Chapter 11

"Are you all right?" the dispatch officer asked her uncle.

Drake nodded, although his heart was still racing. While his niece returned to the evidence desk, he turned and picked up the 'Splintered Love' case file. "Chenture," he declared, "It's impossible to know exactly what happened in every one of these cases."

"But I do. The only possible explanation is a group of vigilant vigilantes, mysterious marauders, sneaky saboteurs, ..."

"I don't care what you call them, because they don't exist! Look, if I can come up with an alternate explanation, then will you drop this obsession of yours?"

"Alright, what's your theory?"

"I have no one theory. Every one of these cases is a self-contained story, of greed, or foiled love, or perhaps pure insanity. But this one," he said, holding up the case file," this one I know, because I've seen it before. Have you considered the nature of the thefts? All locked-door mysteries, not with the prints wiped from the doorknobs and other obvious points of entry, but no prints at all. Have you ever heard of the Devil's Eye?"

"The Devil's Eye? The Devil's Eye. The Devil's Eye. The Devil's Eye? No, never heard of it."

"It was the most valuable part of the treasure of the Pirate Lefite. A diamond, the size of a man's eye, wedged into a skull and dropped into a tight underwater cave. The tides ensured that the cave was only accessible for a few minutes for a few days a month. And no adult could reach in there.

"A con artist by the name of Madame Medusa discovered the location of this treasure, and the reason no one had lived to recover it. So she came to New York and snatched a very young orphan girl by the name of Penny to go get it. You can imagine what the poor girl was told would happen to her should she fail. Penny recovered the diamond, but then she outsmarted her captor, leading to her arrest.

"That's what happened here. The thieves had a child, a girl as will become clear, and she was the one that climbed into the homes and businesses, through holes too small for an adult to navigate. But starting with the cabinet robbery, she started sabotaging the robberies, because she knew that with the impending museum robbery, the spree would be over, and when that happened she would no longer be safe from the thieves. Look at these pictures of the museum job: at least one of the thieves used the ductwork to enter. And here, broken fragments of a small mirror, obviously used to defeat the laser beam guarding the rosewood chair. The lab report, here, shows traces of a woman's face powder, perhaps used to make the beam visible. From the curvature at the edge of that piece, I'd say that mirror was no more than an inch wide. Only a child, a little girl, would be expected to have a mirror like that in her possession. She's the one who loosened the shipping label, in the hope that the trip in the back of the truck would dislodge it."

Chenture was stunned. "But...but...what about the exploded suitcases at the airport? What about the remote-controlled skateboard?"

"What about the missing macaroni and cheese? Life isn't tidy, Chenture. You just have to let the loose ends go. The sad part is that we'll never know what happened to the girl."

Chenture sat down hard in a nearby chair. "All those months, all those stakeouts, wasted." He stared at his feet for a few moments. "I need a vacation," he concluded.

"Attaboy, Chenture! I'm glad I could be of help."

"Oh, Drake, I'm sorry I dragged you out here like this."

"Think nothing of it. This trip managed to correct some of my own false theories about life." He turned to his waiting dog, who was holding a new honorary badge gently between his jaws.

"Well, Plato, we've got a retirement to enjoy. Let's go home."

Disclaimers

Detective Donald Drake, his dog Plato, Officers Muldoon and Kirby, Sergeant Spinelli, the unnamed Chief, the S.W.A.T. team and their sergeant, Ma and her diner, Pr. Nimnul, and the Clutchcoins, and a scene-stealing cheese-hungry mouse are the creative property of the Walt Disney Corporation. I hear they made their first appearance on a program called Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers. I don't suppose you're familiar with it?

Drake's niece is based on an unnamed policewoman who occasionally appeared in the show. Detective Chenture is based on Officer Ross from "Out of Scale", combined with a few unnamed officers that appeared in other episodes.

The plot of this story is obviously a mirror image of the episode "Love Is a Many Splintered Thing." I've got a fascination for secrets people keep in fantastic children's shows, and how outsiders can be so clueless when confronted with evidence of its existence. I threw in as many references to other episodes as I could. I hope the story is enjoyable even for those who never heard of the series.