The Case of the Missing Scientist by Anzy Irani (readict txt) 📖

few minutes later. I got out of the car, and walked towards the house. When Pat unlocked the door, I fell asleep on the couch.


“Cock-a-doodle-doo.” The radio screeched, “Good morning everyone! This is Phil on Classical FM. It is 6 am and the weather outside is very sunny today, 28 degrees Celsius!!” I groaned. Why does he have to be so cheerful? “Good morning sir.” Pat said happily, “Would you like some coffee?” “Yes please.” I said getting up. I heard some rattling in the kitchen. I hope he doesn’t break anything I thought. Bring Bring. Bring Bring. The phone rang. “I’ll get it!” Pat said running towards the phone, “Hello? Hello? He... Oh... What!!!?? Okay... Yea... Fine!” Pat slammed the phone down just when some rang the doorbell. “I’ll get it!” I said. I walked towards the door, and opened it. “Hello?”
“Hi there!!” the stranger said, “Here is your mail for today.” I reached my hand out, the postman placed the envelopes into my hand, said goodbye and walked off to be cheerful to another neighbour. “Pat! Can you r—“ I stopped and sniffed the air. Something was burning. “Sorry sir, I burnt the toast.” Pat said.
“Doesn’t matter. Clean the mess up, and read these letters for me.” “Okay Sir.” I made my way to the couch and sat down thinking. How am I going to get to Richard? “Okay sir, all done!” Pat said as he sat down next to me.
“The letters are on the table.” I told him.
“Dear Albert,” he started, “Congratulations for winning the-“ “Next” I said interrupting him.
“Letterrrrr nummmber twooooo!!!!!!” Pat said sounding like someone from a game show, “To Mr. V, Thank-you for the money last night. I counted it, and it was a full $300,000!! Since you completed the 1st step properly, I’ll make the second one a bit easier. Read the next letter for more info. Signed, Richard.” A full 300,000? What did Richard mean by that?”Pat,” I started, “did you remember to put monopoly money in the suitcase?”
“Yes sir.” Pat replied.
“Do you know what Richard meant by getting his full 300, 000?”
“Uh no. Sorry sir.” Pat said sounding quite thoughtful, “I’ll open the other letter, and see what they say.” There was a lot of ripping, when Pat finally said, “Oh here we go. Hello Mr. V, congrats! You are 1/3 of getting Albert back! 2nd step is to come to 28 Latimer Place at 8:00 a.m, with the Albert’s famous invention. The camera that tells you what will happen in the same spot in 24 hours. Give that to me, and you are 1 step away of getting Albert back.” Pat finished shakily, “But I broke the camera!” He cried. Ignoring what he said, I started giving him instructions. “Let’s leave now, so we have enough time to buy a toy camera.”
“But I broke the camera and we can’t buy a new one!” Pat whined obviously not hearing the word ‘toy’. “Just do as I say Pat!” I said nearly yelling.
“Right away sir.” Pat said in a small voice, as he went to get changed.


“You can turn the radio on if you want, but I’m going to lock all the doors, and windows so no one can come in. Okay?” Pat warned me, sounding quite worried.
“Yea sure. Just remember to bring the camera.” I said reassuringly. When Pat slammed the door and walked off, I turned the radio onto my favourite channel. Classic FM. Mozart’s 40th Symphony was playing. I started humming along to it. Just when my favourite bit came, Pat came back. “I’m here sir.” He said greeting me. He placed the plastic bag in the back seat, got into his seat, and started driving. “Where did Richard say we have to meet him?” Pat asked. “28 Latimer Place. It’s the street off Gondawala” I replied. When we got there, we heard people screaming. “What’s happening?” asked Pat. “Oh um.. There are these 8-yr-old girls playing random games.” Pat stammered. “Okaay...” I said probably sounding suspicious, because then Pat said changing the topic, “Shouldn’t we wrap the camera in something before we give it to Richard? Because he’ll know if it’s real or not.”
“Great idea Pat!” I told him, trying to get the idea of Pat kidnapping Albert from my mind. Pat stopped the car, got out and went into the backseat. While Beethoven’s 9th Symphony played in the background, Pat worked on the camera trying to make it look as if it was a fragile camera, while asking for my opinion. “Sir, should I put it in a bag or a box?” He asked.
“Both.” I answered.
“Great idea” Pat said. After a few minutes of silence, apart from the symphony, he asked me, “Should I cover it in news paper?”
“Okay” I answered him.
“Wow what a fantastic idea!” He said. That went on for a few minutes, when I felt my watch. 7:55. “Done!” Pat exclaimed, as I said “Don’t you think we should be going now?” We got out of the car, when Richard’s voice haunted us again. “Rebecca! Get the camera from him!” He said. I heard a sound of footsteps running towards us. “Pat act as if the box is heavy, and it has breakable things in it.” I murmured to Pat who was standing beside me. Suddenly, he started moaning and groaning as if the box was heavy. Good job I thought trying to send silent telepathy messages to him. I heard this Rebecca person come up to Pat, take the box away delicately. I imagined her carrying the box on her pinkie finger, giving weird looks to us. Oh well.


