DETECTIVE NORA

1

Nora Davis struggles to zip up her backpack without dropping her cell phone or letting her suitcase fall to the ground. She pushes her brown hair behind her ears. Her bright blue eyes are focused on trying to keep everything organized, but it is not easy!
The young man standing next to her could be quite good looking, if he wasn’t dressed in a formal vest and a bow tie! His blond hair is in a style that looks like it is from the 1800s. This is William Berger – but certainly never “Will” Berger!
Anyone who knows him is aware that they should never, ever try to shorten his name in that informal way! He is standing calmly with his neat briefcase and small suitcase with wheels, stopping a taxi at the airport.
To anyone who did not know them, these two look like they have absolutely nothing in common. No one would guess that they are traveling together, in fact! But they are fellow doctoral students and close friends.
When he first met her, neat and organized William couldn’t have imagined a worse colleague than Nora: she is messy, always does things at the last minute, and worst of all, she is very nosy and pushy. She always gets them into trouble! Luckily for Nora, she is nice, caring, and super bright. So in the end, he has really come to like her as a friend.
As history students working in a research group at their university in the United States, Nora and William attend many international conferences. They have just arrived in Mexico City for an international conference on pre-Columbian art.
Nora and William have worked together for over a year. Since the topics of their doctoral research are similar, they spend a lot of time helping each other prepare presentations, write articles, and develop their very long and difficult thesis projects. But looking at her neat, organized friend, Nora realizes they could not be more different!
“Quick, Nora!” William says, a bit impatiently. “This is our cab. We must get going! We still have so much to prepare before the conference begins!”
Nora stuffs her coat into her backpack and pulls her suitcase with her to the cab. “All right, off we go!” she says, tossing her things into the trunk of the taxi.
Once they both get settled in their rooms at the hotel, Nora and William meet in the hotel restaurant to look at the conference schedule. Professors and art curators from many different countries will talk about their research on the art that was created before any Europeans arrived to the Americas.
“There are so many discussions that I want to listen to!” says Nora. “What time is your presentation, William?”
“At 2:00 tomorrow afternoon,” William replies. “I’m terribly nervous, though. Can you help me review my notes just one more time?”
Nora smiles at him. “We reviewed your notes at the university. Then we reviewed them again on the plane. I saw you putting your cards in order in the taxi. You are perfectly prepared!”
William straightens the papers in his folder once again. “You know that I have to prepare very well for this kind of thing. I’m not like you, who can do everything at the last minute and work by instinct. It’s really amazing! Suddenly, when you see a piece of art or an object made hundreds of years ago, you can tell us all about it! It’s like you have some connection with history,” William says, looking at his friend with puzzlement.
Nora smiles to herself and takes a sip of coffee. If only she could tell William her secret...
“Anyway, you will do a really fantastic job. You always do,” Nora says, reassuring her nervous friend. “I’m just glad that I don’t have to make a presentation at this conference. I can just enjoy what other people share, and maybe even work a little bit on my thesis...”
William looks at her with a smile. “That’s great! Remember, you must give your most recent chapter to our advisor in a week.”
Nora winces. “Only a week? Don’t remind me!”
William takes out his yellow marker and circles the date in his planner. “Yes, look! But, you can still make it. I just hope this time you will focus on your work, and not on solving some mystery at the conference!
Last time it was why everyone suddenly got sick at the embassy reception, and the time before that, it was the fake painting!”
“As you know, we really helped the local police with those investigations!” Nora protests. “It was important.”
“Fine, all right,” William says. “I just hope this time you will stop bothering everyone and asking so many questions. These are academic conferences, not adventures!”
Nora smiles at her friend. “Let’s go over your notes after we visit the museum, shall we?”
“Oh, my goodness!” William exclaims, checking his watch. “Is that really the time? Nora, let’s get to the museum right away. The curator is going to give us a tour in... twenty-eight minutes!”
