Page 26 of The Last Bench

Anne and John exchanged a puzzled glance.

‘The date you started this garden. Twenty-eighth of August 1998, you said.’

‘Yes,’ Anne answered.

‘I told you that I thought it was odd that you remembered the exact date,’ Vega went on.

‘And I told you that when you are planting a tree in memory of your dead daughter, you tend to remember the details,’ John replied in a low voice.

Vega took another step closer. ‘When I started this story and began searching for Hinges, it was the strangest thing. Nobody seemed to notice that he had even gone missing. He has no siblings, and his parents are dead. No friends that I could find. It was as if he vanished into thin air and nobody cared.’

‘You get what you give in life,’ Anne replied, irritation edging into her voice.

‘But he had an on/off girlfriend. Julie is a recovered addict who only hooked up with Hinges because he gave her drugs. Even so, she was still annoyed that he’d stood her up and ghosted her.’

‘It happens,’ John said.

‘The thing is, she remembered the exact date because it was her birthday – would you believe it was the twenty-eighth of August?’ Vega said.

Silence settled over the blossom maze as Vega’s eyes flitted between Anne and John.

John squeezed Anne’s arm more firmly this time, clearly silently conveying a message.

Let me do the talking.

But there was no way she would let him take the blame for this. If Vega had worked out their secret, she alone would hold her hands up.

‘That’s a coincidence,’ John said evenly to Vega.

‘A pretty big coincidence,’ Vega replied. ‘What happened to Hinges?’

‘How would we know?’ John replied, standing up now and facing Vega squarely.

‘He’s dead,’ Anne said, joining his side. And when John groaned she added, ‘That is, I suspect he is.’

Vega’s face paled, her notebook and pencil in hand. She was clearly wrestling with what to do with what she thought she knew, Anne guessed.

‘And if Hinges is dead then I’d also say that was a good thing,’ Anne added.

‘Go on,’ Vega said.

‘Because if his dying meant that one parent did not have to endure the heartbreak that John and I have experienced for decades, then it must be a good thing.’

Vega acknowledged this with a sad nod. ‘No parent should have to go through what you both or the Grants have. But what about the people who killed Hinges? Should they get away with murder?’

‘I don’t suppose they should, if it were murder,’ John said. ‘But what if it was self-defence? What if a situation got out of control and they had no choice but to fight back?’

‘Then they should have gone to the Gardaí, who would have taken that into account,’ Vega replied.

John shrugged. ‘Not all situations are clear-cut. Maybe they knew their story would not be believed. And they had a family to protect.’

Vega’s eyes locked onto the base of the cherry blossom.

‘Oh, Vega,’ Anne said, feeling such sympathy for the predicament she was in. ‘Do you want to sit down?’

Vega shook her head.

The three of them stood in silence for several minutes, each waiting for another to show their hand.