The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [25]
“I’ll go with you,” volunteered Mrs. Bortz.
“Take the candy, too!” said Jupe. “So it can be analysed!”
Murphy got his car out of the garage, and Pete managed to get Miss Chalmers into the back seat. Mrs. Bortz covered her with a blanket. Jupiter thrust the box of candy at Mrs. Bortz. A second later Murphy had roared off.
“Poison!” said Mr. Prentice. “Poor Miss Chalmers! Who on earth would want to poison her?”
“We can’t be sure anyone did, Mr. Prentice,” Jupiter pointed out. “It’s just that the candy had a peculiar odour.”
But two hours later, Mr. Prentice and the Three Investigators were sure. Murphy and Mrs. Bortz returned from the emergency room at Central Hospital looking extremely grim.
“I have never been so insulted in my life!” said Mrs. Bortz.
“What happened?” asked Prentice. He and the boys had just finished dinner when they heard Murphy’s car return, and they had rushed downstairs.
“The police!” announced Mrs. Bortz. “They asked the most rude questions — how long I’d held the chocolates, for instance. The idea!”
“They were only trying to find out what happened,” said Murphy. He sounded tired.
“I would never poison anyone,” said Mrs. Bortz. She stomped to her apartment, slammed the door, and locked it.
“What did happen, Murphy?” asked Alex Hassell. He had come from the laundry room.
“There was something poisonous in the chocolates,” said Murphy. “The lab at the hospital is doing an analysis now, to find out exactly what. Miss Chalmers had her stomach pumped and is now in a private room under observation. The police were called, of course, and they questioned Mrs. Bortz about the package. I wish that woman wouldn’t take everything so personally. She acted as if they were accusing her of sending poisoned chocolates to Gwen. No one accused her of any such thing.”
“How were the chocolates delivered?” asked Jupiter.
“They came through the mail. Nothing unusual.”
Mrs. Bortz’s door opened. The manager had gotten control over herself. She came outside and looked at the pool. “I suppose something good comes of everything,” she said. “Gwen Chalmers is the only one who uses the pool in this weather. She won’t be swimming for a few days at least. I can have the pool drained and cleaned while she’s away. It’s long past time that it had a proper cleaning.”
Murphy opened his mouth as if to say something, then shrugged, lit a cigarette, and went into his own apartment. Hassell left, too.
Mr. Prentice looked sourly at Mrs. Bortz and headed for the stairs. “Really, that woman has no sensitivity,” he muttered to the boys. “Imagine, worrying about the pool at a time like this!”
“Who would try to poison Miss Chalmers?” wondered Prentice again when he and the Investigators were inside his apartment.
“Someone who knew her or her habits,” said Jupe. “Someone who knew that the moment she opened the chocolates, she would eat one or two. The real question is, why did someone want to poison her?”
No one had an answer. Jupe sat down cross-legged on the floor where he could keep an eye on the television monitor. The courtyard below was empty.
“You live in a very interesting place,” said Jupe to Prentice. “We have known you scarcely three days, and in that time we have caught one intruder in your apartment —
Mrs. Bortz — and I have twice observed another — the shadow. You have been robbed of an irreplaceable work of art and have received a ransom demand for it. Now one of your neighbours has been poisoned.”
“Don’t forget the janitor in the church next door,” prompted Bob. “He got knocked on the head, and then Jupe got locked in the church, where he saw a phantom priest, or somebody.”
“It’s all too coincidental,” said Jupiter. “There must be some connection. But so far, location is the only link. Everything has happened in or near this building.”
“Yeah, and everything’s happened when Sonny Elmquist has been around,” remarked Pete. “Never when he’s away at work.”
Mr. Prentice suddenly looked up in alarm. “Do you think he can hear us? If he is