by A. J. Low
“That’s not a lot of time for research,” I said. But when I saw Nazhar’s crestfallen expression, I quickly added, “But if we work quickly, it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.”
“Or we could use this!” a bookshelf with a French accent exclaimed. It seemed to have appeared out of thin air. One decidedly human arm pulled something out from a book with a flourish.
The inspector waited for our reaction.
“How will an EZ-Link card save us, Inspector?” Eliza asked. By now we were used to Inspector Lestrade’s costume changes, though I have to say, she had chosen some excellent books as part of her disguise. I saw the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“A what?” the inspector looked at what she was holding and her brow furrowed. “A moment. A moment. This is not the card I was…” She stuck her hands back into the sides of the bookshelf and pulled out what looked like at least 50 different cards.
“Ah ha!” she exclaimed, yet again pulling something out of the stack of cards with flourish.
“What is that?” I asked, squinting as I looked up. The inspector still held the card quite high above her head, making it difficult for any of us to get a clear look.
“It is a New York Public Library Card, Sherlock Sam!” she replied, grinning. “I have a public library card for every library in the world! It is a job perk from working with Interpol.”
Wow. I was amazed. I wished I could one day visit every single public library in the world. Dad had visited every single library in Singapore and was always one of the first few patrons to visit when a new library was opened. Dad really loved libraries, even the really small neighbourhood ones—he said there was always a treasure you could find, no matter how small a book collection was. You just needed the patience and fortitude to look. I realised why Dad said that the Library Lions had the best names.
“With this library card we can use a computer longer!” the inspector exclaimed.
Nazhar breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Or we could have gone back to Dr Yeun’s office and used one of the super high-tech computers there,” Eliza said.
Everyone turned and looked at her and then at each other.
“Well…since we’re already here…” I trailed off.
“To the computers!” Dad exclaimed dashing off before dashing right back at us. He stopped and looked at Mom who pointed to her right.
“Right! This way, guys!” Dad said, taking off in the direction Mom indicated.
We all gathered around one of the computers that Inspector Lestrade had reserved for our use.
I was the allocated researcher because, according to Wendy, I type the fastest.
The first thing I did was to do a search for sightings of the Dark Defender. We found numerous newspaper reports along with many other sightings on social media. Some people even had blogs and websites that were dedicated to sightings of the superhero and many of those sites were regularly updated.
“I think we should try and start sorting this by location,” I said. “Actually, you know what, guys? It might make more sense for some of us to use the 30-minute-long guest computer access. That way we can cover more ground.”
“That’s a good idea, Sam,” Mom said. “Nazhar, Wendy, Eliza and Moran can come with me. Jimmy will stay here with you, Watson and Dad, okay? Hopefully, we can use more than one computer.”
“Alas, I cannot use my Interpol badge to get us another computer for use as this is a top-secret mission. It would draw too much attention,” Inspector Lestrade added, sighing.
“You guys look at blogs and websites, I’ll check out the newspaper reports,” I said. “We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes.”
Mom nodded and quickly headed for the lifts with part of the Supper Club.
Dad and I starting looking at the links that appeared when we keyed in sightings of the Dark Defender and quickly decided on which links were more credible and which were purely gossip news.
Jimmy borrowed a sheet of paper and a pen from the nice librarian and started making notes for Dad and me with Watson’s help (not without complaint, of course).
Inspector Lestrade started to hum until a librarian came over and shushed her.
The inspector looked at us with wide eyes and said, “How did she even know I was in here?”
I shrugged and said, “’Librarians know everything, Inspector. It’s part of their job description.” Dad nodded.
It took us a while but Dad finally said, “I think that’s about all the articles that we can find that gives us original information, Sam. The rest just repeat the same sightings.”
Jimmy nodded, proudly holding up his sheet of paper, which had quite a few notes on it by now. I realised that after the first three almost illegible lines, Watson had taken over and the handwriting became as precise as if it had been typed on a computer.
“I’m still not convinced that Dr Loh is telling the complete truth, Dad,” I said. “I wonder if there are any news reports on what exactly happened between her and the Dark Defender.”
“Good idea, son,” Dad replied, his fingers already flying across the keyboard. We found a few articles, but they didn’t give us a lot more information than what we already knew. Dr Loh was doing research into Hover Car technology, but instead of adhering to the restrictions and safety policy set up by the school, to further her research, she rushed test results and altered her findings to suit her own preconceived ideas—a horrible thing for a scientist to do!
There was no mention as to how exactly the Dark Defender had found all of this out, but late one evening, when Dr Loh was alone in the lab and about to perform a dangerous experiment, the superhero had burst in and put a stop to it all. The university immediately, and very publicly, fired Dr Loh, which basically made her completely unemployable by any other reputable university with a research facility.
“This makes no sense,” Inspector Lestrade said. “Her punishment definitely did not fit the crime. She should have gone to prison!”
“But what this does show is that it wouldn’t make any sense for the Dark Defender to be in cahoots with Dr Loh,” I said.
“It-does-not-compute,” Watson added.
