The Mystery of the Monster Mountain - M. V. Carey [11]
“Oh, yes. Hans and Konrad did not write to me about that.” Anna brightened suddenly. “They write always that you are clever boys and can find out about things.”
“You saw our card,” said Jupe stiffly. He was still smarting slightly after the rebuff of the day before.
“The card? Yes, and I think I have been very foolish. I have looked everywhere and I cannot find my key. It is very important. Perhaps you will find it for me.”
“You wish to retain The Three Investigators?” asked Jupe.
“Retain? What is this retain?”
“Jupe only means that you authorize us to search for the missing key,” Bob explained.
“Sometimes there is a fee for our services, but not in this ease. We are freeloading here, and the food is delicious,” said Jupiter.
“Way ahead of that canned stuff we brought when we thought we’d be staying in the campground,” said Pete.
“Thank you.” Anna smiled. “Retain. Yes, I wish to retain you to find the key. It is so silly. You see, when I left here to go to Lake Tahoe, I did not wish to carry the key with me, so I hid it in some clever place. Now I do not remember where I put it. I was so clever that I fooled myself.”
“What does the key look like?” asked Jupiter.
“It is small,” said Anna. “Like this.” She held up her hand with thumb and forefinger about two inches apart. “It is the key to ray safe deposit box.”
“I can see why that’s important,” said Pete, “but couldn’t you go to the bank and explain that you lost the key? They’d give you a duplicate, wouldn’t they?”
“My father lost the key to his safe deposit box,” said Bob. “He didn’t have any trouble about it. Oh, he did have to see an officer at the bank, and I think they had to change the lock on his box. There was a fee for that, but not very much.”
“I am embarrassed,” said Anna. “At the bank in Bishop they have much respect for me. They know I am careful, and when I needed money to buy the ski lift, they lent it to me. I do not wish to go to the bank and say I have been so foolish that I lost such an important thing.”
“Very well,” said Jupiter. “The Three Investigators should be able to save you that embarrassment. It can’t be an impossible task. The inn isn’t large. Where did you usually keep the key, by the way?”
“In the drawer of my desk. But now…” Anna spread her hands in a gesture of despair. “I remember thinking that my inn would be empty, and I would hide the key in case someone breaks in. But I cannot remember where.”
“So we search,” said Pete. He pushed back his chair and got up from the table.
“Shall we start with the office?” asked Jupiter.
“We have already looked in the office,” Anna told him. “It is not there.”
“We can look again.” Jupe’s round face assumed a hopeful expression. “We might think of something you missed.”
“If you like.” Anna began to clear the table.
The Three Investigators went immediately to the office, which was still a jumble of papers, folders, and ledgers.
“I think we are wasting our time here, Jupe,” said Pete. “Cousin Anna and her husband have really turned this place upside down. They’d have found a pin if it had been lost here.”
“I agree.” Jupe sat down at the desk. From the kitchen came the clatter of dishes and the rushing sound of water filling the sink. “But we may discover what Anna’s husband was doing in here last night when everyone else was in bed. Hans and Konrad have asked us to find out all we can about Havemeyer. So first we’ll find out what interests him so much in this office.” Jupe began leafing through a stack of papers on the desk. “Hm. A letter from Hans, and another from Konrad. This one’s over two years old. Anna must have saved all the letters her cousins sent her.”
“No reason for Havemeyer to sit up all night reading them, is there?” Bob took a ledger from the stack on the bookcase and began to page through it. “Hans and Konrad are here now, in the flesh, and if he wants to know anything about them he can just ask.”
“No reason at all.” Jupe leaned on his elbows and began to pull at his lower lip, a sure sign that he was concentrating intensely.
“Say, here’s something,” said Bob.