The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [26]
him. Then he hit and rolled
some more and the truck was
gone, crashing and lurching
down the grade. Then Pete
was off the road and tumbling
down an incline into a ditch.
His head struck something
hard, and the soft blue-green
of the evening sky became a huge, many-coloured light in his head. Pete lay still, and for a little while he knew nothing more.
Chapter 13
Jupiter Finds Trouble
THE MOON WAS coming up as Jupiter made his fourth slow circuit around the Radford house. He paused on a slight rise in the ground behind the mansion. The night was warm, so in spite of the threat of the scarecrow, the drapes had not been drawn.
Jupe
could
look
directly
into
the
lighted
rooms. He could see Mrs.
Burroughs in the kitchen,
scrubbing at the sink. In a
small sitting room to the left
of
the
kitchen,
only
a
television
set
was
on.
Burroughs could be seen in
silhouette, slouched in a chair
watching a baseball game.
Over to the right, Mrs.
Chumley and Gerhart Malz
were playing chess in Mrs.
Chumley’s little sitting room.
As Jupiter watched, Malz smiled, said something to Mrs. Chumley, and moved a piece on the board. She made a wry face.
Jupiter concluded that Malz had won the chess game.
The curator stood up and buttoned his sports jacket, talking all the while. After a minute or two he went out of the room.
Mrs. Chumley sat for a short time and looked up at her copy of the Vermeer painting. Then, as if she had been struck by a sudden idea, she wheeled herself into the corner bedroom adjoining the sitting room and snapped on the lights there. She went to a closet and opened big double doors. Jupe glimpsed rows of clothes hanging on hangers and stacks of boxes on the shelves above the dresses and coats.
Suddenly Mrs. Chumley looked around at the window. It was almost as if she sensed that someone was watching from the dark lawn outside. She went to the windows and drew the drapes, shutting herself away from Jupe’s sight.
Jupe chuckled softly to himself and walked on, making a wide sweep around the right corner of the house. Near the corner the ground sloped downward to expose the basement walls. Beneath Mrs. Chumley’s bedroom, a cellar door opened onto a path that led to the right and connected with the driveway. Jupe guessed that this door was the entrance used by maintenance men and delivery men.
Jupe continued along the side of the house, past the four-car detached garage and down the driveway. In the front, the driveway forked to the left to curve past the front entrance. Jupe followed the left fork and then cut across the grass to reach the terrace at the far side of the house.
At the back of the terrace, rooms in the servants’ wing were again visible. Mrs.
Burroughs was still at the kitchen sink and her husband was still watching the ball game. Jupe stole up the terrace steps and positioned himself behind a large potted plant. All along the left side of the terrace, the long windows of the living room were open. Jupe peeked in and saw Letitia Radford sitting on a sofa, a backgammon set on the coffee table in front of her. Charles Woolley was across from her, stiffly intent in a straight chair. His bald head gleamed in the lamplight and he scowled at the backgammon board.
Gerhart Malz came a few steps into the room and Jupe heard him say, “Well, it looks as if you two have buried the hatchet.”
“We are united against a common enemy,” said Woolley. He did not look up from the backgammon board.
“Good enough,” said Malz. “I’ll say good night now. I have some things to catch up on before I leave on vacation.”
“You’re going on vacation?” said Letitia Radford. “My word! What will happen to the Mosby collection while you’re gone”
“The museum will be closed, Letitia,” said Malz. “It’s closed the last two weeks of August every year. You know that. One of the regular guards is going to stay in the spare room on the third floor while I’m away, just to see that nothing goes wrong.”
“I see,” said Letitia. “Mrs. Chumley will certainly miss you. When are you leaving?”
“On