Time Will Tell [Complete]

Chapter Nineteen

  "Lizzy, there's someone here who wants to meet you."

Liam smiled at her reassuringly while bringing a man around the corner with him, but strangely enough Lizzy didn't feel very reassured. "This," he said, "is somebody who can help us very much."

The stranger was middle-aged, medium-height, but not short – maybe five-foot-eight or five-foot-nine. He was wearing a hooded cloak, which she thought was odd, since it was still midsummer and quite warm. The hood was pushed back and his blue eyes twinkled as he extended his hand for her to shake. The way he smiled gently was familiar to Lizzy in a way she couldn't describe, and without thinking she shook his hand, trying to place it.

"Have we met?" she asked hesitantly. "I feel like I'm already acquainted with you."

The man laughed. "I feel the same way. However, I'm afraid I've been in Northern Ireland the last 17 years, and I don't believe you're much older than that. Have you visited Ireland before?"

"I don't believe I have! Well, my birthday is next month, so I'm almost 18 – however I doubt that I would remember meeting you in the first year of my life. Maybe you just remind me of someone." She replied thoughtfully.

"It's possible. Several people have told me that. Liam, for one." At this the man turned to the teenager standing behind him. "You never told me she was older than you."

Liam blushed. "It never came up."

"Has he told you of his photographic memory?" the man asked, focusing back on Lizzy. "He can remember anything after reading it once."

Lizzy laughed. "Yes, I know. It's quite impressive."

Following this line of conversation, something occurred to her. "Liam, can we talk?"

He scratched his head. "Aren't we already?"

She exhaled heavily. "No, I meant – um – you and me? Alone?" she jerked her head in the direction of a storage closet, completely empty inside besides a few heavy trunks. Liam looked at the older man.

"Oh, you two go talk. I'll be fine here on my own." He said, smiling at them both. "Don't worry, I won't run off."

Liam gave him a smile. Lizzy walked over to the small storage room and stepped inside, Liam right behind her.

"What is this about? You can trust him, Lizzy."

She ignored him. "You read the coded message back at Kit's, right?" Lizzy asked.

"Yes." Liam sighed. She grinned. "And since you have a photographic memory, you remember it?"

His eyes widened as he looked at her, slowly realizing what she was saying. "Yes. So I could decode it with the master key that we found..."

She nodded, her smile broadening. Liam pulled the master key from his pocket and looked down at it, connecting the coded words to the translated letters. "T," he said, "is the first letter."

"All right," said Lizzy. "T. Do you want me to remember this?"

"Yes. Just in case I forget."

Lizzy snorted. There was little chance of him forgetting.

Liam continued, "T, then h..."

She nodded. "T and h..."

Lizzy noticed the strange middle-aged man standing in the hallway, now watching them intently. "Um, I think your friend is listening. Can we do this later?"