The Imperial Detective Examination (4)

Some time later, there were only five people left in the room. Apparently, people were being dismissed after their interview, so as not to taint the process. The previous person that had been called out had a last name beginning with P, so Lilly realized that her turn would be coming soon.

April Hale returned to the door of the Red Room. "Miss Lillian Rowley, please follow me," she said.

Lilly carefully scooted her chair back and hopped down from it. Nervously, she looked at the other four people left in the room. They all looked back at her with gentle smiles, silently urging her to do her best. April herself smiled as Lilly arrived at the door. "Don't be nervous. You're doing fine," she whispered. She closed the door of the Red Room behind her and gestured down the hallway. "Follow me, please."

Lilly did so, staying a few steps behind April as she guided her to a room with a pebbled-glass door. It reminded her of her classroom at school, and looked as if it was an office of some sort. When the door opened, she found herself in a small conference room. There were three chairs—one each for April and the other two proctors—in front of a small desk set in the back part of the room, under a window, while a comfortable chair for the interviewee was set up in front. Lilly took her seat, sat up straight, and folded her hands on her lap expectantly as April Hale took her seat with the other proctors.

"How are you doing this fine day?" said one of the proctors. "I'm Mr. Hyatt. Miss Hale here introduced me earlier, but I just wanted to start things off by saying that I'm very impressed with you taking this examination. It is my fervent hope that your hard work pays off."

The other man, who Lilly realized was Dr. Charles Winters, nodded. "I'm Dr. Winters, Miss Rowley. We're going to ask you a few questions, and once we're completed, you are dismissed for the day. We will notify all those who took the exam by mail within three days."

Three days! Lilly nodded, realizing that those three days were going to be an agonizing wait for her. "Now then," Dr. Winters said, "the first question I'd like to ask you is this: Why do you want to become a detective?"

Lilly looked into his eyes. "Because I want to be a person that people can depend on," she said. "I don't care about money or being famous, I want to help people. Like how my brother helped people, and how my father helped people."

"So you're from a family of detectives. That's quite impressive," April said. "But is this a decision that you arrived at yourself?"

Lilly nodded. "My brother—I call him Bro—we had a talk about it and then..." She hesitated, wondering if she should share what happened with Kayla. She decided to leave out as much information as possible. "He had a client a few weeks ago that came to us when something bad happened to them. That client trusted my Bro completely, and isn't trust important to being a detective?"

"That it is," Mr. Hyatt said, nodding. "Now, I'm going to ask you a question dealing with a hypothetical case. Say that someone in your family, or someone that you have a very close relationship with, has told you that they stole an object while they were someone's house guest years ago. Now this object is actually very rare, and worth a lot of money, but your family member had no idea of its real value when they took it. What is your first reaction, and then what would you do?"

Lilly let the question sink in. It reminded her of what happened with Nina's mother, but then again they weren't very close. So she thought about what would happen if she found out that Riley had stolen. "Well...I think the first thing I would do would be to tell them they were stupid," she said. That earned a laugh from the three interviewers. "But then...I'd ask them what they did with the object. And if they still had it...I would tell them that they needed to give it back and tell the truth to the person who they stole it from. And if they didn't have it...I'd make them try and replace it, or give the person money for it. Either way, they need to tell the truth about it."

"But you wouldn't report them to the magistrate?" Mr. Hyatt asked.

Lilly shook her head no. "No. Even if the person that he stole it from makes me."

"Let's elaborate on this question," Mr. Hyatt said. "Let's say that this person who stole the object knew about how much it was worth. So they sold it, and it is unable to ever be recovered. What would you do then?"

Lilly sat back in her chair, and looked up at the ceiling in thought. Finally, she spoke. "Then...I'd have to turn them in. But first I'd still make them talk to the person that the object was taken from and tell them the truth. And I'd insist that they pay the person the money that the object was worth. And...I'd still call them stupid."

