The Time Detectives! Part 3

Simon and Garfunkel were the luckiest pop-folk crossover band in the world, for they owned a time travelling Vokswagen Kombi. Every night they would begin their set at a café in The Village and then, once everyone was asleep, they would jump into the kombi, set a course for the past (or future) and become…

THE TIME DETECTIVES!

“That’s right,’ said the tiger, “now hold on!”
To Simon’s amazement and the crowd’s bloodthirsty delight, the tiger them swallowed the diminutive folk songsmith whole. Inside the tiger Simon found himself careening down a pitch-black slipperydip until he landed on a pile of mattresses and someone switched the lights on. When Simon looked around he saw that he was in a largish room that didn’t look at all like a tiger’s stomach ought to. In one corner, pedalling furiously upon an exercise bike with wires trailing of it sat Joni Mitchell, friend of both Simon and Garfunkel and regular performer at village gigs.

“Where are we?” Simon asked, looking around in amazement.
“Hello!” replied Joni Mitchell brightly, “this is my time-travelling tiger!”
“Wow! How does it all fit in?”
“More on that later. First, I’ve got to eat Garfunkel. You’d better get out of the way.”
As Joni Mitchell’s hands danced across the control panel in front of her, Simon scrambled hurriedly off of the mattresses. He did so not a moment too soon, as right away a rather bemused Garfunkel came rushing down the chute.

“Hi, Joni!” he cried, “I was wondering when you’d show up.”
Simon was dumbfounded. “You set all this up?” he asked in wonder.
“Sure,” Garfunkel replied, “when I got a moment after gladiator class, I put a note addressed to Joni inside an amphora.”

“Yes,” continued Joni, “and imagine my surprise when I was doing a gig in Rome in 1967 and stumbled across it during a tour of the Coliseum.  Immediately I began work on this time machine to rescue you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got to get out of here.”

Joni began to program the coordinates for a safe return to the swinging sixties.
“Wait!” Simon said, “we can’t leave without the kombi! And,” he added, “There’s still the matter of who killed Julius Caesar to solve!”