Tim lives a normal life.

He has a fine paying job as a chef at the Colonial Taphouse, a lovely wife, a daughter, and a home tucked away back by the radio station. He is not particularly extraordinary or interesting. He is just Tim.

He stands in front of the General Store, small child up on his shoulders while he dissociates as his wife shops. His eyes focus intently on a pen, sitting out on a table. It's a rather nice pen, with a wooden casing and textured grip. The tip looks velvety, smooth. And as he stares at the stationary, it is almost as if nothing else exists except himself and this single, impressive pen...

"... Honey? Honey?" Tim blinks rapidly several times as his wife, Gina, nudges him. She giggles softly. "You alright?"

"Oh, yeah." Tim chuckles, then makes a show of yawning. "Sorry. Just didn't really sleep last night." he lies, and the child on his shoulders wiggles about.

"Did daddy fall sleep standing up?" she asks her mother, who smiles.

"I think he did!" she teases, then holds up a cup for Tim to look at. He takes it in his hand and turns it over, wondering what he's supposed to be seeing in this glassware he has just been given.

His confusion is evident on his face, and Gina laughs. "Do you like it?"

"I mean..." Tim shakes his head only slightly in lieu of shrugging. "Yeah, sure. It's..."

He narrows his eyes, and Gina rolls hers then takes the cup back. Its glass is frosted, and there are blue flowers along the sides. "It's nice. You're buying it."

Tim's eyes widen, and he smiles in playful disbelief. "Oh, am I?" he chuckles, but digs into his pocket for some caps regardless.

Across the market, Nick observes the man and his family. Tall, curly black hair, well-groomed moustache... Just as Cass had described him, only this man is wearing glasses which Cass never mentioned. Still, it is almost definitely him; so Nick pushes himself from the wall he leans against and makes his way through the market toward Tim.

The little girl on his shoulders notices him first, and she grabs a fistful of Tim's hair. "Daddy!" she exclaims, "It's the robot 'tective!"

Tim turns his head and Nick locks eyes with him in a way which churns his stomach. His brow furrows, and he carefully lifts his daughter off of his shoulders and sets her on the ground much to her dismay. "Detective Valentine." he greets the synth as he reaches them, nodding politely, and Gina peaks out from around her husband with a warm smile.

"Shopping?" she asks him, and Nick shakes his head, his expression casual, friendly.

"No, actually." he says, then with an audible click his eyes flick to Tim. "I'm here to speak to you, Mr. Reno. That is you, right?"

Tim's brow creases, and his grip on his daughter's shoulders tightens slightly. "Um... Yeah. Yeah, that's me." he says, exchanging a confused look with Gina. "Is something the matter?"

"I don't know." Nick admits, then shrugs. "I was hoping you could help me figure that out. Mind if we breeze off somewhere a bit quieter?"

The man tries to hide a grimace, and his eyes shift between Nick and his family. "I'm a bit busy." he tries, but Nick is adament.

"This won't take long."

Gina gives Tim a light nudge, then reaches down to take the little girl's hand. "We'll stick around in the market." she reassures him, urging him to go. Tim sighs – why is Gina conspiring against him, God damn it?! He turns back to Nick and waves his hand as if to say 'lead the way', and Nick does just that. He steps onto a side street and Tim crosses his arms, immediately defensive.

Nick notes the way he carries himself; namely, he notices his general caginess and reluctance to co-operate, and he is summarily suspicious. He holds up his hands and takes a small step away from Tim. "It's alright, son. You can relax. Just got some questions for you is all."

Tim regards him warily, but he does relax even if only slightly. He exhales, his eyes flicking up and down Nick as if to size him up. "Okay." he says finally, "About what?"

The synth reaches into his coat pocket and retrieves a folded sheet of paper – the poster which he had pulled from Piper's trashcan not long ago. He holds it out to Tim, who takes it hesitantly and unfolds it. And he watches his face as he does so. He watches as it lights up in shock momentarily before twisting itself back into a neutral expression. Tim clears his throat. "What?" he asks, looking up from the page and meeting Nick's gaze.

"I don't know, you tell me." Nick says and crosses his arms. "Word on the street is that you were goin' steady with her."

"Who told you that?"

"Doesn't matter who told me, all that matters is whether or not it's true." Nick speaks firmly. "So... Is it?"

Tim doesn't answer at first. He shifts awkwardly on his feet and stares at the photograph on the poster of Maggie. He considers what to say and chews his moustache prudently, then thinks better than to lie to Nick so he heaves a small sigh and lowers the poster in his hands. "Yeah." he admits. "It's true."

Jackpot, Nick thinks. "That so? In that case, I've got a couple of questions for you." He pulls his notebook from the inner pocket of his coat, and Tim groans lowly in his throat.

"I don't know anything about her disappearance." he warns hastily, and Nick replies by clicking his pen.

"Maybe not. But I'm sure you could at least give some insight on her character." he encourages – he's not letting Tim get out of this. He's the first new lead he's had in almost a decade and he will make use of him. "Let's start easy: how'd you and Ms. O'Hearn meet?"

Tim seems to be having trouble keeping eye contact with Nick. But he also seems to not want to look down at the poster in his hands, so his gaze shifts about the street around them as he speaks. "I, uh... I was out for a walk one night, and I saw her sitting up on a rooftop and she was writing something in a little notebook and I stopped and talked to her." he says, and this makes sense as Maggie had multiple notebooks, all full of amateur poetry and vague musings. Nick writes this down.

