“Hi, Tim sent me to check out some evidence related with a case that I’m handling,” Nick said as he entered ballistics.

An elderly CSI nodded his head, which worked as an unspoken signal that
Nick was free to use the lab equipment.

Nick had tested bullets many times before, so he immediately set to work, carefully comparing the pliers and the bullet.
***

Jake was looking over some documents, while Tim was absorbed some books in another area of the library, which is why Jake heard Nick come in, but Tim didn’t.

“We found two letters, one from Commander Laurence to his wife, and one from an unknown Confederate spy to the cook.” Jake said. After that Jake proceeded to read the two letters to Nick.

“Interesting, but that doesn’t really help,” Nick said in a low monotone. “In fact that just supports what I discovered.”

“Then what did you find?” Jake asked apprehensively.

At that moment Nick whispered to Jake.

“What?” Jake asked incredulously, hardly able to keep his voice to a whisper, after hearing the information.
***

“Hey Tim,” Nick said as he sat down next to Tim. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” Tim replied. “We proved that the cook was definitely a spy, and that my great, great grandfather in law was an easy target to frame.”

“Well that’s fine, but our world doesn’t make since, it’s full of chaos, paradoxes, and insanity,” Nick replied mysteriously. “Without these we would have a boring world without surprises and there wouldn’t be anything to discover, or to ever provoke a sense of wonder. Although the chaos in our world gives us a job, sometimes chaos gives us a bad surprise.”

“What are you talking about?” Tim asked hesitantly.

“Well, you see sometimes there’s something unsuspected that happens, so I’m trying to say is that I’ve run into an unsuspected surprise, by trying to prove your great great grandfather in law’s innocence I discovered evidence that proves your great great grandfather in law’s guilt,” Nick explained.

“No!” Tim said with a look of confusion in his eyes.

“The bullet was fired from Martin’s gun and then pulled out by the surgeon tool that you gave us, ballistics confirmed it. Once I heard what you and Jake discovered it all fell into place. The spy’s letter that we found was written before Commander Laurence was killed, and Commander Laurence got a second mirror before he died, but at the same time trying to hide it for fear that the men would get jealous. So the spy was confused, he could have still seen the reflection, but he based his position off of where he thought that the mirror was. The target practice would have made it hard to hear, except that the murder happened on Sunday so no guns were shot off other than the one used to kill Commander Laurence. I’m sorry, but this just means that you’re going to have to prove your family’s honor through yourself,” Nick explained to Tim.

Tim was subdued into silence. Even if he had thought of something to say, he couldn’t have said it. He felt as though he had lost the use of his mouth. So rather than talking more Nick just quietly sat next to Tim preparing for when Tim would speak again.

Nick knew that he was doing exactly what he would have wanted done for him after he had been told of his step brother’s insanity. Then Nick thought to himself, is insanity passed through by genes? If so I need to keep an eye on this one. Or is it passed on through trauma? If so then I need to keep an eye myself. Perhaps I need to keep an eye on both of us. Insanity is chaos and our world is full of chaos, so insanity is the norm on our world. I see now how stressful our jobs are. I’ve brought Jake into the job that he wants, but it’s stressful, so does that mean that his stress will turn into insanity...eventually.