The Time Detectives! (Part 4)

Simon and Garfunkel were the luckiest pop-folk crossover band in the world, for they owned a time travelling Volkswagen 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!

At that, Joni started pedalling furiously, and with a soft ‘plop!’ of displaced air the tiger disappeared from the coliseum, much to the delight of the roaring crowd.

As soon as it had disappeared, it reappeared in the forum, right next to Simon and Garfunkel’s time-travelling Kombi, which had not been moved by the Romans because none of them could drive a manual. Immediately upon arrival all three soft-rockers jumped out of Joni’s tiger. Simon immediately went to work, searching the area for clues. While he looked at the ground around the chair where Julius Caesar had been sitting, Garfunkel snooped around at the seats of the senators. For her part, Joni reached inside the tiger, pulled out her trusty old guitar and played a swinging upbeat version of “Big Yellow Taxi”, which helped the swinging folk duo concentrate no end. After a bit, Garfunkel rejoined Simon by the Kombi.

“Right,” proclaimed the diminutive Simon, “as far as I can see, there’s only one clue.”
He scraped his finger along the ground and held it up for Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell to see. “Sand!” Joni cried, “but how…?”

“That’s not all,” Garfunkel told her with a wink and a grin, “the dust in front of every senator’s seat up there has been disturbed in a very regular pattern.”

“What pattern?” frowned Simon, the sleuthier of the two.
“Ah!” Garfunkel beamed, “the dust is all disturbed where every senator’s right foot was. It’s as if…as if…” he trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say.

Simon, however, was able to pick it up. “It’s as if they were all tapping their feet at the same time!”
Simon whirled to face Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell. “Now, who do we know who could make an entire forum full of senators all tap their feet in time…”

“And is associated in some way with sand!” Garfunkel finished for him.
There was a short pause while they all had a jolly good think. Then, almost in unison, all three of the folk/pop crossover songsmiths looked at each other and cried:

“The Beach Boys!”