The Curious Case of the Two Dirk Gentlys

4: England

It was always a surprise to everyone at the agency that a bumbling mess such as Dirk could organise himself so efficiently when it came to a case. Two days after they took the call tickets were booked, bags were packed, and Todd and Dirk were on their way to England.

The plane ride was awful; full of turbulence and screaming babies. Unfortunately, Dirk failed to account for the fact that Todd was terrified of the flying. For eight hours Dirk found himself talking his close friend through several successive panic attacks. Eventually he fell asleep and hours laters the plane landed safely in the dead of night.

Another little surprise about Dirk was that despite spending most of his adult life in cheap hotels he was still incredibly excited by them. They halled themselves up in the nearest Premier Inn they could find and tried to get themselves comfortable. They tried to present themselves as a normal, sane pair but that was difficult to do with Dirk's goofy grin. As Todd unpacked Dirk jumped on the bed like a small child.

"This is great. Isn't this great, Todd?" Dirk shouted between bounces.

"Yep, the greatest. Could you stop that please?" Todd asked as he carefully placed their folded shirts into the bed side draw.

"I haven't solved a case anywhere near London since I was five." He remembered fondly as he flopped back first onto the bed.

"Wait really?" Todd glanced over. Dirk rarely spoke of his childhood. In fact, Todd couldn't think of a single time he'd heard anything about life before Blackwing.

"Ahuh. The case of the disappearing red crayon. Turns out Jimmy took it." He continued.

"Right." Todd laughed.

"He was quite a thief little Jimmy. In the short time I was at school with him he stole five crayons, one doll, two toy cars, and a laptop containing personality information on our teacher's entire family." Dirk recalled.

"Um...okay then." Said Todd. He sat down on his bed and decided it was probably better not to continue the conversation.

"Todd, do you think it's weird that we've been called on an international case at such short notice?" Dirk asked curiously.

"Well...yeah." Todd admitted. " But then I remembered what's normal for us and that 'meh'."

"Meh?" Dirk scoffed.

"Yeah. Very meh." Todd laughed. "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow before we decide what's weird or not."

"Right, tomorrow. Right now it's just a perfectly normal night." Dirk assured himself.

"Remember. Nothing can be weirder than Wendimoor." Todd pointed out.

"Prrft certainly not." He smiled. "Good night, Todd."

"Night, Dirk." Todd sighed as he flicked the lights out. He closed his eyes and silently hoped for a relatively normal case. If anything he could hope for it to stay in one dimension.