It was two days after Dr. Cage had given me the list of names for her students that I decided to act any further on the case. I needed a break, and Bruce was the one to give it to me. The time was about noon that I strode up to the campus. I'd called Dr. Velmer earlier that morning to tell her I'd be on my way. She greeted me much the same as last time, when I entered her office. She was in the same clothes, too. Something almost made me question whether or not she'd washed them, but I bit my tongue. She wasn't one, I could tell, for my sense of humor. "The students are in the library down the hall," she said when I walked into her office and asked if she'd done as I requested. "Who's first on your list? I'll bring them in." I tilted my head and pulled out my notepad. "I'd like to ask Mr. John Archer a few questions, if you'd be so spiffy." Dr. Velmer looked confused at my lingo, her nose wrinkled slightly as if it had a bad odor, but she nodded briskly and went to fetch the student. While she was gone, I took the liberty to sit behind her desk. Even despite my stinky jargon, I needed someplace to sit down. A few minutes later, the door to Dr. Velmer's office opened and a young man of about twenty walked in. His dark hair was slicked back, his clothes were casual but expensive, and he had a smirk on his face like he'd just won the lottery. Something told me, though, that this guy didn't need any more money. "Mr. Archer, nice to see you," I said. "Have a seat." He came and sat down across from me, smiling. "Nice to see me, well, that's not something I hear every day, if I do say so myself. Never thought I'd meet an old-fashioned detective. I thought you guys went out with the dinosaurs. Look at you, notepad, trench coat and everything. Who'd have thought?" His smile widened, and right about then I wanted to subtract a few teeth from his gigantic grinning equation. "I'm sorry to hear that one of Dr. Cage's artifacts went missing. It's really horrible, you know, just terrible." "Yeah, terrible. So you went on the trip to Cairo with her, huh?" I pulled my notebook aside and, next to his name, wrote the word "jackass". "Yes ma'am." He leaned back in his seat, not taking his eyes off me. The previously mentioned equation on his face didn't go away, either. "Dr. Cage wasn't acting funny, was she?" I asked. "Eh...she's a weirdo, she's always fidgeting about something or another. It's hard to tell with her." He shook his head. "One of these days, someone's just gonna scare her right out of her skin." It was then that I was absolutely certain he was a troublemaker, instead of just guessing. "I understand from Dr. Cage that you all went off into groups of three. Who was in your group?" He laughed, more of a cackle really. "Let me guess, this is where you pull the detective stuff and go sniffing around for clues, right? Where's Watson, shouldn't you have an assistant?" "Real detectives don't need assistants," I retorted. "Answer my question, please." "Danny Moore and Kelly Fallon," he said with a snort. "What a bunch of losers." "I take it you don't like them much," I mused. "No shit, Sherlock." "Watch your mouth, kid, you're in the presence of a lady." I glared. "I'll ask you one more question before I end this delightful interrogation. Were you, at any time, around the artifact that Dr. Cage discovered?" "Oh yeah," he answered with a wave of his hand. "It was sitting next to me when we took the taxi back to the hotel we were staying in." "Thanks. You're excused now." He chuckled a bit and stood up. "Let me just tell you this, before I go: Dr. Cage had that artifact when she went home. I know that much. So instead of wrestling with me, try one of those losers that go to her house. Danny's one of them." He paused and smiled. "Although...if you ever want to wrestle with me again sometime..." "Out," I snapped. He held his hands up. "Fine, fine...yeesh..." With this, he left. Dr. Velmer peeked her head in through the door once he was gone. "Who next, detective Monroe?" she asked. "I'd like to see Danny Moore, please." Again she left, and another student followed, only he was short and a bit on the thin side, with thick glasses and unkempt blonde hair. Behind his spectacles were watery blue eyes. He wore a plain gray sweatshirt over a pair of blue jeans. He reminded me a lot of professor Cage, the way he glanced around so neurotically. "You must be Danny," I said warmly, not wanting to scare him. He nodded, but didn't speak. "Go on, have a seat, I won't bite." He sat down in the chair and fidgeted a little, clearing his throat. "I hope Dr. Cage is alright," he said softly, his voice not-so-surprisingly high in tone. "She's fine," I replied, "just worried about that artifact, that's all." He nodded again. "So, you went to Cairo with her group, huh?" He smiled a bit. "Yeah...I got enough money saved up to go, it was really fun." Pink circles appeared on his cheeks. "I bet. Not one for traveling much, really. I like to stay on familiar ground, you know?" "Yeah...but my mom says that I should get out more often." He scuffed his shoe on the carpet gently. "So, you were with John Archer and Kelly Fallon in the three-group, right?" He frowned slightly and nodded. "How do you like them? They nice?" He laughed, his face turning pink again. "Kelly's really nice to me. She always talks to me on the way to campus, if we see each other. But John...he's a jerk. All he does is make fun of Dr. Cage...he makes fun of me, too." I tilted my head. "Why?" "In case you haven't noticed...well...I'm a lot like Dr. Cage." He sighed. "Yeah, I noticed," I admitted. "But you gotta remember, she's a big shot around here. She's smart." I smiled. "You take tutoring from her, right?" "Well...it's not as much tutoring...she shows me books and information about artifacts that you can't get at the library here. She's studied a lot and got her stuff from a lot of really neat places. I've learned a lot from her." "You're one of her best students, I've heard." He blushed. "I guess...I don't know...I just am really interested in it, that's all." Just then, my cell phone rang. "Excuse me one moment, Mr. Moore. Hello?" "Detective Monroe! It's Melissa Cage! I need you over here right away, I've found it, I've found it!" My eyes popped out of my head. "Egad! I'm on my way!" I turned my phone off and sprung from my place behind the desk, hurrying to the door to Dr. Velmer's office. "What happened?" Danny asked me. "It's Dr. Cage, she found the artifact!" His eyes widened. "Oh please, let me come with you?" I hesitated, but then decided that he was genuine. He wanted to help me in this case, and I was going to let him. "Fine, fine. But hurry up, kid, I haven't got all day!" With that, we hurried through the campus and to Dr. Cage's home. NEXT TIME: THE CONCLUSION