The Mystery of the Death Trap Mine - M. V. Carey [45]
Sebastian said. “By the way, where was she between the time she left that store in Phoenix and the time she showed up in Twin Lakes? And where did she get the money to buy her property?”
“She inherited the money,” Jupe said. “She had an aged aunt who was suddenly taken ill and who sent for her. She left the store without notice because the matter was extremely urgent, and also because she didn’t like the woman who owned the store and didn’t want to bother explaining things to her. Between May and September she was in El Paso nursing her aunt. The aunt died eventually — she was very old — leaving everything she owned to Mrs. Macomber.”
Mr. Sebastian nodded. “It’s really wonderful when goodness is rewarded. Mrs.
Macomber sounds like a charming and rather unflappable woman. She certainly recovered quickly after being trapped in that mine.”
“Will the man who called himself Thurgood be locked up?”
“On a number of counts,” Jupiter said. “As the sheriff suspected, he is an experienced con artist. His real name is John Manchester and he specializes in stock swindles. A number of his Death Trap victims were wealthy men from Dallas. Manchester met them in a country club there, passed himself off as Thurgood, and convinced them that he had discovered a fabulously rich vein of gold in the old mine. He used forged documents to establish his false identity with Uncle Harry and a bank in Lordsburg, and he peddled forged stock certificates to the victims who came to inspect his mine.
“Manchester’s investment in the Death Trap was small. He paid Harrison Osborne a thousand dollars down on the property and signed a note for twenty-five thousand dollars to be paid in installments. He never intended to make any payments on that note. He was going to take the money he got from his victims, clean out his bank account, and disappear.
That was his pattern; he had done it many times before.”
Bob picked up the story from there. “But this time Mrs. Macomber got in his way,” he said. “After she accused Manchester of being a fake, he forced her into the pit and took her truck to Hambone. He abandoned it there and hiked back to Twin Lakes. He wanted people to think she had gone on vacation. That’s why he packed her suitcase, too. We don’t think he planned to leave her in the mine very long, or to hurt her. He just needed a little more time to finish his mine swindle. But things started happening so fast he never got a chance. Manny and Gasper saw to that!”
“What about the Mexicans?” asked Mr. Sebastian. “Were they really in on the scheme?”
“No, they weren’t,” Jupe replied. “Manchester needed workmen to make it look as if he were taking ore from the mine. He had them build the fence and start painting the house so everyone would think he was going to stay in Twin Lakes. The men were in this country illegally. So they were afraid to speak to anyone, and that’s the way Manchester wanted it.”
“But their story has a happy ending,” Bob said. “Uncle Harry made arrangements with the authorities and they will remain in Twin Lakes legally and will prune his Christmas trees. And Magdalena has adopted the dog. She fed him until his sides bulged and now he’s as tame as a puppy and he sleeps at the foot of her bed.”
“That’s terrific,” said Mr. Sebastian. The mystery writer leaned back in his patio chair and gazed out the large picture windows at the ocean. “It was a really intriguing case,” he mused. “Too bad it will never be completely solved.”
“What do you mean?” demanded Pete. “We did solve it!”
“In all the important ways, you did,” replied Mr. Sebastian. “But I don’t think anyone will ever know exactly what happened when Gilbert Morgan came to Twin Lakes five years ago, and why he hid the loot from the robbery in the old Ford.”
“No,” agreed Jupiter. “Morgan may have regarded the old car as a temporary hiding place for the money, then he may have gone into the mine looking for a safer one. Was he still alive when the mine was sealed, or was he already dead? We will never know.
Incidentally, we are quite sure Manchester found