Chapter Four - Double-cross
"You want him to do what?"
"You've gone deaf? I didn't think you were an old dog, Sherl."
Kat smiled as the Bassett Hound gave her a dirty look.
"Er..." Ernest looked very uncomfortable. "It's not that I don't want to help, Miss Layton, but... I'm not sure if I can."
"Of course you can," Kat said bracingly. "You won't be alone either. Sherl will help you."
"WHAT?!" Sherl protested loudly. "I'll do no such thing! What do you expect me to do, bite his leg off? I'm a Bassett Hound, not a wolf!"
"You don't necessarily have to attack him," Kat said patiently.
"So you want Sherl to sniff at his—"
"NO!"
"—while I take off with his wallet?"
"Something along those lines," Kat said cheerfully while Sherl pretended to vomit in his basket. "And try to steal his house keys too, if you can. Not that we'll need them if Emiliana can pick locks as well as she says she can, but if it delays him getting into the house, then it'll give Dimitri more time to tinker with the machine."
"All this sounds dodgy to me, Kat," Sherl said. "I mean, what if this Dimitri guy has you two barking up the wrong tree? All that ruff about a time machine sounds like some shaggy dog story to me."
"I still have to try, Sherl," Kat replied. "This is the only lead I've had for two years now. And it really does seem like the only plausible explanation for where he's disappeared to."
"But if it is true, and he is stuck there," Ernest said anxiously, "What if you get stuck too, Miss Layton?"
"It won't come to that," Kat replied. "The machine travels with the occupier to whatever destination they go to. No one else in that time frame knows about the machine's existence. The plan is fail safe. Once I get there, all I have to do is track him down."
Ernest and Sherl shared a worried glance.
"I'll be fine," Kat assured them. "All you need to do is trust me. And steal Bill Hawkes' wallet."
"I'm almost there."
"C'mon, Emiliana," Kat said encouraging as she watched the profiler wrestle with the lock on Hawkes' front door.
"OI!" They headed a shout coming from nearby. "What you lot up to?!"
Kat looked around and saw an old woman leaning over her garden fence, watching them with scrutiny.
"Getting revenge!" Kat yelled back.
"Be quiet, will you?" Emiliana snapped. "Do you want us to get caught?"
"Oh." The woman smiled. "I see. Work away! I didn't see nothing!"
Kat grinned and waved as the woman disappeared from view. "Thank you!"
"Never hurts to make new friends," Dimitri said, looking amused.
Emiliana stood up straight looking pleased with herself as the door swung open.
"No need to thank me," she said as Kat opened her mouth to speak. "You're already welcome."
"Actually, I was about to suggest that you put that pin back in your hair, it's sticking up a bit at the back," Kat smiled as Emiliana looked furious. "But thank you is good too. Shall we?" And she lead the way into the house.
"That mouth of hers is one thing she did not inherit from her father," Dimitri noted heartily as he followed a rather put-out-looking Emiliana through the cramped house full of science equipment into the back room.
Sure enough, there sat one of the most complicated-looking machines Kat had ever set eyes on, a huge mass of cogs, wires and rotary arms that spun overhead. The trio stared at it each with a different expression; Emiliana's of curiosity, wonder; Dimitri's of excitement, as though mentally preparing himself for a fun challenge; Katrielle's of anticipation and (if one looked very closely) fear.
Kat turned to Dimitri. "So, what do we do now?"
"So, what do we do now?"
After an hour and a half of visiting all of Bill Hawkes' old haunts, as named by Dimitri, the young man and man's best friend finally found the elderly ex-prime minister in an old bar, sat at a large table playing poker with several other men his age and, by the looks of them, wealth status.
Ernest averted his gaze from the man inside the window of the bar and turned his attention to his canine companion.
"I really don't know, Sherl," he confessed. "Don't get me wrong, I am very fond of Miss Layton..."
"Like how I'm fond of a long snooze on a sunny afternoon," Sherl sighed.
"... but what does she expect me to do? I know he's probably the most hated prime minister..."
"Ever," Sherl added.
"... but I can't hurt an old man!"
