The Case That Time Forgot (3 page)

“Right.”

“And he must be that kid's—”

“Karim.”

“He must be Karim's great-great-great-granduncle,” Xena said. “And there was some other guard who told Sherlock and the Carberry people about the amulet, but Sherlock didn't believe it was magic.”

Xander frowned. “It looks like he wasn't one hundred percent certain the amulet existed.”

“No, he was sure about
that
. Otherwise he wouldn't have left notes about it in his cold-case notebook. If the case was only about the missing water clock, he would have said the case was closed. Something was still unsolved. It had to be the part about the amulet—Sherlock believed there was an amulet, and it was still missing.”

“Oh, right.” Xander felt a flutter of excitement. If Sherlock Holmes thought that the amulet had existed, then surely it had! Where was it now? And how could they find it?

“It doesn't look like we have a lot to go on,” Xena said.

“There's one more thing.” Xander told her about his suspicion that someone had been listening to his conversation with Karim. He
sketched the odd footprint from the shower floor on a page of the small notebook he always carried with him.

“I don't know.” Xena inspected it, her head tilted to one side as she thought. “That's not much.”

“Sherlock would have continued with the case. He only dropped it because some guy asked him to. See? ‘Case dropped by order of HIM, as being potentially damaging to relations with Egypt.'”

“That wasn't just
someone
! That was the queen!”

“The queen wasn't a him!”

Xena sighed. “No, dope. It's all capitals. See? It stands for ‘Her Imperial Majesty.' Queen Victoria was the ruler of England then.”

“Oh. Well, that's different. If the queen ordered Sherlock to drop the case, he wouldn't have a choice.”

Xena still looked unconvinced.

“Let's at least talk to Karim and ask what he wants,” Xander suggested. “Maybe he can help. He might know more than what the casebook says. Maybe he has some clues! He asked me to call him, anyway.”

When Xander finally managed to find
Karim's cell number, Karim couldn't talk. “I'm having supper,” he said. “Can you come for tea tomorrow? We can give you a ride over here after the football match. You and your sister too, of course. I already asked my mother.
Do
come. I'll tell you all about it then. I really need your help
now
.”

It turned out that their mother had met Karim's mother a few times and liked her, so she said it was fine for them to go.

“We can come,” Xander reported. “See you at the match!”

“See you!” Karim sounded relieved. “And, Xander—there's more I can tell you about the amulet. Lots more.”

X
ander woke to the sound of Xena arguing with their father.
Oh, no
, he groaned inwardly. What if she said something that got her grounded?

He dressed quickly and saw that the sun was shining feebly. Good—maybe the weather would be better for the match. He pushed open the kitchen door to see his sister with her fists on her hips. She was saying, “But, Dad, the school is only a fifteen-minute drive! It takes almost forty minutes if I have to go on the Tube!”

“That's half an hour there and back.” Their father was reading the newspaper, a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked over the paper at Xander and said, “There's some hot cereal on the stove for you.”

Xander filled his bowl, and their father went on. “Have you started your science project yet?”

“My
science
project?” Xena's voice was shrill with disbelief. “But, Dad, it's Saturday! And
the project isn't due for almost two weeks!”

“You need to at least choose the topic today,” he said. “And then I'll take you to Xander's match. One round trip to school is enough for today. It's my day off too, you know.”

Xena stomped to her room while Xander gulped down his oatmeal. When he finished, he knocked on her door, but she told him to go away.

Xena didn't talk the whole way to school, and as soon as the car stopped, she got out without saying good-bye to their dad and ran up to the bleachers to sit with Hannah, Shane, and Jake. She must be really mad about missing the earlier match when Jake and Shane were playing, Xander thought.

During his game Xander kept glancing up into the stands, but Xena wasn't even pretending to watch him play and didn't notice when he scored a goal. Her attention was fixed on her friends.

What was so great about them, anyway? Jake was okay, but Shane was one of those people who treated younger kids like they were invisible, and Hannah didn't seem to notice or care. But Xander knew the three of them were the cool kids of his sister's grade.

Up in the stands, Xena felt awkward.
Hannah and Shane were talking mostly to each other, and she didn't know Jake very well.

“So what brings you to London?” he asked. Jake had a friendly face under his tousled brown hair.

“My dad's job,” she explained. “He's a music teacher, and one of his old friends is in the music department at the university. His friend is on leave this year, and he recommended my dad as his replacement.”

“My mum teaches at the university too!” Jake exclaimed. “Maybe they know each other!” Then his face clouded over as though he was worried about something.

Before Xena could ask him what was the matter, Shane turned to her and said, “Where's your magnifying glass?”

“My—what do you mean?”

“I thought you were related to Sherlock Holmes.”

Xena nodded, still mystified.

“So every time you see a picture of him he's holding a magnifying glass and smoking a pipe. Do you smoke a pipe?”

“Of course not.” Xena was indignant. “And the pictures show him with a magnifying glass because that's about the only piece of equipment
he used. He figured out his cases with just his brain.”

