The London Eye Mystery

Ted’s father and Kat come downstairs arm in arm. Ted figures they’ve made peace, and he feels happy. Gloria appears, her lips flat, her eyes empty, and Ted can’t read her. The men order Indian takeout, and soon everyone’s eating from steaming containers. Ted eats plenty, but the others pick at their food. He wants to tell them about his phone call to the police, but Detective Pearce told him to say nothing, lest they begin to hope and then things don’t turn out well.

Gloria lights a cigarette but doesn’t smoke it. Ted asks her why she did that. His father tries to shush him, but Gloria answers that, if Salim comes back safely, she’ll give up smoking. She then takes a big drag on the cigarette.

Gloria suddenly stands and announces that she can’t wait anymore and will search for Salim herself. She accuses her sister of thinking Salim ran away. Faith replies that maybe going to New York was too much for him. Gloria angrily heads for the front door.

A siren wails outside, and the police arrive. Ted expected them but not the siren; he puts his hands to his ears and thinks about weather.

Detective Pearce guides Gloria back inside the house and sits her down in the kitchen. The inspector announces that Ted has solved the mystery, and his solution comports with clues the police were pursuing. Everyone is stunned. Pearce adds that they haven’t found Salim but know the identity of the boy on the train. Another officer brings in a young teenager wearing a hoodie. Gloria recognizes him and cries, “You!” Ted says, “Hello, Marcus” (268).

Ted’s reasoning led him to a realization: Salim did exit the capsule but did so in disguise, which he donned while other passengers were facing out toward the souvenir-picture camera. In the photo, someone’s pink-sleeved arm was raised in the back; it was either someone waving or Salim putting on his disguise. The problem of perspective that had dogged Ted got resolved: The presumption about the sleeve’s wearer “depended on how you looked at it” (271).

Salim switched jackets with the girl in the pink jacket who had held Christy’s place in line at the Eye. He also got from her a wig and sunglasses. The “girl” was Marcus, Salim’s best friend and fellow actor from the school play The Tempest.

Many small things added up to lead Ted to his discovery. Everyone assumed, for example, that the ramp rider at the motorcycle convention was a man, but the rider turned out to be a woman. Salim shaved off his mustache so he could pretend to be a woman. Then, one final clue fell into place: Ted recalled Marcus’s surname, Flood. He also heard Christy’s boss at the motorcycle show complain about how the man always was leaving work early: “Never rains but it pours […] Just like his name” (230). The comment helped Ted realize that Christy’s last name is Flood and that Marcus and Christy are related.

Detective Pearce says Marcus is there to explain what happened. She says his explanation fits Ted’s theory, and Ted notes: “I’d never have worked it out without you, Kat” (278).

Pearce says Salim didn’t want to go to New York, and he and Marcus were planning to return to Manchester. However, Salim had a change of heart—at this, Gloria nods in relief—and Marcus returned home without him. Marcus concurs but doesn’t want to say more, so Pearce reads his statement.

Marcus suffered bullying from a kid, Jason Smart, who gave him the racist nickname “Paki-boy,” grabbed his sandwiches, and threw them on the floor. Then Salim became Marcus’s friend, and, one day, Smart opened his lunch to find maggots. The other students loved it; thereafter, Salim and Marcus were “top moshers.” The boys starred in the school play The Tempest, with Marcus playing Miranda and getting laughs for his comic rendition of the role.

When they learned that Salim was leaving for New York, Marcus wanted to die because now he knew he’d be bullied again. They planned a ruse at the London Eye: Marcus would wear his Miranda costume and switch clothes with Salim, and both would return to Manchester, where Salim would hide out until his father’s plane left for New York. At that point, Salim’s father would have to take him in, and they could return to being the coolest kids in school.

Marcus convinced his big brother, Christy, to help them pull off what Christy thought was a prank. Christy laughed at Marcus’s costume but played his part well, and everything went according to plan. During the ride, though, Salim looked toward the sun and said he was looking at Manhattan. He expressed doubts about his plan but then laughed it off, wore the costume (including a pink jacket that Marcus swiped from his sister), and sashayed off the ride with Marcus. Ted and Kat looked “freaked-out,” and Salim’s mother stared right at him without recognizing him.

Salim bought a cheap camera and took pictures of Marcus. The two ate lunch, then visited a park where a juggler, a magician, and a clown performed. Salim spent the last of his money on a tip for the entertainers. At the train station, he said he can’t return to Manchester with Marcus. His mother is difficult, but she’s “the only mum I’ve got” (287), and he likes Ted and Kat and doesn’t want them in trouble or his father feeling heartbroken.

Back home, Marcus found Salim’s phone in the pink jacket. The next day, the police arrived with questions, but Marcus stuck to his story. Worried about Salim, Marcus used his friend’s forgotten phone to call Gloria, but he got scared and hung up. Later, Christy called him and warned that Marcus better clear things up with the police because Christy didn’t want trouble.

