The Impossible Clue

by Sarah Rubin

  ‘I’m Mr Ryder. I’m the apartment manager. Eunice called to tell me you two were poking around up here.’

  Eunice must have been the sparkling personality in 202.

  Kevin got in front of me and gave Mr Ryder a smile that could have made rocks melt. ‘We just want to find out where he’s gone.’

  ‘You and me both.’ The man grunted. ‘The rent’s due next week. But that isn’t the problem.’

  ‘It isn’t?’ I asked.

  ‘Well, not yet anyway. The real problem is the smell. The neighbours are starting to complain, and lord knows Eunice complains enough as it is already. But now that you two are here, I don’t need to worry.’

  I had a feeling I knew where this was going, and I couldn’t believe my luck.

  Mr Ryder got out his bunch of keys and started flicking through the keys until he found the one he wanted. He worked it off the ring and handed it to Kevin. He handed me the roll of bin bags.

  ‘You’re his relatives. You’re responsible. Go clean it out.’

  ‘But we’re kids,’ Kevin said before I could shut him up. This was a golden opportunity to search Dr Learner’s apartment and he was about to blow it.

  ‘Then call your parents and get them to come clean up this mess. I don’t care. I want it gone.’

  ‘But—’ Kevin started to say. I stomped on his foot, hard.

  ‘We’ll do our best,’ I said. ‘Are you coming with us?’

  ‘Not a chance.’ Mr Ryder grinned, and then he whistled his way back down the walkway and up the steps to the second floor.

  ‘Why did you tell him we’d clean the place?’ Kevin looked at me like I was crazy.

  ‘He gave us the key! We can search for clues.’

  ‘So we’re not cleaning?’

  ‘Of course not.’ I grabbed the key out of Kevin’s hand and walked quickly down the walkway to 203.

  Dot and Mr Ryder were right. There was a bit of a smell sneaking out from around the edges of the door.

  I put the key into the lock.

  ‘Wait.’ Kevin stopped me. ‘You don’t think he’s in there, do you? You know, the smell?’

  I paused and sniffed the air. ‘It smells like rotten food, not decomposition,’ I said. ‘Besides, I’m pretty sure Mr Delgado said that they checked Dr Learner’s apartment. They wouldn’t still be looking for him if he was in there.’

  ‘If you say so,’ said Kevin. His face was pale and slightly grey, like the underbelly of a fish.

  ‘I do.’ I turned the key and opened the door.

  The smell hit us like a fist. It was awful, a mix of musk and rot, old cheese and unwashed socks and a million other things too disgusting to think about. Dr Learner may have only been missing for two days, but whoever cleaned his apartment had been missing a lot longer.

  ‘Get a window open,’ I said. My eyes watered with the smell of it all.

  Kevin covered his nose and mouth with one hand and made his way across the room, struggling to unlock the catch on the window behind the couch. ‘This is so not worth twenty bucks,’ he said.

  I pulled the neck of my T-shirt up over my nose and stepped inside. The apartment consisted of four rooms. The front door opened on to the living room. To the right was the kitchen and to the left the bedroom and bathroom. I stepped inside and let the door swing shut behind me.

  ‘What are you doing? Keep it open. Let the smell out,’ Kevin said uncovering his mouth, and then immediately covering it again.

  ‘Don’t worry, we won’t stay too long. I just want to have a quick look around.’ I wanted to see if that top secret briefcase was there. It was a small chance, but possible. The mess in this place was a security system in itself.

  Dr Learner’s apartment hadn’t seen the business end of a mop in months. The living room was full of bookshelves, but they were empty, their contents pulled out and piled on the floor. Towers of books and binders, folders and files grew out of the ground like a miniature city. I felt like Godzilla as I moved through the room. I snapped a few pictures with my phone, but I didn’t think they were what Dad was after, at least not for the puff piece.

  I checked the kitchen first, taking pictures as I went. Counters lined two walls and a small two-person table took up the third. At least, I guessed it was a table. I couldn’t see the top of it.

