My Brother From Another Universe

14: Mysterious Stranger

It's been several days since the burglar broke into my room and after declaring my room a crime scene and conducting series of investigations and interrogations, the cops were still not able to find him. They put up wanted posters of him with the picture Austin took but still no luck. And the worst part is that there are no clues that could even give us a lead and I feel like the cops are not even trying enough. It seems as though all hopes of finding my invention are lost.

I do not even have the inspiration to create another invention, I would just simply use one of my old inventions and see how far I can get in the contest. It's worth the try. Speaking of trying, I have been trying to get over the loss of my ITM-01 which, quite frankly, is way more difficult than it sounds.

And just when I thought there is no way of tracing the culprit, Austin pulls me and Travis into the janitor's closet to show us the wallet of the burglar she picked up before the cops got to my room. The wallet must have fallen when the burglar was struggling with Travis or with dad. Austin knew the cops wouldn't do much with it seeing as they have been nonchalant concerning the case, so she reckoned that it would be better if we had the wallet so we could find the burglar ourselves. She hasn't even opened it to find out what's in it, she wanted us to uncover it together.

"Good thinking," Travis says.

"Thanks."

"If you had it this whole time why didn't you say anything sooner?" I ask.

"I wasn't sure if it was a good idea for us to withhold clues from the cops, but now, I am more sure than ever because they have not found a single lead since they started investigating this case. It's almost as if they don't care, which I am sure they don't. I mean, come on, this is a theft case, not a murder case. Why is it taking them so long?"

"You're right."

Austin flips her hair. "Duh."

"The burglar must be pretty mad at himself after realizing he dropped his wallet," Travis says.

We check the contents of the wallet and find a bubblegum wrap, some cash, a check of ten thousand dollars and a student ID belonging to Alasdair Thomas from physics class??

"This isn't the burglar," Travis points out.

"That's Alasdair," I say.

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he's in my physics class, and he's one of the two students who applied for Mr. Trainor's mentoring and coaching program."

"That means he's trying to sabotage you by stealing your invention. Such a jerk!" Austin scoffs.

"Then why is his wallet with the burglar? It's possible the burglar stole it, it's what he does."

"It's also possible he has some sort of link with the burglar."

"Let's not jump to conclusions. All we need to do is watch this Alasdair guy for any suspicious activities and for any more clues," Travis suggests.

"Also, what's this check of ten thousand dollars doing in his wallet?" Austin asks.

"Yeah, that's kinda suspicious. We should find out who gave him this check, for what reason and how this wallet ended up with the burglar," I say.

"He's probably involved in some shady deal, they always offer a shit load of money for shady deals."

"Come on, we can't just assume that. What if his dad gave him that check as a reward for being a good son?" Austin and I give Travis a 'what the hell' look for asking such a dumb question.

"Or maybe not," he adds.

"I can join Mr. Trainor's program so I can keep a closer eye on Alasdair cause we only have physics class like twice a week," I say.