Chapter 38 – Betrayed

Upon their arrival at Scotland Yard, Grosky was quickly called away from the professor, so he went to his old friend, Inspector Chelmey, to discuss the situation, who was only happy to oblige. They went straight to his office for a chat.

"Well, Layton, here we are," Chelmey said, gesturing for the professor to take a seat.

Layton sat in front of Chelsey's desk.

"So," Chelmey took a seat himself. "What situation have you gotten yourself into this time then, Layton?"

"I will be happy to answer all of your questions in a moment, Chelmey, but first I have a few of my own."

"Is that so, Layton?" Chelmey folded his arms. "Concerning what, my good man?"

"Concerning someone Scotland Yard previously arrested. Andrea McIntyre."

"Andrea McIntyre… the name rings a bell… ah! Yes, Miss McIntyre… she appeared in court only three weeks ago on appeal to get out of prison."

Layton frowned. "Really?"

"Certainly. She appealed the judge's decision to send her down on the basis that her solicitor advised her to omit some important evidence."

"Really now? What kind of evidence?"

"well, I'm afraid that information is strictly confidential, Layton, after all it is very personal information about the lady in question which has to be kept confidential by all members of the supreme court, Scotland yard and the jury present at the trial. Divulging such information could be putting my job at stake…"

"Ah, yes, I'm terribly sorry, inspector…"

"No worries, Layton. But there are details I can tell you about, though. She got off on bail, which her father paid on her behalf, and she was out within twenty-four hours of the jury's decision."

"Her father paid for her to go free…" the professor frowned. He made a mental note to remember this.

"So, Layton, what's the situation? What happened to young Flora?"

Layton hesitated. "Well, inspector, what I am about to say may seem a little… incomprehensible…"

"Go ahead, Layton. After all the mad situations I've encountered with you, I'm sure this will be no different."

Layton shook his head. "I'm afraid that, compared to other cases we've solved, this one is a little more… complex."

Chelmey sat back in his chair and raised his eyebrows. "Is that so? Please, go on."

The professor sighed heavily. "Well…"

Emmy winced as her head banged against the roof of the trunk as the car hit a pothole. She shut her eyes tightly and took a shaky breath. She really didn't know how much more of this she could take. So many bizarre, crazy, stupid, painful things had happened in the past while that she didn't know if she could handle it anymore. She tried to tug her arms out of their binds again, but it was no use. She truly was trapped, and there was nothing she could do about it. When they would eventually let her out of the trunk, her pregnancy would prevent her from fighting her captors, as any injuries inflicted on her could seriously harm her unborn son. Not that being trapped in the boot of the car of an even worse driver than herself was helping that particular situation. She sighed again.

"Look on the bright side," she told herself. "Chances are that you'll be reunited with Flora soon enough. Then you can try to get through to Claire and find a way out of this situation for good…" And as if on cue, Emmy slammed into the side of the trunk as the car came to an abrupt halt. She winced and lay as still as she could, listening to the faint sound of Claire's voice.

"Let me handle her," Emmy heard her say. "You carry on with the next stage of our plan."

The trunk opened and Emmy gasped, closing her eyes which were blinded by the bright sunlight. Claire grabbed her legs and dragged her into a sitting position. Emmy opened her eyes and squinted at her surroundings. They had stopped outside a derelict house. "Where are we?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Claire replied, hauling Emmy to her feet and dragging her towards the house.

Emmy stopped a moment. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing. Just come with me and be quiet. Please."

"Are you going to get us out of here? Did you really mean what you said earlier, about choosing your future over mine?"

"Emmy, please, I'm begging you to be quiet. Here we are." They had entered the house and had stopped at the basement. Claire opened the trapdoor and gestured for Emmy to enter. "I'd rather not have to push you in," she said.

"Right…" Emmy began to descend the stairs as Claire shut the door on her.

