Timepiece (Hourglass 2)

“I’m sorry I couldn’t offer you more information.” Dr. Turner stood and picked up a briefcase from beside his desk.

“Wait!” Emerson jumped to her feet. “That’s it? That’s all?”

“I don’t have anything else to tell you, and I have a lecture to give. But …” He stared at me for a long moment. “Are you doing any sightseeing while you’re here?”

“Sightseeing?” I asked.

“I suggest it. You go to London, you visit Buckingham Palace. You go to Egypt, you visit the pyramids.” He looked at us pointedly.

“We’ll take that under consideration,” Em said.

“I hope you do.”

We left, and I followed Emerson around the corner out of earshot of the office.

“Do you think he really has a lecture?” she whispered.

“I think we got a little too specific with our questions.” We walked down the stairs and toward the parking lot.

“Why was he saying those things about sightseeing and staring at us like that?”

“I don’t know, but it was weird.”

“He knew about Teague. I wish we’d asked him about Poe,” she said. The wind blew her hair in her face, and she reached up to twist it around her hand. “I wonder if his name would’ve gotten a reaction.”

“I’m kind of glad we didn’t. We gave a lot more than we got.”

“I keep expecting to see Jack.” She let go of her hair and wrapped her arms around herself. “I wonder if there’s safety in numbers, or if he can steal memories from two people at the same time.”

“I’ll keep you safe, Shorty.” I put my arm over Em’s shoulders and pulled her to my side for a quick squeeze. “We’ll find him.”

“Damn, I hope so.” She growled under her breath. “I just realized I haven’t had coffee in two hours.”

“Oh no. We’d better do something about that real quick. I’d hate for you to get irritable.”

Her response was an elbow to the stomach.

Michael and Lily came into view. They were both sitting on the bumper of the SUV, and they looked miserable.

“Oh no,” Em said.

Fear. Dread. Defeat.

“Hurry.” I walked faster. Since my legs were so much longer, Em ran to keep up.

“What’s going on?” Em asked. Lily stood up, and I could tell she’d been crying.

“We got into the records. No details about Jack,” Michael said, sounding defeated. “Everything was gone.”

“That’s not so bad,” Em said, giving Lily a quick hug. “It’s what we expected, right? We have the high school stuff to work from, and Lily can look for the pocket watch.”

“Lack of details isn’t the only problem.” When Lily’s voice hitched, I realized just how close she was to crying again. She brushed away the forming tears.

Michael explained. “When we got back, we tried to find the pocket watch on the map. We’ve been trying for twenty minutes.”

Lily dropped her hands. “It’s gone.”

Chapter 21