The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [37]
“Someone mention me?” said Charles Woolley. The entomologist was standing in the doorway. “The police have been to see me,” he said. “I told them where I’ve been all day, and they said I could come up here and wait with you. I think they want me out of the way.”
He bowed to Ben Agnier. “Please don’t let me interrupt you.”
“I was about finished,” said Agnier.
“But if you were so worried,” said Letitia Radford, “why didn’t you come up and
talk to us when you saw us on the terrace?”
“I felt foolish,” said Agnier. “I did try to come one day and I almost bumped into the boys.” He nodded at the Investigators. “Gave me a scare when you chased me.”
“But what about the scarecrow?” said Letitia. “What did you think when you saw the scarecrow?”
“Only scarecrow I ever saw was that one on the fence,” Agnier declared.
“But I’ll tell you one thing,” he went on. “I was kind of glad when you boys took to hanging around. You gave the women some contact with the outside world. But when you came here earlier today and you didn’t leave again, I got uneasy. When Burroughs took your bikes and wheeled them to the garage, I realized I hadn’t seen Miss Letitia on the terrace, and I hadn’t seen Mrs. Chumley. I kept watching, and Burroughs went off and came back with a rental trailer.
“I couldn’t figure out what a houseman wanted with a trailer. I kept watching. A couple of hours after Burroughs brought that trailer, he and Mrs. Burroughs left with it — bag and baggage and a lot besides. I couldn’t see exactly what they’d loaded in that thing, but it was full!”
“With a few million dollars in beautiful paintings!” said Gerhart Malz.
“Whatever it was, it looked queer to me,” said Agnier. “I came up the hill to the house. The doors were locked, but I broke one of the windows on the terrace and got in that way.”
“And you woke me,” said Letitia, “and we woke Mrs. Chumley, but at first we couldn’t find the boys. Ben thought of the cellar, and there they were in the old refrigerator room.”
“Thank goodness you looked,” said Jupe. He got up and went to the fireplace, glancing at the wall above the mantel. There was a strip of unfaded wallpaper around the frame of the Vermeer copy. “We probably forced Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs to act today,” he said. “Once we got to the basement and saw the tunnel, they had to put us out of the way and move fast.”
There was a quick rap on the door, and Chief Reynolds came in. “My men will be through downstairs very soon,” he said. “The reporters will probably be here any minute. I can make a statement if you don’t want to see them.”
“Please do,” said Mrs. Chumley. “And Letitia, you were going to put the kettle on. I would so love a cup of tea.”
“I’ll do it, Mrs. Chumley,” said Jupiter.
He went to the door and paused, then went out. Pete and Bob exchanged glances. Jupe had been pulling at his lower lip as he went, and they knew what that meant. He was concentrating on some problem. Some new idea had occurred to him.
Pete shrugged after a moment, and Bob sighed. Jupiter would never tell them his ideas until he was good and ready!
Chapter 20
Jupe Makes Deductions
JUPE SAT DOWN AT THE kitchen table to wait for the kettle to boil. A telephone was on the table, trailing a cord from the jack near the pantry door. By the phone lay a newspaper, folded back to the crossword puzzle. When Jupe lifted the newspaper he saw a scratch pad underneath it.
Someone had doodled on the pad. There were hearts pierced with arrows. There were dollar signs. Several times over, there was the word “Vermeer.”
And there was a telephone number.
“Aha!” said Jupe. He picked up
the telephone and dialed the number.
There were two rings at the other end,
and then a click.
“Short-Haul Trailer Company,”
said a voice. “Can I help you?”
“You already have,” said Jupiter.
He put down the telephone and
scowled at a notation in a corner of
the pad.
“Golden Fleece,” someone had
written. “Panamanian reg.”
The teakettle on the stove began to whistle. Jupiter ignored it.