"When was that? You remember?"

"Uh... I don't know." Tim replies lowly, and then swallows and shakes his head. "I was almost 20, so... I guess..." his eyes narrow as he does the math, "2277? 76?"

"You were almost 20." Nick repeats, "And she would have been... 11? 12?"

Tim doesn't reply. His ears redden, and he makes extra effort to not look up at Nick as he watches him. His arms cross guardedly across his chest once more and he huffs softly.

"Look, it wasn't... She..." he stammers and swallows again. "She wasn't... She didn't act like she was that young. She acted a lot older. And looked a lot older, it wasn't..." He isn't looking at Nick but he just knows he isn't winning him over at all so he trails off and clears his throat.

"Acted older, huh?" Nick's tone only confirms to Tim that he's judging him harshly. "How so?"

"I... can't explain it." he says. "If you'd met her, you'd know. She was... really smart. Articulate, outspoken... I don't know..."

Nick's raises his eyebrows and shakes his head slightly before he moves on with a sharp inhale. "Alright. And how long were you seeing her for?"

"A few years. On and off." Tim answers honestly.

"So up until she went missing?" Nick asks, to which Tim replies by shaking his head quickly.

"No. Almost, but no."

Nick takes note of this answer, too. "Did something happen between the two of you?"

"No, I mean, I just... She got to be too much. She overreacted a lot, got jealous. It was like she was obsessed with me – I wasn't even allowed to talk to other women without her getting mad at me."

Nick muses inwardly about how this was all likely due to the fact that she was a child at the time of their relationship, but he keeps the thought to himself.

"I remember she became just... totally preoccupied with one of our friends because she saw me touch her back one time. She would follow her, draw pictures of her in her notebook... It was weird." Tim continues tangentially, and Nick perks.

"That so? Who was it?"

Tim suddenly tenses and he clears his throat, and then swallows again. His arms close even tighter around himself. "Er... I don't... remember." he says, and Nick is entirely unconvinced.

"She was a friend of yours and you don't remember her name?" he pries flatly. Tim glances to him then shakes his head once more.

"... Sorry." he says, and Nick regards him coldly, so he adds, "It's been a long time..."

Nick still doesn't buy it, but for the sake of keeping the conversation moving along in the limited time they have, he drops it. "Hm... Okay." he mutters. "So when was the last time you saw Maggie, then?"

Tim once again takes a moment to answer. "Uh..." he narrows his eyes as if he is attempting to remember, but to Nick it looks more like he's trying to craft as inconspicuous an answer as possible. He tries not to jump to conclusions lest he fall victim to confirmation bias, but he's finding it is becoming progressively more difficult to assume Tim's innocence the longer they speak. "A couple days before she went missing, I think." he settles on an answer, then nods once. "Yeah. Yeah, we broke up and were just... meeting to kinda... bury the hatchet."

Poor choice in words. Nick's lips pull into a slight frown, and Tim quickly waves his hands. "No, no. As in... I gave her some of her things back, she gave me some of mine. We left each other on good terms. It was nothing bad."

"And?" Nick asks, "She seem off to you at all when you saw her?"

Tim hums in thought. "Uhh... No?" his eyes narrow and his eyebrows raise as he guesses at the desired answer, and Nick begins to become frustrated with the way he acts so shifty. He draws in a short breath to doubt him, but a woman calls out from down the street.

"Honey!" Gina waves her arms to get the attention of the men, and Nick and Tim both turn, the latter of the two heaving a sigh of relief.

"Look, I really gotta go." he says and takes a wide step away from Nick after handing the poster back to him. "I hope I was helpful."

Nick grunts lowly and watches him with cynicism. He doesn't believe half of what he said, but he has more evidence now than he had this morning and so this was at least a step in the right direction. "Yeah. Thanks for your time, Tim." he says cordially, and lets him get halfway down the alley before he calls out to him again. "Oh, and Tim?"

Tim stops and turns halfway toward him. "Yeah?"

Nick holds up the poster now. "You wouldn't happen to be taking these down, would you?"

Tim wears an expression of confusion, then shakes his head. "Uh... nope." he says, then gives Nick a parting glance and heads back to his family. With a soft sigh, Nick folds the poster and slips it back into his pocket.

That night, as he is pouring over Maggie's diaries which he had since acquired from Rosa, he finds something: tucked between a short story about a self-aware supermutant woman and a page full of silly haikus about Takahashi's noodles are several pages full of artwork, all featuring one woman. The drawings are pretty good, considering Maggie's age at the time, and consist of portraits, life drawings, and pose sketches of a young lady with an angular face and straight eyebrows. She is thin, and her hair is long and black with straight cut bangs. She is a striking woman for sure, and Nick wonders if this is the woman Tim was referring to. The one Maggie had allegedly obsessed over.

He holds the diary up, leans back into his seat and wonders just who this woman is. Why was Maggie so smitten with her – and more importantly... Could she have something to do with Maggie's disappearance?

He takes a long drag from his cigarette and then exhales through his nose. He knows his next move is to attempt to locate this woman – he only hopes that this doesn't prove to be impossible.