The Adventure of the Eccentric Scientist, a mystery in scarlet city short story.

Written by Shyam Nathan. All names, descriptions, characters and locations are intellectual property of Shyam K Nathan and are copyright 2009 Shyam K Nathan. All rights are reserved, and cannot be duplicated, re-distributed or used in any form without the expressed consent of Shyam K Nathan. 

It was very late one hot summer evening in Scarlet City, with the humidity making it seem all the hotter, when a knock on the door brings a case for our two enterprising, handsome and dashing heroes, Nathan Shome and his friend and associate, Slick Silver.

On this night, Inspector Lester of the Scarlet City police force walks up the steps of the Baker Street Apartments, as he has many a time and oft before, and knocks on the familiar 221B of our two protagonists. This case, the singular affair of the eccentric scientist, takes place very early in Nathan and Slick's careers, and so, the Scarlet City police force still don't completely trust the dynamic duo, and they have earned none of the fame of their later years. In these early years, Inspector Lester only gives Nathan and Slick the most confounding of conundrums.

"Ah, dear Lester" Nathan says, as he greets the official police inspector "come in, come in, the air condition of our tiny adobe is a formidable foe indeed for the heat and the humidity. What brings you by our seldom beaten path?"

"A case, if you two are interested" Lester replied, with a slight smile.

"We always are" Slick answered Lester, as he motioned the Inspector into an easy chair on the far side of the room "what are the facts of the case?"

"That I can say in a few words" Lester replied "for you've surely heard something about it in the papers, it’s this dreadful bramfield business, or, as the media has dubbed it, the case of the eccentric scientist."

"I think I did read a short account of it the other day" Nathan said "but, a fresh review of the facts never has hurt us in our efforts yet. Let’s hear about it."

"Briefly then" Lester replied "here is what happened. James Chester Bramfield, in addition to being a first rate inventor and scientist, was also one of Scarlet City's most eccentric individuals. He, for example, insisted on eating his dinner every evening dressed in a bath robe, and carrying a hunting crop. There are many tales of his repeated verbal abuses of his staff, both at the local university, and amongst his domestic servants. However, his work was first rate, so much so that he won several prestigious awards in his area of expertise, particle physics, despite his surly personality. Late on the evening of the 21st of this month, today being the 25th, the professor went into his personal lab at his home. He was in unusually good spirits, and was seen that evening by both his personal attendant, and his son. He disappeared into his lab to work on an experiment that had, according to his colleagues at the university, been consuming his time for the previous four months. Very early the next morning, that is, the morning of the 22nd, at around 1:30 AM, the professor's personal attendant noticed that the professor was not in his bed. The attendant went to the lab, and when the professor was not there either, sounded the alarm. A search was made of the house, and, six hours later, at 8 AM, the police were brought in. A missing persons report has been filed, and, as far as we know, no one else has seen professor Bramfield in the last four days."

"So, it’s a missing person’s case?" Nathan asked.

"Yes" Lester answered "and one in which, so far, we have no real clues. Professor Bramfield had his fair share of enemies, but none who would want him dead. Furthermore, there does not seem to be anything particularly important about the time, or the place where he disappeared from, and no one he knows can recall anything unusual about the professor's conduct before he disappeared, or at least, anything that was more unusual than what was his normal behavior. The case, my friends, seems to be utterly featureless, and, other than the conduct of the person involved, one of the most unremarkable cases I have ever handled."

"Every case" Nathan pointed out "has its features of interest, if one looks hard enough to find them."

"Got anymore wisdom that you found in that fortune cookie that you had for lunch that you'd like to share?" Slick asked.

"Will you two take this case?" Lester asked "I've looked into it for three days now, and I can't make heads nor tails of it."

"Of course" Slick responded "you can count on us."

The next morning saw Nathan and Slick rise with the lark (that means, get out of bed very early) to look into the affairs of the eccentric professor. They first tried looking over the missing man's financial transactions, to see if there were any irregularities that might serve as a motive for his disappearance. The early afternoon found them coming to the inevitable conclusion: all the professor's financials were in order; whatever the reason for his vanishing, it would seem money was not a part of it.

