The Mystery of the Magic Circle - M. V. Carey [32]
“Wow!” said Pete. “Harold Thomas is the same person as Charles Goodfellow! He was a member of the coven and he knew everybody.”
“And how did he learn about the sale of the films? Which member of the coven told him? Or did he just happen to know someone at Video Enterprises? Jefferson Long, or someone else entirely? We can speculate on that all day without getting an answer. But we do know he stole the films.”
“Maybe he swiped the manuscript, too,” said Bob. “He knew where it was and he could have had a set of keys. He could have duplicated a set from the ones Beefy kept in his desk at the office.”
“He could have set the fire too,” said Pete.
“But why would he take the manuscript?” wondered Beefy. “How could that manuscript hurt him?”
Jupiter shrugged. “Who knows? Madeline Bainbridge may have written something that would expose him, even after all these years.”
“I think we’d better call the police,” said Beefy. He stood up. “It will be awkward explaining to them how we know all the things we know, but we have to call them.
The Bainbridge films are involved, and they’re of inestimable value. I think we’d better call them from my apartment. We don’t really have any right in here, you know.”
During the short drive to his home, Beefy grew more and more excited. “This will be a load off Uncle Will’s mind!” said Beefy as he let himself and the three boys into the apartment. “We can definitely tie Thomas in with the theft of the films, and if the police can turn up some solid evidence to tie him in with the fire, Uncle Will is off the hook!”
Beefy went through the apartment, calling to his uncle. There was no answer.
“That’s funny,” said Beefy. “He left here right after you left this morning. He said he was going to play golf. He ought to be back by now.”
Suddenly uneasy, Beefy went into his uncle’s bedroom. The boys in the living-room heard a closet door open, and then heard a thumping and a clattering as Beefy knocked several things over.
After several minutes, Beefy appeared again in the living-room. “He’s gone,” he said. “He must have come back here while we were out and packed a small suitcase.
There’s one missing. He’s … he’s panicked and he’s running. Now we can’t call the police. They’ll think he did set that fire.”
“They often do think that, when suspects vanish,” said Jupiter, “and are we sure
— are we really sure — that he didn’t?”
Chapter 16
The Sleeping Beauty
“JUST BEFORE WE LEFT here this morning, I asked you to call the people who played bridge with your uncle the night the manuscript was taken,” said Jupiter to Beefy.
“I did,” Beefy replied. The young publisher looked haggard. “Uncle Will didn’t arrive for the bridge game until almost ten-thirty. He said there’d been a minor accident on Beverly Drive and he’d been held up in traffic.”
“So he could have set the fire at Amigos Press, and he also could have taken the manuscript from this apartment,” said Jupe.
Beefy nodded. “I can’t imagine Uncle Will as an arsonist, and yet he did have a motive. He was short of money. But why on earth would he steal the Bainbridge manuscript?”
Jupiter scowled and pulled at his lower lip — a sign that he was thinking furiously.
“Could there be something damaging about him in that manuscript? Did he know Madeline Bainbridge when he was younger? Maybe that’s why he always speaks of her so scornfully!”
Jupiter thought some more, then sighed. “No matter which way we turn, we keep coming back to the mysterious Madeline Bainbridge. Only she knows what’s in her manuscript, and only she could tell us who might want it suppressed. We’ve just got to talk to her — and we have to talk to her when Marvin Gray isn’t around. For whatever reason, he’s too obstructive.”
“But how do we reach her?” asked Beefy. “She doesn’t answer the telephone. She doesn’t go out. Perhaps she doesn’t even open her own mail.”
“You can call Gray and set up