Claire sighed and wiped the sweat from her brow. "I just hope this works…"

"You're telling me that you've had past and future selves running all over the show, there is a working time machine in the attic of some psychiatrist and miss McIntyre is threatening to destroy our very existence, not to mention that your daughter has been missing for hours now, and you didn't even think to notify any sort of authorities or myself?" Chelmey asked incredulously.

"Inspector, I assure you that, at the time, I had the situation under control—"

"Under control? Are you having a laugh Layton? Emmy is a good friend of mine and Amelie's, and I would have liked to have notified about Andrea McIntyre harassing her, especially after everything that happened last year, and everything we found out about poor Emmy's past—"

"And, despite all of that, Emmy is perfectly capable of looking after herself—"

"And that is why Vaughan was able to kidnap her?"

Layton glared. "Because he is her father. She was unable to defend herself against that man because he is her father and, deep down, she still loves him and defending herself against him would have meant harming her own flesh and blood. But all of that is beside the point. Our main priority for the moment is finding flora and my past self unharmed. The rest can wait."

"And you're sure that you have no idea where she could be?" Chelmey asked.

"We've looked all over London, and our efforts have been fruitless. It has been hours; they could be anywhere."

"Inspector Chelmey."

Both the professor and Chelmey turned to the door to face this new speaker. Bronev stood before them with Constable Barton stood behind him, panting heavily.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, I tried to stop him—"

"Never mind that now. Mr… Bronev, wasn't it?"

"Yes. I assume Layton has you up to speed?" he didn't wait for a reply. "I've just been to your place, Layton. Emmeline and Claire ae both gone."

The professor frowned. "Gone? Are you sure they aren't simply out looking for flora—"

"We agreed that it would be too risky for Claire to be seen in public. Andrea got them. Police were at the scene, apparently one of your neighbours saw a commotion outside your house. Superintendent Grosky was called to the scene. I spoke to him, and the ladies described fitted Emmeline, Claire and Andrea's descriptions. She's gotten to them."

"Well, that increases the missing persons to three," Chelmey noted.

"Two."

Layton and chelmey both frowned at Bronev. "What do you mean by that?"

"According to the witness, the woman by Claire's description had Emmeline in a headlock, and she and Andrea tied Emmeline up. Only one person was kidnapped. Claire was an accomplice."

The professor froze at this.

"What is the meaning of this, Bronev?" chelmey demanded.

"It appears that Claire sees Emmeline as a threat to her future with Layton here. She has obviously decided to change her fate."

"No, it can't be…" the professor trailed off.

"I'm afraid it is, Layton," Bronev snarled.

"No… Claire…"

Hershel groaned and placed a hand up to his head, feeling the large lump that had been the result of Andrea pushing him down the basement stairs. His back was also very sore, as a result of Andrea pushing Flora down after him and Hershel cushioning her fall. "I suppose that is the gentlemanly thing to do…" He suddenly heard footsteps approaching them; someone was coming down the stairs. He quickly sat up and nudged Flora gently.

"Flora! Wake up! Quickly!" he whispered urgently. Flora moaned and stirred.

"Someone's coming! Quick! Get behind me!"

Flora scrambled up into a sitting position and Hershel crawled in front of her. He curled his hands into fists – e was never one to fight, but it was about time he put up a battle against Andrea, especially for Flora's sake. He was about to call out to see who it was when he recognised the familiar yellow trench coat.

"Emmy?" he asked. Flora scrambled out from being him as Emmy smiled and nodded.

"Emmy! Oh, thank goodness you're here! Is the professor and Luke with you? Are you going to get us out of here?" Flora's face fell when Emmy shook her head sadly. "What?"

"I've been kidnapped by Andrea and…" Emmy hesitated as she sat down beside the two teenagers, "… and Claire."

"… Claire?" Flora's eyes widened. "She's alive?"

"What? I'm confused… okay, start from the beginning," Hershel said. "You all went out because Bronev called you and said that there was a problem at Celeste's house. Then Andrea turned up with her thugs and we were kidnapped and taken here. So what happened at Celeste's house?"

