The Shirley Link Box Set: A Middle Grade Mystery Series

by Ben Zackheim

  Marie looked at me, wide-eyed. She realized I was right about Jacob letting the world know first.

  "We don't think it's a credible threat, but we'll send another guy over there tomorrow to double up on the protection."

  "Elite military time? That's random," Marie muttered.

  "Not likely," I said.

  "Shirley!" Mom hollered, which stopped me from going into one of my face-squishingly deep thoughts.

  "No, Mom. I swear I had nothing to do with the note."

  "No more adventures for you, Shirley Link! I'm tired of fighting off the press. I'm out of favors. You understand me?"

  "Yeah, I understand you."

  "Marie, you keep an eye on her for me, okay?" Mom winked at my friend, who smiled back, but looked spectacularly uncomfortable.

  "I'll help too, Mrs. Link," Wiley said from his little box on my screen. "Shirley won't--"

  SLAM! I closed the lid of my laptop hard.

  We waited for Mom to leave. I gently closed the door behind her, then reopened my laptop.

  Wylie was moping.

  "Not cool," he said when the screen woke up.

  "I'll tell you what isn't cool is your crush on Shirley's mom," Marie snapped. "That's so very not cool, Wylie."

  It's true. Wylie's had a crush on Mom for a couple of years now. She is pretty. And smart. And going to kick my butt if I live through tonight.

  "Psh. Whatever. So what are we gonna do about this Jacob guy?" Wylie asked. "He sounds serious."

  "I'm not sure what you're going to do," I said. "But I'm going to stop him."

  Chapter Seven: I Get to Use My Pepper Spray!

  Dangling over this dark, sleeping town, I find it hard to believe how much has happened tonight.

  Marie and I certainly planned on going to sleep. As far as we knew, Jacob wasn't going to strike until tomorrow. I thought I had some time to think about how he'd pull it off.

  How could a kid get in there, steal a treasure, and escape when everyone was waiting for him?

  It turned out that Fate didn't want us to fall asleep. After we hung up with Wylie, Marie got chatty about how irritating he is. I wasn't really listening to her. She's right, though. He is irritating. But, unlike Marie, I get no enjoyment from his burps and bad jokes.

  I was about to tell her exactly that when a thought slapped me in the brain.

  "Oh, no," I said, sitting up in bed.

  "No, it's okay. I'll tell him to try and change his underwear once in awhile."

  "I'm not talking about Wylie. Jacob is going to take the comic tonight."

  "What? How do you know?"

  "One, he's a liar. I suspected it, but now I know it."

  "What did he lie about?"

  "'Elite military time.'"

  "What's it mean?"

  "He wrote his own virus and used it to get my attention. He probably sees himself as a computer cracker, which is like an evil hacker. They have their own language. The key is the word elite. He's talking about the hacker term for elite. They use the term leet, or as it's typed on a keyboard, '1337'. 13:37 military time is actually 1:37 in the afternoon. So he's either stolen it already or... he's trying to confuse me. Throw me off. He's telling the truth about stealing the comic but he lied in the note about when the heist is planned. He's stealing the comic tonight."

  "That seems like a thin theory, Shirley. Why do you think he's lying about the time?"

  "When we talked in the library, Jacob told me he never put off for tomorrow what could be done today."

  "Okay. That's bad," Marie said.

  "I need you to go tell my mom," I said, as I got into my day clothes. "Tell her the note is misleading and that she needs to get some cops to the library right away. I'm not worried about the comic but I am worried about the safety of the guard on duty."

  "How can you not be worried about a hundred thousand dollar comic book?"

  "I'll tell you later. And Marie? Do not tell Mom about Jacob." She gave me a look. "Just do what I say."

  "Where do you think you're going?"

  "The sticky note on the comic case has one more clue on it. Someone I know is in trouble. I need to go warn him," I said.

  I slipped out my bedroom window before she could protest. I knew she'd do the right thing. She always does. She's a loyal friend and as smart as I am in some ways. Even smarter in others. She has a hard time admitting it for some reason. I think it's because she's afraid of scaring Wylie off, which is stupid. She may be beautiful, but he likes her for her sense of humor. Those two are going to drive me crazy if I have the great privilege of staying alive.

