The Immortals

FIVE - Investigations

It's been two weeks since the incident at the old Hospital. A fire has been reported and immediately the fire department arrived. They had all tried to save the place but without succeed. Two thirds of the building were destroyed, the rest had collapsed completely and the area was sealed off. Alice was in her office, walking back and forth as her partner entered.

"The fire department called", Sam said. "One of 'em found something in the ruins of the building."

"What?", Alice asked.

Sam shrugged and replied: "We'll have to go and take a look."

They both agreed it would be better if they went together. The two detectives made their way to the fire department.
Inside they were greeted by a firefighter, who led them to an office.

Alice crossed her ams, asking: "So, what have you found?"

"The building was abandoned during World War II," he began. "Some papers survived, mostly medical records of doctors and researchers, and some stuff. But everything else was burned."

He handed them several files. "Here, these are some of them."

Sam took them, while Alice looked at an old, shabby black and white image of three men in uniforms of soldiers and officers. She recognized one of those men but didn't know where from. She passed the photo on to her colleague.

"This man, on the right, why does he seem familiar?", she wondered.

Sam looked intensely at the picture, raising his eyebrows. "He looks weirdly similar to a guy I met while doing an investigation."

"Perhaps they're related", Alice said and took the photo, putting it to the files and closing them. "Do you have his number?"

Her partner shook his head. "Nah, we spoke once and then never again."

"Great", Alice sighed. "See to it that you find him."

They thanked the firefighter and left the department, making their way back to the police station.

As soon as they got back there, Detective Collins started going over the files the firefighter gave them. As expected, most of them were medical records for doctors or other people connected to the hospital. But one file caught his attention. He opened it and read the details.

"Alice", he called out. She walked over to his desk.

"There's more, here...", he pointed to the file, which he opened, "...and a note."

Alice took the note, which read:

"To Victor Black,
Thursday, October 10, 1946, Town Hall,
Greetings from Antonia."

Something in Alice's brain clicked. She rushed over to her desk and pulled out the note, Sam gave her from Dr Wolff. Then, she hurried back to him, showing him the other note.

"You remember giving me this?", Alice asked him.

"Yes...", Sam replied, frowning.

Alice put the two notes side by side on the desk. "Look at the similarities. October 10. Antonia. Same date, same name."

"But the first is from 1946. It couldn't be the same Antonia."

Alice shrugged. "I don't know. Look, it's the same handwriting. One from 1946 and one from this year. How do you explain that?"

Sam looked at her. "What are you saying? That there's a woman named Antonia who has been alive since before 1946?"

"That seems impossible, doesn't it?", Alice replied.