The Return of Sherlock James

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 7:

"Gone?" Miss Fowl repeated. "Are you sure you were wearing it today?"

"I'm positive," Libby answered, clearly distraught. "It isn't even mine, really. My momma said that I could wear it because I was old enough to start wearing it now. It's a family antique. If I don't get it back she'll kill me."

"Well, calm down and think," Miss Fowl told her. "When do you last remember seeing it?"

Libby thought back. "I know I had it when I came to school this morning."

"That's true," Cindy said. "I remember warning her that she should take it off because she might lose it."

"So that's when I put it in my book bag," Libby said. "I forgot all about it until now when I thought there might be a thief in the classroom. Now it isn't there."

"Maybe it fell on the floor when you took out your books," suggested Sheen.

Libby considered it and carefully studied the floor around her desk. "That's possible. But if that's so, it isn't there any more."

"Maybe you accidentally kicked it without realizing. Students, check around your desks for a gold bracelet," instructed Miss Fowl as disappeared under her own desk.

Almost immediately Carl called out, "I found it!"

Libby looked startled and said, "You did?"

"Pick it up and take it to Libby, Carl," Miss Fowl ordered as her head reappeared above the desk.

Carl obediently reached down to pick up what he had found, but suddenly looked disappointed. "Oh. Sorry. It's just a rubber band." When Libby's miserable expression returned he held out his hand to display the yellow band and quickly added, "But you can have it if you want it. It kind of looks gold." He flexed and twisted the rubber band. "And it's stretchy."

"I don't think you're helping, Carl," observed Cindy.

"Keep looking, class," Miss Fowl called out as she burrowed beneath her desk again, "and make sure that you've really found a bracelet before you get Libby's hopes up again."

Carl hung his head. "Sorry," he apologized.

The rest of the class found nothing and after five minutes Miss Fowl called off the search. "I'm sorry, Cindy," Miss Fowl told Libby. "I'm afraid that you must have lost it somewhere else."

Jimmy looked thoughtful. "Or someone in class did find it and aren't saying anything."

"What's that, Jimmy?" asked Miss Fowl.

"I was just thinking out loud, Miss Fowl." Jimmy usually paced back and forth when he was thinking, but because he was in class he remained in his chair and tapped a restless finger against his desk instead. "What you suggested could have happened, but it seems awfully coincidental for Libby to have lost her gold bracelet the day after a couple other gold items were lost in this very classroom."

"What are you getting at, Neutron?" demanded Cindy.

"Well, I'm thinking that maybe Libby's bracelet did fall out of her book bag when she pulled her book out, like Sheen suggested. It's possible that there was enough noise at the time for Libby not to hear the bracelet fall on the floor and she may have accidentally kicked it away without realizing it. But it may also be that someone noticed the bracelet on the floor before Libby noticed that it was missing, and took advantage of the opportunity."

Miss Fowl looked doubtful. "And who would that be?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know. But it couldn't have gone very far without someone noticing it."

Cindy bristled at this. "Like maybe to the desk right next to hers?"

"I never said that," Jimmy replied. "I'm just saying that I doubt Libby could have kicked a bracelet more than a couple desks away without her or someone else in class noticing."

"That makes sense," Libby remarked, slowly nodding her head. "It would have made noise when it was sliding across the floor, and if I kicked it that hard I probably would have felt it."

"Exactly."

"But that all assumes that Libby lost it here," Cindy argued. "Okay, maybe losing it right at this time sounds like a big coincidence, but coincidences happen."

"There's a saying, Cindy - 'Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but three times is conspiracy'. This is the third time in two days that something gold has gone missing from someone from someone in this class in," Jimmy told her grimly. "I can't believe that this was just a coincidence. I'm certain that someone took all those things, and that whoever took my quasi-gold took Miss Fowl's pen and Libby's bracelet."

Sheen sighed. "I wish that Jimmy had something that would find his quasi-gold. Then he'd know who took the other things."

Jimmy shook his head. "I thought about that yesterday when I first lost my quasi-gold. The problem is, its properties are so close to real gold that I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from anything else made of gold."

"Yeah, Sheen," Carl remarked. "He couldn't tell it apart from all the gold that everyone else carries around."

Jimmy sat bolt upright. I am the world's biggest idiot, he reproached himself. "Carl!" he nearly shouted.

"What?" Carl asked as he shrank back in apprehension.

"You're a genius!"

Carl looked puzzled, and then gratified. "I am? Oh, right. I am. I knew that."

"What are you talking about, Jimmy?" Miss Fowl asked.

