Paul's POV
-"So?" I hissed impatiently, looking at the screen Samantha and Nathan Guillot were showing me, after she had taken us to one of their offices to reveal their search results.
Whereas just mere seconds ago, there was a date, place, and time written alongside a dot blipping on the screen, now, unfortunately, both the image and the text had been blurred. "I thought you found her. What's happening now?"
-"Calm down a minute now, will you?" Amanda demanded.
-"I'm calm, I truly am," I reassured her. "I'm... I was asking a few essential questions, if you get what I mean."
-"Paul, don't worry about Emma," Sam insisted. "We're going to find her, sooner or later."
At this moment, a dot started blipping again on the blurry screen in front of us-- a dot which, a split second later, turned into two.
-"That's Emma, right?" I stated, hesitantly.
-"It is Emma indeed," Nathan said, although doubt and confusion were written all over his face. "But-"
-"It looks like another traveler is with her," my guardian cut in.
-"The problem isn't if someone's with her or not, but rather, the absence of date or location on this goddamn screen," I muttered.
-"That's strange," Sam observed. "It's not normal for this information to disappear, just like that."
-"Is that so? Then what's this?" a masculine voice said from behind, making us all jump. Pointing his finger towards the screen, he showed us two lines next to the shiny dots.
-"Who are you?" I asked and raised a suspicious eyebrow. My hand instinctively inched towards my gun, or rather, the place where it would've been, had I been on a mission, working on the ground.
-"Someone you shouldn't worry about," spoke this time a familiar feminine voice. "Or at least, not yet."
-"Emma!" We all exclaimed while turning towards the newcomers.
-"Where were you?" I inquired.
-"Are you alright?" Amanda rushed to her.
-"Relax, darlings," the blond guy cut us in, a strange, malicious glint in his piercing blue eyes. "She chilled a few in London's jail."
-"She what?"
-"Chilled a few. To sit down or stay in a particular place for a specific period of time. Idiom used mostly in informal language. Evolved in the early 2100s."
My eyebrows shot up.
-"Where are you from, Mr...?" I started.
-"Davis. Mike Davis. I'm from the 2134's USA."
-"I see. Do you always act like a walking dictionary, Mike?"
-"No, no, of course not, sweetie."
-"Paul. Call me Paul."
-"Well, Paul, I don't do it much, ya know. It really depends on the occasion."
I tilted my head.
-"Okay, yes. Yes, I do it. Constantly," he sighed defeatedly.
-"That's my boy," I told him.
-"So, you're saying you were both in London's prison?"
-"Pretty much, yeah."
-"And what, pray, where you doing there?" I queried, turning this time to Emmanuelle Rousseau. I plastered a fake smile on my face to encourage her, but this only seemed to make things worse seeing the few steps she took backward and the weird look she gave me.
-"Long story short, I made a mistake while traveling, got back to the Victorian Era, was spotted by English officers who took me to jail, and met that guy right here who turned out to be a time-traveler too," she paused. "Oh, and by the way, thanks Sam," she smiled.
-"You're welcome," my old friend kindly replied.
-"Why are you thanking her again?" I interrupted. "I'm afraid I'm not quite following."
-"She put a second sandglass in my shirt. Without it, I wouldn't have gotten back."
-"Why? Did you lose yours? You're that irresponsible, huh?" I teased.
-"Shut up, and no, I didn't lose it. They took it away from me, as well as the rest of my belongings. Well, what I had on me, anyway."
-"Good thing they didn't take your clothes," the new guy, Mike, snorted.
I choked.
-"Ew, Mike, shut up. And Paul, that's not funny."
-"Did anything out of the ordinary happen? Anything that can disturb or change the timeline?" asked Nathan.
-"Hmm, let's see. I've been arrested, took one of their prisoners with me, freed another, and came back here. So nope, I haven't done anything out of the ordinary," Emma sarcastically replied.
-"Emma, both you and I know this is no joking matter. Next time, don't take it so lightly," Nathan reprimanded her.
-"Right, right. My bad."
-"Jokes aside," Sam barged in, "did you and Paul find anything about Bob?"
-"How did you-" I started.
-"Honey, I've known you since we were 17. I can see through you easily," Samantha winked at me. "So, did you?" she then repeated, hope glinting in her eyes.
Both Emma and I exchanged a glance.
Noticing our worried glances, Sam's expression immediately darkened.
-"But hey, hey, we're not going to stop searching," I tried to comfort her. "We'll do whatever we can to find out who killed him."
-"Thank you, Paul," she smiled gratefully.
-"You guys are doing an investigation, huh? Maybe I could help, ya know," intervened Mike.
-"Yeah, well, maybe you can't," Emma glared at him. "Don't interfere in other's businesses, please."
-"Don't be so harsh, Emma. Who knows, maybe he's a gift from Heaven and will help us find the answers," I told her, raising an eyebrow.
-"Maybe I am," Mike conceded with a smirk on his face. "What's the case about, anyway?"
I took a deep breath.
-"My best friend, who was also, umm, Samantha's husband, was found dead a week ago."
-"OMG, I'm so sorry to hear that."
-"OMG? What's OMG?" Amanda pumped him.
-"It's an abbreviation for Oh my god. It's use escalated like crazy in the early 2000s. It's-" he halted.
We were all looking at him, urging him to shut up.
-"Oh, yeah, right. Sorry," he quickly muttered. "Anyway, you were saying?" he then continued, turning towards me again.
-"You know what? I'll just hand you the newspaper in which the article was. Sam, Amanda, do you have a copy of it here at the base?"
-"I'm not sure, but I'll go check out. It must be in our library, in the news section," replied Amanda.
-"Alright, then," I approved. "We'll just wait for you to come back."