Nora is glad the walk to the museum only takes twenty minutes and William can relax a little. As they arrive, they must pass their backpacks through an X-ray machine. Nora smiles politely at the security guard, but he does not seem to notice. He barely checks the screen as the backpacks pass through the machine. As he hands them their bags, she notices that he checks his watch and looks quickly at the door. “How strange,” Nora thinks to herself.
Since she and William are experts, the curator of the museum, Angelica Lopez, has arranged to take half an hour from her busy schedule to give them a tour of the pre-Columbian sculptures area.
“Welcome to the museum,” she says, shaking hands with Nora and William.
“Thank you,” William says. “I know you must be very busy, especially since the conference is taking place here in the museum. It is very kind of you to show us around.”
“Of course,” Angelica says with a smile. “It is always a pleasure to meet people who love pre-Columbian art as much as I do! Come, I want to show you some of my favorite statues.”
Nora and William follow Angelica into the next room. It is full of brightly lit display cases covered in glass. Inside each one are ancient and beautiful objects made by the indigenous civilizations that lived in the area of Mexico before Europeans arrived to the continent.
“These statues are very rare and extremely beautiful,” Angelica explains, pointing to the figures. Most of them are about the size of Nora’s hand. “Come and look at this,” Angelica says, leading William to another display case.
As she explains some details of the statues, Nora stays behind. She bends down to look more closely at a small figure of a human. She feels especially drawn to it, almost as if the statue is calling her. As she concentrates on the figure, the room around her seems to fade away, and she sees the hands of the person carefully making the statue.
She can hear the stone tools tapping and clinking as the shape is formed. In a rush of images, she sees the entire history of the statue and all the different places it has been, over hundreds of years.
This is Nora’s secret, and it is why she began to study history! As a little girl, she began to realize that she could get amazing information from objects, as if she were communicating with them.
Touching them, she could learn all about them, suddenly seeing their history as if it were happening in front of her. She could even see what would happen to them in the future! As she got older, she learned to focus this ability by just being close to an object and concentrating. That is a lot easier in museums!
Nora’s special ability was a big discovery for her. Later, she also realized she had a very acute sense of hearing. These two special abilities have been a great help to her in her studies, and they have also gotten her involved in quite a few complicated situations!

2

She learned early on that people didn’t respond so well to her strange abilities. So she decided to keep them a secret, but that has turned out to be more difficult than she thought!
Just before Nora is about to move away from the statue, the image in her mind changes. Suddenly, a hand is putting the statue into a bag. The statue is moving, but Nora cannot see where.
She wonders if maybe the statue is going to be on display at a different museum sometime soon. But then she sees the person holding the bag running. The person is stealing the statue! Nora realizes a crime will happen, but she has no idea when…
As Nora stands up straight again, she listens to Angelica’s conversation with William, although they are at the other end of the room.
“Yes, I agree, these are some of the most beautiful statues I have ever seen,” William says. “They are so unique and detailed.”
“They have been here in the museum for forty-three years,” Angelica explains. “Sometimes you can see one at an art auction, but that is very rare.”
“Oh, really?” William asks, intrigued.
“Yes, but they are so expensive! I could never afford to buy one,” Angelica says, looking at the statues.
“And I’m sure any pre-Columbian statue in an auction must be stolen!” says William, obviously upset by the idea. “These are important historical objects that are always kept in museums. They belong to everyone, not just one private collector.”
Angelica looks up at him quickly as Nora walks over. “Oh, yes, of course,” she says, realizing her mistake. “I would never buy anything stolen. This art is our cultural heritage and its place is here, in the museum, for everyone to share and learn about!” She smiles and looks around her.
“Well! I am very sorry, but I must return to work,” she explains. “The conference begins this afternoon, and I have to make sure everything is properly organized.”
“Thank you again for your time,” Nora says, shaking Angelica’s hand. “I hope we will talk again soon.”
