by Sarah Rubin
That was Della. She lived in an apartment building with its own security in New York. She probably just let the door shut behind her when she left this morning. I kept reminding her she needed to lock the deadbolt, but she was used to doing things her own way.
‘Call us if you see anything suspicious,’ Officer Ross said. She handed Dad the file and gave each of us a card. ‘That’s my direct number.’
And with that, Officer Ross and Officer Tulley left. Dad and I stood on the front steps for a long time after they drove away. I don’t think either of us wanted to go back inside, especially while the Crime Scene Team were there. It didn’t feel like home any more. Those men had broken it.
I counted up in primes and tried to figure out my next move. It took me until eighty-nine to calm down enough to think straight. Everything Sammy had said made me believe that Dr Learner had nothing to do with Chronos. If he was on the run, it was because he was hiding from those jerks, not working for them. I kept counting. I was in triple digits now: 101, 103, 107, 109. If Chronos thought they could use me to find Dr Learner, they had another think coming. 113. I was going to find Dr Learner first. 127. I was going to keep him safe for Sammy. 131. And I was going to make Chronos R&D sorry they’d ever messed with a Jones.
I could tell by the way Dad was tapping his fingers against my shoulder that he was thinking the exact same thing.
We finally went back inside when Della came home. A taxi pulled up and Della got out, demanding Dad pay the driver.
‘Are you OK? I came back as fast as I could, but tons of the roads on the university campus are closed because of that stupid new science building they’re constructing. Did they take anything?’ She was wearing a long embroidered dress and had sunglasses on top of her head. My sunglasses. I knew I should be happy that she was all right, but all I felt was angry. I bit my tongue and let Dad do the talking.
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Dad said.
‘I’d better check. You might not notice if they took some of my stuff.’
When we stepped back inside, I didn’t recognize the place. Every smooth surface was covered in a fine layer of grey powder, like someone had crawled up a chimney and sneezed.
‘Ah, we’re just about done here,’ said a bald man who I assumed was the chief technician. ‘We just need the prints of the people who live here for elimination purposes.’
‘That’s us,’ I said.
They took our fingerprints with an electric scanner. First Dad, then Della, then me. As soon as Della had her fingers free, she ran upstairs. She opened the door to my bedroom so hard the house shook.
‘Thank you for your cooperation. Here.’ The technician handed Dad a lint roller. ‘It’s the best way to get the dust off.’
Dad shut the door behind the Crime Scene Team and locked it. It didn’t make me feel any safer. I could see daylight through the gouges the crowbar had left in the frame. I didn’t realize I was shaking until Dad wrapped his arm around me. I couldn’t tell if it was because I was scared or angry. Probably a little of both.
I tilted my head back against my dad’s chest. He looked tired and worried, his skin pale and stretched tight across his cheekbones. I hadn’t seen him look like that for a long time.
Upstairs Della was getting louder and louder, banging drawers open and closed. I think I heard her move the bed. I glared at the ceiling. If Della had remembered to lock the deadbolt, none of this would have happened.
Dad looked up at the ceiling, then back down at me.
‘All right, Alice. Give me the file.’ He let me go and held out his hand.
‘What?’
‘The file those men came looking for. You’re off this case. I’ll call Mr Delgado and tell him you can’t help him any more. Why didn’t you tell me there were men following you? What were you thinking?’
‘But Dad,’ I started, but before I could explain the door to my room slammed open and Della came tearing back down the stairs.
‘They’re gone,’ she wailed. ‘They stole my lucky earrings. Call the police, get them back here right now.’
‘Della, calm down,’ Dad said. He strode across the room to where Della was taking deep breaths, like she was trying not to hyperventilate. ‘Are you sure they’re missing? Maybe they’re on the floor.’
‘I’m not an idiot. I checked the floor. I checked everywhere. I had them laid out on the table ready to wear tomorrow. And now they’re gone. I can’t believe this is happening to me. I need those earrings for my callback.’
