Sherlock Sam and the Vanished Robot in Penang

by A. J. Low

  “We still don’t know what time they will be meeting, or where,” I said. “Perhaps et tiam pnua is the name of a place at the Penang airport? It’s said in response to the question ‘meet at?’ So that would make sense.”

  “The best way to figure this out would be to let Sergeant Huda and her team listen to the recording,” Dad said. “There has to be someone in the police force who can understand Hokkien.”

  Just then, the connecting door opened and Mom stood in the doorway. Dad waved happily, with one hand still holding onto his half-eaten goreng pisang.

  “Did you let the kids eat goreng pisang just before dinner?” Mom asked Dad, looking disapprovingly at the empty greasy brown paper bags littering the bedroom tables.

  He grinned and shrugged. Mom shook her head and pursed her lips.

  “We have another break in the case, Mom!” I said. “Watson, play the recording again, just so that we don’t miss anything important.”

  Watson played it again while Mom listened intently. “So they’re supposed to meet in the afternoon?” Mom asked. “That’s right after our flight at 11.50am tomorrow.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked.

  “It says so on the recording,” Mom replied. “They say ‘et tiam pnua’.” Mom’s pronunciation was pitch perfect.

  “That means afternoon?” Nazhar asked.

  “Well, it means 1.30pm to be exact,” Mom replied.

  “What about heng peng?” Eliza said, continuing to mispronounce the words.

  “You mean ‘heh peng’, and I believe it means ‘there’,” Mom said. “My Hokkien is rather rusty. What does that mean to this case?”

  “Over at the Penang Airport one presumes,” I said. “Thanks, Mom! You might have helped us catch the buyer! How come you could understand what they were saying?”

  “I’m Peranakan-Hokkien, Sam,” Mom replied. “I grew up listening to your grandparents speak Hokkien. But nowadays, most children use English or Mandarin and not that many understand dialect. And unfortunately, my Hokkien isn’t that great any more.”

  “I-think-it-would-be-interesting-to-learn-Hokkien,” Watson said.

  “Me too!” Jimmy said.

  “Ugh, more Chinese,” Wendy said.

  “Maybe you should practice your Mandarin first,” Mom said, but she was smiling. Wendy wrinkled her nose. Chinese was her weakest subject in school.

  “Okay, so this is what we know,” I said. “We know that the thieves have arranged to meet the buyer at the Penang Airport at 1.30pm tomorrow. What we don’t know is if they were intending to sell just the wire art or if they also intended to sell the antique tin robot.”

  “Wait, how do we know that they are the same thieves who stole the robot?” Eliza asked.

  “Did you forget?” I said. “Uncle Ben said that the tattooed man tried to sell him the robot.”

  “Eliza wasn’t there, Sherlock, remember?” Nazhar said, giving Eliza a sidelong glance.

  “Yeah, she got bored and left,” Wendy said, making a face. Eliza frowned and looked down at her feet.

  “Well, anyway,” I continued. “I think this is definitely important enough to give Sergeant Huda a call, right, Dad?”

  Dad nodded and made the call. Once he put down the phone he turned to us and said, “Sergeant Huda says that she’ll meet us at the airport tomorrow to say goodbye.”

  “But what about the case?” I asked.

  “She says that she’ll have her team patrol the airport from early morning until the evening,” Dad said.

  “I think you’ve done enough here, Sam,” Mom said. “Maybe we can do something fun tonight? We are on a holiday after all.”

  Everyone nodded and Jimmy cheered though he still looked a little worried.

  “Jimmy, your mom said she would meet us for dinner, okay?” Mom said. “She just needs to settle some accounting and insurance paperwork before her accountant leaves for Singapore tomorrow.” That seemed to cheer Jimmy up a bit more and he grinned his silly Jimmy-grin.

  I didn’t like leaving a case unresolved. I really wanted to find Jimmy’s mom’s stolen tin robot before we left Penang.

  “I wish my mom’s robot would turn up soon though,” Jimmy said. “I know she’s super worried.”

  “Don’t worry, Jimmy,” Nazhar said. “It’s just a matter of time before the police find it hidden with the rest of the stuff they found in the warehouse.”

