Duncan Quagmire and Violet Baudelaire: A Reunion

Chapter 13 - Duncan Quagmire

Duncan has never met or heard of a Laurel Montgomery, but it made sense. The teenager on their bedroom wall and the boy on the family portrait distinctly resembles eachother by their light eyes, wavy ebony hair and darker skin. What more, inside the room, all of the books included reptiles and snakes and on the family portrait, the boy was holding a book with a snake on the front cover.
The Quagmire recalled that Montgomery Montgomery had a sister named Laurel and so if Dr. Montgomery was in the portrait, then his sister must be sitting in front of them right now.
"So, any other questions you wanted to ask me?" Jemma asked. She sat in front of him and Isadora when Isadora asked another question.
"Yeah. Why is this ship all fancy on the inside? Like it doesn't seem to be made for pirates," Isadora asked. She had a fair point. Although there were about twenty pirate crews, and Jemma, the interior was built like it was a palace on the inside with the elegant wallpaper, chandeliers, and sofas.
"Well, as you can see by this picture, my parents were very wealthy," Jemma began. Duncan noticed the jewellery around the mother's neck, the father's well-groomed hair and the children's neat clothing. "This was our holiday ship we used to come on every summer and winter. Our house was in the centre of the city because my parents owned a chain of four-star restaurants so naturally my parents would host a number of parties here." Jemma continued, "The  living room outside there is normally where the parties are at, and this room used to be my father's office."
"What happened to your parents?" Isadora asked. She curiously looked around the room again and focused on the wall decor. Duncan noted that there was a map of the City on one side and a sign that may have come from the restaurant.
There was another large map adorning an entire side of the office. It was a map of the country. The City took a small portion of the map, tiny dots symbolising the cluster of tall buildings, mostly concentrated in the centre. The Hinterlands were taking up a vast majority of the east side of the map, some mountains towering over the flat land. There was a large lake that outstretched near the north of the country and beside it on the west side were triangles with rectangles underneath it that Duncan could only assume were a forest.
All over the map were markings, red crosses. Majority of them were scattered in the city, some in the centre and some on the outskirts, where Duncan knew the old Quagmire mansion was. Some of the red crosses were around the place, one next to the big lake, one in a small town. There were also blue pins on the board which were connected by a white string. Duncan assumed that the red crosses were the chains of Jemma's parent's restaurants all over the country but he didn't understand what were the blue pins were of.
"My parents retired from their job as owner of the restaurants and they are very old now. They both live in the City, closer to where my brother lived." Jemma interrupted Duncan's train of thoughts but it was the perfect timing because she started talking about her brother.
"So who was your brother anyways?" Duncan questioned curiously, he wondered how much Jemma would reveal.
"Oh! Well, Montgomery was quite the snakes fan! Even though he loved snakes, he had to put away his dream and become a banker at the Ophelius Bank in the City."
"Where is he now?" Duncan questioned again, he tried to contain himself from bursting and confronting her of her lies.
"Dear Montgomery has a wife named Elizabeth Taylor and four children named Jeremy, Steve, George and Michael." The captain replied slowly, as if she was unsure of what to say. All at once, the door opened and one of Jemma's crew came bursting in. When he saw Jemma looking disrupted by him, he straightened his back. "Captain, there is trouble on the deck, Garry took us the wrong direction and we don't know how to get back on course."
Jemma stood up and she adjusted her belt. "Quagmires, go back to your room, while I sort things out." With that, she stood up and the Quagmires also stood up. With a second of quick thinking, Duncan snatched a piece of paper from the table behind him when the two adults weren't looking and crumpled them up in his hand.
Jemma ushered them out of her office and closed the door shut after her. A second before the door closed though, Duncan dropped the piece of paper and with his foot, he pushed it in between the door and the frame.
The door didn't click and so he breathed out a sigh of relief and got back into line with Isadora who was right in front of Jemma and the man. They took the first turn down a corridor and as soon as they were out of sight, Duncan grabbed Isadora and pulled her back down the corridor to which they just were going through.
"What are we doing?" Isadora queried as they broke into a run back down to Farley's office.
"It's the map on the wall. I think the pins and crosses mean something other than the chain restaurants." Duncan whispered. They ran through the arch and thankfully there was nobody in the living room.
Duncan bent down by the office and made sure the crumpled piece of paper was there. It was. Isadora crossed her arms, "How are we going to even get in there? I bet it's..." Click. Duncan  pulled the door handle and the door swung right open. "How?" Isadora said, she was at loss of words.
"I put a ball of paper underneath the door to make sure it doesn't lock. Now get in!" Duncan whispered again. He left the door open as he took a piece of paper from the piles and turned it around to find a blank side. Isadora handed him a pen from Jemma's desk and took one for herself too.
Duncan layed the paper on the desk and started copying the map. He drew the outline of it in a hurry so the curves didn't match the real map. "Quigley would have been very useful right now if he was here." Duncan muttered and Isadora didn't say anything. She drew the features on the paper, drawing the tree symbols, making triangles for the mountains and dotting where the city was.
Once Duncan finished outlining the big lake, he started putting the red crosses on where they were on the map but on the paper. He made the crosses small so he could pinpoint where each one was and after putting the last cross on the edge of the lake. He started colouring in small circles for where the blue pins were placed and drew on the line connecting them.
Once everything was done, Isadora placed the pens carefully back on Jemma's desk and they got out of the office. Duncan closed the door, making sure it clicked this time and when it did, they sprinted back down to their room.
When they pored over the map they made in the safe confinement of their room, Duncan saw what he was looking for. "Hang on, these red crosses aren't restaurants chains. They are houses. Of all the V.F.D. members!"