Once

Twenty Three

"Is it even open on Sundays?" David asked. He sounded a bit breathless. Elle realised for the first time how fast she was walking, but that didn't slow her down.

"I don't know. The library isn't. I don't know about the museum. But something tells me he's going to be there."

They rounded the corner of the town square onto Church Street, and came in sight of the modern glass frontage of the Farway Collection.

The electric doors slid open as they approached. The library to the right, as Elle had said, was dark behind its locked doors. The museum up ahead was open, though, as was the cafe on the left where a few elderly couples were currently having an early lunch. Elle turned straight to the left and raced up a flight of stairs.

"Elle - where are you going?"

"We came for a school trip when it first opened," she said over her shoulder. "It's up here."

At the top of the stairs two corridors ran off diagonally in both directions. There were more museum exhibits up here, along to the right. Elle veered straight to the left, and David followed.

There were doors down here leading into offices, and a few large bare rooms with long rows of tall filing cabinets. This was the home of the Farway Archives.

The last door on the corridor had a name card slotted into it. It read:

MR STEPHEN LUZLIC

Head Archivist

Elle's hand was knocking on the door before she even knew what she was doing.

"He might not be in today," David pointed out gently.

"He will be," Elle replied firmly.

Even as she spoke the door opened. The nervous face of Mr Luzlic stared out, eyes wide and round behind his glasses. At first he almost looked horrified, as if he expected an axe murderer to be waiting on the other side of the door. But then his eyes flickered between Elle and David and a slight smile came to his lips.

"Which of you is it?" he said.

Elle didn't ask him what he meant. She already knew.

"It's me."

He nodded, studying her silently for a second or two.

"I knew you'd come," he said. "Just one question. Who are you?"

*

Five minutes later they were seated round Mr Luzlic's desk, with cups of vending machine coffee steaming in front of them. Elle sipped hers gingerly. She realised she hadn't eaten or drunk anything all morning and she was glad to have something warm hitting her stomach, even if it was pretty rancid.

She coughed slightly and said:

"Mr Luzlic - how did you know I'd come here today?"

"Well, I didn't know, but I did hope. I hoped I might have got through to one of you, and that when things began happening you'd tie up the events in Farway with what I'd said to you in that talk."

"So the talk was significant," Elle said.

"Yes, Elle. The talk was significant."

Mr Luzlic studied her for a few moments, appraising her. Eventually he said, "You still haven't worked it out, have you? Exactly what's happening here in Farway, and why?"

Elle and David looked at each other.

"No, we don't know," Elle admitted. "We were hoping you might have some information for us."