The Mystery of the Kidnapped Whale - Marc Brandel [24]
The Three Investigators heard Mr. Sebastian answer it. For what seemed an agonizingly long time they could hear him speak into the receiver occasionally. It was agonizing because they couldn’t hear what he said.
Pete was so busy straining his ears that he was surprised to find he had finished his whole heaped plate of brown rice without noticing he was eating it.
“More?” Don smiled encouragingly as he lifted Pete’s plate.
“No!” Pete snatched it back before the Vietnamese could fill it up again. “No, thank you,” he added politely. “It’s deli –”
He caught himself just in time. He had been about to say it was delicious before he remembered it wasn’t supposed to be delicious. Delicious food was bad for you. It made you think the wrong thoughts.
“It’s so healthy and nourishing,” he corrected himself, “that I just couldn’t eat another mouthful.”
He turned quickly, looking toward the far end of the room. Hector Sebastian was limping back toward the table. He was holding a sheet of paper in his hand.
“Well,” he said, glancing at the paper as he addressed the Three Investigators. “I’ve got something all right. But I don’t know how it’ll fit in with your case.”
“What?” Jupe asked eagerly. “What did you get?”
“That was the Mexican immigration authorities in La Paz, in Baja California. Captain Diego Carmel and Oscar Slater put into La Paz on Captain Carmel’s charter boat, the Lucky Constance, on February tenth. They were in port for two days and left again on February twelfth.”
Jupe nodded, frowning.
“Thank you, Mr. Sebastian,” he said. “Captain Carmel’s boat sank on February seventeenth. That means they were definitely on their way back from Baja, heading for San Pedro, when they ran into that storm.”
He looked at Bob and then at Pete.
“And that means,” he went on, “at least I think it means, that if they had a cargo of pocket calculators they were going to smuggle into Mexico somewhere along the coast –”
He turned back to Hector Sebastian.
“Well, either something went wrong and they couldn’t get them ashore. Or Oscar Slater was lying when he told Constance all that stuff was still on board when the boat sank. What do you think, Mr. Sebastian?”
“I think you’re thinking the right thoughts, Jupe.”
Hector Sebastian smiled.
“In fact, as one of my favorite characters, Alice in Wonderland, would say, your new case seems to be getting curiouser and curiouser.”
Chapter 10
The Faceless Giant
“THINK YOU CAN FIX IT, JUPE?” Aunt Mathilda asked.
Jupiter looked at the old washing machine standing in his workshop in the salvage yard.
Uncle Titus had brought it home the night before. Its yellowing enamel surface was so cracked and crumpled it reminded Jupe of a sheet of paper that had been all scrunched up and then only half straightened out again. He hated to think what kind of shape the motor must be in.
“I’ll give it a try, Aunt Mathilda,” he promised. “I’ll work on it all day.”
Aunt Mathilda smiled. Here was a boy, her nephew Jupiter Jones, and there was the broken washing machine, a job of work to do. Put the two together and you had the perfect combination, the way Aunt Mathilda saw it. Work and a boy. A boy at work.
“You do that, Jupe,” she said contentedly. “And I’ll fix you a nice lunch.”
Jupiter didn’t really mind putting in the whole day at the salvage yard. He would be earning some money and, more important, he would be earning time off.
The other two Investigators were earning time off too. Bob was at the library and Pete was home mowing the lawn. Tomorrow they would all be entitled to a whole free day.
Early tomorrow morning they would meet Constance at the rocky cove she had picked out. Her Mexican friends would bring Fluke there in their tow truck. Then Constance and the