Dr. Winters and April Hale nodded. "Thank you very much, Lilly," April said. "Do you have someone waiting for you?"
"I do. My Bro is going to pick me up," Lilly said. She got down from the chair. "Thank you for having me," she said. "I hope I can be a dependable detective." She held out her hand to the three proctors, who, after some hesitation, reached out and shook it.

Lilly exited the room and went back over to the coat rack outside the exam classroom to retrieve her coat. Hopefully Riley would be waiting outside for her by now.

As Lilly made her way to the front of the building, April Hale exited the interview room and watched her as she left.

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Riley had been standing on the front steps, watching the steady stream of test takers exiting the building. Finally, he saw Lilly exit. She saw Riley almost immediately, and ran over.

"It's all done!" she said, gleefully. "Now we just have to wait three days to see if I passed!"

Riley smiled. "Then you've earned a good lunch. Come on, I've found a great place nearby. And if you feel like it, we can take the streetcar into the shopping district and see what's new."
"Yeah," Lilly said. She nodded emphatically as she took Riley's hand and the two of them headed down the stairs together.

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It was Tuesday—the third day after the examination—and all Lilly could think about at school was whether the letter she'd be getting in the mail today would say YES or NO.

If it said NO...Lilly decided that she wouldn't be disappointed. It just meant that she would have more time to prepare, after all. The next exam session wasn't until early next year. As for whether or not it said YES, it meant that Lilly and Riley would need to go to back to the Magistrate to be sworn in as a detective, and receive her official insignia that she would need to carry with her at all times. She wondered if maybe she could get her own wallet to put it in—maybe something with strawberries on it, to make it more fun.

On the walk home, Lilly's mind raced. She had hardly talked to Morgan or Meredith or any of her other classmates since she came back to school on Monday. Of course Monday morning she had to get up in front of class and tell them all about the test, and where she had to go and what she needed to do. Everyone was asking her questions, and it was hard to answer all of them. What did she know about who carved the gargoyles on the outside of the building?

When Lilly arrived home, an envelope was on the table in her usual spot where she sat to eat dinner. Riley was putting the tea kettle on the stove when he saw Lilly drop her school bag on the floor at the front door and dash towards the table. With hands shaking from nervous excitement, Lilly grabbed the envelope. It was made of heavy linen paper, and her full name and address was written in script on the envelope. The envelope's seal was made of bright red sealing wax, stamped with the Magistrate's official crest. She carefully pried the wax from the envelope and lifted the flap, to reveal a folded piece of paper inside.

"I'm so nervous," Lilly said. "I don't even want to..."

"You can do it," Riley said. "This is what you've been working for, isn't it?"

Lilly nodded. She then squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the folded paper from the envelope. Trembling fingers unfolded it. Finally, when she felt she couldn't take it any longer, she opened her eyes. She had managed to pull the letter from the envelope the right way up, and as she started reading, her eyes grew wider and wider.

On this, the twenty-first day of November, A.D. 1927, the Magistrate hereby congratulates Miss Lillian Marie Rowley on passing the Imperial Detective Licensing Examination.

"I...I did it..." Lilly was trembling with joy. "I'M A DETECTIVE!"

"YES!" Riley scooped up his younger sister with surprising strength, and whirled her in the air. "Lilly, I'm so proud of you! And Mother and Father...they'd be so proud, too." He felt as if he was going to cry. This was a moment that his parents would've given anything in the world to have witnessed this sweet victory.

Lilly hugged her brother tightly. "I did it...I can't believe it," she said. "I didn't think I could."

Riley put his sister down. "You know what this means...We need to celebrate! Get dressed and we'll go out for dinner!"

"Call Kayla and tell her the good news! And the Franklins!" Lilly dashed upstairs to her room, her feet stomping loudly on the stairs.

Riley sighed with relief as Lilly shut the door to her room. "Well, Father, Mother...she did it. And I hope you're proud of her...wherever you are," he said.