‘Sweetheart, calm down. I’ll get you another pair of earrings. What did they look like?’
Della shot him a look so cold it could stop global warming.
‘They were diamond studs. Mom bought them for me when I got my first role on Broadway. They are my LUCKY earrings. You can’t just go out and buy another pair. You don’t understand. You never understand.’
Della turned away from our dad in disgust. And then she saw me.
‘This is all your fault,’ she said, jamming her finger into my chest.
‘My fault? I’m not the one who forgot to lock the deadbolt this morning.’
‘Maybe if you had a normal hobby and didn’t go running around looking for criminals, people wouldn’t break into our house.’
‘Oh, shut up, Delores,’ I snapped back.
Della took a deep breath and turned to Dad. She hated when I called her by her full name.
‘I’m not talking to her. Call the police and tell them to come back. I need those earrings for my callback tomorrow.’
I wasn’t going to let her get away with that. ‘Stop making this all about you, Della. Why don’t you just go to Italy with Mom already? You’d be happier there anyway.’
‘Alice!’ Dad yelled.
Della took off up the stairs.
Great, I thought, as the door to my room slammed again. Where am I supposed to run off to?
Dad scowled down at me. He’s a good foot taller than me, and at that moment he really loomed.
‘Don’t you move,’ he said. ‘I’m going to talk to your sister and when I come back down I want that file and everything you have on Dr Learner’s disappearance. Do you understand?’
I nodded. I understood all right. But if Dad thought I was going to roll over just like that, he didn’t know me as well as he thought he did.
A soon as he was out of sight, I grabbed the file and took it into Dad’s office. I guessed I had about ten minutes before he came back down, more if Della decided to turn on the waterworks. The computer would take for ever to boot up, but fortunately I didn’t need the computer. Dad had one of those 4-in-1 printer/fax/copy/scanner machines. I copied the entire file twice. I hid one copy by putting it back in the printer, at the bottom of the paper tray. I stuffed the other copy into the waistband of my shorts. I put the originals back in the folder and ran into the living room just as Dad came back down the stairs.
‘Your sister is very upset.’
I said nothing. He sighed.
‘She’s on the phone with your mom.’
Well, that was just great. Now Mom would be mad at me too.
‘Look Alice,’ Dad took his glasses off and looked at me wearily, ‘I know it hasn’t always been easy living apart from your sister. But it’s really important that you two get along. Your mom and I won’t always be around. I thought this summer would be a chance for the two of you to reconnect. You should go and make peace with her.’
Dad looked at me hopefully. But if he thought I was going to go upstairs and apologize, he was going to be disappointed. Della was just as much to blame as I was, and this time she could apologize first.
‘Fine,’ he sighed. ‘You’ll deal with it on your own. I got it. Now,’ he put his glasses back on and held out his hand, ‘the file.’
‘But Dad, it’s got all my notes and ideas. I’ll be more careful. I swear. And I’m close to figuring something out. I can feel it.’
‘Tough cookies, kiddo.’ He wiggled the fingers of his
waiting hand.
I made a show of reluctantly handing him the originals.
‘What are you going to do with them?’ I asked.
‘I’ll take them to work. There’s security there, so your notes will be safe if anyone comes after them.’
‘Dad?’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll use all the information in my exposé on Chronos R&D. I don’t care how long legal takes to approve it. No one breaks into my home and gets away with it. They won’t know what hit them.’
I smiled.
Dad smiled back at me. ‘Besides, once I print whatever is in here, there’ll be no reason for anyone to come back and try to steal it.’ He tucked the file under his arm and held his hand out again.
‘Now give me the other one.’
‘Other what?’
‘Alice Jones, you’re my daughter. Don’t think I don’t know what you were doing in my office. Now give me the copy you made.’
We stared at each other, hard. Then I let my eyes fall to the ground.
‘Fine.’ I pulled the dummy file out from under my shirt and handed it over. ‘But I still think you should let me keep it. I’m so close to figuring it out. And if I find Dr Learner for you, you could get the story printed even faster. I bet he’d give you an exclusive.’
