Does he have a set of keys?" She asked quietly, leaning close as to have to speak loudly.
"He does, but he would not leave the door unlocked. Tom is very careful like that."
He hesitated only a moment more, then announced.
"I am going inside, please stay behind me."
Waiting for her nod, he stepped back up to the door and turned the knob quietly.
The door made no sound as it swiveled back, revealing the dark interior.
"Please stay behind me Eve, I am not sure what is going here." He said calmly, moving forward slowly.
"Nonsense." Was her only response as she ducked around him and moved quickly into the room.
He followed cursing a moment and lit a lamp.
He swept his gaze around the room; it appeared empty. He also did not see Evelyn.
"Evelyn?" He cried, his voice booming in the small lab.
"I am here," she said appearing from his small room in the back. "I didn't see anything."
She walked back into the center of the room. "Oh, your barouche is here, tethered in the alley."
He joined her in the middle of the room and said sharply, "Eve, that was very dangerous!"
"Bosh, you were here the whole time. It was just as dangerous for you to walk in first as I."
The Doctor didn't say anything to that.
"Anyway, what do you see? Or rather, what do you not see? Is there anything missing?"
"No...I...wait." He strode over to his worktable and moved a couple instruments aside.
"What do you see?" Eve said, sitting down in the little chair by the desk.
"What I do not see are my samples and reports for the Inspector." He wrung his hands nervously. His was not not wavering though, it was instead firm and a little angry.
"I tested various fish and some birds that Vespar was kind enough to bring me yesterday. I collected my data for the Inspector and it was all sitting there when I left last night." He leaned against his desk nex t to Eve.
"It looks like the Inspector is not the only one interested in what really happened to the birds and the fish. It looks like my lab was visited last night by our murderer."

Simon finished writing and looked up. He slipped the little scribbled not in his pocket.
He sat at a small table inside the realm of an outdoor cafe. He sipped his tea appreciatively. It was still chilled out, but his body had gotten used to it. That and the hot tea helped.
It was late afternoon, he had a short time to wait until dark.
A shadow darkened over his table, then said quietly, "Temple?"
Temple stiffened the instant he heard the voice. He had heard it before.