The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [11]
problem anymore. It’s mine, too.
Someone is now using my ants, to
persecute her. I can’t afford to
have my research project jeopardized.
“I called Chief Reynolds this morning,” the scientist went on, “and told him about yesterday’s incident with the ants. I also told him that Letitia had seen the scarecrow several times. The chief didn’t take any of it seriously. He thinks it amounts to nothing more than a neighborhood kid playing pranks on us. Said it was a perfect case for you boys to take on.”
“And what do you think?” asked Jupiter. “Could some kid be playing a prank?”
“There are no kids in this neighborhood,” said Woolley. “The Radford house and the Mosby Museum are the only homes within a couple of miles. You’ve met everyone who lives in the Radford house. Over at the Mosby place there’s Gerhart Malz, who is the curator, and a couple of guards who double as maintenance men and who go home every night at five. Malz lives at the museum, but he’s not a prankish type.”
“I see,” said Jupe. “Very well. If you wish to have The Three Investigators take you as a client, perhaps you had better begin at the beginning and tell us as much as you know about the case. The solution to the identity of the scarecrow may be simple.
It may only take an outsider—one who isn’t emotionally involved—to figure it out.”
Bob took a notebook and a pen out of his pocket and prepared to take notes.
“Well, I’m the one responsible for the scarecrow,” said Woolley. “I mean the one out there on the fence. I made him with old clothes that Mrs. Burroughs found in the Radford attic. I also planted the cornfield, just to make sure the ants wouldn’t run out of food. You have no idea how many insects that cornfield attracts.
“The ants are what brought me here, as you know. You could say they’re my only interest. I don’t spend much time at the big house, so I haven’t become greatly involved with the lives of the people there. In addition to the grant that Chester Radford arranged, I have the use of this barn as a lab, and I am the non-paying tenant in a guest house here on the grounds.”
“Guest house?” said Jupe. “Where is that?”
“It’s a small cottage some distance behind the big house,” said Woolley. “Further over on the hill. You wouldn’t have noticed it yesterday. There’s a stand of oak trees between it and the Radford mansion.”
“You have a nice arrangement,” said Jupe. “I can understand why you wouldn’t want to leave here.”
“I certainly wouldn’t,” said Woolley. “I’m on a leave of absence from my faculty post at U.C.L.A., and it would be very awkward if I had to stop my work here. And I don’t want to stop. Everything was going so well — until Letitia came home.”
Bob looked up from his notes. “She was away when you first began your work here?” he asked.
“Yes, she was,” said Woolley. “I came up in May and Letitia showed up in June.
You probably don’t know about Letitia, but she’s a real jet-setter. She spends most of her time in Europe. But when she has man trouble, she runs home.”
“When she has what?” said Pete.
Woolley smiled. “She’s famous for her romances. She’s been engaged many times, but she never gets married. The engagement is always broken. Something always goes wrong. Then Letitia comes home to the Santa Monica Mountains to rest and mend her broken heart. Right now she’s trying to forget some Hungarian Count.
“Letitia doesn’t like insects, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. So she wasn’t happy when she found me on the property studying ants. And when she began to see the scarecrow, she connected it with me, no doubt because I made the one on the fence.”
“Has she seen it often?” asked Jupiter.
“Five times, I think. It drives her frantic. Once it flung some insects at her, and Mrs. Chumley thought she would lose her mind. Of course, no one believed that she was really seeing a scarecrow. Mrs. Chumley insisted that she start seeing a psychiatrist in Beverly Hills. But since the scarecrow is real, the doctor isn’t much help.”
“Tell me about Mrs. Chumley,” said Jupe. “She acts like —”
“Like the real lady of the house,