  ***

  Jonathan Jelly, a man with an unfortunate name, is the state's biggest comic collector. He was so excited about our library's comic book outreach program that he offered Ms. Conway anything she wanted. He would have given her the Action Comics #1, but the school's insurance wouldn't cover the million dollars.

  As I walked to Mr. Jelly's house I wrapped my hand around my pepper spray. It's not much protection, but it's all Mom will let me have. Wylie sprayed it in his own face by accident last summer, which was unfortunate for him, but awesome for me. I got to ask him a hundred questions about the experience as he jumped around like popcorn. I know. Not funny. Except for the fact that it really, really was.

  So Mr. Jelly's house was dark. Not a good sign. I heard a sound from inside, but it wasn't the kind of sound someone who lives there would make. It was more like an accidental bump.

  On the front porch, I peeked through a window. I couldn't see a thing at first. Then a slight beam of light barely broke through a door jam. It was so fast that I didn't know if it was my imagination at first.

  But then it happened again. It was a flashlight.

  Someone had broken into Mr. Jelly's house.

  I took a picture of the darkness with my cell phone, no flash. I uploaded it to Twitter. Marie, Wylie and I agreed after my last case that whenever we were in danger we should tweet a pic. The image file automatically pins our coordinates. I just hoped that if Wylie came running he'd stay quiet, as we'd agreed.

  Within seconds of tweeting, my phone vibrated.

  Wylie was calling.

  I wanted to strangle him.

  The light inside the house stopped moving. Did they hear the phone buzz? I couldn't take the chance so I carefully backed off the porch and hid behind a tree. I kept an eye on the dark windows for a minute. My breath sounded like a thunderstorm in my own head.

  I saw a figure come to the porch window. It pushed the drapes back. Whoever it was, he was big. Really big. The small flashlight went back on.

  I was right about Jacob. He was using his pocketbook to hire people to do his dirty work. I knew he wouldn't do it himself.

  I ran around the house to the backyard. The rear door was wide open. Was this a pro? Couldn't be. A pro would never leave a door open like that. Though it was possible that he wanted a clear escape route.

  I tip-toed through the back door and found myself in the kitchen. I heard the light footsteps of a thief in the next room.

  I knew exactly what he was looking for, too. Jacob's sticky note on the comic's display case spelled out the second target in this ridiculous game.

  And the target was in Mr. Jelly's house.

  A Superman toy stood on the kitchen counter. I thought it was just too tempting to pass up. The 'S' on the toy's chest appeared to be a button.

  I pushed it.

  "WHEN WILL YOU LEARN LEX LUTHOR? I'LL BEAT YOU EVERY TIME!" the toy hollered.

  CRASH!

  The crook knocked into something in the living room. I crouched beside the door to the kitchen. Pepper spray in hand.

  Ready to go.

  Chapter Eight: The Gamble

  Someone knocked on Mr. Jelly's front door. I had a pretty good idea who.

  "Shirley? You in there?" Wylie called out.

  I plan on pepper spraying him again if I can find a way off this flagpole.

  The crook burst through th
e kitchen door. He knew I was in there, thanks to Wylie. Luckily, the thug looked the wrong way. When he turned to me, I was already pressing hard on my aerosol canister.

  I covered his face in pepper spray. He screamed.

  Then, to my surprise, a second guy burst in. At first I thought it was Wylie, but when he faced me he was considerably uglier, and with a lot less teeth. His grin was terrifying. He took two steps toward me before he was knocked sideways.

  Wylie. Good old Wylie. He tackled Mr. Ugh-Face and rolled across the floor with him. Sure, he saved me--but I still want to pepper spray him.

  The other thief had escaped. It would be hard for him to get around with watering eyes but it was out of my control now. I had to make sure Wylie won this fight.

  Wylie is a good wrestler, and big for his age, but Mr. Ugh-Face started to overpower him. I picked up a large Darth Vader statue and waited for the right moment. Just when the guy sat on top of my friend and lifted his fists in the air, I beaned him with a few pounds of Sith Lord helmet. The Dark Side of the Force is powerful.