Dad took the file and whacked me softly on the top of my head. ‘No deal. Any others?’
I shook my head, but Dad did a search anyway. I guess he did know me pretty well. He checked my bag and all my notebooks. He opened all the drawers in his office. He even looked under the black plastic mat that protected the carpet from his wheelie chair.
‘I guess this is the only one then,’ he said. ‘Alice, I know you hate to leave anything unsolved, but I’m serious. This is serious. For some reason those men broke the law to try to get that file. Don’t go near it. Got it?’
‘Yeah, I got it.’
‘OK, I’m going to take this to the office now, and see if I can get someone to come and fit a new door. I want you to lock up behind me, and put the chain on. Call me if anything happens. I mean anything.’
I locked the door behind him, deadbolt and chain, and waved through the window as Dad drove away. Then I went back into his office and got the second file out of the printer. I felt a little guilty. But not enough to make me stop. If Dad was going to protect us by writing the truth, I was going to help him figure it out. There was no way I was letting those jerks from Chronos find Dr Learner and his invisibility suit before I did.
I hole-punched the file and stuck it in the folder where I kept my Goldbach’s notes and ideas. I didn’t think anyone would look for it there.
I spent another night on the couch and woke up with a new set of lines decorating my face. Della hadn’t actually locked me out of my room, but that was only because the bedroom doors didn’t have locks. I snuck in and got clean clothes and pyjamas while she was in the shower. Dad had got someone to fit an extra set of locks until we could buy a new door. But we all still jumped at every sound out on the street. And every time I jumped I got a little angrier.
Della was practising her shuffle ball changes upstairs. It sounded like she was practising them on my face. She’d found the spot on my bedroom floor that was directly over the couch where I was sleeping. She must have moved the desk to do it. I needed coffee.
I pulled on the clothes I’d laid out the night before and used my fingers to brush my hair. Dad was sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal and reading the paper.
‘Good morning,’ I said. He didn’t respond, and when I looked more closely I could see he had screwed up some paper napkins into makeshift earplugs. The white ends stuck out of his ears like some kind of alien antennae.
I poured myself coffee and cereal and tugged the entertainment section out from under Dad’s arm. He jumped.
‘Morning Dad,’ I said. He had dark circles under his eyes. I guess I wasn’t the only one who’d had trouble sleeping. Upstairs, Della stopped tapping.
‘Is the band still playing?’ He raised his eyes up to the ceiling.
I shook my head.
Dad sighed and pulled out the earplugs, then he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
‘Good morning, sweetheart.’ He put his glasses back on and passed me a pen so I could do the cryptic quip and the sudoku. Dad might not have liked giving them up, but he always kept his word. ‘I need to take Della to her callback today, so I won’t be around. Is there anyone you can call to come over? I don’t like the idea of you in this house alone.’
‘You want me to call a babysitter?’
‘You know that’s not what I mean. If you don’t have anyone to come over, why don’t you come with us to the audition?’
I knew Dad was trying to help me and Della build bridges, but it was a little too soon for that. I was about to tell him that I didn’t think Della would appreciate my company just now when she came down the stairs and told him for me.
‘Dad, you can’t be serious. I need complete positivity. Alice will poison the atmosphere if she comes.’
‘Della.’ Dad’s tone was stern, but I didn’t want to go to Della’s audition any more than she wanted me to be there.
‘Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’ll go to the library. There’ll be plenty of people there.’
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But I’ll have my phone with me the entire time. On vibrate,’ he added quickly when Della opened her mouth. ‘You call me if you need me, understand?’
‘I got it.’
‘OK. I’m going to grab a quick shower, then I’ll take you to the theatre. You two be nice to each other.’
I think Dad wanted to say something else, probably something about sisters getting along and our special twin connection, but decided against it. Instead he just put his bowl in the sink and went upstairs.
Della sat down at the counter. ‘Don’t look at me, don’t talk to me, don’t even think about me. Until this audition is over, you do not exist.’