The late afternoon found Nathan and Slick questioning the professor's colleges at the university, and his family and staff at home. The professor was not amorous by nature, and there was no tell-tale clue of a woman being involved in his disappearance. It wasn't until Nathan and Slick examined the professor's lab that they began to make head-way in the case.

The professor's home lab was one of the most idiosyncratic places that our duo had stumbled upon in their early careers. It had all manner of odd devices, a spiral tube structure that glowed amber-red in one corner, a beaker with a clear green liquid in another, a long cylindrical metal tube that ran around the entire room, and papers, of all marks and kinds, with writing upon them, in every corner and on every table top. From the testimony of both the professor's son, and his servants, the professor spent most of his free time in this lab, and had constructed it exactly to his strange tastes. Further, these individuals had testified that nothing in the lab had been moved or removed since the professor's disappearance had been noticed.

Over the course of a long afternoon, and into a long evening, Nathan and Slick examined, minutely, every paper, and every object in the professor's lab, and managed to find one possible clue: the professor had been working on a very strange project at the time of his vanishing. All of the people in his household indicated that the professor was usually quite open about what he was working on at the moment, and that they usually didn't know because they simply didn't want to hear about it. However, in this case, the professor had not told anyone, not even the people he worked with at the university, what he was working on. His colleagues knew he had been very fully occupied with something, but no one knew what that something was.

What the nature of this project was, the duo was unable to ascertain, but what they were able to determine was that it had something to do with a massive particle physics experiment. The duo also found a soft amber colored sediment smudged along the floor of the professor’s lab. "Was this always here?" Slick asked the professor’s son, who had been kind enough to answer a few questions as the duo made their inspection of the lab.

"No" The professor’s son, a gentleman named Adam, replied "its relatively new, in fact, I cannot recall ever seeing something like that in this lab before. Do you know what it is?"

"No" Slick replied, "but from its color and feel, I would surmise that its an organic residue, not the kind of thing one would expect to find in the lab of a particle physics professor."

"Organic residue?" Nathan replied.

"That would be my guess" Slick answered "my memory of college organic chemistry is pretty vague, and a lab analysis will tell us more, but I think this amber residue is clearly an organic compound."

"Could it be the professor?" Adam asked, full of hope.

"Doubtful" Slick answered "there isn’t enough stuff here to make up the body of a full grown man, but still, it is unusual, and also represents the first real clue in the case."

Later on that evening, as Nathan and Slick were in their homes relaxing over an evening newspaper (Slick) and the evening funnies section (Nathan), a knock came at their door, and Inspector Lester entered their room.

"Hello" Nathan began "so, journey’s end in lover’s meetings, what can we do for you?"

"I have the lab results" Lester replied "and I wanted to bring this to you two personally. The amber colored residue that you found on the Professor’s floor? It has trace amounts of human blood in it. There are also other organic compounds in it, which correspond to skin, hair and human bone marrow. All of it is diluted by a chemical agent that has the boys at the lab baffled. This case was murky enough before you supplied this fresh clue."

"Perhaps" Slick answered "but I begin to dimly see a light at the end of the tunnel."

"Tunnel?" Nathan asked "what tunnel? Where?"

"What I mean is that I think there are two possibilities here" Slick replied "either the professor died, and he is dead, as I think a DNA trace of the organic compounds you found will show you that it correlates with the Professor, in a very remarkable accident, or, he was murdered in cold blood."

"Is there any way for us to tell which it is?" Nathan asked.

"Perhaps" Slick replied "but its going to be difficult. If it is murder, you’re going to have a very tough time convincing any jury. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but we must be careful from this point on…."

"Do you have any idea who it might be?" Lester asked.

"If you mean do I have a suspect, no, my dear friend, I do not" Slick answered "and, given the circumstances under which the professor left us, I think that finding a suspect might be impossible, but I think we at least owe it to the family of the professor to put their anxiety at an end. My dear friend Lester, please run a DNA analysis of the compound we found today, and, when you have confirmed that it is from the professor, inform the family that he is dead, and tell them that he died as a result of one of his experiments going very wrong."

Lester bowed his head, and, thanking our duo, left to attend to his errand.

"A moment, my friend" Slick said to Nathan, as the later indicated he would retire to bed for the evening.