Just then, Mom, Wendy, Eliza and Nazhar returned.
We immediately compared notes and discovered that there were quite a few overlaps in the sightings from both the official news as well as unofficial blogs and websites. We then moved to a large table in a secluded corner of the library so that we wouldn’t attract too much attention.
“We need to do this in a more systematic way,” I said. “Nazhar, does your guidebook have a detailed map of New York? No wait, not the whole of New York. Er, Manhattan? Yes, Manhattan.”
“Of course it does, Sherlock,” Nazhar said, his tone tinged with disbelief. “Who would buy a guidebook without a collection of comprehensive, detailed maps?”
“Map geek,” Eliza muttered.
Looking at the maps in the guidebook, I was a bit confused at first because I didn’t realise how huge New York was—the five boroughs that made up New York were bigger than the whole of Singapore!
“Some of the blogs were really detailed,” Wendy said. “They even noted down the exact timing of the Dark Defender’s appearance.”
“We took that down too, because you’re always nagging at us to note down every single piece of information that might even be slightly relevant to the case,” Eliza added.
“I have trained you well, my young apprentice,” I replied, nodding sagely because that was exactly what Dad, Watson, Jimmy and I had been doing as well. However, I should have mentioned it to Mom and the rest of the Supper Club, but I didn’t. Fortunately, they were experienced investigators as well. Also, I’m an excellent nagger.
Eliza rolled her eyes at me, and Wendy guffawed loudly before she was shushed by a mysterious librarian that we couldn’t see, but who could clearly still hear us.
“That’s actually a really good idea, guys,” I said
. “Nazhar, do you think you could note down the timing of each appearance next to the location on your map?”
Nazhar grinned and nodded.
It took us more than an hour to sort through all the dates, locations and timings that our two groups had noted down, and by the time we were done, we were all starving. Okay, fine, I was starving. The rest were perhaps slightly hungry. They didn’t say anything, but I could see it in their eyes. These were people who needed sandwiches and maybe even soup.
“Hmm. It seems like all the earlier sightings were around the Washington Square Park area, Sam,” Dad said, his finger on the map, jolting me out of my soup-and-sandwich daydream. Nazhar was at his side and looked disgruntled that anyone other than him was touching his precious guidebook map.
“And the later timings seem to spread around Manhattan, but there doesn’t seem to be any clear pattern,” Eliza added, her finger circling areas that she was talking about. Nazhar’s eyes narrowed. Slowly and carefully, he pulled the map closer to where he was sitting.
“But there’s also this sighting yesterday. At some area called Long Island City,” Nazhar said. The map was now safely back in his hands. “It seems to be at almost the same timing at this other sighting in Manhattan.”
“What are the sources for both sightings?” I asked.
“Hmm…the one in Manhattan was an online edition of the New York Times,” Mom said.
“The one for Long Island City was from some anonymous blogger who calls himself the Dark Defender’s Greatest Fan,” Wendy added. “The guy did have a lot of photos online of the Dark Defender, but the ones that he seemed to take himself were all blurry and from quite a distance away. And some I think he actually just took from other websites,” Wendy remarked, looking at their notes.
“Well, based on our evidence, the Long Island City sighting is an anomaly and it does not seem to be from a very credible source,” I concluded.
“Not that personal blogs can’t be useful and reliable resources,”’ Dad immediately added.
“That’s true, Dad, but even so, given the data that we have, it would make more sense for us to investigate the area around Washington Square Park, correct? And didn’t Mr Halson say that the photographer who works at Midtown goes to NYU?” I said. “According to Nazhar’s map, the university is right next to the Park. We should investigate that whole area.”
Everyone nodded.
“I’ll give Dr Yeun a call to update her on our progress,” Inspector Lestrade said. She pulled out her handphone and was immediately confronted by the librarian. Wow, these librarians were stealthy. It was almost like they had super-secret librarian powers that let them know whenever someone was misbehaving in the library or something. The inspector made a face and quickly dashed away, presumably to use her phone in a less dangerous area.
We still had many unanswered questions, but at least it seemed we were making some headway into the Case of the Comic Book Caper in New York.
I was excited. I felt it in my belly—we would surely catch up to the Dark Defender very soon!
“Did Dr Barrowman ask us to wait for her at her office?” Mom asked.
“Yes, that’s what Inspector Lestrade said when she called,” Dad replied.
We sat on a couple of long benches outside an office. The name Dr Julie Barrowman was written on a plaque placed on the door. However, there was no sign of the doctor at all. We had been waiting for almost half an hour.
“She said that Dr Yeun had requested for Dr Barrowman to help us with our investigation of the area. She would be very familiar with the location because she teaches at NYU,” Dad continued.
“Do you think Inspector Lestrade is that water cooler?” Jimmy asked, staring intently at a shiny water cooler nearby.
“I think…that’s too small,” Wendy said, but she didn’t look fully convinced either.
“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” a voice said from around the corner. Dr Barrowman then appeared looking flustered. She was in a similar suit to the one we saw her in at Dr Yeun’s office, but she was wearing a pair of bright blue and pink running shoes instead of office shoes. Her short bob was still wet and did not look combed. She sort of reminded me of Wendy in the morning, when her hair sticks out in all directions.
