Free Trueman Bradley - Aspie Detective by Alexei Maxim Russell

scared and not want to give you information. That’s why she didn’t want to give us Eddie’s apartment number. She got scared when you mentioned a murder. Before that, she thought we were just normal customers, so she wasn’t scared to give us information.”
    “I didn’t know that,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s my fault,” she said. “I’m supposed to be teaching you detective work, so I’m responsible for your mistakes.”
    She grabbed my shoulders.
    “But, Trueman,” she said, “remember, from now on, our investigation is secret. That’s your first detective lesson from me. Rule number one. Keep the investigation secret.”
    “Even from you?” I asked.
    “Well, no,” she said. “Not from other detectives.”
    “Should I tell Malcolm?” I asked. “He’s a detective.”
    “We’ll tell him after we solve the case,” she said.
    She winked at me. I was certain my granddad told me that women wink at men when they are romantically attracted. I was happy and excited to learn Nora was in love with me. I lifted my hand and touched her hair. It was thick and shiny and smelled like lilacs. I had always wanted to touch her hair.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    She pushed my hand away. She frowned and seemed to want to get away from me. I couldn’t understand her reaction.
    “Why did you do that?” she asked.
    “I thought you wanted me to,” I said.
    I could recognize confusion on her face.
    “I didn’t ask you to touch my hair,” she said.
    We walked together, towards the apartment block. She had always walked close to me. But now she walked further from me. I realized she might be scared that I would touch her again.
    She had winked at me, so she must have been in love with me. But now I had done something to make her afraid to be near me. I thought I must have done something wrong because of my difficulty understanding the subtleties of social rules. I felt frustrated and angry at myself for not understanding how to behave with other people and for losing the love of Nora.
    “I hate this!” I said. “I can’t do anything right!”
    I sat on the sidewalk and hid my face behind my hands. Nora had walked to the front of the apartment and was looking at the intercom beside the door.
    “What?” she asked. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
    “Nothing’s wrong,” I said.
    That wasn’t true, but I was so confused and frustrated that I didn’t want to discuss the problem. I wanted to avoid her questions, fearing I might say something else to upset her.
    “Well, in that case,” said Nora, “come on and help me, Trueman. We have to find out where Eddie, the carpenter, lives. Now, we know he lives on the second floor because we saw him smoking out of a second floor window. So the apartment number probably starts with a two.”
    She waved her finger in front of the intercom buttons.
    “Come on, Trueman,” she said. “You’re the smart one here. Can you help me and guess which apartment he lives in?”
    I thought about it. I couldn’t think of anything to help me determine which apartment the carpenter lived in. I hid my face behind my hands. She had already stopped loving me for some reason I didn’t understand. If she knew I had no answer, she might start hating me. I didn’t want to answer her.
    “Ah, nuts!” she said.
    “Nuts?” I asked. “Where?”
    “No!” she said. “I don’t mean real nuts. Sorry, that’s an expression. ‘Ah, nuts!’ means I’m unhappy about something. I’m unhappy because this intercom doesn’t even work. It’s broken. How can we talk to Eddie if we can’t call his apartment?”
    “Can we go inside the apartment?” I asked. “We already know he lives in the front left apartment of the second floor.”
    “The front door of the building is locked,” she said.
    “Oh,” I said.
    I had given another wrong answer. I sighed.
    “Trueman?” she asked. “I need your help. Do you have any ideas how to get into the