The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [27]
There was a hideous screeching sound — the sound of a creature in torment!
Shuddering, Pete tried to jump aside, but the living, moving thing had gotten between his ankles. He shouted once and fell forward.
The screech came again.
As if on slow-motion film, Pete saw the edge of the pool come towards him. He saw something clinging to his leg. He felt claws. Then, with a splash, he was in the pool!
Alex Hassell’s door flew open. The courtyard lights snapped on.
Pete came to the surface of the pool, gasping and spitting chlorinated water.
The screeching menace snarled, swam to the edge of the pool, and was scooped out by Hassell. It was a black cat.
“You … you brute!” said Hassell to Pete.
Pete clambered out of the pool into the chill air.
“Mr. Prentice!” shouted Mrs. Bortz. She had appeared wrapped in her robe, her hair rolled on pink curlers. “Mr. Prentice, you will have to keep these boys from wandering around in the night!”
Jupiter came down the stairs. Sonny Elmquist was suddenly standing in the door of his apartment.
“I … I wasn’t able to sleep,” said Pete lamely.
Murphy’s door opened. “Now what?” bellowed the stockbroker.
“That fresh kid stepped on one of my cats!” said Hassell. He cuddled the dripping, forlorn creature in his arms. “It’s okay, baby,” he said soothingly. “You come with me.
I’ll get you all fixed up. Don’t pay any attention to that nasty boy!”
“I don’t want to catch you out here again!” said Mrs. Bortz angrily.
“No, ma’am,” said Pete.
Mrs. Bortz retreated to her lair and turned off the lights.
“Another night off?” Jupe said, eyeing Elmquist.
Sonny Elmquist nodded.
“Sorry it’s not a quieter one,” said Jupe.
“I almost … almost saw …”
“What?” asked Jupe.
“Nothing.” Elmquist rubbed his eyes. “I was dreaming, I guess. Not really awake …”
The skinny young man stepped back and closed his door.
Pete went up the stairs to Prentice’s apartment on the double. Jupe followed him.
Prentice was waiting in the living room with a huge towel, and in the bathroom Bob had turned on a hot shower.
“Where’d Elmquist come from?” demanded Pete as he peeled off his jacket. “I was out there watching and I saw him go around the pool towards Murphy’s place. Then, all of a sudden, he wasn’t there any more. He wasn’t anyplace. So I went downstairs to look for him and I stepped on that darned cat and—”
“I saw it,” said Jupe. “You fell in the pool. And Elmquist came out of his apartment.”
“But that’s impossible!” declared Pete. “He wasn’t in his apartment when I fell in the pool. There was no way he could be in his apartment. He was over by Murphy’s, and then he wasn’t anywhere!”
Chapter 12
Crack-up!
FOR THE REST OF the night, Bob and Jupe took turns watching from the balcony.
There was no further movement in the courtyard until four, when Mrs. Bortz came out of her apartment. She was wearing a heavy tweed coat. Jupe saw her and dodged into Prentice’s apartment.
“Mrs. Bortz is going out,” Jupe reported to Prentice. The old gentleman had not gone to bed at all. He had spent the night sitting up, propped against a corner of the sofa, dozing now and then.
“Of course,” said Prentice when he heard this.
“At four a.m.?” questioned Jupiter.
Prentice yawned. “The market is open twenty-four hours a day,” Prentice reminded Jupe. “Mrs. Bortz always does her marketing on Thursdays and she always leaves at four.”
Jupe could only stare at Prentice.
“She claims the market isn’t crowded at this hour,” said Prentice. “It is my opinion, however, that at this hour she can be reasonably sure nothing will be happening here, so she won’t miss anything if she’s away. Mr. Murphy will not leave for his office until five o’clock. The other tenants are always in bed at this time.”
Bob and Pete came in from the den, where they had been napping. “You mean she’s so nosy she can’t stand to be away from here unless everybody’s asleep?” said Pete.
“It is strange, compulsive behaviour,” said Prentice. “She’s like a spider who cannot leave her web. Her only interest is in the