  I hoped that would be the case, but I really wanted to be the one to do it. And why did I still feel like I had missed something important?

  “Perhaps-Sherlock-can-travel-in-the-overhead-luggage-compartment-this-time,” Watson said.

  “I doubt he would be able to fit,” Wendy said, snickering. “Or that the compartment would be able to take his weight.”

  I glared at both my robot and sister and wisely refrained from commenting. Those overhead compartments did look really small and I wouldn’t put it past Wendy to dare me to try to fit myself in.

  We were at the Penang airport and had already checked in. Sergeant Huda had met us at the departure gate and was giving us an update on their progress in the airport.

  “Unfortunately, none of the thieves would reveal who their buyer was,” she said. “All we know is what you managed to get from the recording--that a woman is making the sale.”

  “Then how will you be able to apprehend the suspect at the airport?” I asked.

  “Chances are that we won’t be able to, Sherlock,” Sergeant Huda said. “At least not until we obtain more detailed information from the thieves. They are being interrogated as we speak. We did manage to get one to reveal that this mysterious woman was the mastermind behind the robot theft though.”

  “Can’t you just arrest the suspicious-looking people?” Jimmy asked, holding on to Auntie Vivian’s hand. His mom had come to see him off and she had lines under her eyes from what looked to be a sleepless night.

  “I don’t think the police can do that, my sweet boy,” Auntie Vivian said. “But you don’t worry about it anymore. The police will help Mommy find the robot. You go back to Singapore and help me look after Mama and your sisters, okay?”

  Jimmy nodded and hugged his mom fiercely. It wasn’t hard to see that it was really tough for him to be apart from her for such long periods. Even Eliza seemed a little sad as she looked at them.

  “And there’s still no sign of the vanished robot?” I asked. There was little I could do to change Jimmy’s home situation, but I was hoping that we could at least help his mom get her robot back!

  “No, unfortunately not,” Sergeant Huda replied. “However, we found out from the art thieves that they have more than one warehouse so we fully expect to recover the antique tin robot soon.”

  “Please do let me know once you find it,” I said. “You have my name card.”

  “Of course,” she said with a smile. “You’ll be the first person to know after Vivian.”

  “I wanted to thank you all for your help, Sherlock,” Auntie Vivian said to me and smiled at the rest of the Supper Club. “From what Sergeant Huda has told me, all of you were integral in helping the Penang police capture the art thieves.”

  “We just wanted to do as much as we could,” I said. I wished we had more days in Penang so that I could find the vanished antique tin robot. Plus, I was very troubled by the fact that the mysterious buyer might get away scot free. Any case that was not fully resolved would have to go under my “Unsolved Cases” files and at the moment that file was empty, but maybe not for much longer.

  “Sorry, everyone,” Dad said. “But I think we have to board the plane very soon. We should probably go through customs now.”

  Jimmy hugged his mom tightly again. She bent down and wiped away his tears before wiping away her own.

  “I’ll see you next month when I’m back in Singapore, okay?” she said to her son. “We will go to the zoo!”

  Jimmy sniffed and nodded. Wendy gave him a tissue to blow his nose and Nazhar put his arm around Jimm
y’s shoulders as we walked into the departure hall.

  It wasn’t long before we were all on the plane and in the air. Watson was safely stowed in the overhead luggage compartment, but not before giving us all a long lecture on the legal rights of sentient beings.

  Most of the journey back was spent in silence. Nazhar took a nap. Wendy drew in her sketch book. Dad, Mom and Eliza buried their noses in books and Jimmy stared morosely out the window. Before we knew it we were back in Singapore and walking to the customs area. It was about 1.10pm and I was famished.

  “I can’t believe they still don’t serve snacks on this flight,” I complained. “I already sent them a feedback letter. How long does it take to change their company policy?”

  “Did you send a feedback letter about Watson’s predicament too?” Nazhar asked.

  Oops.

  “Clearly-I-need-to-send-in-my-own-feedback-letter,” Watson said.

  “I really wish we could have found your mom’s antique tin robot, Jimmy,” I said, quickly changing the subject.

