Alain was at his desk, case file open, documents on his computer monitor. He typed Anthea Hopper into the search field and found results. It confirmed her relationship to Frontier Technologies and several of the files said 'Under Schaeffer'. He searched through Schaeffer's files and found black censors blocks.
"You have to be kidding me, both of them. Who the hell are these people?"
suddenly his phone rang. His desk phone. It was two in the morning, who was calling on the off-chance he'd be in his office.
"Beaumont," He said when he answered.
"Alain, my office, now," Chief Inspector said over the phone and hung up.
"Moving sir," Alain said and hung up, then slammed the phone on the receiver a few times before he stood up and groaned. Alain was beyond frustrated, and now his boss was calling him at two, and that was never a good thing.
Taking the elevator up a few floors he walked down the hall, took a right and walked into the reception room, then through another door where Chief Inspector St. Pierre sat at his desk. He stood up when Alain walked in and told him to take a seat.
"Alain, what's your progress with the jumper?"
"Dead ends," Alain said and looked at his boss.
"I just got a call, from upstairs about that case."
"Upstairs? You're Chief Inspector sir, who's above you?" Alain asked.
"DRM called, you flagged on a few searches. They asked for a cease and desist on your investigation," St. Pierre said and Alain shot up out of the chair.
"Tell them they can shove that order up their ass!" Alain shouted, "I'm not closing the case."
"I did," St. Pierre said, making Alain calmed down, "I convinced them you can finish the case, but you never saw the names Hopper, or Schaeffer."
"That's my only lead."
"Find something else, I've dug into cases only to find out my suspects were under cover Interpol, GIGN, all kinds of craziness. Sometimes you flip over a rock and find a snake. Don't mess with the snake, keep flipping rocks."
"Fine," Alain said and stopped at the door, "Thanks for sticking your neck out sir."
"Solve the case," St. Pierre said and he nodded and started to walk out before he said, "I've noticed you've pretty much been living here for nearly a month now. Go home."
"It's felt empty since she moved out," Alain said and leaned against the door frame.
"This is not an easy job. It's sometimes harder on families than it is on us. When you finish this case, take leave. Take Sylvie to the country, just get out of the city."
"I'll think about it," Alain said and left.
Arriving at his desk, Alain sat down and sighed, placing his forehead on Aelita's file and softly and repeatedly knocked his head on his desk. He turned his head on saw the picture frame and saw his wife and daughter posing with him for a portrait. They were currently separated, and his wife took their daughter with her.
Alain looked at his phone contacts and hovered over a name. 'Paulette'. He was moments away from hitting call before his computer received an email. It was from Giles Melo.
"Inspector, I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I found that Christmas card Anthea sent me a long time ago. Hope it helps."
Alain opened the jpeg attachment, and his eyes widened.
"That's not possible," Alain said as he looked at the photo. It was a picture of Anthea posing for a Christmas photo with her husband and daughter. Her husband was a man he recognized as Franz Hopper. The daughter, was Aelita. She was younger, but it was undoubtably her.
A strange case just became an impossible one.
Dr. Sentry sat at her desk and heard someone barge in and saw Alain.
"You better have a court order," Dr. Sentry said and he placed it on her desk.
"How old is Aelita?"
"Sixteen, where are you going with this?"
"How old is she in this photo?" Alain asked and placed a copy the Christmas card on her desk.
"Seven or eight, so what?"
"It was taken in 1988," Alain said, and Dr. Sentry looked at him, and did the math.
"You mean 1998?"
"I dug, very deep. So deep, the DRM called my boss, and requested I stop my investigation. But, I think I unraveled that girl's history just in time.
"Anthea Hopper was her mother, Franz Hopper was her father. Here's where it gets weird. I don't think Franz Hopper was his name, I think his name is Schaeffer. Franz Hopper appears the same time Anthea Schaeffer's paper trail ends, in 1992. Something happened to her, and he took his daughter into hiding, changed his name to Hopper, his wife's maiden name.
"Why Anthea vanishes, might have something to do with a government project she worked on. Either way, Aelita Hopper, disappears with her father, 1994, at age twelve. 2004, Aelita Stones enrolls, at Kadic academy, age twelve.
"I think Lyoko was the name of the project Anthea worked on. The only thing that doesn't fit in this whole thing, is the center piece everything branched out from; Aelita. Somehow, a twenty-six year old girl is sixteen. She didn't steal Aelita Hopper's identity, she just resumed her own.
"I think Lyoko is real, and she was pushed off of that roof to tie up loose ends. I'm going to question her again," Alain said and Dr. Sentry looked at him, in disbelief, but still followed him. He arrived at her door and tried to open it, but discovered it wasn't open as before.
"I thought she was low risk," Alain said and Dr. Sentry unlocked the door for him.
"That was before she attacked me," Dr. Sentry answered and opened the door, "Talk to her."
Alain walked into her room and saw she was calmer than she was last time he came. Calmer, but not calm. Aelita was in her bed, under the blankets crying. Alain sat next to her like he had before, and she turned in her bed, away from him.
"Hello Aelita," Alain said and he watched Aelita breathing.
"I don't want to talk," Aelita said and Alain sighed and looked at the doctor who frowned at him.
"I believe Lyoko is real," Alain said and Aelita rolled over and looked at him, "I believe you."
"Really?"
"I do, but I need to ask you a few questions, and I need you to tell me the truth. The absolute truth," Alain said and Aelita nodded.
"Where is it?" Alain asked and Aelita looked away.
"The bad men will find it," Aelita said and Alain was going to speak before his phone went off. Checking it, he saw it was the Chief Inspector so he told her he'd be right back.
"Sir?" Alain asked, as he stepped into the hallway.
"Get to the hospital now," St. Pierre said.
"I'm already here interviewing Aelita again," Alain said, "Why?"
"Yumi Ishiyama just checked Jeremie Belpois into the ICU," St. Pierre said and Alain said he was moving before he walked back into Aelita's room.
"Aelita, I'm going down stairs, we'll talk again soon," Alain said, receiving a nod before he ran out.
Happy Mother's Day, once again, I hope to get the next two chapters out by the end of the week. All depends on my schedule.