The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine - M. V. Carey [29]
“Hey, I think Mrs. Macomber is going on a trip,” called Allie.
“What makes you think that?” asked Jupe, walking into the living room.
Allie pointed through the open door to Mrs. Macomber’s bedroom. A small suitcase lay on the bed, with some articles of clothing strewn beside it.
Jupe moved forward to the bedroom door. “I think she’s already left!” he said after studying the room a minute.
“Hunh?” Pete had come up behind him.
Jupe indicated the bedroom closet, which stood open. “All her clothes have been cleaned out of the closet. And look at those drawers hanging out of the bureau — they’re empty. Fellows, she’s gone — and I think she left quickly!”
“What do you mean?” demanded Allie.
“That all the signs indicate a very hasty departure,” replied Jupe. “You saw this house yesterday. It was neat as a pin. Is Mrs. Macomber the type to go away leaving bureau drawers open, extra clothes and a suitcase lying around, and dirty dishes in the sink? Never
— not unless she were in a great hurry or had no choice!”
“She’s been kidnapped!” cried Allie. “That guy who took her groceries yesterday . . .
maybe she got a look at him and so he …”
“So he kidnapped her, thoughtfully packing her clothes before he took her away?” said Jupe. “That is hardly likely.”
“Maybe she’s away on vacation,” suggested Pete.
“Doubtful,” said Jupe. “She wouldn’t have left the house a mess before going on vacation. And she didn’t say anything yesterday about taking a holiday.”
Bob said, “Maybe some family emergency came up. She might have had a call after we left.”
Jupe pulled at his lower lip and frowned. “That’s the best suggestion yet, Bob! But there’s another possibility. She may have decided to leave because you found that Phoenix newspaper.”
“But she didn’t know what was in the paper,” said Allie. “She said it was there when she bought this place.”
“Maybe it was,” conceded Jupe. “But if she took part in that robbery, and caught a glimpse of that headline yesterday, she’d know what was in the paper. And then she’d know that she was in trouble, because you, Allie, had to go and tell her that we were digging into the story of the dead holdup man! She wouldn’t have to think very long to realize that we might put two and two together — and might start asking her some difficult questions. And you know what she’d do then?”
“She’d run for it!” declared Pete.
“If you think that, you should put your money where your mouth is,” said Allie. “Call the sheriff.”
“And report what?” asked Jupiter. “That Mrs. Macomber has gone away? She has every right to do that. We have no proof that she had any connection with Morgan or with the robbery. It’s all conjecture.”
Jupe went out and walked down the short dirt driveway to the road. He stopped, bent, and examined the tire tracks in the dust. The others went to him, and he pointed to the most recent tracks which overlaid the traces of other vehicles. They indicated that a truck had backed out of Mrs. Macomber’s drive, then headed toward Wesley Thurgood’s property.
“Odd,” said Jupiter Jones. “She didn’t drive toward town. She went the other way.”
“If those marks were made by her truck,” said Allie.
“They match all the tracks in her driveway,” said Jupe.
Allie and the Three Investigators followed the tracks in the dusty road. Mrs.
Macomber’s truck had been driven past Wesley Thurgood’s gate. When the boys and Allie passed Thurgood’s enclosure, the huge dog leaped against the fence and barked wickedly.
Now that the fence was finished, the dog was no longer kept on the chain. Thurgood and his Mexican labourers were nowhere in sight.
A few hundred yards beyond Thurgood’s property, they could see where the truck had turned off onto a rutted trail that was barely recognizable as a road. It went up the mountain in a series of hairpin turns.
“Why … why she took