  There was a worrying crunch when I stepped on to the linoleum, like someone had spilt a box of cereal on the floor. I hoped it was cereal. I hoped harder than I’d ever hoped before, but the sound of buzzing and the swarm of flies around the sink were all clues I shouldn’t look down. I swallowed hard and told the pretzel I’d eaten earlier to stay in my stomach where it belonged.

  I rooted through the cabinets quickly, touching as little as possible. No briefcase. The freezer was empty except for a half-full tin of coffee beans and an empty ice tray. The refrigerator was covered with magnets and reminder notes. Some of them were normal, like a list for bread, cheese and milk. But there were also notes filled with complex equations and formulas. I saw a few that I recognized, but most of them were too advanced. I took a few more pictures, just in case Dr Learner had posted the formula for invisibility on his refrigerator before he left town.

  Underneath the top layer of notes, I found a child’s drawing, the edges of the paper slightly brittle with age. It was a portrait of Dr Learner, with a giant head and tiny legs and a smile that was bigger than his face. He was wearing a wizard hat and holding a wand. I wondered who drew it. Dr Learner didn’t have any kids, or nieces and nephews. At least that’s what it said in the Delgado file. Whoever drew it thought Dr Learner was a pretty great guy. I opened the refrigerator and shut it again. Fast. You could tell me there was a diamond the size of a tennis ball in there and I still wouldn’t open it again.

  Gagging, I stumbled back into the living room. Kevin had his head out of the window. Some help he was.

  Most of the clutter was in the middle of the living room, radiating out from the couch. So I moved along the edges, making my way to the bedroom. A large oil painting of a peaceful mountain scene hung in the middle of the wall surrounded by pictures of family and friends. One photo in particular caught my eye. Dr Learner stood with one arm around Sammy’s shoulder, the two of them smiling like idiots and holding up a small silver trophy. Squinting, I could just make out the words Second Place and Science Fair. I suddenly had a pretty good idea who was the artist of that picture in the kitchen. I also knew why Sammy was so insistent on helping me solve this case. He wanted his hero back.

  My stomach turned in a way that had nothing to do with the smell. I wondered what I’d say to Sammy if I couldn’t find Dr Learner. I pushed the thought away quickly. There was no point in worrying about that now. If I wanted to find Dr Learner, all I could do was keep looking.

  The bedroom was a bit better than the rest of the apartment. The wardrobe doors stood open, its contents, hangers and all, heaped across the bed. By the looks of things, Dr Learner hadn’t eaten any food in here, just drunk cups and cups and cups of coffee. Every surface that wasn’t covered with books or clothes had a paper coffee cup on it. Not all of them were empty.

  As I looked around, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kevin and I weren’t the first ones to search the place. Besides the mess, things were just slightly askew as if they’d been moved and put back, but not in quite the right place. I didn’t see a briefcase anywhere. Even when I gathered the courage to look under the bed.

  I stuck my head in the bathroom. It was surprisingly clean. Actually, it was so clean I wondered if it was ever used. I opened the cabinet. The top shelf had a toothbrush and toothpaste and five boxes of dental floss. The middle shelf was for all the soaps and shaving things. But the bottom shelf was empty. I looked closer. There were several water stains, small circular ones. The size of a prescription medicine bottle.

  ‘It looks like someone came and got his medicine,’ I said as I stepped back into the bedroom. That meant either Dr Learner had been planning to escape, or wh
oever took him had come back to get the bottles.

  I stopped. There was an odd rectangle of clean space between the bed and the wall. It was partially hidden behind a large tower of textbooks, so I hadn’t seen it from the other side of the room. No coffee cups, no books, no dust even. Something used to sit there, and it had been moved. Something the size and shape of a briefcase.

  ‘Numbers, hey.’ Kevin hurried into the bedroom, his voice croaky.

  ‘Yes, yes, we can go in a minute.’ I took a picture of the empty space.

  ‘No, that’s not it. Someone’s coming.’

  ‘What?’ I asked.

  ‘I saw some guy out of the window.’

  I didn’t understand why Kevin sounded so frantic.

  ‘So?’ I said. ‘It’s not like we’re not supposed to be here. We’ve got permission.’

  ‘Yeah, but I don’t think he does,’ Kevin said.

  The sound of breaking glass cleared up any other questions I might have had.

  Someone was breaking in.

