“If you don’t have actual jobs, don’t hang around getting in the way. The doors of Kendric House open at ten; I’m sure there’s some cleaning or setup you can do. Go find Haneen.” His no-nonsense voice makes all the teens move. They might slouch and grumble, but they move.
He strides forward and holds a hand out to me. “Show me.”
I look up from behind my screen. “What?”
“You have a task list in there, haven’t you?”
Without a word I turn my screen so he can see. Evan bends down to read through everything. “Wyn, stay,” he says, reaching for the mouse and highlighting most of the items related to my video presentations.
Wyn, the most reliable of the boys, ambles over, his jeans hanging so low the frayed hem scrapes the floor.
Evan glances at him. “Do you want a temporary promotion to technical assistant?”
The boy’s face brightens. “Yeah?”
Evan clicks a couple of times to copy and paste part of my list into a clean page. The printer hums and spits out two pages. “You are in charge of Evie’s videos. You tell me everything you do before you do it and let me check it afterwards. You don’t mess around. Any hiccups, you ask, don’t improvise.”
“Are you sure?” I glance from Evan to Wyn, who looks like all his dreams have come true.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep a close eye. And you have far too much to do and never ask for help.”
He hands him one copy of my video task list and keeps the other for himself so he can check it. Then he turns back to my computer and prints the rest of the inside list. “We can take care of these, too. The Squad are manning all the entry and information points. So this is easy.”
He sounds so capable, I want to cry or hug him. In two minutes, he’s taken a third of my jobs off me.
Then, just as I think Evan is the most serious man in the world, he turns to Alex and asks, “So? The Blue Lady.”
Alex shakes his head. “We’ve found something. Not necessarily the Blue Lady. But it’s certainly the secret to what made Kendric House what it is.”
“And you’re not going to give us a quick preview?”
Alex presses his lips together. Evan turns his gaze to Llewellyn. “And you’ve been sworn to secrecy?”
Llewellyn sends Alex an uncertain look.
“Wait for the lecture.” Alex wags his finger like a teacher. “We have a different lecture every day. This one here will be on Monday evening.”
Evan leaves with Wyn and I reorganise the now-reduced task list.
Alex and Llewellyn whisper something to each other. They both look very excited.
“Can you give me a clue?” I rise to collect the last four pages from the printer. “Come on, Alex, the Blue Lady is in the stained-glass panel above my door and is modelled on the pond in Hope Gardens. Shouldn’t I know?”
He shakes his head.
“Not as if I’m going to get on the internet and tell everyone,” I try.
“You’ll tell Osian. The two of you are inseparable and tell each other everything.”
“No, we don’t. Only if it’s to do with gardening.”
Alex winks. “I’ve heard it called many things but never gardening.”
The heat in my cheeks could probably boil eggs.
“Don’t be an ass.” Llewellyn nudges him in the ribs. “Tell her.”
A jarring sound outside draws my gaze to the window.
