The Case That Time Forgot

by Tracy Barrett

“He told me about the water clock. He said it had a secret compartment, and inside it was a magic amulet that no one’s ever found.”

  Xander’s mind was whirring. “An amulet—you mean like a charm?” Karim nodded. “And it’s magic?”

  “That’s what my granddad said.” Karim lowered his voice even further and said, “Every fifty years, the amulet can make time stand still. And on Saturday”—he was practically whispering by now—“the fifty years will be up. The amulet’s magic will work!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  For a moment Xander could only blink.

  “The fifty years are up Saturday? You mean tomorrow?” he finally managed.

  “No, a week from tomorrow. That’s the day—” Karim suddenly stopped and stared to his right again, but he didn’t need to say anything, because this time Xander heard the soft sound too. He leaped to his feet and dashed to the shower room, Karim right behind him. Nobody. They froze and listened with all their might. The building was old and creaky, and it was hard to tell what they heard or even what direction the noise was coming from. Were those footsteps? Maybe it was just their imagination . . . sure enough, the noises ceased.

  Something on the floor caught Xander’s eye. He squatted. The room was still humid, and the floor was slow to dry. It looked like—footprints. Something about them was strange. But what?

  The moisture was starting to evaporate, and the faint outlines of the prints grew even dimmer. But just before the last trace disappeared, Xander realized what it was that he’d seen.

  The footprint of one shoe—the right—had left an odd mark. It was a perfectly round shape, at the ball of the foot. What kind of shoe would leave a circle like that, and why wasn’t it on both shoes?

  Karim’s phone rang again. He glanced at it. “I’ve got to go. Are you going to stay and investigate?”

  Xander was eager to find out who had been listening to them, but he didn’t like the idea of being alone in the locker room in the almost-deserted building. It was even creepier if he wasn’t alone—if someone was lurking. What if the person who had left the strange footprint was the person who was stealing things from all the students? Xander didn’t think he wanted to tangle with a thief on his own.

  He didn’t have to decide, though, because they heard the locker room door bang open and Mr. Singh call, “Are you chaps still here?”

  The two boys sped back into the locker room and grabbed their backpacks off the bench. “Just leaving, sir,” they chorused, and then, “Bye! See you Monday!”

  They ran outside to where one lone car was waiting, exhaust billowing out in a cloud behind it, Karim’s mother at the wheel. Xena stood waiting a little farther on, her hands in her pockets as she stamped her feet to stay warm.

  Karim paused before opening the car door. “You can’t tell anyone what I told you!” he said urgently.

  “I have to tell my sister.”

  “All right, but that’s all. No one else! Promise?”

  Xander promised. Karim raised a hand next to his face in the sign for “call me” as he opened the door and climbed in. Xander could hear Karim’s mother scolding before the door closed. He trotted over to where Xena stood on the paved walk.

  “So what’s up?” she asked, and then added, “Tell me on our way to the Tube station. It’s freezing!”

  It didn’t take Xander long to fill her in. He kept glancing around to see if anyone was listening, but the school grounds were empty now. When Xander reached the part about the magic amulet having the power to make time stand still, Xena said, “Uh, wait a minute. Magic? Are you kidding?”

  “That’s what Karim said.”

  “And you believe him?”

  Xander didn’t know what to believe. “Well, even if it’s not magic, it’s still a missing amulet from ancient Egypt!”

  They hurried down the steps to the station. They were later than usual, and the Tube station was crowded with adults going home from work, parents with their small children, and a group of what looked like high school students.

  Xena cupped her hands over her ears to warm them. She and Xander had been proud to wrap up two mysteries that Sherlock Holmes had had to leave unsolved. This one didn’t seem too promising, though. A magic amulet sounded weird. “Let’s talk when we get home,” she told her brother. “Maybe we can find something about it in the casebook.”

  They rode in silence, each thinking about Karim’s strange story. It was growing dark and cold when they emerged from the Tube stop, but fortunately it was right near their apartment—or flat, as they’d started calling it, like their English friends. They ran up the steps and into the lift.

  “We’re home!” Xena called out as they let themselves in.

  “About time!” Their mother came out from her study, holding an odd-looking gadget in one hand and some wires in the other. Xena and Xander didn’t give the machine a second glance. They were used to their mother’s job of testing products for an electronics company. “Practice ran late,” Xander said. “Sorry.”

  “I know. Xena called me. I’d rather come pick you up if it goes this late again, okay?”

  “Okay.” Xander followed his sister into her bedroom, where she was already sitting on the bed, holding a large leather-bound book with the words SH Cases: Unresolved stamped into its worn cover. Xena opened the old journal and carefully began turning the pages covered with Sherlock’s writing.

  “Aha!” Xena spotted the words “water clock” in Sherlock’s familiar scrawl, but the bottom half of the page was covered by an envelope tucked in between the pages. She pulled out the envelope and showed it to Xander. “What’s this?”

  “I don’t know!” He was impatient and sounded it. “Did you find the page with the notes about the case?”

  Xena tucked the envelope into the back of the book and nodded. “Here it is.” She moved over, and Xander sat next to her. They examined their ancestor’s notes and sketches about the theft of the water clock.

  “Questioned guard named Amin for two hours. Confessed to—nay, bragged about—the crime. Motive?

  “Other Egyptian guard claims amulet hidden in water clock. Mentions Tahuti.

  “Trustees say that amulet would be very valuable. They don’t believe in it, but guard seems credible.

  “Egyptian magic? Poppycock!

  “Case dropped by order of HIM, as being potentially damaging to relations with Egypt. Drat!”

  “So there was an amulet!” Xander said.

  “I never said there wasn’t. I just don’t know if I believe in this magic stuff.”

  “I don’t know if I do either, but even an amulet that wasn’t magic would be cool.”

  “See? ‘Poppycock!’ Sherlock didn’t believe in the magic part either!” Xena said. She pointed at a drawing of a hand with an eye on its palm. “Is that a tattoo?”

  “Could be. Or maybe just a doodle.”

  “So someone named Amin confessed to stealing the water clock.” As usual, Xena had to muster the facts.

  “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.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Xander 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!”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Have 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 w
hat 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.