“I just finished my run and I really needed a shower. Dr Yeun didn’t exactly give me a lot of notice.” She grimaced when she said that.
“Oh dear,” Mom said. “We hope we aren’t too much of an inconvenience.”
“Well, she’s the boss so…” Dr Barrowman shrugged. “I understand you guys are looking into the Dark Defender sightings? Why start here? She’s been spotted all over Manhattan.”
“Based on our research we found that her earliest sightings during the day always seem to originate from this area,” I said.
Dr Barrowman made a face that I didn’t quite understand—it was a cross between rolling her eyes and sighing in exasperation.
“Don’t you like the Dark Defender, Dr Barrowman?” Eliza asked.
“Julie, please call me Julie. Whenever someone calls me Dr Barrowman, I forget they’re talking to me,” she replied. “And no, I don’t like the Dark Defender. I think she’s a vigilante and she’s bound to get herself or someone else hurt with her antics.”
“But she’s done so many good things!” Jimmy exclaimed.
“And she also apparently stole Dr Yeun’s car,” Julie replied flatly. “Anyway, I don’t have a lot of time today, but Dr Yeun insisted that this was important, so perhaps we can get started? What exactly do you need my help with?”
Nazhar showed her his map and I explained our plan of visiting the locations where the Dark Defender was sighted, starting with the most recent sighting. It was a long shot, but there was still a chance we might find some physical evidence at the different scenes that might help us figure out the identity of the mysterious superhero.
“And why start with the most recent sightings?” Julie asked.
“Because the most recent scene would have the highest chance of evidence that had been left undisturbed,” I replied.
“You’re a pretty smart kid,” Julie replied with a raised brow. “That, or you watch way too much television.”
Julie took us to a couple of the locations on the map starting with the most recent sighting just yesterday, but we found nothing of note there other than one giant rat scurrying away with an entire pizza slice that looked three times its size. Jimmy ran after it and we almost lost him in the crowd, but fortunately Moran used his speedy thrusters and managed to race after my best friend in time to catch him before he vanished.
As we headed to the third location, I noticed that Julie kept looking at her handphone. Sneaking a peek, I realised that she had quite a few missed calls from Helen Loughlin, Dr Yeun’s daughter.
“If you need to call her back, that’s okay with us,” I said. “We know you must be very busy with work and teaching and all.”
“Nah, she’s just anxious to find out what her mother told me about the proposed changes she suggested to the engine of the Hover Car. But since we can’t technically do anything right now, I can call her back later,” Julie replied.
“Why is she asking you?” Eliza, who had been walking next to me asked. “Isn’t it easier to ask her mother directly?”
Julie’s lips twisted into a grimace.
“Because they don’t get along,” Wendy said, watching Julie’s face.
The young doctor smiled. “You kids are definitely very bright,” she said. “That’s right. Helen and her mother have a…complicated relationship.”
“You get along much better with Dr Yeun than she does,” Wendy continued, looking at me.
“Right. And Helen can’t stand me because of that,” Julie continued. “We actually work in quite different fields. She’s a brilliant engineer, I couldn’t do what she does. I’m all about the physics and I helped design it, but she’s the one that actually built the car. But for some reason she is always in competition with me.�
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“Have the both of you known each other a long time?” I asked.
“Ever since we shared a dorm while we were in college together,” Julie replied. “I was on a scholarship, of course. My family would never have been able to send me to NYU otherwise, but Helen had Dr Yeun to take care of all those pesky school fees. I think Dr Yeun also made Helen stay in a dorm instead of letting her get her own apartment, and she really resented her mother for that. Mainly because if it wasn’t for the dorm, her mother might have never gotten to know me.”
“And you wouldn’t work for her now,” I said.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Dad said. “I’m sure Dr Yeun would have noticed your work even if you didn’t share a room with her daughter in school. I saw some of your theories at the office and they are genius!”
Julie shook her head, her hair had dried and continued to stick out in strange directions, but she didn’t really seem to care. “Well, tell that to Helen.” She sounded sad.
“Do you think Dr Loughlin could have been involved somehow?” Wendy asked, looking at Julie. “Maybe she was so jealous of you she decided to get back at you using her mom.”
“I don’t think—” Julie said. “I mean… How would she know… How could she know… I mean…she could have hired someone, I suppose…” She seemed to be muttering to herself. It was almost as if she was working something out in her own mind.
“Hired someone?” Nazhar asked.
“What?” Julie looked at Nazhar.
“You said she could have hired someone,” I replied, watching Julie carefully.
“Oh, I was just thinking out loud. Please don’t mind me. I’m a math whiz, but solving crime is way out of my area of expertise,” she replied, quickly looking away.
“Julie!”
We spun around at the sound of the doctor’s name being called out from behind us.
It was Dr Loughlin.
She looked irritated.
When she reached us she waved her handphone in Julie’s face and said, “I’ve been calling and calling you. Why didn’t you pick up?”
