The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [37]
“I’m sure he can use it,” said Jupe as they left the clinic and headed down Wilshire to Paseo Place. “Things have been pretty wild in that apartment house recently. You weren’t there the night of the burglary, were you?”
“You mean when the burglar ran through the courtyard from the next street? No, I missed it. I was out having an early dinner with friends before catching a show. Uncle John told me about it afterwards. And now I hear that there was a poisoning and a bombing, too Uncle John’s right. The place isn’t safe any more.”
“Did anyone tell you that Mr. Prentice was getting a dog?” queried Jupe.
“Nope. But nobody would except my uncle. I mean, I don’t hang around in the courtyard when I visit him. I can’t stand listening to Mrs. Bortz.”
Harley whistled when he saw his uncle’s windows. A few shards of glass still protruded from the frames, and the burned curtains hung in tatters.
“Guess I’d better call the glazier first,” he said as he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “I’ll bet the inside is a mess, too. I sure picked the wrong time to leave my uncle.” He squared his shoulders and disappeared into Murphy’s apartment.
Jupe paused a moment before going upstairs, trying to sort out everything in his mind.
Was Gwen Chalmers truly an innocent victim? Was Murphy really ignorant of the Carpathian Hound? Was Harley the innocent bystander he seemed to be?
If so, then Sonny Elmquist was the only person unaccounted for. Elmquist was the only neighbour left who might know of the crystal dog. And Elmquist was the only neighbour remaining in the apartment house.
Then Jupe thought of something else. Someone was using violence to get people out of the building. Would the Three Investigators be next?
Chapter 16
The Invisible Dog
When Jupiter rang Mr. Prentice’s doorbell, Charles Niedland opened the door.
“Come on in,” he invited. “Your friend Bob just got back from Ruxton, and he’s bursting to tell us something.”
Bob was sitting on the sofa, his notebook open in front of him. Mr. Prentice perched on a small antique chair.
“How is Miss Chalmers?” he asked.
“She’ll be fine,” Jupe reported.
“Thank goodness,” said Prentice. “And Mr. Murphy? Did you see him?”
“I did. He wasn’t badly injured. Did you get the money to ransom the Hound?”
Charles Niedland pointed to a brown paper grocery sack on a lamp table. “I have seldom been so nervous in my life,” he said. “I usually carry about three dollars in my wallet and a few credit cards. Fenton Prentice wanders around the city with ten thousand in small bills in a grocery sack!”
Jupe looked at the sack and smiled. “Very clever,” he said. “It looks so unimportant, it’s practically invisible.”
The doorbell rang again and Charles Niedland admitted Pete.
“The market manager doesn’t like kids who come in and stand around and read magazines and don’t buy anything,” he reported. “He told me to beat it. I bought a copy of Los Angeles Magazine, but he still told me to scram.”
Pete threw himself down on the sofa beside Bob. “Doesn’t matter, I suppose,” he said. “We know that Sonny Elmquist is at the market right now. And Hassell did check into that motel.”
Bob hunched forward. “Good. Then let’s talk about Sonny Elmquist.”
“What did you find out?” asked Jupiter.
“That some people can be in two places at the same time!” said Bob. He went on to relate all that he’d learned at Ruxton about wanderers and astral bodies.
“In other words,” said Jupe when Bob had finished, “Elmquist possibly can walk through walls or ignore locked doors.”
“I guess he can transport himself wherever he wants to be — and maybe to some places he doesn’t even know he wants to be. How much control he has over it, I don’t know. We can’t even be sure that he does it. But if he’s like the wanderers Dr. Lantine talked to, he can only do it when he’s sleeping.”
“Swell!” said Pete briskly. “So today we know he can’t be watching. He isn’t going to have any chance to doze off. The market manager will see to that!”
Fenton Prentice got up and put the grocery sack in a little