  “Smooth, Sherlock,” Eliza said, smirking. “Very smooth.”

  I ignored them but not before I saw Mom and Dad try to hide their smiles.

  “It’s a really good thing you can understand Hokkien, Mom,” I said. “Maybe you should give Dad Hokkien tuition!”

  “I think your Dad needs to improve his Mandarin before he tries to learn Hokkien,” Mom said, pinching Dad on the arm teasingly.

  “Nazhar! Say that funny Hokkien phrase again,” Jimmy suddenly burst in. It looked like he was trying to cheer himself up.

  “What? You mean et tiam pnua?” Nazhar said, once again horribly mangling the pronunciation and causing Jimmy to giggle. Nazhar grinned in return.

  “What was the other word?” Wendy asked. “Heh piah?”

  “Heh peng,” Mom replied. “That’s actually still bothering me.”

  “What do you mean, Mom?” I asked.

  “Now that I think about it, in the context of the recording, it could be ‘there, at the airport’ or ‘at the airport over there’,” Mom replied.

  I frowned. This seemed like it could be important, but I wasn’t sure how.

  “Do you think Sergeant Huda has already captured the buyer at the Penang Airport?” Nazhar said.

  “Let me check my handphone,” Dad said, taking out his phone and turning it on. After a short while, it beeped. “I have a voice mail,” Dad said.

  “What does it say, Dad?” Wendy asked.

  “It’s from Sergeant Huda’s number,” Dad said. “Let me put it on speakerphone.”

  “Hello, Mr Tan. I assume you’re still on your flight home, but I just wanted to give the Supper Club a quick update. We haven’t found anybody who looks like they’re going to buy or sell an antique robot at the airport, but my forensics team finished cataloguing the various items at the hideout. These items include the museum layout with updated security plans, a lot of the stolen wire art, many bootlegged DVDs, a television and VCR, a charm of some kind, branded handbags that are likely knockoffs and a food cart, which was apparently used to sell tau sar pneah. But no antique robot.”

  “Oh no! Do you think we bought the tau sar pneah from them?” Dad asked. “Are we accomplices now?”

  We all ignored him. Except Mom, who patted him on the shoulder.

  “The museum plans were either stolen or given to them by this mysterious seller, who likely has the robot with her if she’s trying to sell it quickly. We’ll likely find that on top of stealing the wire art, this syndicate was also selling bootlegged DVDs and knockoff branded bags. I will call you again if there is any other information. We’ll be sending the plans for fingerprint analysis. We might get lucky.”

  “Maybe they should look for a woman who looks like she would be mean to robots,” Jimmy said.

  And then everything clicked into place.

  “That’s it!” I yelled. “I know who it is! Mom, call Officer Siva immediately and have him meet us at the arrival hall!”

  “What, son?” Dad said. “Call Officer Siva?” Mom looked just as perplexed as Dad (and that didn’t happen very often). However, she quickly whipped out her handphone.

  “Dad, I need you to call Sergeant Huda and ask her a very important question. We’re going to catch the mastermind in the act!”

  After clearing immigration and customs, I quickly rushed to the big screen that showed all the arrivals. Her plane had arrived five minutes before ours, but it was still slightly before 1.30pm, so she should still be here if she was going to make the sale.

  “Mom, take Wendy and Eliza and check the southern end of the hall!” I said. “Dad, you, Jimmy and Nazhar keep looking here. Watson and I will head to the north end of the hall.”

  “If you see her, call us immediately,” Mom said, handing me her handphone. “Use it to call your father and Eliza’s phone.”

  I took her phone and rushed off with Watson.

  “You-should-install-wheels-so-I-can-be-faster,” Watson said, loping beside me.

  “You already run faster than me,” I said, panting.

  “That-is-not-a-very-big-achievement.”

  When we reached our end of the arrival hall, Watson and I looked at every person walking by. Any one of these people could be the buyer, but I knew exactly who the seller was.

  We kept our three eyes peeled for our quarry, and spotted Auntie Hwee Fong heading towards the restroom. She was carrying her branded bag and rolling a blue suitcase behind her. We followed her as discreetly as a robot and a boy detective could. She walked past the restroom and went around a corner. We saw her waiting around the corner, in a quiet area of the airport, looking around furtively.

