The Mystery of Sinister Scarecrow - M. V. Carey [40]
“That’s enough, Jupiter,” said Dr. Woolley sternly. “All you’ve told us are guesses and bits of circumstantial evidence. You haven’t got a solid reason for accusing Mrs.
Chumley of anything!”
“Yes, I have,” said Jupe. “I saved the best reason for last. Would you like to hear it, Mrs. Chumley?”
“I would like you to go to the devil!” cried Mrs. Chumley. She swung her wheelchair around and started for the bedroom door.
“Wait,” said Letitia Radford. “I’ll help you.”
Mrs. Chumley looked back at the younger woman. There was concern on Letitia Radford’s face, but there was also doubt.
“Never mind,” said Mrs. Chumley. “I can manage by myself.”
“You know you can’t,” said Letitia, but Mrs. Chumley was gone. The bedroom door closed behind her.
“Could she have done those terrible things?” said Letitia. “She couldn’t have! It’s not possible—”
Letitia broke off. A terrible scream came from Mrs. Chumley’s room.
Pete jumped up, and Jupe started toward the bedroom door. But before either of the boys could reach it, the door was flung open.
“You young beast!” shrieked Mrs. Chumley. She was standing up, her face blazing with rage and her chest heaving. She held a pillow in one hand. “You did that on purpose!”
She swung the pillow. It caught Jupiter on the side of the head. He staggered aside, and before anyone else could move, Mrs. Chumley ran. The sitting room door banged behind her. Then the front door of the house opened and crashed shut again.
“She can walk!” cried Ben Agnier. “She’s not a cripple at all!”
The group in the sitting room heard a car start in front of the house.
“Oh, dear!” said Letitia Radford. “I left the keys in my car. Mrs. Chumley always scolded me about that. She said … she said that someday someone would steal the car.”
Charles Woolley snorted.
Pete had gone a step or two into the bedroom. Now he made a horrified sound and backed out.
“Dr. Woolley,” he said. “Look!”
Charles Woolley hurried to the doorway, and the others crowded to peer over his shoulder.
Streaming across the floor were thousands upon thousands of ants. They came from an open window, and were marching up over the bed.
“Another colony!” said Woolley, his voice filled with delight. “No wonder she ran.
I might have run myself!”
Chapter 22
A Final Surprise
IT WAS NEARLY MIDNIGHT when Chief Reynolds and Gerhart Malz returned to the Radford house with the news that Burroughs and his wife were in custody.
“Were all the paintings
recovered?” asked Jupe.
“Yes, we got them,” said
Malz. “They’re under guard
in
San
Pedro
tonight.
Tomorrow they’ll be returned
to the museum.”
The curator yawned. He
looked very weary. “Where’s
Mrs. Chumley?” he asked.
“Did she go to bed?”
Letitia
Radford
and
Charles Woolley told him
what had happened. They
told about Jupiter’s accusation and the ants in the bedroom, which Woolley had repulsed with insect spray, and about Mrs. Chumley’s flight in Letitia’s car.
“There’s a bulletin out on the car,” Jupiter told Chief Reynolds. “Mrs. Chumley won’t get far.”
“You mean she isn’t crippled?” said Malz.
“She ran like a rabbit,” Pete told him.
“But why did she put on an act like that?” said Malz. “She’s been in that wheelchair for years!”
He turned to Letitia. “Did she need money?”
“Hardly,” said Letitia. “My mother was very generous. She remembered everyone in her will — especially Mrs. Chumley. Yet Mrs. Chumley was the scarecrow. Isn’t that dreadful? We found the costume in her closet.” Letitia did not look tearful now.
She looked angry. “It was cruel!” she said. “She did that to me after I treated her like a mother! I really did!”
“She may have felt trapped,” said Jupiter. “We won’t know the full story until she is caught and confesses, but we can guess what happened.”
Jupiter leaned back in his chair and began to speak slowly, working out the details as he went along.
“Mrs. Chumley must have felt threatened when Mrs. Radford died,” he said.
“There was no longer any real need to keep this house open, but this house was Mrs.
Chumley’s home. No doubt Mrs. Chumley