  ‘Hide!’ I hissed.

  Kevin made a move to get under the bed. I dragged him back. Not even Kevin Jordan deserved what was under there. Besides, we might need to leave in a hurry, and it was easier to make a run for it if you weren’t flat on your stomach.

  ‘Get behind the door.’

  Kevin jumped over a pile of laundry and squeezed behind me in the space between the bedroom door and the wall. I could feel Kevin’s breath on the back of my neck, the stray hairs that escaped from my braid tickled like torture.

  If I pressed my eye against the crack between the door and the frame, I had a clear view of Dr Learner’s front door. The window next to it was broken, a slight breeze wafting the curtains into the room. I watched as a hand reached through them and groped for the door handle. Then the fingers closed around it and Dr Learner’s door swung open. It looked like whoever had searched Dr Learner’s apartment before was back to finish the job. But if they were back, did that mean the briefcase was still missing? And if so, where was it?

  ‘Oh, man, what do we do? What do we do?’ Kevin said. His fingers dug into my shoulders.

  ‘Shhh,’ I said. ‘It’s fine. Just keep quiet.’ I couldn’t think with Kevin panicking in my ear.

  The burglar came into Dr Learner’s apartment. He had a Philadelphia Flyers cap pulled down low over his eyes. The rest of his face was hidden by his enormous hand as he tried to block out the smell. But I’d seen that gigantic upside-down trapezoid before. In fact, I’d seen it that very morning.

  Kevin’s fingers dug in deeper. Tomorrow I’d have ten finger-sized bruises.

  ‘He’s going into the kitchen. Quick,’ I said. We moved from behind the door and into the living room.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Kevin asked, as I took a wheelie chair from under a pile of pizza boxes and carried it gently to the front door, blocking the only escape route. I took out my phone and waited.

  ‘Trust me,’ I said, sitting down. I could hear gagging coming from the kitchen, and then the burglar came back into the living room, bent over holding his stomach.

  ‘Hello Graham. Say cheese.’

  The tiny light from my phone flashed. Graham Davidson stood frozen in the middle of the room, half standing, half squatting. He looked like a cat clinging to a curtain. He stared at me and then at the door behind me and then at me again. It was like he was stuck in some sort of fight-or-flight loop.

  ‘Wait, you know him?’ Kevin asked.

  ‘He’s Dr Learner’s lab assistant. We met this morning.’ I looked at the time on my phone and then back at Graham. ‘You must have left work early.’

  Graham opened his mouth, but he didn’t make a sound. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. I guess I would have been shocked too if I’d broken into my boss’s place and been caught in the act by two kids. It was either that or he’d left the fridge open for too long and the smell had broken his brain.

  I tried some gentle prodding. ‘The briefcase isn’t here, if that’s what you’re after. I checked.’

  That did the trick. Graham let out his breath in a long sigh and came back to life. He looked up at the ceiling like he was asking someone why does this stuff always happen to me? Then he flopped down on to the couch. A cloud of dust mushroomed around him.

  ‘That’s that then,’ he coughed. ‘When you came asking questions at the office, I thought there might be a chance it was all still here. I should have known it was too good to be true.’

  I could feel Kevin relaxing. I shot him a look that said let me do the talking. It didn’t look like Graham had been here before, so he probably wasn’t the one who turned over the place. But I still wanted to ask him some questions and I didn’t want Kevin giving the game away.

  ‘What was too good to be true?’

  ‘Like I’d tell you. Sorry kid. Go fish.’

  I held up my phone. ‘Too bad,’ I said. ‘I guess I’ll have to send Mr Delgado that photo and tell him all about your little visit to Dr Learner’s apartment. He’s pretty smart. I’m sure he’ll figure out what you were up to. I wonder what happens to a lab assistant who tries to steal company secrets? I’m sure there are plenty of other PhDs who’d love a job with Delgado Industries.’

  Graham stared at me and leant forward in his seat. I could see his fingers twitch. He licked his lips like he was getting ready for something. Behind me I could feel Kevin getting ready to make a move of his own. I held up my hand to stop them both.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ I said. ‘I’ve got my finger on the send button. I’ll press it before you can stand up.’

