The Case That Time Forgot by Tracy Barrett Read Free Book Online Page B

and it’s called Cleopatra’s Needle. Get it? It’s a needle without an eye.”
    â€œWow!” Xander exclaimed.
    â€œIt was in London when the amulet was stolen, and it was something that people would know about. The riddle must be from Sherlock’s time and not a translation of an Egyptian saying or anything, because the Egyptians didn’t call the obelisk Cleopatra’s Needle.”
    â€œThat means it’s a clue about where the amulet is. It
must
be something that Amin wrote and left for his descendants to find!”
    As soon as they got home, Xena checked out the guide’s information. “Listen to this, Xan,” she said breathlessly. “There’s another obelisk in Paris—that’s across the Channel, not across the sea.
But
there’s a third obelisk in New York, and it’s also called Cleopatra’s Needle. That must be the ‘sister across the sea’!”
    â€œNow we’re getting somewhere!” Xander said, but then his face fell. “Are we supposed to go to New York? How can we do that?”
    â€œLet’s look at the riddle again.”
    They went into Xander’s room and pulled the fragile piece of paper out of its envelope. Xander read:
    â€œI am a needle but cannot sew.
    I have no eye and cannot see.
    I face my sister across the sea,
    and toward my sister you must go.”
    â€œAha!” Xena said. “We’re supposed to go
toward
the other obelisk, not all the way
to
it. And look—the writing under it says ‘five hundred yards’! So we’re supposed to start off at the Cleopatra’s Needle in London and go five hundred yards in the direction of New York, which is west!”
    Xander pulled his map out of his pocket. He figured out roughly five hundred yards due west from the Egyptian monument. The spot was in a jumble of buildings, and it was hard to tell exactly which one was meant. “Anyway,” he said, “New York isn’t exactly west from London. It’s south too.”
    â€œBut if we get a globe and draw a line between London and New York, it won’t be accurate enough to tell us what’s five hundred yards away!” This sounded like one of those impossible word problems in math:
If London is X miles north and Y miles east of New York, what will be the angle of the line that you draw between the two cities, relative to the equator, and what will you find five hundred yards along that line?
Xena was good at math, except for word problems. They mixed two different things—math and language—and her orderly mind had a hard time with that.
    Xander smiled in the infuriating way thatmeant he had figured something out ahead of her. “Be right back.” He disappeared into the living room, and she heard him rummaging around in the gadget box. He came back wearing the GPS watch that their mother had said was too small to be useful.
    â€œLondon. Cleopatra’s Needle,” Xander said into the watch. They heard a few beeps. “New York. Cleopatra’s Needle.” More beeps. “Connect.” Then, “Five hundred yards. Enlarge. Aha!” He showed Xena the small screen where a tiny red dot blinked on the map of London. “That’s the spot!”
    She squinted at it. “Okay! Let’s go!”
    They were on their way out the door when their father appeared from the kitchen. “Whoa! Where do you two think you’re going?”
    â€œOut, Dad.” Xena was impatient. “We’re working on a case, and we just got an important clue about—”
    â€œHave you finished your homework?”
    Xena sighed in exasperation. “Not all of it.”
    Actually, she hadn’t even started it.
    â€œIt’s okay,” Xander said. “I’ll go. It’s just a few Tube stops away.”
    â€œNo, you won’t,” their father said. “Not by yourself on the Underground. Besides, it’s