‘You know, Della, I’ve tried really hard to make you feel at home here. I gave you my bed and cooked your carbs. Maybe you could just try to be a little understanding. There are other people in the world, you know.’
Della sniffed and flipped her beautiful blonde hair at me, but she didn’t say a word.
Fine, I thought, if she wants to play hard ball I can play that way too.
I looked at Della and very calmly pulled my messenger bag over my head.
‘I’m going now. I’ll be back tonight. Oh, and Della . . .’ I think she knew what I was going to say before I said it. Maybe we had a twin connection after all. Her hands shot up to cover her ears, but she wasn’t fast enough.
‘Good luck!’
I grabbed my bike and banged out the door, leaving Della screaming bloody murder over her cornflakes. It was the worst thing you could say to an actress before an audition. But it didn’t make me feel any better. The only thing that was going to do that was solving this case. And that meant finding Dr Learner and proving he got out of that office without using an invisibility suit. Or seeing that suit with my own two eyes.
It was rush hour. The air was full of exhaust fumes and the sound of angry honking. Overhead the sky was dark. It looked like we were due another storm. I walked my bike along the pavement. There was no point in riding when the road was that full. It was like asking someone to run you over. The good thing was, with traffic this bad, it was impossible for the men in the silver Mercedes to follow me. At least, that’s what I told myself. But it didn’t stop me from jumping when Kevin Jordan shouted at me.
‘Hey Numbers!’
I tried to stuff my heart back into my chest cavity where it belonged and turned around.
‘Whoa! Calm down there.’ Kevin jogged after me, pushing his bike with one hand, and dragging Sammy Delgado Jr with the other. Sammy was holding a large bundle of balloons that trailed behind him.
‘What do you want?’ I asked. I didn’t like being stopped on the side of the street.
Every time a silver car drove past, my heart beat a little harder. But none of them were the Mercedes.
‘I saw this kid sneaking around outside your house and I thought you might be up to something interesting.’
‘I wasn’t sneaking, I’m helping Alice on a case,’ Sammy said, starting loud and then biting back his words when Kevin looked down at him.
‘Sorry Sammy, I’m off the case. Didn’t your dad tell you?’ I felt bad lying, but I didn’t need Sammy shouting his mouth off and word getting back to my dad that I was still looking into things.
Sammy blushed. ‘I know. Here, I brought you these.’ He held out the balloons.
‘What are these? I’m-sorry-someone-broke-into-your-house balloons?’
He shrugged and nodded at the same time, like a sheepish turtle. I couldn’t believe it, but that was Sammy all over. His heart was in the right place. His head was somewhere else altogether. It actually made me smile.
‘Wait, someone broke into your house?’ Kevin asked. ‘Why didn’t you call me?’
I turned to look at Kevin. I didn’t know which was weirder, Sammy’s balloons or Kevin’s question.
‘Why would I call you? I called the police.’
We all stood in the middle of the pavement, staring at each other. A man in a smart suit and trainers shoved past us and swore under his breath. I pulled Kevin and Sammy up against the wall.
‘Look, it was a rough night. I don’t have time for games right now, so what do both of you want?’
Sammy looked at me and then at Kevin. He made a move like he was going to whisper in my ear.
‘Whoa there,’ I said pushing him gently back. ‘Kevin knows about the case. You don’t need to play spy.’
Sammy looked at me like I’d stabbed him.
‘Fine,’ he said, sulking. ‘It’s about that thing you asked me to look for. I couldn’t find it. I checked the whole building. Sorry.’
‘What thing?’ Kevin asked. We were all standing over a subway grate. Somewhere below us a train went by and the hot, stale air blew up. It felt like hot dog breath on my legs.
‘Sammy, it’s not a secret,’ I said. I was pretty sure it didn’t even matter. ‘There was a metal clip on the security camera in one of the photos. It wasn’t there when I went to look at the real thing. Sammy was trying to find it for me.’