  ‘Stop,’ Graham said. He held up his hands. ‘Stop. I’ll talk. But you gotta promise not to tell Delgado. He’ll fire me in a second. I’ll never get a job in a lab again.’

  ‘Fine.’ I lowered the phone but kept my finger on the button. I didn’t want Graham making any sudden moves in my direction. ‘So what are you doing here?’

  ‘It isn’t what you think,’ Graham started, then he stopped, searching for the right words.

  ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘OK, maybe it is what you think. But why not? I reckon Dr Learner’s already run off with his research. So why shouldn’t I look for his notes? I worked on that project too, technically. I should get some of the credit.’ Graham leant forward again, bracing his elbows on his knees.

  ‘Go on.’

  He glared at me, but he kept talking.

  ‘After Dr Learner went missing, I got a call from Chronos. They asked if I’d worked on the project. If I thought I could reproduce Dr Learner’s results. They offered to hire me. And not just as an assistant. They offered to give me a job as a lead researcher.’

  It looked like Dr Learner wasn’t the only one Chronos was trying to steal from Delgado Industries.

  ‘So you took the job?’

  ‘Not exactly.’ Graham’s large fingers picked at a patch of dirt on his knee.

  ‘Oh, I get it. You couldn’t reproduce the results.’

  ‘As I said, Dr Learner got really secretive about six months ago. He wouldn’t let me into his office. And he stopped having me type up his notes. That’s when he must have made that breakthrough you were talking about. He must have known how much people would pay for . . .’ Graham paused and looked at me, his eyes narrowed.

  ‘For the technology to make an invisibility suit?’ I finished the sentence for him.

  Graham gasped, then he choked. ‘How did you know about the suit?’ He managed between coughs.

  ‘That doesn’t matter,’ I said. I thought about getting Graham a drink of water, but I wasn’t sure there was a clean glass in the place, so I waited until he finished coughing before I asked any more questions. It took a while.

  ‘So you think he’s made a breakthrough that will make it possible to create an invisibility suit?’ I asked once I was sure Graham wasn’t going to choke.

  ‘I don’t think he’s just come up with the theory of the technology. I think he di
d it! He built the suit!’

  ‘But that’s crazy,’ I said, wishing I felt as sure as I sounded. It was one thing to tell Della and Dad that making an invisibility suit was impossible. But if a scientist like Graham Davidson thought it was true, maybe I was wrong.

  ‘I thought so too,’ said Graham. ‘But don’t you see? It’s the only way he could have disappeared the way he did. He waited overnight in the office, and when I came in that morning he put on the suit to become invisible. When I opened the door to see if he was there, he just walked out. He could be here watching us right now and we’d never know.’

  I shivered, just for a moment, imagining a world where invisible people watched you from the corners of your room. And then I shook it off. No, even if Graham Davidson thought it was possible, I still couldn’t believe it. Not without real, solid proof.

  ‘Wait. What are you two talking about?’ Kevin couldn’t keep quiet any longer. The words almost exploded out of him.

  Graham looked at Kevin and then at me. ‘Who is this kid?’

  ‘He’s . . .’ I tried to think of a word that would be reassuring, but also honest. I came up blank. ‘He’s helping me out on the case.’

  Kevin said nothing. The idea of helping me must have shocked him into silence.

  ‘Well, I’m not saying another word. Now delete that photo and let me get out of this cesspit.’

  ‘Wait. Just one more question. What do you think an invisibility suit would look like? How big would it be?’ I tilted my head to the side. ‘Do you think it could fit inside a briefcase?’

  Graham Davidson stood up and loomed over us. Any advantage I’d had before was overshadowed, literally.

  ‘I said no more questions.’

  ‘Fine.’ I made a show of deleting the picture. He didn’t need to answer. I could tell I was right. Graham wasn’t looking for Dr Learner’s notes in that briefcase. He was looking for the finished suit.

  We helped Graham Davidson cover the window he’d broken with a piece of cardboard from an old pizza box and some duct tape, and then we left. The air on the other side of the door smelt as sweet as a fresh box of No. 2 pencils. I gulped it in. I needed a shower. Not just any shower. I needed the kind of shower people got after a radiation leak.