And in a blink, she vanished, looking for last Friday's Populaire copy.
-"So, how's it going, Mikie?" I said, taking the new guy apart and leaving Emma, Nathan, and Sam a few feet away.
-"Pretty fine, I guess? Why?" he asked, concerned.
-"I just..."
-"Wanna keep the convo going?"
-"Yeah, man."
-"I see, I see. So, you're just tryna fill the void, right? Like, you want us to keep talking and kill time?"
-"Pretty much, yes."
-"Gotcha. The task's simple then, we just have to talk."
-"Mhm," I agreed-- and shut up.
Mike, too, didn't utter a word.
The silence stretched, and I could've sworn the tension could have been cut with a knife.
Finally, Amanda appeared next to the group we just left, a newspaper in her hand.
Mike turned towards me with his eyebrow raised.
-"Great talk, man, great talk," he patted me on my shoulder and went towards the others.
I followed him and stood between Samantha and Nathan. Amanda handed Mike the paper, and he instantly started reading. In a matter of seconds, he read the whole article and put the newspaper on the desk next to him.
-"Wow, you're fast," Emma told him.
-"What can I say, I try to do my best," he shrugged, a playful glint in his eyes.
-"So, now, you've read the case. What do you think about it?" Amanda questioned.
-"Firstly, you guys need to tell me what you've done until now, where you've searched, what are your clues, itineraries. Only then will I be able to help. Or at least, try to."
-"Don't get your hopes too high, alright?" Emma scolded him. "Paul over here is a professional detective, and it's not Amanda's first time in trying to solve a case like this either, so I wonder, what makes you think you'll be able to succeed where they failed?"
-"Let them tell me everything and then, only then, we'll see, shall we?" he smiled at her innocently.
-"Pfft, fine," she complied against her will.
-"Go ahead then, Paul, Amanda," Mike prompted us.
-"We decided not to follow the traditional investigating methods-- aka Paul's methods-- and agreed to do it my way," Amanda started. "We tried to locate the people Bob got along with the least. Paul and Sam told us about three guys he didn't quite befriend in his highschool years, and-"
-"I see. So you decided to go to Bob's last meeting with each one of them, to see if anything could've gone wrong, or search for any clues?"
-"Yes, that's what we did," Amanda replied, unsure how to react to that.
-"That's a shame. You know, you just reminded me of something."
-"Really?" my guardian exclaimed.
Mike nodded.
-"Ever heard the story of the four spies?" he continued.
-"Umm, nope, I don't reckon anything like that," she muttered.
-"Ah, well, me neither. I'm making it up as I go."
-"You're not going anywhere, you're staying in your place," Emma remarked teasingly.
-"As I go, as in as I speak. Geez, woman, get a grip," Mike rolled his eyes. "Anyway, the story is about four spies."
-"You don't say," Emma retorted.
-"Once upon a time, there were four spies," he ignored her. "They were on a secret mission, the most important one of their whole career, and all that shiz," he paused, seemingly in deep thought. "Ok wait, I'm gonna skip immediately to the important part."
I glanced at Amanda. By the looks of it, she was as befuddled as I was.
-"So those four guys had to break through a building, alright? Cuz ya know, this was where the criminal was hiding. The first one suggested to break the window and get in. Another one proposed to dig a tunnel and enter the building from the undergrounds. The third spy recommended to climb on the building's facade and get inside from the roof."
We all nodded, not sure where this was heading.
-"But you know what the fourth spy did? He entered from the door, which was-- surprise, surprise-- unlocked."
-"Your point being?" mumbled Amanda impatiently.
-"You see, you don't have to complicate things all the time."
-"Ha!" I laughed. "I like you, new guy," I told Mike and went to stand next to him.
-"Thanks, man," he answered with a smile. And turning towards Amanda, he went on: "You guys have the day of the murder and the location where the body was found, right?"
-"Yes," she gulped, not quite able to register that for once, she was wrong.
-"You genius!" I blurted out, finally getting where he was coming from. "Traveling directly to the time and place of the murder is a brilliant idea."
Mike smirked.
-"You're welcome," he added.
-"You see, Amanda, you're not always right, love," I commented.
-"Yeah, whatever. It's not like you complained about it anyway. You simply followed me, without uttering a word."
-"I did not!" I defended. "Well maybe, yeah, but-"
-"So tell me, Emma, was I or was I not a gift from heaven, as Paul said?"
-"You weren't," she scoffed. "It's a coincidence. You were just in the right place, at the right time."
-"Really?" he grinned. "The thing is, cariño, I don't believe in coincidences."
-"Well, I do!" she half-yelled.
-"Chillax, woman. No need to get angry."
-"Oh, shut up. The sooner you leave, the better it'll be for all of us. You said you wanted a lab, right? Well, go do whatever you came to do, and then leave!"
-"Ah, but I can't, you see. I can't leave you now after helping you in the case. I have to stay and see the outcome of the investigation."
-"Unfortunately for you, love, he's right," I interrupted them. "Without Mike, we wouldn't have thought of that, so I think we owe it to him to let him participate in the investigation."
-"Pff, fine! If he's not leaving, then I'll be the one to do it!" she shrieked and stormed outside the office.
I whirled my head in Mike's direction, an apologetic smile on my face.
-"I'm sorry, dude, but she does act a bit crazy, from time to time."
-"No worries," he replied. "Just give her this, will ya?" he said and took out a miniature book from his pocket.
-"How to be a gift from Heaven: a guide?" I read on the cover, my eyebrows shooting up. "How did you-"
In response, Mike's grin only widened.
-"Oh, I have my ways," he winked. " Besides, I'm sure she'll love it."
-"Oh, she will, no doubt about that," I smirked.