"Mr Henshaw, are you trying to play games with me? Do you think I'm just a lonely and helpless teenager you could fool?" Lolita lashes out at the person on the other end of the line.
She listens to the person for a while until she agrees to meet in person. "Check your phone for the address."
***
"What do you want?" Lolita asks curtly, and the middle-aged man couldn't help smiling subtly. He couldn't believe his eyes when Lolita approached him in the first instance.
The man thought he was seeing Monica Clint in her teenage years. His emotions could not be explained with words, but he knew that the smart little girl before him could only be the daughter of the genius called Monica. A woman he admired with every fiber of his being.
"You know, you were the first person to ask about Monica in nine years. After the police closed the investigation, everyone forgot about her. No one even bothered to revisit her work." Mr Henshaw says while trying to hide the pain he feels deep down in his heart.
Lolita then cuts him off, "I know you liked my mother, or I should rather say, you still do. You look at me and all you see is why she never gave you a chance. All I can say is, sorry for your loss."
She then rests her back against the cushion and adds, "Mr Henshaw, let's cut to the chase and stop wasting each other's time, okay?"
The older man raises an eyebrow at Lolita's interjection, but still smiles subtly before responding off-topic once more,
"When you hacked my phone, I was scared that my enemies were onto me. I feared that my current research would be gone, but after seeing you, I realized I was wrong. Monica's daughter can never be an enemy of mine. Thank you for boosting my security system."
Lolita was getting frustrated, as she used her palm to cover her face in a bid to calm herself down. Afterward, she retorts, "So much for calling out my mother on national television. Tell me you were not sending out an open invitation."
"You sound so much like your mother. However, she was a sweet little angel. As for you, I may not say the same about you. I guess you got your cold temperament from your father." Mr Henshaw adds.
Lolita lifts a questînong eyebrow at the man's mention of her father. It was a clear indication that he had just touched a nerve he shouldn't have. Mr Henshaw hastily waves his right hand in the air and says, "Forgive my manners. I wasn't trying to be disrespectful."
Lolita could only cut the man short before he could continue with further stories about her mother. It is never a problem for Lolita to listen to stories about her mother. However, the only person she could trust to tell her the unadulterated truth was her grandmother.
Other people may just fill it with so many imaginations and unnecessary emotions, and end up wasting her time. Like the man sitting across from her, Lolita knows he isn't lying, but she didn't have all the time in the world to babysit a lovestruck middle-aged man. It is clear to her that the man just can't let her mother go.
Lolita thought to herself, "If sixteen years couldn't wake him up from his dream, then who am I?" As a result, she decided to cut him short and end the meeting.
"Mr Henshaw, I need to go. It's been nice meeting you" She then stood up and was about to take steps out of the private room.
"Your mother was researching the possibility of the existence of another universe. She believed that the world as we know it is not a universe, but a multiverse." He takes a look at Lolita who remained standing at the same spot and couldn't help praising her internally.
Lolita had the resolve of her mother. No one could ever change her mind once it's made up. She was a very stubborn and daring archaeologist who won numerous awards for her findings.
"Your mother helped me to get a job at the National Archaeological Institute. In fact, she made the institute what it is today. She made me what I am. From a freelance assistant to the director of the Institute. She saw the talent that I didn't even see in myself.
You may want to take your seat because you'll need it."
Lolita could feel the strong vibrations in the man's heart, and she knew he wanted to speak of a big issue.
"Your mother called me a day before she disappeared. She said I should ready myself and expect her call. She was headed for the embassy to secure a visa to the Dark-Dawn Avenue."
Mr Henshaw saw the change in Lolita's mood and could tell that she had heard about the Dark-Dawn Avenue before.
"She was supposed to help me get a visa from there. She told me categorically that her instrument picked up some vibrations in a particular spot when she was there earlier on.
Everyone would think she's crazy to say that there may be an invincible barrier or even a tunnel between our world and some other universe."
At this point, Lolita's heart was a mess. She couldn't place her hands on why her mother would try to investigate something like that. Then again, her grandmother made her understand that her mother was referred to as the mad archaeologist.
She was always thinking about seemingly unimaginable things. The only issue was that she always emerged with positive results.
However, she had been doubted too many times that she could only work alone, or with a few trusted people in her circle. Even the few higher-ups at the institute never knew what she worked on until she presented them with results.
"In this file, there is everything you need to know about your mother's research at Dark-Dawn Avenue. She was set to be in Wolftown. When you find her, tell her I kept my promise."
Lolita then asked him, "Why didn't you search for her? Or even present this to the police?" Mr Henshaw could only question bitterly, "Would you have presented this if you were in my shoes?"
The middle-aged man thought that Lolita was well-connected and had a powerful father who could assist her in finding her mother. How else could she have hacked his system otherwise?
What he failed to understand, however, is that Lolita was all alone and had no one to rely on but herself.
"Thank you," was the response he got that rendered him speechless. Lolita was right here glaring at him all this while, and a thank you was the last thing he expected to hear from her.
"One more thing, please be careful. You wouldn't wish to attract any hidden eyes." Me Henshaw warned in a heavy tone. Lolita nodded and swiftly stepped out of the room.
Only then did Mr Henshaw see a network bar on his phone. He didn't need a soothsayer to tell him the girl had deployed a signal jammer just now.
"So meticulous huh? I hope you find her soon, dead or alive. Any news is still better than no news."
Lolita rode her bike to her house and couldn't help wondering if everything was just one big plan to bury evidence.
***