As they walk past the security guards on the way out, Nora wants to tell them the statue will be stolen. She stops and opens her mouth to speak, but realizes how crazy she will sound. She cannot tell them anything. How will she explain that she had a vision of the statue being stolen at some time in the future?
Walking away from the museum, William and Nora see someone taking photos of the entrance with a fancy camera. He is carrying a small bag, and his camera is clicking endlessly. Nora wonders for a moment why the man is not taking pictures of the art itself.
Halfway down the block, Nora stops and pretends to drop her notebook. As she bends down to pick it up, she concentrates carefully and listens to the conversation between the man with the camera and the security guard. Having super ears can be very useful! She hears the man introduce himself as John Roland, a reporter. She looks up and sees him collect a special pass to take pictures of the pre-Columbian statues for his newspaper. As he enters, Nora notices him eyeing all the security cameras. Could it be that his newspaper report is focused on museum security?
After a quick lunch, Nora and William head back to the museum for the conference. An Irish doctoral student named Ian Shane gives a presentation on the pre-Columbian statues that Angelica just showed them. He is a real expert, and both William and Nora are very interested in his presentation.
Afterwards, they approach him to ask some specific questions. They walk around the exhibit and discuss the different statues. “It’s a shame these glass cases keep us from seeing the statues really close,” William says. He and Ian lean in very close, looking at the details. As he points something out, Ian hits the display case with his elbow. It moves a bit on its wheels. All three doctoral students jump back, expecting to hear a loud alarm system. But there is only silence!
However, a security guard steps forward. “Please, do not touch the display cases,” he says.
“Why didn’t the alarm go off?” Nora asks.
“We have special tracking devices on all of the items in the museum,” the security guard explains, recognizing their identification tags from the conference. “For cleaning purposes, we set the system not to go off if the statues only move a few centimeters. The cleaning staff need to move the cases a bit to do their job properly,” the guard explains. “But if any of the pieces in the collection move more than a meter, the alarm sounds immediately.”
Thanking the security guard, the three students leave the room. “In any case, they really are very beautiful pieces,” Ian says. “Once I got to see one up close. Very, very close...” He smiles to himself for a moment, lost in thought. “Well!” he says, coming back to the present. “I want to see that presentation beginning at 3:30pm. It was nice meeting you!”
As he walks away, Nora and William exchange a suspicious look. They walk around the museum for a few more minutes, admiring all the beautiful historical treasures.
“Shall we have a quick cup of coffee before the next conference?” Nora asks.
“Yes, that sounds great.” William replies. “That will give us time to go over my presentation once again!”
As Nora rolls her eyes, they suddenly hear a loud ringing noise. That must be the alarm system! There is immediate confusion in the building, and people come rushing out of the conference room and the different parts of the museum. It is chaos!
Within three or four minutes, the guards have managed to seal all the doors of the museum. Everyone must be thoroughly searched before they leave. It seems that one of the most important small pre-Columbian statues from the museum’s collection is missing!
Two hours later, everyone has been cleared by security. The police tell William and Nora that they can go home, but they stay at the museum with the police investigators. Nora wants to help! All of the conference activities for the afternoon must be rescheduled for the next day while the police perform their investigation. Although William wants to go back to the hotel, Nora feels she must use her special abilities to help in the investigation. Maybe she can provide an important clue to the police!
William cannot believe they are in a police station rather than a lecture hall. “This sort of thing always happens when I travel with you, Nora!” he says. “I can never have a quiet, calm academic trip. We always end up having some sort of adventure!”
“What?” Nora asks distractedly. “Oh, yes. Right. Now come here and help me write a report for the police about all the strange things we saw today. Do you remember that security guard, for example?”
Nora and William sit down and work together to write reports. Nora makes initial notes about all the strange things they noticed: the impatient security guard, the curator who talked about statues at auction, and the doctoral student who said he once saw a statue up close.
