The Lost Mummy

It was another Monday. Having a job, I naturally despised Mondays because it meant the start of a week’s worth of work. They jerk you right out of the weekends and slam you into the weekdays. Plus, it was 8 A.M. and I had just woken up, so my hair looked like a brown porcupine. My dark brown eyes had trouble adjusting to the bright light that lit my study, and my tall figure cast a long shadow against the wall. My shady study room consisted of several overflowing filing cabinets to the left, a slowly revolving ceiling fan, a large mahogany desk in the center, some broken windows, and a torn couch to right. The desk was very important to me for it held my cracked pencil holder, my crooked name tag, and my calendar for scheduled appointments.
As I re-adjusted my crooked name tag, the door knocked and in came Charlie, the local police officer. He was six feet, one hundred-fifty lbs, and thirty-five years old. I studied his muscle bound limbs that showed scars from previous investigations before looking at his face. He had brown matted hair and dark eyes which showed years of experience and stress. His police uniform was worn and tattered, and the pouches holding his equipment were all losing their leather-bound outline. His twiddled his thumbs as he addressed me.
“Hello detective,” said Charlie. “I have just visited a scene of crime, and I thought you might have wanted to chip in the action. Here are the facts: Yesterday night at the museum, the day worker left at 9 P.M. He said that he had been waiting for the night worker for a whole hour, yet he never appeared. The day worker’s shift ends at 8 P.M., and according to the day worker, the night worker should have come 30 minutes before the end of his shift. However, from the footage, there was no sign of the night worker appearing for his job. This morning at 5 A.M., the museum owner strolled through the museum until he came by one of the main attractions, a mummy. They had excavated this mummy from an uncharted pyramid and put it in display for the public to see. You will be shocked to know that the mummy was gone! The owner himself said he had nearly fainted at the empty case. Then he called the police in and told us all he had seen. When we went through the footage tape, everything was fine until the screen hit 6 P. M and 4 A.M. For both times, the screen turned to static and stayed like that until 30 minutes later. The first time, the day worker went to use the bathroom but the second time was exactly an hour before the owner would enter the museum. Will you help?”
I listened to the facts very carefully, and had some questions in mind. Before I even began to ask the first, the officer said,
“I think it will be easier to come with us. To the museum!” After a brief ride inside of Charlie’s BMW, we reached the museum and entered through the front door. The lobby was amazing. The floor was completely marble and the ceiling was shaped like a dome. The whole lobby was shaped like a cylinder, and the walls were painted a light beige color. Two stairs at the sides combined into one at the middle of the cylinder’s far side and formed a massive arch which lead into some galleries of art and artifacts. In the middle of the stairs, there was a large door which clearly stated “EMPLOYEES ONLY”
A man flew out of the ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ door, dashed down the stairs, and grasped my hands. He was a middle aged man with a clean shaved beard and mustache. His hair was a golden brown color, and his eyes were a strange blue. At most, he was probably 5’ 4” and 200 lbs, but I wasn’t here to criticize his BMI ratio.
“Please Mr. Detective, my name is Mr. Jaken my mummy is gone!” He wailed.
“You mean your mom? Because I came here to investigate a missing artifact.” I joked.
He glared at me before saying, “I see that you are also a comedian, but please refrain from telling jokes and follow me.”
The officer and I followed the trembling man into another room that was similar to the lobby, except this contained artifacts placed in cases. He came next to one large case in the center of the room. It was a very large stone coffin with a glass case on top. I peered inside to see… nothing. No mummy at all. However, there was some bandages to show that there really was a mummy in here.
“May I take the case off?” I asked.
“If it helps in your case, please do so!” Mr. Jaken replied with eagerness. I slowly and gently took the case off and set it down on the floor. Then I traced my finger on the edges to find that it left a brown residue from… well something. I also sniffed my finger to smell a very dusty and old smell. Then I took out a napkin and wiped the traces of my finger and carefully examined the inside. It was a regular stone coffin that was carved out by workers using metal tools. The craftsmanship was beautiful as the sides were perfectly smooth. Inside, I could only see leftover bandages and dust.