  He slumped and fell over on Wylie.

  "Geddim off!" my friend hollered. Between the two of us we managed to push the thief onto his back.

  I checked his bag. It had a thin metal case inside. I unlatched the lid and found The Avengers #1 safe and secure. I flipped through it. The comic book's inside pages were blank. White.

  I couldn't help but smile. All was going exactly as I had planned.

  "That was a dumb stunt," I muttered at Wylie, out of breath and trying to calm my heart down.

  "I don't like it when you're in danger. Sue me."

  "That's nice of you. Really. But next time, come in quiet, okay? Don't yell for me. All that did was let him know I was here."

  "Sorry, Shirley."

  "Thanks for putting me in danger and then saving me."

  "You're welcome. I think. What now?"

  We heard a bump upstairs. I put my finger up to my mouth.

  "But..." Wylie started. I pointed the pepper spray at him and frowned.

  I crept to the stairs. Wylie followed. Another sound slipped down from the second floor. It sounded like a moan. I ditched the caution and ran up as fast as I could.

  It was Mr. Jelly. He was rolled up in a ball on his side. His hands and feet were tied and he had a sock taped into his mouth.

  I pulled the sock out.

  "Where is Superman?" he asked. He was a little out of it.

  "Superman is safe," I said, trying not to smile.

  His body relaxed and I used my Leatherman to cut through the rope.

  "Thank you, Shirley. Besides my getting tied and gagged, did everything else go as you planned?"

  "It sure did, Mr. Jelly."

  Wylie frowned. "What are you two talking about?"

  "Let's get to the school. I'll explain on the way. Get the car started, please, Mr. Jelly. Go with him, Wylie. I'll get the bad guy downstairs tied up for the police."

  I feared for the guard on duty at my school. I hoped my gamble paid off.

  Chapter Nine: Almost Nailed It

  "You can be a real jerk. You know that, Shirley?" Wylie said as we pulled into the school parking lot. I'd told him everything. Mr. Jelly wasn't surprised by any of it. He'd been involved in my plan since last night.

  "Wylie, if I told everybody what I was up to, then it wouldn't have been a secret for long."

  We walked into the school library. Mr. Reese and Ms. Conway were standing near the display case, pale as ghosts. The rookie, Officer Joey, looked like he wanted to crawl into a hidey hole. He must have been the guard on duty. I was relieved to see he was okay.

  The comic book display case was empty.

  No Avengers #1.

  Mr. Jelly laughed at the sight. "Amazing," he said.

  I agreed with him as humbly as I could. "It really is, isn't it?" I responded.

  "Will someone please tell me what the heck is going on here?" Mr. Reese asked.

  "Sure, Mr. Reese. First, I should introduce you to our thief, who's watching from a web cam planted on top of the 'Y' authors."

  Everyone looked upstairs to the balcony where a small red light shone dimly on a shelf.

  "Don't bother using it as evidence. I'm sure he's tapped into the school network and is streaming all of this through secure connections. He was hoping to watch all of us freak out here, but we're not going to give him the satisfaction."

  "Shirley," said Mr. Reese. "Get on with it, please."

  "Sorry, Mr. Reese. Let's see. It all started when I got a threat via a nasty virus on my computer. Something about it made me nervous. I feared that it was connected to the one hundred thousand dollar comic book in some way. There was no direct evidence of a connection, but I decided to be extra careful. That's why you hired me, Mr. Reese."

  "True," he said, allowing a small smile, even though he wanted to turn me upside down and shake the full story out of me.

  "So I stole The Avengers #1 last night from the library and returned it to Mr. Jelly."

  "What?" Ms. Conway practically shrieked. Okay, remembering it now, she did actually shriek.

  "Sorry, Ms. Conway and Mr. Reese, but the fewer people who knew about it, the better. You wanted me to test your security, so last night, after I found this virus on my computer, I got Mr. Jelly's permission and removed it from this display case. In fact, I used the same method to steal it as our little thief did. But I hid my webcam on that wall of fire extinguishers back there. It has a better angle to see when the guard goes on his bathroom break. So I just watched the camera stream on my phone, waited for him to leave, slipped in with my silent drill, and took it."

