Dinner was a bleak affair. None of them had much of an appetite after today morning, and the recent altercation had left a bad taste in Leo's mouth. He silently finished his food as fast as he possibly could, and he could see that the same was true for the others. Henry was much deflated and didn't look at anyone after Charles had entered. As for the latter, he showed no expression and calmly finished his food. William ate very little, it was clear there was something weighing on his mind. His mother didn't eat anything at all, sitting cross-legged on her chair pondering something. Elizabeth and Margaret only had fruits, it was clear that they were quite worried about William's despondent state.

"I see we are all finished." His mother broke the silence, looking at each of them in turn.

"Perhaps now would be the correct time to determine our path of action forward."

"But first," Charles' interruption caused Sophie to raise her eyebrow questioningly. "I apologise Aunt Sophie but I believe all of us here, except you, were mere children when Grandfather passed away. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we know very little about the man. If you would share what you know about her, that would be great."

At this Charles looked around the table as if expecting some form of agreement from anyone. When none came, he simply sat down with a smile.

Leo watched his mother regarding Charles with some amount of suspicion. It was clear that she thought this was all an act, a ploy by Charles to make sure the twins were not ostracised after the scene his brother had almost caused some time back.

"Yes you are right, I suppose." She said at length, nodding.

Then she positioned herself at the end of the table, looked at each of them in turn and began:

"Father was in many ways an enigmatic and mysterious man. You say you don't know him and I do, but I question whether there truly was anyone who knew him. Even when all of us were children, we quickly found out that there was only one thing my father truly loved - physics.

Of course, all of you may have heard that he was a famed physicist in his own right, even before the controversy surrounding his murder. Father was regularly invited to worldwide conferences, and he was in the running for a Nobel prize for multiple years, narrowly missing out each time. But his crowning achievement, the reason why Dr. Herbert Cooper almost became a household name, were his advances in quantum technology.

I am not a physicist myself, you'll have to ask dear Benjamin for more details on the same. But the long and short of it was that my father believed he had found a way to teleport individual quantum particles that make up our body through space and time. Or in layman's terms, a time machine."

Here she paused to take a breath, and Leo saw that everyone was enraptured in his mother's tale. True, he had heard rumours here and there, but till now he had never heard the complete details about Grandfather's life. In fact he didn't even remember if Grandfather had ever come to visit them when he was alive.

"Of course, very few people believed in his claim." Sophie continued, interrupting Leo's thoughts as he turned his full attention again to his mother's tale.

"A time machine is still an object present only in science fiction novels. Father was laughed out of most conferences or gatherings of scientists after he made the claim. That intensified his desire to prove his detractors wrong. It was about then that he created this mansion in this island, and for two years shut off all contact with the outside world, presumably to build the prototype of the time machine here."

"Did he succeed?" Elizabeth's voice was almost a whisper.

Sophie shrugged. "I don't know. He was murdered before he made anything public, so the common assumption was that he was killed before he succeeded. Of course there are a myriad of conspiracy theories. Some suggest that he was killed because he succeeded, but if you ask me none of them are likely to be true."

"What do you believe Aunt Sophie?" Charles asked.

Sophie paused. Leo saw that his mother was grappling with how best to answer this question.

"I believe he did discover it." She said after a lengthy pause.

"You believe there is a time machine on this island?" Charles was now almost incredulous.

"Yes, I do. And I believe the telegram is Father's way of pointing us towards it."

"You believe the telegram was sent by Grandfather, Aunt Sophie?" Margaret chirped up. Leo knew her suspicions regarding the origins of the telegram so he knew she would interrupt at this point.

Sophie simply nodded and smiled towards Margaret.

Margaret was not convinced by just that though.

"Isn't it more likely that whoever killed Grandfather sent that telegram?" She asked pointedly.

"I think that is quite unlikely myself." William was the one who responded. He had been quietly listening thus far with his head down, and now he raised it to look at his sister.

"Think about it. What reason does whoever killed Grandfather have to send a telegram to us to invite us here to this island?"

"Of course to help them find the time machine, or whatever it is that they think Grandfather has hidden in this island."

"Ah but if that was their aim why didn't they ask Grandfather for that directly before killing him? Or rather why didn't they just hide in the forests and tail Grandfather for a few days to find the location of the time machine?"

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Margaret fell silent and frowned. She didn't have any appropriate answer for this.

"And besides, I know Father's writing when I see it. He had a peculiar way with words and I am fully sure that the telegram was written by him." Sophie joined in, reinforcing William's point.

"If we assume that, then who were the five corpses we saw today morning?" Charles' insidious voice floated into the conversation.

This time it was his mother who frowned. Leo saw that she also was quite stumped on that point.

"Maybe it was the servants of Grandfather's time?" Leo proposed, but his mother immediately shook her head.

"No, Father didn't have any servants here. In fact he lived completely alone on this island for the entirety of two years, and there was a cordon around it for a decade to prevent anyone not from the family entering this island."

"Then...." Leo paused. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Well?" Henry asked irritably.

"Then isn't the bigger mystery not who killed these five people, but rather who are these five people in the first place? I mean if there was no one in this island for a decade, then from where did these five people come from?"

Everyone fell silently into their thoughts, none of which were too cheerful. How did five people come to the island when it was cordoned off from the public? Who were they?

