The Mystery of the Rogues' Reunion - Marc Brandel [15]
“I didn’t steal them.” The First Investigator raised his voice a little. He was feeling thoroughly indignant. “I simply managed to figure out where the thief put them. Bob and Pete and I were sitting around at Headquarters discussing the case and —”
“Headquarters?” the director interrupted him sharply. “What do you mean, ‘Headquarters’?”
“It’s our office at home,” Jupe explained. “It’s where we meet to work on our cases.”
“What cases?” Luther Lomax had raised his voice too. “You’ll be telling me you’re police detectives next.”
“No, we’re not police detectives,” Jupe admitted. “But we are investigators.”
He took a business card from his shirt pocket and gave it to the director. He had printed it himself on an old hand-press Uncle Titus had bought as junk for his salvage yard.
On the card it said:
THE THREE INVESTIGATORS
“We Investigate Anything”
? ? ?
First Investigator – Jupiter Jones
Second Investigator – Peter Crenshaw
Records and Research – Bob Andrews
Under that was the private phone number of their Headquarters in the junkyard.
People often asked what the three question marks stood for. The answer was — mysteries unsolved, riddles unanswered. Luther Lomax didn’t ask anything. He looked at the card as though it were a wooden nickel.
“That doesn’t prove a thing,’ he said.” You could have a card printed saying you were the president of the studio. It certainly doesn’t prove you didn’t steal these cups.”
“But we didn’t,” Bob insisted. “When we came here, we didn’t even know where they were hidden.”
“We thought they might be in one of those paint cans,” Pete said, backing him up.
“And then Jupe figured out they were in that arc light,” Bob went on. “How, Jupe? I mean, how did you figure it out?”
“It was too high,” the First Investigator explained absently. “It was the only light whose pole was extended to its full length. And I wondered why.” He spoke as though his mind was on something else. He was looking at the director in a thoughtful way. The truth was he was trying to think of some way of convincing Luther Lomax that he and Bob and Pete actually were investigators and not thieves. It was obvious the director wasn’t going to believe them. But there might be someone else he would listen to.
“Mr. Lomax, do you know Hector Sebastian?” Jupe asked.
“The mystery writer? I’ve heard of him. Why?”
“He’s a good friend of ours. And he knows all about us, about our being investigators. He’s taken a lot of interest in our cases.”
The director was still holding the Three Investigators card in his hand. He scrunched it impatiently and dropped it on the floor.
“What do you expect me to do?” he demanded. “Ask Hector Sebastian to give you a reference?”
“Why not?”
Lomax hesitated. “I’ve never even met the man and I don’t know his phone number.”
“I do.” Jupe took a pencil and another of his business cards from his pocket and wrote the number on the back of it. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind your calling him,” he said.
Lomax still hesitated for a second, then walked over to the phone on the far wall of the sound stage.
The Three Investigators watched him while he dialled the number and then, although they couldn’t hear what he was saying at that distance, they could see him talking on the phone. He talked for a surprisingly long time.
He was smiling when he finally hung up and walked back to them.
“He remembered my name,” the director said in a surprised but pleased voice. “I didn’t think he would. You see, when the studio was going to make a film of his novel, Dark Legacy, I was hoping to direct it, and then …” He shrugged in a resentful way. “And then the studio decided to put a younger man on it.” He smiled again. “It was a few years ago, but he remembered at once who I was. Hector Sebastian remembered my name.”
“But what did he say about us?” Pete asked.
“Oh.” Luther Lomax shook his head as though to bring himself back to the present. “Oh, yes. It’s okay.