William highlights the information in colors to make it easier for the police to read, and organizes their reports in alphabetical order based on the suspects’ last names. Nora closes her eyes and tries to remember anything else that might be useful.
“There is something that still bothers me,” she says.
“But this is everything strange,” William says. “The guard acted strangely when we entered, the curator made some strange comments during the tour, and after his presentation, Ian seemed to have some kind of a secret.”

3

“He didn’t seem very surprised about the details of the trackers on the museum pieces, either,” Nora says. “However, he is an expert on museum collections...”
Detective Solares, the lead police investigator, comes over to speak to Nora and William.
“We checked out the people you reported to us. It turns out the security guard’s daughter is getting married today, so he was waiting for his shift to end to go home and put on his tuxedo before the ceremony. We also checked into the museum curator, but she was in a meeting when the alarm went off. As for the doctoral student, he was at a presentation and never left the room.” Nora, William, and Detective Solares look at each other.
“Now what? Who do you think did this?” William asks, putting down his green highlighter.
Nora cannot stop feeling that there is still some detail she is forgetting. “Think, William! We are missing something,” she says.
“No,” William replies. “I have carefully thought about every detail of our visit to the museum. We did not speak to anyone else at all.”
“That’s it!” Nora suddenly shouts. Now she remembers what is bothering her. The missing detail! Of course William cannot help her because she noticed something he didn’t! She quickly thinks of how to explain what she knows to Detective Solares without telling William about her special abilities.
“Do you remember that there was a newspaper reporter taking photographs of the entrance as we left the museum?” she asks. “Detective, we saw someone very suspicious at the door of the museum checking out the security system and taking photographs of the cameras and the entrance,” Nora explains quickly.
“Well, can you describe him? Do you know his name?” the detective asks, interested in this new clue. He looks at William, expecting a very detailed and organized response.
“Well...” William looks at Nora. “I didn’t really see him...” William looks a bit embarrassed. “Um, I will keep thinking. Right now I need a cup of coffee. Does anyone else want one? I will be right back...”
As Nora watches him walk away, she is glad of her opportunity. She could never explain in front of William that she heard the reporter’s name and that he was receiving a special pass to photograph the exact exhibit where the statue was stolen from. After all, he saw her picking up her notebook ten meters away from the door of the museum! Only her super hearing ability would let her know all that!
Nora quickly explains all the information she has to the detective. His team immediately phones all the nearby hotels and notifies the airport not to allow the reporter John Roland to travel.
“We’ve got him!” one of the policemen shouts, hanging up the phone. “The Royal Crown Hotel, just three blocks away. The front desk says he is checking out right now! They are making an excuse about calling a taxi to delay him until we arrive.”
The police rush to the hotel and find John Roland with his bags in the lobby. They arrived just in the nick of time! A quick search of his briefcase reveals the statue, carefully wrapped in cloth. The reporter was obviously planning to leave the city and sell the statue somewhere else in the world.
Nora stands on the sidewalk outside and watches the police arrest the reporter and prepare to walk him back to the police station. William rushes toward her with two paper cups of coffee. “What happened? How did they find that man so quickly? Now that I see him, I recognize him from outside the museum...”
Nora smiles. “Oh, the police are very good at their job.” The head detective smiles at her and waves. He is grateful for all her help! But Nora is glad that he does not say anything. William is too smart not to realize that she has some strange abilities if he gets too much information... “They are excellent detectives,” she says, accepting the cup of coffee William hands her.
“You know, sometimes I think you want to be a detective,” William says, taking a sip of his hot coffee. “You always manage to get involved in investigating these bizarre crimes that occur around us, but you still haven’t learned to properly cite your sources in a research article. Oh, speaking of which, have you finished your thesis chapter yet?”
Nora sighs deeply. “Let’s go over your presentation notes one more time,” she says, taking William’s arm as they walk back toward their hotel among the police car lights.