The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [3]
stood aside to let the boys out.
Then they heard a sound that might have
been a backfire — or a shot.
Pete almost leaped through the door. He looked down over the balcony railing. The courtyard below was empty, but behind the house, someone was shouting. A gate slammed and footsteps pounded on some staircase that the boys couldn’t see. Then, from a passage which led into the rear of the court, a running figure came into view. A man wearing a dark windbreaker and with a black ski hood pulled over his head raced past the pool and out through the front gate to the street.
Pete dashed for the stairs. He was almost at the bottom when a policeman appeared at the back of the courtyard.
“Okay, buddy!” shouted the cop. “Hold it right there or I’ll let you have it!”
A second policeman came pelting into the court. Pete saw that both men had drawn their guns. He froze where he was on the stairway and raised his hands in the air!
Chapter 2
The Search in the Night
“MIKE,” said the younger of the two policemen, “I don’t think he’s the guy.”
“Dark windbreaker, light-coloured trousers,” said the other policeman. “He could have tossed that ski mask somewhere.”
“The man with the ski mask ran through here and out the front gate,” said Pete quickly “I saw him.”
Jupe and Bob came down the stairs with Mr. Prentice.
“This young man has been with me for the last half hour,” said Prentice to the policeman.
Sirens screamed as patrol cars converged on the area.
“C’mon,” said the younger officer. “We’re wasting time.”
The two policemen hurried out through the front gate, just as the door to Mrs.
Bortz’s apartment opened.
“Mr. Prentice, what have these boys been up to?” demanded Mrs. Bortz.
On the right side of the court, a door opened and a young man stumbled out. He was rubbing his eyes, as if just awakened. Jupe looked at him and started slightly.
“What is it?” whispered Bob.
“Nothing,” said Jupe. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Mr. Prentice, you did not answer me!” snapped Mrs. Bortz. “What have these boys been up to?”
“It’s no concern of yours,” said Prentice. “The police are searching for someone —
some felon, no doubt — who ran in from the back alley and then went out through the front gate.”
“A burglar,” said the young man who had come from the apartment beyond the pool.
He was wearing a dark sweater and light tan trousers, and his bare feet had been shoved into sneakers. Jupe, who prided himself on his ability to notice details, saw that the young man’s lank, dark hair hadn’t been washed recently. He was hardly taller than Pete and was extremely thin.
“Sonny Elmquist, you’re so clever!” said Mrs. Bortz. “How do you know it’s a burglar they’re looking for?”
The young man named Sonny Elmquist swallowed nervously, and his Adam’s apple bobbed above the top of his sweater. “What else could it be?” he asked.
“Spread out!” shouted someone on the street outside. “Check the alleys — and check out that church!”
The Three Investigators and Fenton Prentice went out and stood on the front steps of the apartment house. There were four patrol cars on the street. Flashlights swept back and forth as policemen poked into shrubbery and peered down driveways in search of the fugitive in the black ski mask. A helicopter clattered overhead, its beam probing alleys. In other doorways up and down the street stood more groups of onlookers.
“He couldn’t have gone far!” shouted one searcher. “He’s got to be around here somewhere.”
A chunky man with thick grey hair stood at the kerb talking excitedly to a police lieutenant. As the boys watched, he turned, then hurried toward the apartment-house steps. “Fenton!” he called. “Fenton Prentice!”
Mr. Prentice went down the steps, and the man took him by the arm and began to tell him something. Prentice listened intently. He seemed to have forgotten that the boys were there.
Pete nudged Jupe. “Let’s go see what they’re doing at the church,” he suggested.
At the church, the doors stood open. A number of people, including Mrs. Bortz and Sonny Elmquist, had gathered on the pavement to stare