“Not like you and your brother! You couldn't do a thing without your computer.”

Xena flushed. “We use our brains too,” she said coldly. “The computer and metal detector and other things we've used speed things up, but we figure out the solutions to our cases mostly without them.”

“Your cases!” Shane hooted. “Don't you mean—?”

“Weren't you going to get me some cocoa, Shane?” Hannah broke in. She smiled at him, and Shane got up reluctantly and headed down to the concession stand. Before he got back, the game ended, and Hannah and Jake went to join Shane.

Xena waited on the paved walk for Xander and Karim. It was still cold, and she refused an offer of a lift from Shane's father, who was instantly recognizable from his resemblance to his son, crew cut and all. She passed up another ride from Jake and his mother, a tall woman dressed in a lab coat. Xena was stamping her feet to stay warm when the two younger boys finally emerged. She would be glad when soccer season was finally over!

“So what's Egyptian food like?” Xena asked as they hung their coats on hooks inside the door to the Farags' flat. “I've never tried it.”

“And I'm afraid you won't be trying it today,” said the short, dark-haired woman who came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. “Karim wanted all his favorite things for tea, and that means sandwiches and jam cake. If I'd known you wanted Egyptian food, I would have been happy to make you some.”

“Oh, I'm sure sandwiches and cake will be fine,” Xena said hastily.

Karim's mother said, “Well, you'll just have to come back sometime, and we'll have an Egyptian feast! I love to cook the food from home, but Karim is completely an English boy, I'm afraid.”

The sandwiches were delicious, and Karim's parents were fun. His mother asked them a lot of questions about life in Florida, and his father, a lawyer, liked to tease.

Karim's little sister, Dalia, a small girl with large brown eyes, seemed fascinated with Xander. She finished eating before everyone else and got whiny, and nothing would make her happy except to sit in Xander's lap.

“You're just going to have to move in!” Mr. Farag said with a laugh.

“Oh, he charms everybody!” Xena said.

“Even spoiled little girls,” Mrs. Farag said as she lifted the sleepy child off Xander and carried her away for a nap.

When they were through eating, Xena and Xander helped Karim clear the table. The three of them went into the sitting room, which was cheery and comfortable, with modern furniture, large abstract paintings in bright colors, and big windows with a view of a park.

“Finally!” Xander said. “Now
please
tell us what you know about the amulet!”

H
ave a seat,” Karim said. “I'll be back in a sec.” He went out of the room while Xander sat on a wooden chair and Xena settled herself on the carpet in front of a low metal-and-glass table.

Karim reappeared carrying a tan folder. “My dad gave me this when I asked him about what my granddad said.” He put it down on the table in front of Xena. “Go ahead, take a look.”

The folder held a few yellowed newspaper clippings. Xena glanced at Karim and then picked up the top one and inspected it. “Wow, this is more than a hundred years old!” Xander got down from his chair and joined her on the floor, sneezing at the musty smell.

Xena passed the first clipping to Xander. Xander could scan print so quickly that she sometimes couldn't believe it, and once he read something it would be in his memory forever—or at least for six years. They hadn't tested any further
than that—he'd learned to read at age four, six years ago, and hadn't forgotten anything yet.

“This one's about when they found the water clock,” Xander said after a quick look. “It was smashed into pieces on the riverbank near the museum.”

“By the river,” Xena mused. “I wonder if the thieves were planning to take it someplace on a boat—like back to Egypt—and then they dropped it.”

Xander shook his head as he scanned the page. “Nope. Sherlock inspected the pieces and said that it had been busted up on purpose, not by being dropped. According to the article, that part of the river was pretty marshy. It looks like it was the closest place to the warehouse where the thieves could smash the water clock without being seen.”

“Right,” Karim said. “People wouldn't go someplace like that for a stroll.”

“What does the next clipping say?” Xena asked.

“It says that this guy Amin was missing, and they thought that maybe he'd been murdered. Other people said no, he was the thief and had run away. Sherlock said,” Xander read from the article, “‘The truth will out! I will find him and
bring him to justice. It is for the law to say whether he was a thief, an accomplice, an innocent bystander, or an unfortunate victim. I am but a servant of the law.' ”

“Wow!” Xena was delighted to find a direct quote from their ancestor.

Xander quickly scanned the rest of the article and put it down. He held out his hand, and Xena put another clipping in it.

“One week later,” he noted. “Okay, here it says that Sherlock found Amin. He'd been hiding with someone who lived in London but refused to say who. It also says—” His voice changed, and Xena could tell he was excited. “It says that when Sherlock searched Amin, he found a piece of paper on him.”

“Was anything written on it?” Xena leaned forward.

Xander's face showed his disappointment. “It doesn't say.” He shook his head and put down the clipping. “Must not have been anything important.”

“That's what I thought at first,” Karim said eagerly. “But then I thought about it. I think that it
was
important, and Mr. Holmes asked the reporters not to say what it said. It must have been something about where the amulet was
hidden, and I bet Mr. Holmes didn't want anyone to find it before he had a chance to look for it.”