"Actually there may be a simple explanation to their identity, or at least their identity as relevant to us." William broke the silence.

"That being?"

"These five people are the ones who killed Grandfather."

There was a moment of silence as everyone fell into stunned disbelief. Charles was the first one to break the silence.

"And who killed these five then?"

"They may have died of starvation. There are no animals or birds we saw in this island. I wouldn't be surprised if there was nothing to eat or drink either."

"They died of starvation sitting in chairs?"

William shrugged. "It's just a theory, I don't have all the answers yet. It is just a possibility that could have happened."

"Why would it take five people to kill Grandfather?" Margaret asked, her brows furrowed as she tried to fit in this possibility with her theories.

"Well maybe the killer was only one of them, but the remaining four were like accomplices? Like they also wanted to kill him and so did nothing while the killer among them finished the job."

"Or the killer was someone beside those five, who is still alive?" Margaret wasn't allowing her theory to die down so quickly

This time it was Sophie who disagreed. "No, Margaret, that is extremely unlikely. The killer cannot survive on this island for ten years. Psychologically it is impossible for any human to stay alone that long without going insane, but even if I assume that somehow they lived here, the same question arises again. What did they eat?"

"And how did they send a telegram from this remote island." Leo finished his mother's thought.

Again a depressing silence fell over the group. There were no easy answers to any of the questions in their minds.

Once more it was William who spoke. "There is another question we have not considered."

Leo groaned. Not more unexplainable mysteries.

"Grandfather's laboratory." He said, "We have to find that as soon as possible if we are serious about trying to find the time machine."

"You think he'd keep his time machine just there in the laboratory?" Henry scoffed.

William didn't take the bait. "Of course not, but it will give us an idea of what to look for. For instance do you know what the time machine looks like? How do you know we have not already seen the machine?"

"Of course I know what a time machine looks like. It will have some kind of chair or...." Henry trailed off as William smiled for the first time that evening.

"Science Fiction is quite different from reality cousin. If our grandfather really solved the enigma of time travel, then you can be sure that the machine he made will not be anything like we have imagined. My father is a physicist himself, and while he doesn't believe in the time machine, he has sometimes explained to me the extreme effort and genius required to even broach the subject."

"If your father doesn't believe in the machine, why are you three here?" Charles chimed in, his face twisting in a smile.

"Well, uh, my father doesn't believe in it, but it doesn't mean we don't." William stammered out, but that single moment of indecision was enough for Charles. Outwardly he seemed to accept the explanation, but Leo suspected that he had got the scent that William and his sisters were here to find something else.

The elusive gold

Leo realised he had forgotten to ask whether his mother knew about it too. He glanced towards her to see her calmly sipping from a cup of tea, her face an expressionless mask for now. If she had caught William's slip as well, she certainly didn't let it show on her face.

"Uh anyway, the main question before us is Grandfather's laboratory. I took a cursory glance through this whole mansion, and while it is truly huge, there is no laboratory or study anywhere." William was eager to change the topic.

"Maybe a hidden door somewhere?" Elizabeth offered.

"Or maybe it is somewhere out in the jungle." Charles said, his smile still on his face.

William was obviously discomposed with Charles' behaviour, so he didn't respond further besides a curt nod.

"Then, let's divide into groups and search for it tomorrow morning." Sophie took hold of the conversation once more. She stood up from her chair, and everyone followed her cue.

"Tonight we should rest." She smiled at all of them, even the twins, and then everyone left the room, going up towards their bedroom.

Leo wasn't able to sleep. The corpses from the morning, along with the discussion after dinner dominated his thoughts. But foremost among them, there was one question which kept circling back in his mind.

Who were the five corpses?

He wasn't satisfied with William's deduction that they were the killers of his Grandfather. No, that deduction required too many assumptions and required too many actors to behave in an unnatural way. Like, if they were able to come to the island when they were restricted, surely they would have been able to leave as well? And why would they ever throw the body out into the water? If they kept it here, it would rot without people bothering to check for a long long time, especially with the eccentric reputation of Grandfather that he had heard about today.

Just like they themselves rotted.

SMACK!

The forceful sound of a slap reverberated across the silent corridor. The solitude seemed to magnify the sound itself. Leo almost rushed out of the bed and opened the door, to see his mother standing there and Henry looking at her in shock, a hand to his face.

"Yo-you'll regret that Auntie!" He said, running away clutching his reddening face.

"I'll only regret not hitting you harder." Sophie murmured, and then noticed Leo standing outside.

"What happened Mom?" Leo felt his anger bubbling up, but he forced himself to stay calm. The hard look in Sophie's eyes softened for a moment as she glanced at her son.

"Nothing darling. Nothing you need to concern yourself with." She smiled, and ruffled his hair.

"Go to sleep Leo. Tomorrow is going to be a harsh day."

Leo was still not convinced. His mother's tone was calm, but he could feel her anger simmering as well.

"Leo." His mother grasped his arm and shoot it. "It's nothing darling. We have much bigger things to worry about than Henry." She smiled reassuringly at him again.

Leo nodded. "Good night Mom."

"Good night Leo."

She then turned and went into her own room, which was just beside Leo's. Leo looked around the corridor, but there was no one else there. It seemed only he had heard the sound of the slap. He sighed and went inside.

Those fucking twins.