Hello, I Am Detective Pearl Moon

Piece Together the Past Alone. No One is Trustworthy

Summary

Pearl tries to figure things out before V-day dinner.

Tuesday, February 14

Pearl's Captain ordered that she stay away from the station until 1400, she'd be otherwise fired. Not wanting to lose her job, Pearl obeyed.

It was a dreary day, sleet poured out of the sky. While Pearl didn't want to go out, Captain said nothing about working on the case from home. She had taken her laptop out and accessed the online case file. Opening the section for photos Pearl, opened the first photo of the first book.

Then she noticed that it wasn't in English. Pearl didn't know what language to compare it to but figured that if some normal guy could write in it, the library had a dictionary between the two.

So Pearl put her coat on, grabbed her bag (put her laptop and library card in it), got an umbrella, and left the apartment, alone. She ran to the bus stop and huddled there, waiting. The bus was late and the ride to the library was slow. Pearl once again ran through the sleet into the library doors.

It was quiet in the brick-and-wood building. Few people were around, it was too bad of weather to go out.

Pearl walked through the aisles to where the dictionaries were. English to Spanish, Spanish to French, Enderian to English, and so on. As she went by the languages symbolized by their alphabet (not the English equivalent), she kept out a photo she had taken of the book's words. None matched.

"Um, hello?" Pearl walked over to a librarian putting books back on shelves.

"Hello," the librarian smiled. "Do you need help finding something?"

"Yes, I do. Do you know if you have a dictionary with this language?" Pearl showed the librarian the photo. "I don't know its name."

"Hmmm. We don't have a dictionary, but I know there's a children's book with a translation to that language and English. We're, uh, not really allowed to give it out. Sensitivity warning, or something."

"What are the qualifications for checking it out?" Pearl didn't have her badge on her, but a drivers license and her station log-in would suffice.

The librarian thought for a moment. "Well...I'd have to ask my manager. Some sort of proof that you needed king the book is true. Do you have a qualification?"

"An indirect one," she shrugged. "I'm a detective. I can show you my license and station profile, if you want." The librarian nodded so Pearl pulled out her phone and wallet.

The librarian nodded upon seeing the license and profile. "Alright. Come with me to the storage room, I'll get the books. You'll have to translate them yourself, and I don't know if the grammar works the same." The librarian stood up and led Pearl upstairs and to a room in the back of the library.

Once Pearl had her hands on two, small books, she smiled and thanked the librarian. The librarian went back downstairs and Pearl found herself an isolated spot on the second floor.

Taking out her computer, she got to work. Pearl pulled up a Google Document and started to try and translate the book.

As she worked, she found that the grammar seemed to be the same, as all the sentences started to flow. Work was slow, having to look up and down, searching for letters, and then typing them into her computer. It eventually sped up as Pearl started to recognize certain, common letters.

The books from Hermitcraft are short, so Pearl soon gets to the one from Third Life. When she noticed that it was in English, Pearl was just going to skip it. But the last page was in this odd language. And obscured by photos. They were facing the other direction, so Pearl couldn't see what they were.