"What is it?" Nathan asked.

"If the professor was murdered" Slick put in "odds are it was someone from his own immediate circle. Currently, this would be the perfect crime, but if the criminal finds that there is some risk that his or her affairs could be detected…."

"There might be danger for us?" Nathan asked, showing unusual intelligence.

"Yes" Slick answered "this could get very deadly very fast, and I’m still not convinced it wasn’t just an accident."

"That what wasn’t just an accident?" Nathan asked.

"Look at the clues we have" Slick answered "a professor of particle physics, a strange residue on the floor, strange experiments that a man who generally talks about his work says nothing about, indicating a behavior change. Adam’s hopeful reaction, and asking whether the residue could be his father, a rather singular thing to ask when nothing about the residue is known other than that it was organic….the clues begin to fit."

"Now that you mention it, Adam’s reaction was rather strange" Nathan remarked, "but I don’t think he’s a murderer."

"Nor do I" Slick replied "but still, I would say that he clearly knows more about this deadly business than he’s letting on. The next step would be to find out what it is that he knows that he’s not telling us, or the police, and why."

"That’s why you asked Lester to inform the family that the professor was dead" Nathan said "in the hopes of flushing out the truth."

"Yes" Slick said "I think it is one of the few cards that we have to play."

The next day saw Slick and Nathan back at the professor’s home, interviewing the son, Adam, and the household staff. Inspector Lester informed the household that the DNA was, indeed, a match, and that the professor was likely dead. A gasp went up from the household, and several members, most notably the personal attendant, who had first discovered the professor’s disappearance and the son, Adam, openly wept.

Afterwards, questions were asked, and Nathan, Slick and Lester did their best to answer them. After the rest of the household was dismissed, Nathan and Slick caught up with Adam.

"Wait just a moment" Slick said "a word with you."

"What is it?" Adam asked.

"We know you know more about your father’s disappearance than what you’ve told us" Nathan said.

"You can’t prove anything" Adam remarked, and then, understanding that this was a very curious thing to say, realized that the jig was up "look, there was only one other detail that I know, and when I tell you, you’ll understand why I didn’t tell the police. The experiment my father was working on, he told me what it was before he died. It was a top secret project for the US government, and it dealt with using particle physics to dis-integrate an enemy combatant’s projectile weapons."

"You think the professor might have used it on himself by accident?" Silver asked.

"No" Adam replied "because the project my father was working on required two men in order use it, one man to aim the barrel of the instrument, and a second man to fire it. I didn’t notice the residue on the floor of the lab until you mentioned it yesterday. Now that I do know, I think my father was the victim of a horrible accident."

"Why not tell the police?" Slick asked.

"Some men in black coats arrived at our home shortly after the professor’s disappearance" Adam replied "said they were working for the government, and that they wanted to keep the professor’s research secret. They told me there would be consequences if I told the police anything."

"Then why tell us?" Nathan asked.

"Because you’re unofficial, and not the police" Adam replied "please don’t tell the police anything about this. I can’t take knowing that something awful might have happened to my father and that he…."

"We understand" Slick said, not allowing Adam to finish his sentence, "and we’ll take care of it, you have our word of honor."

"Thank you" Adam replied.

After Adam left, Nathan turned to Slick, "well that was strange, my friend" Nathan remarked "and I have no idea what just happened, despite the fact that I heard the same information as you did."

"I believe Adam" Slick replied "and I think his father’s death was an accident."

"If it was an accident, then who was the second man?" Nathan asked "you heard Adam; the instrument required two men to use."

"I think that’s rather obvious" Slick replied "and I would think that even someone of your intelligence would be able to figure that one out."

"Well I can’t" Nathan said "I’ve turned the facts over and over in my head, and can’t make any sense of it."

"Who else was there when the professor died, who sounded the alarm, and who else openly wept when his death was just announced?" Slick asked.

Nathan gasped, "The personal attendant!"

"Precisely" Slick answered, "and now, my dear friend, you and I, in the interest of preserving a state secret and in not seeing an honorable servant dragged before a court of law for an honest mistake, have the unenviable task of convincing of our good friend Lester that the professor’s death was an accident."