I jump and the chair tips. For a moment, I tilt, ready to fall with the chair on top of me, then a hand steadies the chair, steadies me. My intruder steps out of the sun and I see it’s Lena. I get up and brush the dirt off my jeans.

“I guessed you’d be here when I couldn’t find you at your place.” She looks around. “Um—why are you gardening in a place that’s about to be demolished?”

My face warms. I’m surrounded by garden bags and tools and I don’t know how to explain what I’m doing here.

“I used to look over the wall sometimes when me and Bella went to the woods,” I say. “Before the Lewises moved in. It reminded me of the secret garden from the book. I wanted to make it beautiful again.”

There’s a pause. We’re surrounded by diggers and police tape and and DANGER—KEEP OUT signs—and nothing I say will explain why I’m here weeding.

Lena raises her eyebrows. “So you really only used to come to help Greg…um…pull up his weeds?”

“Oh, fuck off, Lena. The man is dead. Stop with the dirty insinuations.”

“But they’re not insinuations, are they? Greg Lewis was weird. The stories about him…they weren’t just stories. Bella knew. Jesus—even Jack and Sean knew, though they might deny it. And you? You know, don’t you?” She’s looking at me so intently.

I shake my head. “Whatever Bella told you, it wasn’t true. I swear it.”

She tilts her head. “Yeah? You might want to work on sounding more convincing when you spin it to the police.”

“What are you doing here, Lena?” I pick up a trowel and start hacking at the roots of a stubborn weed in one of the pots.

“I was going through some of my old photos. I brought them with me—thought there might be some nice old ones of Julia I could show your dad.”

I straighten up. “Oh. That’s…thank you, Lena. That was really thoughtful.”

She rolls her eyes. “Do you have to sound so surprised? Anyway—I found a couple of others. Of Bella. And you. I thought you might be interested.” She pulls half a dozen photos out of her bag and holds them out.

The first one is a photo of Sean and Jack together, unsmiling skinny boys, already so bloody handsome. There’s a photo of Jack with Greg and Bella. Bella’s next to Jack and Greg stands behind them, an arm draped over both their shoulders. Bella’s face is tilted up and it’s Greg she’s looking at, not the camera, not Jack. It makes me twitch.