When I finished, I lifted my head to see something out of the corner of my eye, a recent trail of light brown. I kept my mind on the trail as I declared that I needed to use the restroom. I also told them to wait in the lobby as I would want to review the footage tape with them. I watched them leave before rushing into action. I went to the start of the trail and I picked out one of the bandages. I placed the bandage directly on the trail, and I noticed a perfect fit between the two. I threw the bandage back in the coffin and pulled out my magnifying glass, as all detectives need them, and followed the trail excitingly.
Soon, the trail itself turned into footsteps, and I deduced that the ‘mummy’ was walking. The trail must have been left from a bandage that was sticking out, but how did the mummy leave no footsteps before? I examined the room between the coffin and the footsteps, and sure enough, there were some slippers at a corner in the room, which had brown residue inside. However, I realized that the mummy must have been alive in order to move unless it was a robot or a… human! I was definitely on the trail of something. However, I needed to know who was under the bandages and why that person would do that. As I followed the footsteps, I just noticed the door in front of me before I stopped myself from crashing into it. It was another EMPLOYEES ONLY door, but since I had a closer view of the door, I could see that it also required a card key to go in. My mind raced like a bullet as I formulated a plan to go in. Soon, I had returned to the officer and Mr. Jaken at the lobby.
“What took you so long?” Mr. Jaken exclaimed impatiently.
“I had a nasty stomach ache,” I replied with a smile.
“Never mind that, would you like to review the footage?” He asked tartly. I replied with a yes and we climbed up the left staircase to the employees room. Mr. Jaken retrieved a card key from his pocket and placed it onto a reader. The reader scanned the key and let us in, dropping the key back into Mr. Jaken’s hand. We walked directly towards several monitors which were positioned in different places in the mummy room. I could barely hear the audio and Mr. Jaken talking as I aspired myself into retrieving his card key for my uses. I just managed to place it in my pocket when he turned and said,
“Well?”
“It was very enlightening,” I said, “now if you’ll excuse me I think the stomach ache is coming back.” I exited the door and almost flew down the stairs in my excitement. I ran back to the door and insert the key. The door clicked open and dropped the key back into my hand. I got out my magnifying glass again and began to follow the footsteps. When I noticed another pair of footsteps, they were barely visible, but they looked familiar. I shook my head and continued following the original trail.
Suddenly, both trails stopped in front of one locker named: “Nick Haulson, the day worker”. I examined the locker door before noticing the lock to be broken, as if someone purposely hit it with something hard. I carefully opened the door, and noticed that the locker was empty, as some things were taken! I looked more carefully at the second pair of footsteps and the whole case clicked together like a puzzle in my mind as I realized who the second pair of footsteps belonged to.
Several minutes later as I met them back at the lobby. My watch chimed 12 P.M. as I shook hands with both of them.
“Why do you shake our hands?” Cried Mr. Jaken. “Are you leaving us?”
“Yes actually, since the case is solved,” I calmly said as I put handcuffs onto Mr. Jaken. His face actually turned whiter than snow, and I would have given up a million dollars to take that picture and post it on FaceBook. His face turned several shades darker and said shakily,
“Wha-a-at i-s-s the meaning of this?!” He demanded.
“I already told you, the case is solved,” Then I explained the steps I took. Mr. Jaken’s face turned from white to red, but the officer admiringly said,
“Ahh! Marvelous! So you deduced that…”
“Since the second pair of footsteps looked familiar, I realized that they came from Mr. Jaken and the first set was the night worker. This was a thought out robbery to steal poor Nick Haulson’s stuff, but it wasn’t good enough for me!” I replied with a happiness. Later that day, I received a letter from Nick that thanked me for what I did. However, the museum was closed, so Nick also asked to be my assistant. I gladly accepted his offer as I ate dinner and prepared to sleep.