  Mr. Reese ran his fingers through his hair, exasperated. "But we had it on display all day today! How could you have taken it last night?'

  "That was a copy. I used the school's new color printer to make a really beautiful forgery. Excellent purchase, by the way, Mr. Reese."

  I let everyone think about it for a second. Wylie winked at me. He likes knowing things before adults do.

  "Anyway, I was right to be afraid that there was a link between the computer virus and the comic book. The thief wanted The Avengers #1. But the note he left for us earlier tonight was oddly worded. I deducted that what he meant by 'This most valuable comic' wasn't referring to the comic book inside the glass case, but rather it was a riddle. 'This most valuable comic' meant he was going to steal the most valuable comic in the world, Action Comics #1. Which is worth one million dollars, right Wylie?"

  "If you believe my dad. But I can't remember the last time he was right about anything."

  "No, he's correct. It's worth a million bucks to the right buyer," Mr. Jelly said with a smile.

  "So, once I found out about the thief's note, my challenge became two-fold. I had two comics to protect: The Avengers #1 and Action Comics #1. The Avengers #1 was safely in a vault in Mr. Jelly's house, so I didn't need to worry about that one, though I did worry about the safety of the guard on duty tonight."

  "Thanks, Shirley," Officer Joey muttered.

  "Sure, Joey. Well, I suspected that our common crook was also a liar. I had no evidence of it but I'm a good judge of character. The note was such a mess of contradictions that I knew it was meant to throw me off. It was a lie. I'm good at seeing those. I knew he was going to go for the Action Comics #1, but I didn't buy that the thief would wait for a whole day. In fact, I know that this thief never puts off for tomorrow what can easily be done today, so I told Marie to tell my mom that the heist was going down tonight. There wasn't time for me to convince her or the police that Mr. Jelly and his Superman comic were also in danger, so I went to his home all by myself. Frankly, I was in over my head. It wasn't a good call. I'm sure I'll hear all about that from Mom, who should be here in the next couple of minutes. So, Officer Joey. It looks like the forged comic book was stolen before we all arrived. Was anyone hurt?"

  "No," Officer Joey said. "I, uh, went to the bathroom and it was gone when I got back."
>
  "Well done!" I yelled at the webcam. "You stole a forgery! Oh wait, I have it right here." I pulled it out of my bag. "I got it off the thief who's tied up at Mr. Jelly's house."

  Joey pulled out his walkie and took this piece of information as a great chance to slip away. But as he left the room, Mom burst in.

  And I mean burst.

  "SHIRLEY LINK!"

  "Hi, Mom."

  "Car. Now."

  I think she actually spit steam through her nose, but I can't prove it.

  My mother glared at me. I left without another word. I know when I'm out of my league.

  But I didn't even make it outside.

  Chapter Ten: Hanging Out

  I got to the exit near the library when I saw a sticky note on the door. It read:

  You didn't check all the computers, did you?

  My heart dropped through my stomach. In fact, I had not checked all the computers for the virus. I saw that it was on three of them and assumed the rest of them had it, too.

  Assumptions are just laziness disguised as wisdom.

  Ugh. Stupid, Shirley.

  I ran back to the library and peeked in. Everyone was huddled around the display case. I had a clear shot.

  I took it.

  I slipped into the library, staying down so that the low bookshelves hid me from view. I used the shadows to get to the computer room.

  I moved sideways quickly, from keyboard to keyboard, waking up each computer. I searched for the latest files on their hard drives.

  One brand new virus taunted me from a monitor's screen.

  I knew then that I'd messed up. I'd been overconfident. I'd assumed the other computers had the same file. I hadn't thought to verify that there may be more clues.

  I tracked the new IP address from the second virus and visited the site. Another riddle waited for me.

  It read...

  I could have gone with "Missing Link"

  But decided to draw it instead

  I'm bad with feet and arms and legs