The Curious Case of the Two Dirk Gentlys

16: Crossword Champion

"Fantasy world created by C.S. Lewis." Said Svald as a newspaper rested on his lap. Now bored with day's work he'd moved onto the crossword. He filled them in on occasion, often when a case wasn't stimulating enough.

"Wonderland." Replied Dirk. A self-satisfied smile spread across his face. It was the third clue he'd got right in a row, a proud hat trick. Todd had tried for a while but was absolutely terrible at it. He blamed it on the long day and jetlag and went off to bed.

"Water animal beginning with o.' Svald continued.

"Otter." Said Dirk with very little thought.

"You're very good at this. What are you like at soduko?" Asked Svald. He'd never liked soduko himself. Numbers were far too clinical; too logical.

"Shouldn't we be working on the case?" Asked Dirk. Most of him really meant it. He wanted to unravel this ball of barbed wire more than anything. Another part of him, the immature part of him, desperately wanted to avoid soduko.

"No need. Todd already solved it. Tomorrow we test Victoria and if correct, which I expect he is, you'll be home and dry by the end of the week." Svald told him. He turned away from the crossword to the comic strips. He chuckled, such perfect mind numbing.

"Are you sure?" Asked Dirk.

"Positive. Maybe she's not doing it initially. Maybe that's why she called us, to help with her new power." Svald speculated.

"Latent powers." Dirk thought aloud.

"Indeed." Svald mumbled. Dirk went quiet. His face dropped as he looked down at his feet. Svald looked over. He squirmed at the sudden appearance of emotions. He was far from apathetic but his empathy only worked in theory. For it to work practically he needed time to prepare. He tried to improvise. The ability to care for the people close by was a skill every good detective should have. He  was at the very least a detective so he had to try.

"What's wrong?" He asked. He placed the newspaper aside in the hope it would make him look more confident and engaged than he really was.

"It's a little disappointing isn't it? That the universe would bring us together and then not do anything." Said Dirk.

"What do you mean?" Asked Svald.

"Two Dirk's, two agencies, and it's just an old friend having an extenstial crisis." Of course had Victoria called he would have probably come running. Nine times out of ten he was thrilled just to find out his fellow Blackwing projects were alive let alone that they had a small family of their own. It was the tricks that the universe played that frustrated him. All the carrots and sticks when the universe could have just given Victoria his number.

"Perhaps the universe is showing off. It likes to do that from time to time." Said Svald.

"I think the universe should be focusing on bigger things. It could be correcting so much wrong in the world and it's planning meet ups for people with similar names." Dirk ranted.

"Identical names." Svald corrected. "And that I do find strange. If just our real names matched I might be able to belief it. If it was just our chosen names I could belief it. But both? Just a little bit too coincidental for my liking."

"It's a cowinky dink. So many coincides piled on top of each other that they can't be ignored." Dirk explained.

"I always thought I was being clever with that name. After all there's nothing gentle about a dirk dagger. Then in you come stealing my thunder. Where did you get the name anyway?" Asked Svald.

"It was in a journal my mum had." Said Dirk.

"Really?" Svald raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know what it was about. I just saw it on the side once and saw the name circled in red pen. I don't really remember anything else from it." Explained Dirk.

"Perhaps she was a client of mine." Shrugged Svald.

"Maybe." Dirk sighed.

"By the look of things we'll likely never know." Said Svald as he took back his newspaper. "It's getting late. Perhaps you should get some sleep."

"Sure." Dirk yawned. "Goodnight Svald."

"Goodnight Dirk." Said Svald as he flicked through his paper.

Dirk headed up the stairs towards his borrowed room when his attention was pulled towards Svald's door. It was like a tugging in his chest that forced him in that direction. He pushed open the door into the freezing cold, pitch black space. He stood in the doorway, looking around, before regaining his senses and leaving, closing the door behind him.