The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [38]
“I trust he won’t decide to stick his astral head through that door,” said Prentice.
“Even if he does, he won’t see anything but a paper sack,” Bob reported. “According to Dr. Lantine, the wanderers who go roaming around in their sleep can’t really move anything.”
“That would explain why nothing has been disturbed since I took the door key away from Mrs. Bortz,” said Prentice. “It was she who opened drawers and moved things around.”
“Yes,” said Jupe, “and it explains how Sonny Elmquist knows about your mandala.
He could also know about the Carpathian Hound. He could have heard you talk to Mr.
Niedland on the telephone. But if his astral body can’t move anything, he can’t be the burglar. He was asleep when the burglary happened.”
Jupe scowled and pulled at his lip.
“It’s hard to believe,” he said, “but it is the only explanation that fits. Unless there are two people in this building who look exactly alike, Elmquist must be a wanderer. And I don’t think two identical people could exist in the same building for a period of months without someone realizing it.”
“Not with Mrs. Bortz here,” said Prentice.
Pete, who had moved to the window, reported that Murphy’s nephew was leaving the building.
“Then we’re alone here.” Jupe stared at the cabinet where Prentice had concealed the ransom money. “A sack filled with cash,” he said. “Because it’s in the sack, the cash is invisible.” He began to smile, and suddenly his eyes sparkled.
“Hey, what is it, Jupe?” asked Bob, recognizing the signs of a mental breakthrough.
“Shall I tell you a story?” he replied.
“Oh, c’mon, Jupe!” groaned Pete. “Skip the build-up!”
“It’s a tale of murder,” said Jupiter, ignoring him. “A piece of fiction I read a long time ago. It’s about a murder that was committed with an invisible weapon.”
“Yes?” said Fenton Prentice.
“In the story,” said Jupe, “a man and his wife were having dinner with a friend in a closed room. The husband and the friend argued during the course of the meal, and the argument quickly became a raging quarrel. The men struggled, and the candles — which were the only light in the room — were knocked over. The wife then heard her husband cry out, and she felt something pull at her skirt. She screamed, and the servants came running. They found the husband dead, and the wife with blood on her skirt. The husband had been stabbed — but there was no weapon in the room. The servants searched and the authorities searched, but no one could find the weapon. At first they concluded that the husband had been killed by a demon.”
“How handy to live in an age when one could conclude a thing like that,” said Charles Niedland.
“The truth was,” said Jupiter, “that he had been killed by an invisible weapon — a knife made of glass. The murderer — the friend who had dined with the couple — had stabbed the husband in the dark and wiped the glass knife off on the wife’s skirt. He then put the knife into a pitcher of water that stood on the sideboard. It couldn’t be seen in the water.
“Mr. Prentice, why would anyone poison Miss Chalmers?” asked Jupe. “Is there any reason, besides the fact that she swam in the pool every night?”
“Good heavens!” said Charles Niedland.
“And Mrs. Bortz,” Jupe went on. “Certainly she’s a snoop, but no one tried to do her any harm — until she said she’d have the pool drained and cleaned. Mr. Prentice, we have been looking for a crystal dog which is invisible because it is out in plain sight — just like that glass knife in the water pitcher.”
“The pool!” cried Bob. “It’s in the pool.”
Jupiter stood gleefully with his hands on his hips. “Tomorrow you are to ransom the crystal dog. Suppose we retrieve the dog today? It’s the perfect time. There’s no one but us in the building.”
“My word!” exclaimed Prentice.
Jupe grinned. “Bob,” he said, “you go and stand at the back gate and make sure no one comes in that way. Pete, you watch the street from the front gate.”
“And what are you going to do?” said Pete.
Jupe was headed out to the balcony,
already unbuttoning his shirt. “I’m going
swimming.