  I didn’t want to spook her, so I quickly called Dad and Eliza, and told them where I was. As soon as I hung up with Eliza, a bald and portly Caucasian man walked towards Auntie Hwee Fong. He was wearing what looked like a butler’s uniform, and had a thin moustache.

  “Hello, you must be Hwee Fong,” the man said in a British accent. “Do you have it?”

  Auntie Hwee Fong quickly glanced around.

  “I do,” she said.

  The man handed over a briefcase, and Auntie Hwee Fong put her luggage down to count the money in the briefcase. It looked like a lot! I looked around for the rest of the Supper Club and my parents, but I didn’t see anybody. I had to stall them or they might get away!

  “Watson, get ready,” I said.

  “For-what?”

  “Action!”

  “I-would-really-rather-not.”

  I grabbed his arm and we rounded the corner together! Well, I went first as I sort of had to drag Watson behind me. “Auntie Hwee Fong! How could you!?” I shouted.

  The man was startled. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked. “Who are you?”

  “But how—?” Auntie Hwee Fong started.

  “Look here, young man!” the man said, walking towards us. “It is the height of rudeness to come upon a private conversation and start yelling at people!”

  He continued walking towards us, so I jumped on Watson’s back. He pitched forward, and had to extend his arms towards the floor to break his fall.

  “What-are-you-doing?” Watson asked.

  “Fly, Watson, fly!” I shouted.

  “I-do-not-think-I-can-support—”

  “Why do you always argue? Just do it!”

  I heard a popping sound coming from Watson, and then he flew into the air...

  ...a measly six inches off the ground. He slowly moved away from the man, who stopped in mid-stride and looked at us strangely. He looked back at Auntie Hwee Fong who, having forgotten how much trouble she was in for the moment, merely shrugged her shoulders.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. “We need to fly away!”

  “I-cannot-fly-any-higher,” Watson said.

  “What are you talking about? I saw you fly much higher than this multiple times!”

  “Yes-but-I-did-not-have-to-carry-this-much-weight-before.”
/>   “One day I will delete your smart-aleck subroutine.”

  “If you are quite done, young man,” the man said.

  “That’s up to you, I guess,” I said. “Am I—gulp—done?”

  “Do not worry, dear boy, I am not going to hurt you,” he said. “But you do need to apologise for your rudeness and be on your way so we can finish our discussion.”

  Auntie Hwee Fong must have suddenly remembered that she had broken the law because she picked up all her bags, and ran in the opposite direction!

  “Watson, fly us after her!”

  “We-have-been-over-this.”

  “Sherlock!” somebody shouted from behind. I turned and saw Officer Siva and two airport security guards!

  “After her!” I shouted. “She’s the mastermind!”

  Officer Siva sprinted after Auntie Hwee Fong while the guards stayed with the man. I realised I had never actually seen him move very much before. He mostly walked, drank kopi and arrested people, but now he was running faster than anyone I had ever seen. His incredible speed along with the fact that Auntie Hwee Fong was laden with her various bags meant he caught up to her in no time.

  By the time he walked her back, Mom, Dad and the Supper Club had joined us. The man seemed to recognise Eliza for a split second, but I could have been mistaken. I had more important things to focus on.

  “Auntie Hwee Fong!” Mom and Dad said simultaneously.

  “Okay, Sherlock, it’s time,” Officer Siva said.

  I cracked my knuckles. “First things first, look inside her luggage.”

  “No,” Watson said. “First-things-first-get-off-me.”

  I sighed and climbed down. I had forgotten Watson was still six inches off the ground, so I ended up falling off and landing on my backside. Wendy and Eliza laughed, while everyone else pretended not to.

  “Really?” I scowled at Watson, who flew up to the ceiling before coming down for a landing.

  “It-is-much-better-now,” he said. I didn’t think Watson could sigh in relief, but somehow he did.

  Officer Siva had started going through Auntie Hwee Fong’s luggage. He held up the vanished robot!