The Mystery of the Invisible Dog - M. V. Carey [44]
“If you are going to tell me the tale of the Carpathian Hound,” said Mr. Hitchcock, “I can save you the trouble. There is an illustrated article on the work of the late Edward Niedland in this publication. The crystal dog is shown, and the old legend is recounted.”
Mr. Hitchcock put down the magazine.
“However, if you have come to tell me how the stolen Hound was restored to Fenton Prentice, I should be delighted to hear the details. The accounts in the newspapers were quite brief.”
“Mr. Prentice doesn’t like publicity,” said Bob.
“So I understand,” said Mr. Hitchcock. “However, he did mention that three lads from Rocky Beach had been of great help to him, so I’ve been expecting you. I assume that you have had time to write up the case?”
Bob handed a file folder to the director. “Aha!” said Mr. Hitchcock.
As was his custom, he did not comment until he had read carefully through Bob’s notes. When he finished, he closed the file and sat for a moment, frowning.
“Amazing!” he exclaimed at last. “And I am not easily amazed. A person who can go to sleep, depart from his material body, and allow his spirit to wander free! Elmquist makes the ordinary ghost seem almost a bore.”
“He still hasn’t admitted his special ability,” said Bob. “As Professor Lantine said, many of the people who wander won’t admit it. It scares them.”
“Understandably!” said Mr. Hitchcock. “Now, Jupiter, how did you know that Murphy had to be the burglar?”
“It was a simple process of elimination,” said Jupe. “First I realized that the burglar had to be someone in the neighbourhood — someone who knew about the keys to the church in the parish house closet. When Miss Chalmers and Mrs. Bortz were removed from the scene, I knew the burglar had to be a fellow tenant. Only a tenant would have the necessary knowledge of their habits — and only a tenant would know the swimming pool was a safe place once they were gone.
“Now, Sonny Elmquist was asleep when the burglary took place, so he couldn’t be guilty. Bob’s investigation at Ruxton confirmed that. Bob learned that Elmquist could possibly be in two places at once, but that he couldn’t do anything, move anything, while he wandered. Harley Johnson had an easily checked alibi for the night of the burglary.
That left Alex Hassell and John Murphy.
“Both Hassell and Murphy were away from home at the time of the burglary,”
continued Jupe. “And both heard Mrs. Bortz announce that she was going to drain the pool. I remembered later that her words startled Murphy. And later that evening he drove off somewhere.”
“No doubt to get the explosive,” put in Mr. Hitchcock. “It isn’t the sort of thing one keeps around the house.”
“He went to a friend who manufactures chemicals,” said Jupe. “The device he wired to Mrs Bortz’s car wasn’t really deadly, but it did make a lot of noise and smoke. He only wanted to upset her so that she’d forget about the pool for a day or two. That’s all the time he needed—a day or two.
“I would have been sure sooner that Murphy was the burglar if it hadn’t been for that fire in his apartment. I didn’t think it was an accident because Murphy was careful with his cigarettes. He looked like still one more victim of the criminal. He had no apparent connection with the pool, but I thought that possibly the burglar wanted to remove all potential witnesses. So I began to think that Alex Hassell was the criminal — that he had gotten into Murphy’s apartment and set the fire in some way. We wouldn’t have seen him
— we weren’t watching our TV monitor carefully when the fire started. Hassell could then have moved to the motel to try to establish an alibi, just as Murphy actually had himself moved to the hospital.
“But when the letter came with the directions for the delivery of the ransom, I knew the burglar couldn’t be Hassell. It had to be Murphy. The ransom was to be put in the waste-paper bin in the park at exactly five o’clock, and that’s