The police called again, saying Ted figured out Marcus and Salim’s scheme, so Marcus confessed all. The only remaining problem is that he hasn’t seen Salim since boarding the train for Manchester.

Just as Marcus is leaving with the police for the ride home to Manchester, Gloria tells him none of this is his fault, and he hands her Salim’s phone. Detective Pearce tells Gloria the police will begin a city-wide search. Pearce leaves, and Gloria cries.

At bedtime, Ted and Kat can’t sleep. Ted wonders if Marcus is lying and Salim is still running away, but Kat says Marcus was telling the truth. Ted thought Salim wasn’t the person who waved at them when boarding the capsule, but Kat could see that it was him. In the same way, she can tell that Marcus is being honest. If so, says Ted, then someone, or something, has “deflected him off course” like the Coriolis force (299).

They try to retrace Salim’s steps. At the train station after Marcus left, he’d have wanted to call Gloria, but his phone was in the pink jacket with Marcus. He couldn’t have used a public phone because he was out of cash. He would have used his travel card on the Tube, returned to the station nearest the Sparks’ house, and walked past the public-housing Barracks. Yet he didn’t appear at their house.

Ted recalls Marcus’s description of Salim in the capsule staring into the sun. If Salim were looking south, he’d have seen those high-rises. Salim likes tall buildings; he had a camera; he was in no hurry to get scolded by Gloria. He must have decided to visit the Barracks, but then their father locked up the place. Thus, Salim is trapped inside the Barracks. The building is scheduled for demolition the next day.

Kat raises the alarm, and within minutes, the entire family is running down the street through the pouring rain, headed for the Barracks at the public housing developments. After crossing muddy grass to the front entrance, Ben unlocks it with shaking hands and finds the utilities room, switching on the building lights.

They hurry up the stairways, calling out to Salim. Heading for the top floor, Kat runs up the entire set of stairs, followed by Ted, and they begin trying doors. One is ajar, but something scurries out through it, and Kat decides to wait for their father. Ben arrives, panting, and leads the way through the open door. Lying in a corner is a shivering Salim. Gloria arrives, drops down, and hugs him: “Oh, Salim. My love, my love” (308).

They wrap Salim in coats. The rain stops, the moon comes out, and they all go home.

Salim says he tried every exit but was completely locked in. He shouted but no one heard him. Though he found water in a toilet tank, there was no food, and he didn’t eat for three days. The family doctor arrives and checks Salim, who is strong but in shock. The doctor prescribes soup and sleep. Ben calls the police and says Salim has been found.

The next morning, Salim talks for some hours with his parents and decides to give New York a six-month trial. Rashid thanks everyone, promises to bring Salim to visit during vacations, and departs.

Kat and Ted describe how they figured everything out. At the end, Kat says, “I just have to face it. My weirdo brother’s a genius” (312). Salim says Ted is a “neek,” a nerd-geek, but in Ted’s case it’s really short for “unique.” Everyone laughs, including Ted, who has learned to laugh when others do so.

Salim says that, at night, the Barracks teemed with eerie sounds, many of them made by animals. Once, something brushed against his cheek and he screamed. By day, though, he took photos of the city as rain and sunshine moved across it.

Detective Pearce arrives, and Kat fills her in. Pearce glances at Ted and says, “Some brain”; then she looks at Kat and says, “Some action” (314). She adds that the two kids have the makings of great detectives. Kat, though, says she’s leaning toward the fashion industry.

They call Ben and ask how Salim could have gotten into the Barracks without being seen. Ben says he must have been locking up the building just as Salim entered it, but when he was done, his guard was still standing at the gate. The police question the guard, who admits that he darted over to a store for some cigarettes and was temporarily away from his post. Ben fires him.

At the airport, the Sparks say goodbye to Salim and Gloria. Salim shakes hands with Ted, calls him “Mr. Unique,” and adds, “See you in New York” (318). Ted puts up with Gloria’s overbearing hug. She hands him her pack of cigarettes and lighter: “I don’t need them any more” (318). As they leave, Salim looks back at Ted and winks. Ted scrunches up an eyeball in return.

Back home, Ted’s father announces that Gloria wants to reward him and Kat for their help. Ted asks for a weather watch that has a compass and barometer. Kat wants a motor scooter, but Faith draws the line, and Kat settles for having her hair done at a fancy salon.

Kat returns from the salon in an elaborate haircut with lots of color streaks. Her father and father stare in horror but say nothing. Ted thinks she looks like a sheepdog, but he tells her, “It’s a real cool haircut” (322). It’s his third-ever lie, so he writes it down in a new list he’s keeping called “My Lies.”

The Barracks gets demolished, leaving a gap in the skyline through which, on walks, Ted can see the London Eye. It’s a perpetual reminder of Salim: “It’s as if the moment he boarded, 11.32 a.m., 24 May, floats on in a time warp somewhere in my brain” (324).