The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [39]
“You were the one who made the robbery possible,” said Jupe to Mrs. Chumley.
“It couldn’t have happened without your knowledge.”
“Young man, you are impertinent,”
said Mrs. Chumley. “When Chief
Reynolds returns, I’m going to speak to
him. He’ll see to it that you never set
foot on this property again.”
“Possibly he will,” said Jupiter,
“but there’s another possibility, and
that is that Burroughs and his wife will
confess and you will be implicated.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Letitia Radford
stood up and went to Mrs. Chumley.
“Why should Mrs. Chumley steal? She
has everything! She just has to wish for a
thing and my brother will get it for her.
We’re her family! This is her home!”
“Watch yourself, Jupiter,” warned
Charles Woolley. The entomologist
had been sitting quietly in a far corner
of the room. He reached out now and
turned on the lamp on the table nearest
him. “You’d better have a good reason
for your accusation!”
“I think I do,” said Jupe. “Several
reasons.” He turned to the woman in
the wheelchair. “How could you live for more than six months with a couple who were digging a tunnel and not know about it? Couldn’t you hear them or see them at work?
The dirt from the tunnel went out through a door that is directly under your bedroom.”
“I sleep quite soundly,” said Mrs. Chumley.
“Not always. Last night you kept Miss Radford with you because you couldn’t sleep. Or you claimed you couldn’t sleep. Perhaps you only wanted to keep Miss Radford busy.
“Then this morning you told Bob about the candelabra that is just outside the Vermeer room in the Mosby Museum. You described the way the prisms on the candelabra vibrate when the grandfather clock strikes. Mr. Malz said that candelabra is a new acquisition. If you never climb stairs, as you say, how did you know about it?”
Mrs. Chumley looked startled. “Well, I … I suppose Gerry told me about it.”
“I would accept that if it weren’t for the snapshots,” said Jupiter.
“Snapshots?” repeated Mrs. Chumley.
“Last night we were patrolling the grounds, trying to catch a glimpse of the scarecrow, and you had left your drapes open. You were playing chess with Mr. Malz.
After he left, you went into your bedroom, didn’t you?”
“Perhaps I did. What about it?”
“You opened your closet. From where I stood I could see boxes piled on the shelf in your closet.”
“Well?” said Mrs. Chumley.
“Then you closed your drapes, so I didn’t see what you did next. However, a few moments later you came into the living room with a large box filled with snapshots.
“I didn’t have time to think about those snapshots last night, because I saw the scarecrow almost immediately after you brought them to Miss Radford. Today, however, while we were locked in the cold room downstairs, I had ample time to think about them. Mrs. Chumley, how did you get that box down off the closet shelf?”
Mrs. Chumley frowned as if she were trying to remember. “I suppose I used my yardstick,” she said at last. “I keep a yardstick in the corner of the closet. When I want to get something down I pry it off the shelf with the yardstick and catch it as it falls. It saves calling someone every time I need something. “
“No,” said Jupe. “You didn’t do that with a box of snapshots. Snapshots are heavy. They’d have hurt you if they dropped on you, and they’d have spilled. No, Mrs. Chumley, you stood up and lifted those snapshots down.”
“Ridiculous!” said Mrs. Chumley. “I cannot stand. Everyone knows that. Not since my accident.”
“You knew how terrified Miss Radford is of scarecrows,” Jupe went on. “You also knew of her fear of insects. Mrs. Chumley, it was you who invented the scarecrow.”
“No!” cried Letitia Radford. “That’s impossible!”
“It is not impossible,” said Jupe. “It’s quite logical. What’s more, on at least one occasion you were the scarecrow. It was you who locked us in the cold room, Mrs.
Chumley!”
“You’re an impudent young pup!” snapped Mrs. Chumley, “and I’m not going to listen to another word you say. I am going to bed.”
“Wait!” said