The Mystery of the Rogues' Reunion - Marc Brandel [19]
One thing the First Investigator did know: the television studio where the quiz show was going to be taped was on the seventeenth floor and the lift hadn’t stopped there. Footsie hadn’t been on his way to the studio, so there was a chance he was simply visiting someone in the building. There was a chance he might come back through the lobby.
Jupe decided to stay where he was, to wait and see. He didn’t have long to wait. In less than five minutes Footsie walked past him again, carrying an envelope. He headed out to the street.
Keeping well behind so as not to be seen, Jupiter followed him. As he stepped out onto the pavement he was just in time to see Footsie pull an old motorbike away from the kerb, jump onto it, and splutter away down the boulevard in the direction of the movie studio on Vine Street.
Jupe looked around. A few yards away an elderly woman was getting out of a taxi in front of the network building. Jupe waited until she had paid the fare, then he jumped into the back of the cab. “Where to?” the driver asked him. Jupe leaned forward, thinking fast. If Footsie was going to the sound stage, as Jupe thought he was, there was no point in following him there. It would be much better for Jupe to get there first and hide himself on the sound stage before Footsie arrived.
He gave the driver the address of the movie studio on Vine Street. From the sound of that motorbike’s sputtering engine he was sure the taxi could get there much faster than Footsie could.
He was right. The cab passed the motorbike at the second set of traffic lights. The studio was only two miles farther on, just off Hollywood Boulevard.
Jupe paid the cab driver at the studio gates, showed his pass to the guard, and hurried down the deserted street of famous buildings to the door of Stage Nine. Using the key Luther Lomax had given him, he unfastened the padlock and stepped inside.
It was completely dark in the vast sound stage. Jupe wished he had brought his torch with him. But there was no time to waste on regret. If Footsie was on his way to retrieve the stolen silver cups, he would be there any second now.
Leaving the heavily-padded door open a few inches to give himself some light, Jupe started to grope his way towards the kitchen set at the far end of the huge building. He had gone less than ten metres when he heard a soft thud behind him. He turned quickly, looking back towards the door. There was no gleam of light showing from it now. It had been shut from the outside.
As quickly as he could in the total darkness, the First Investigator found his way back to the padded door. He pushed against it. He pushed harder. He leaned his shoulder against the soft padding and pushed as hard as he could.
He couldn’t move it. Someone had snapped the padlock back into place. He was locked in! Jupe was trapped in the huge soundproofed building. No matter how loudly he called, no one outside would be able to hear him. There was no hope of his being rescued by chance either. No one in the studio would be trying to enter this sound stage until the first shift of workers showed up on Monday morning.
And in less than an hour and a half Bloodhound and Peggy and the others would begin taping the first of the Wee Rogues quiz shows.
Jupe stood absolutely still for a minute. His mind was racing, but not with panic. It was working in an orderly, methodical way. He was forming a plan, steps to be taken. One. Two. Three.
Step One. He needed light.
He remembered the evening before: Luther Lomax moving away from the master control panel after he had surprised the Three Investigators just as they were finding those silver cups.
Jupe groped his way carefully down the wall of the sound stage towards the far end where the kitchen set was. It seemed a long time before his reaching fingers touched the big metal switch box. He found the catch and swung the front of it open. His hand brushed against a switch handle. He pulled