"I see your point, Pinstripes," Sherl nodded. "What we need is a plan B."
"Do you have any ideas, Sherl?" Ernest asked, keen not to disappoint his muse.
"What's that card game they're playing?"
"Poker, by the looks of it."
"You any good at poker, Pinstripes?"
"I used to play with Mama..."
"There we go!"
"But I haven't any money on me."
Sherl frowned, his furry forehead screwed up. "But Kat gave you money earlier on!"
"No, Sherl, that is the rent money for the agency premises..."
"I'm sure she won't mind if it means getting her father back, you know," Sherl pointed out.
"Yes, but gambling is illegal!"
Sherl sighed and waved a paw over to the window they were spying through mere moments before. "Do you think they care? I'm sure the cost of the months rent will cover a couple hours poker with the old dogs and let Kat do whatever she needs to do!"
"Alright!" Ernest gave in, looking very flustered. "But if I lose it all, then it was your idea, Sherl."
"And if you win it all, it was still my idea, got it?" Sherl barked as Ernest pushed the door open and strolled inside.
"It's still not working."
"Well deduced, Sherlock."
"We've been at it for hours now,"Emiliana snapped. "I thought you knew what you were doing?"
"I haven't seen the machine for years, and Hawkes has done a lot of messing around with it," Dimitri retorted. "There are a lot of things that need fixing, but we're most of the way there, I promise."
"How long is it going to take?" Emiliana asked impatiently. "Hawkes could come back at any time, and my superiors at the Yard would not react very well to me being caught breaking and entering an ex-politician's house..."
"I told you, Ernest has it covered," Kat reassured her, turning away from the drawing-room window to face her.
"And what exactly is Ernest doing to keep him away?" Emiliana asked cynically. "Nothing illegal, I hope?"
"Ernest has enough sense not to do anything illegal, or take stupid risks," Kat replied confidently.
"You had better hope so."
Kat suddenly looked thoughtful. "What would happen to you if you got caught?"
Emiliana scowled. "I'd rather not think about it."
"Would Inspector Hastings be angry with you?"
"It's not Hastings I worry about," Emiliana replied, before realizing what she had just said. She blinked heavily and cleared her throat.
"So you have a big scary boss worse than Hastings?" Kat smiled.
"No!"
"Hmm... I think you're lying," Kat deduced, pacing the length of the room.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped psychoanalyzing me and got back to your lookout post."
Kat grinned as she returned to her window and stared down the empty driveway. "I bet your scary boss is a woman. Women bosses are scarier than male ones, they have been in my experience." She turned and smiled at Emiliana's pink face.
"Oh, your experience of what, three years?" she replied.
"So I'm right?" she said happily.
Emiliana opened her mouth to retort angrily, but instead jumped a little as the machine powered up behind her.
"Miracles do happen!" Dimitri exclaimed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Right, time to power up and get your father home!"
He began to fiddle with the control panel as Kat and Emiliana approached cautiously with interest.
"Here we go," Dimitri said. "Prepare yourselves," he added. He pulled a lever and pushed another button.
It felt as though they were being squeezed through a hole that was much too small for them. As if that wasn't uncomfortable enough to begin with, the longer they endured it, the worst the sensation got. They felt more and more compressed, tighter and tighter, closer and closer, until the three of them were jammed against the machine, Kat and Emiliana squashed awkwardly together, and when it got the point where none of them could breathe, it suddenly stopped. They all collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath, Emiliana landing painfully on top of Kat. Once she had caught her breath, she quickly rolled off of Kat and onto the floor.
"You okay?" she just about managed and Kat nodded weakly.
Suddenly, Kat felt someone grab her upper arm and haul her to her feet.
"We need to get out of here," Dimitri gasped. "Hawkes..."
"Right," Kat nodded as Dimitri helped Emiliana up.
"This way," Dimitri pointed to the drawing-room door.
"Okay."
But as she two ladies left the room, the door snapped shut after them.
"What?" Emiliana exclaimed as they heard the lock slot shut and a loud rumbling noise coming from behind the door.
"No!" Kat cried as silence fell behind the door once more.