As we headed back home, Pat was getting really excited. “Imagine there faces when they open the box up and there’s nothing but a toy camera wrapped with newspapers!” He said jumping up and down. We did get beeped at quite a few times. I’m glad we didn’t crash into anything. When we arrived home, there was a stranger sitting at the front door waiting for us. “G-G-Goo-Good m-morning s-s-sir-r.” The stranger stammered, “H-h-how--“ Just hurry up and get on with it! I thought. But I didn’t want a bad reputation under my name. “Hello there. I am good thank-you. And you?” I say to this stranger. I must’ve had a bored expression on my face, because then Oat who was standing beside me, said “Hello. I am Sir’s assistant. Is there anything we can do for you?” Pat sounded very confident, as if he had practiced this speech a thousand times before. “R-R-Richard t-told m-m-me to t-tell y-you t-to c-c-ome t-to th-th-the b-big f-forest a-a-at 10:00 a.m.” the stranger stammered and ran off. “What did he say?” I asked Pat as he opened up the door. “Something about going to the forest at 10 a.m.” Pat replied. “Did you just say the forest?” I asked Pat, “Do you know how deadly it is? Everyone who has gone in there has never come out!” “Well, we can be the first people to go out of the forest?” Pat guessed. "Pat this is not funny!” I exclaimed, “Do you think we should go in there?” “I-I think w-we should.” Pat said.
“Do you really think we should go into that forest?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Okay, fine. We are doing this or Albert anyway.” We silently waited for 10 o’clock to arrive. At 9:45, Pat said, “Don’t you think we should leave now?” “Sure let’s go!” I told him standing up. We made our way towards the door, and into the car.


We reached the forest just when the hand on my watch went onto 10. We climbed out of the car, and walked towards the forest. I was shaking. This is going to be my first—and hopefully last—time I am going to walk through this forest. I am walking through one of the dangerous forests ever in this country, and I can’t even see.

We reached the forest just when the hand on my watch went onto 10. We climbed out of the car, and walked towards the forest. I was shaking. This is going to be my first—and hopefully last—time I am going to walk through this forest. I am walking through one of the dangerous forests ever in this country, and I can’t even see. Out of nowhere, the theme song of Spongebob Squarepants started playing. I nearly jumped out of my skin! “W-w-what is that?”I asked Pat who was standing next to me for safety.
“Sorry sir.” He said, “that was my phone.” Pat got his phone and spoke, “Hello? Yes What! YES! Okay. Yea. Bye.” Turning to me he said, “Richard said that he is waiting at the middle of the forest with Albert. The only way to get to him is to walk through the forest, until we see him.”
“I guess that is our only way left to save Albert isn’t it?”Not bothering to answer my question, Pat started walking, with on hand on my shoulder. He had promised me that he won’t let me get hurt or trip over anything. “Pat, do you know your way there? Do you have a map or anything?” I asked him feeling stupid. “Uh no sir, but I think we just have to walk in a straight line.” He said sounding uncertain. As we were walking, I found a piece of paper in my pocket. I asked Pat if it said anything on it, and he said no, so I tore it up in tiny pieces, and threw a piece down every 20 steps or so. That way, we wouldn’t get lost. It was a good thing that today was sunny and not windy. I thought happily.


“Are we there yet?” I asked Pat. Instead of replying, he stopped walking and took his hand off my shoulder. Then I heard someone running. Had Pat just betrayed me? “Pat? I called to him. How am I going to find him now? Then I heard a muffled Help. I tried to follow the voice, but tripped up a big log that was in front of me. How did it get there? I thought. Not caring about my legs that were now bleeding severely, I listened for the voice again. It sounded like Albert. I made my way to the voice. My legs were throbbing, and hurting really bad. But I had to save Albert first. I heard a ripping noise, then Albert screamed, “Look out!” I ran for it, not knowing where I was going. I just hoped Albert was okay. My walking cane was in front of me, so I knew if I was about to crash in a tree or not. “Albert!” I called, “Where are you?”
“Over here!” He called back. Was that a car pulling away? I thought. My hearing is quite sharp. “Turn to your right!” Albert yelled. I kept on running until I Albert grabbed my shoulder. “Where’s Richard?” I asked him.
“Richard, Rebecca, Alice and Pat have left!!” He said.
“What! So Pat was involved in this?”
“Yes! He was the one who kidnapped me!! Vaughn I see you have a terrible bleed on your leg.”
“Let’s go home, and I’ll tell you everything that happened.”
“No we are not going home, we are