Emmy sighed heavily. "Okay… so we were at Celeste's house, but when we got there Leon was wired up to Andrea's memory eraser. That is the device she used to wipe your memory, Flora. That's why you can't remember Luke coming, or our younger selves coming or any of this mystery. Anyway, she threatened to erase Leon's memory is she didn't get access to the time machine."

"And did she?" Hershel asked.

"Well… that's where it gets confusing. I dared her to go ahead, because I knew that if she did, she would disappear along with the rest of us as a result, but just as she was about to do it, another you and Little Emmy came rushing in and begged her not to and told us to give her access to the machine."

"… Another me?" Hershel asked confused. "But…"

"He said that he came from the future and that there, Andrea went ahead and wiped Leon's memory and that everyone else had disappeared. It was just him and Little Emmy there, so they went back in time to stop her… or something like that. I don't know."

"So… the other Little Emmy and Hershel were, like, from some alternate future reality, or something? Where the world more or less ended?" Flora suggested.

"I think so. Anyway, Andrea got access to the time machine, we all went with her and we went back twelve and a half years to when Little Emmy and Leon were brought to our time."

"Wait… you actually travelled through time?" Flora asked. "All of you?"

"Yes. We were in the past London, and we were trying to figure out a way to sort everything out and we were in the middle of coming up with a plan when we bumped into Claire."

"And that's why Claire is here?" Flora asked.

Emmy nodded. "She insisted that she come with us, as she is a poly-dimensional physicist and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her, or something. I can't remember exactly. Anyway, we sussed out that Andrea was off to Ireland to bring Little Emmy and Leon to our time, to keep everything running smoothly, so we followed her and dropped out Little Emmy and Leon off home and wiped their memories with the memory eraser."

"So, they're gone home now?" Hershel asked. "But what about me?"

"I don't know yet. That's why Claire came with us to our time, so she could figure out how to get you there and bring your other self to this time to keep the space time continuum running in order, or something… goodness, this is giving me a headache…"

"So, Little Emmy and Leon are gone now and they're safe… that's good." Flora smiled.

"Yes… but now Claire is running around in the future, and I think Andrea has gotten to her somehow, because now she sees me as a threat to her future with Hershel… the professor… and now she's on Andrea's side…"

"Oh…" Flora looked crestfallen. "I guess she was pretty upset about seeing the professor with someone else…"

"So, Claire is my girlfriend too?" Hershel asked, looking really confused.

"What? Oh… um… it's complicated, Hershel… you really don't want to know…"

"Um… no, I probably don't…" Hershel trailed off, looking sheepish. "What kind of man am I going to become…?"

"So… Claire kidnapped you, because she sees you as a threat?"

"Yes… but she doesn't know that I'm pregnant… sorry Hershel," Emmy smiled as she saw the look on Hershel's face.

"What kind of a relationship is this?" he asked incredulously. "Two women and one man…"

"Wait…" Flora laughed, "You think that you, Emmy and Claire are going to be in some kind of threesome?"

Both Emmy and Hershel turned to stare at Flora shocked.

"Where on earth did you pick up such language…?" Emmy asked, her eyes wide.

"What's a threesome?" Hershel asked, frowning. "I certainly don't like the sound of it…"

Flora laughed loudly at Emmy's expression. "Hey, maybe if you included Andrea a Little more, you could turn it into a foursome…"

"FLORA! Shut up now," Emmy snapped. "I need to get out of here…" She got to her feet and ran back up the steps to try the trapdoor again. It was locked. Emmy swore under her breath. She turned on her heel and descended the stairs once more.

"It's locked," she grumbled, flopping down next to Hershel. "I suppose we have no choice but to stay here… and wait for the others to figure out where we are… and to stop talking about Hershel's sex life, Flora," Emmy snarled as Flora sniggered. Emmy sighed and placed a hand on Hershel's shoulder. "What happened to you, Flora?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've changed, Flora. You used to be cool, but now you're just weird. Threesome, indeed."

Flora smiled.

"Foursome, my ass…"