The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [43]
The collar of his ragged coat was pulled up to hide the fact that he wore no shirt and the cuff of one trouser leg was torn.
“Ah, now!” said Father McGovern. “Poor soul!”
The tramp approached the entrance to the park. The maintenance man was several yards away, stooping to examine something he had found on the grass. The news vendor counted his papers.
The ragged man poked into the waste-
paper bin. A second later the brown parcel
was in his hands. Then it vanished, hidden
under his coat.
The news vendor ran towards the tramp.
The maintenance man dropped his stick
and his sack and ran, too.
The tramp saw the two men coming. He
darted into the street. Pete threw open the
parlour window and jumped out.
A horn blared, and a car swerved to avoid
hitting the tramp. The tramp raced on.
As Pete ran forward, the policemen
shouted. One fired his gun into the air. The
tramp reached the corner of Wilshire, turned
right, and disappeared.
“Excuse me, Father!” said Jupiter, and he
went out the window, too, with Bob after him.
“Hey, you kids!” yelled the policeman who
had been pretending to sell papers. “Out of
the way.” He motioned to Pete to stay back.
A squad car zoomed up the street and
screeched to the kerb. “He headed west on Wilshire,” cried Sergeant Henderson, the maintenance man, to the officer in the car.
“Wait!” yelled Jupe.
The policemen glared at him. “What?” said one.
“No hurry,” said Jupiter. “I know where the burglar is — and his package of bogus ransom. He won’t try to hide. He’s got a perfect alibi.”
“Oh, you’re the smart kid Mr. Prentice talked about,” said Sergeant Henderson.
“Okay, kid, where is he?”
“He is, or in a few moments will be, at the Belvedere Medical Clinic,” said Jupiter Jones. “It’s only a few blocks from here.”
The man at the wheel of the squad car scowled, then said, “Okay. Get in!”
The Three Investigators tumbled into the back seat. The car roared off and reached the clinic in no time. The pink-smocked receptionist was outraged when the Investigators and the policemen stormed past her desk without even consulting her.
On the second floor, a nurse was just coming on duty. She paused and stared at them.
“Whom do you wish to see?” she demanded. “The front desk didn’t call me!”
“Never mind,” said Jupiter. He was striding down the corridor to the big corner room occupied by John Murphy.
The door was closed. Jupe pushed it open and saw Murphy in bed, the covers pulled up to his chin. The television set on the wall opposite the bed was on. Murphy took his eyes from the TV and looked at the group in the doorway.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Is the package of money in the closet, Mr. Murphy?” asked Jupiter. “Or did you hide it under the bedclothes?”
Murphy sat up. His face was flushed and his breathing was raspy. The bedcovers slipped down. He had on a tattered jacket and no shirt.
Jupiter opened the door of the closet. The wrapped parcel was there, still sealed.
Murphy groaned.
“Even if you’d gotten rid of it on the way back to the hospital, we’d still know,” said Jupiter. “It was treated with special ointment, and your hands will shortly be covered with black spots.
Murphy looked down at his hands.
Sergeant Henderson stepped forward. “You have the right to remain silent,” he told Murphy.
“Never mind,” said the man in the bed. “I know my rights. I’ll get my clothes on —
and I want to call my lawyer.”
The sergeant stared at the Three Investigators. “Prentice said you were smart,” he told them. “A perfect alibi. A private hospital. Who’d ever think … ?”
“Murphy set that fire in his apartment himself!” said Jupe. “He wanted an excuse to be in the hospital! He knew there wouldn’t be many patients here between Christmas and New Year. He wasn’t really hurt. Once he learned the nurses’ routines, he could slip in and out. They weren’t watching him that closely — they wanted him to get some sleep!”
Chapter 20
A Visit to Mr. Hitchcock
IT WAS MID-JANUARY BEFORE the Three Investigators were able