"A way to find my quasi-gold," Jimmy answered excitedly. "Look, it's true that I don't have anything that can tell quasi-gold apart from real gold. But how many people would normally be carrying that much gold around with them?"

"Well, jewelers, rich people, rap artists, Mr. T…" Sheen began.

Jimmy waved him off impatiently. "Let me rephrase. How many students at this school would have 400 grams of gold with them?"

The students in class looked thoughtful. "How much is that?" Nick finally asked.

Miss Fowl shook her head sorrowfully. "My lessons on the metric system have gone completely to waste," she sighed unhappily.

Jimmy did a quick calculation in his head. "That would be over $5000 of gold."

There was an excited buzz amongst the class. "Well," said Sheen, "I'd guess that only Useless Rich would be able have that much."

"Eustace Stritch," Libby corrected.

"Whatever," countered Sheen.

"The point is," Jimmy went on impatiently, "that even if it would register as gold, the only person here at Lindbergh Elementary that appeared to have that much gold would probably be the person who took the quasi-gold. There's no one else here who would have a reason to be carrying around that much real gold with them."

Miss Fowl looked intrigued. "Did you say you have something that would detect gold?"

Jimmy nodded. "Yes. I could modify the circuits of my elemental transmutor to act as a detector. It has a very short range, so I'd need to be within 5 feet or so of that amount of gold to detect it, but I could find it." He looked around. "That is, if you and the rest of the class doesn't mind if I do a search."

Miss Fowl and the other students looked uncertainly at each other. Finally Libby spoke. "I say 'yes'. Let's find out what's going on and get it over with."

Nick nodded. "Sounds pretty cool to me," he commented.

"And how," Butch agreed, smacking one massive fist into the palm of his other hand. "Let's find the creep and teach them a lesson."

The rest of the class quickly concurred, and waited for Miss Fowl to make a decision. "Well," she finally said, "as long as everyone in class agrees to it then I guess there's nothing wrong with trying." She nodded to Jimmy. "Very well. You may proceed."

"It'll just take a few minutes to make the modifications." Jimmy opened the case of his transmutor and went to work, humming and muttering to himself as he reworked the intricate circuits inside. At length he closed the case again and held the device up. "Ready," he announced.

Cindy rolled her eyes. "I can hardly wait," she remarked in a bored voice.

Jimmy activated the transmutor and strolled down the aisles between the students' desks, waving the device from side to side and intently watching the darkened LEDs on its face. Each student watched in mixed curiosity and apprehension as he approached and then appeared to relax as Jimmy passed by without comment.

"You realize that it's entirely possible that the thief, if there is a thief, may not even have brought the missing items with them to school?" Cindy asked Jimmy as he approached.

Jimmy shrugged. "Maybe. But even if they didn't, there's a chance that there's enough gold in Libby's bracelet to at least find -" He stopped as one of the LEDs on the transmutor-cum-detector came on and began to blink. "I've got something," he announced.

The rest of the class crowded around while still giving Jimmy room to maneuver. Cindy watched, first in suspicion and then in growing annoyance as Jimmy slowly moved past her desk, circled around, and then returned. As he drew nearer to her the blinking of the LED became more rapid and then became a steady bright glow as he moved the detector towards her book bag.

Cindy stared at him in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding, Nerdtron," she spluttered. "You must have crossed a wire or something. There is no way that any of those things you're looking for are in my bag."

"In that case, Cindy," Miss Fowl told her, "perhaps you wouldn't mind showing us what's in your book bag?"

Shandra's voice was like wind off a glacier. "Besides maybe books?"

Cindy was about to object again, but apparently decided that the simplest way to put an end to the entire ridiculous situation was to comply with the request. "This is so pointless," she complained as she angrily pulled open the zipper and upended the bag on her desk. "The only things in here are my own -"

A clatter startled her into stunned silence. Amongst her notepads and textbooks lay three distinctive objects - a lump of shiny yellow metal, a sleek golden pen, and a shiny gold bracelet. Despite the evidence of their own senses the students gathered around Cindy's desk stared in disbelief, first at the golden objects, and then at her.

"My quasi-gold!" Jimmy exclaimed.

"My pen!" squawked Miss Fowl.

"My bracelet!" Libby cried.

"My goodness," whispered Cindy.

End of Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Just as an aside, the quote "Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but three times is conspiracy" is from a paperback edition of the Ian Fleming's James Bond novel "Goldfinger". Given the nature of the missing items it seemed a fun reference to stick in.