The Mystery of the Rogues' Reunion - Marc Brandel [28]
Jupe had figured it all out and come up with the logical and correct solution.
“Do you mind answering a question?” Jupiter said.
“Go ahead,” said Mr. Harker.
“When I was sitting in the sound stage during the taping of the talk show, I noticed you walking towards a group of arc lights behind the set. What were you doing?’’
“Ah,” chuckled the chauffeur. “You caught me. I’ve always been curious about the technical aspects of show business — even when I played Flapjack. There was a chance for me to get close to the lighting and see how it was rigged.”
“That explains it,” Jupiter said, smiling. “And it also explains why an investigator should never make assumptions not based on facts. For a while I suspected that you were the one who stashed the stolen loving cups in that arc light.’’
“Innocent on all counts,” said Mr. Harker. “What are you going to do now? Are you going to give me away, tell everyone who I am?”
“Of course not.” Jupe looked at the other two Investigators. “None of us are going to say a word about it to anybody, are we?”
“No way,” Pete assured him. “Not a single word.”
“No,” Bob agreed. “Your secret’s safe with us, Mr. Harker.”
Gordon Harker let out his breath in a long sigh. “Thanks,’’ he said. “That makes me feel a lot better.” There was a silence. “But we did hope,” Jupe said after a moment. “I mean, you don’t have to. But we wondered if you’d be willing to help us, Mr. Harker.”
“Sure. If I can,” Gordon Harker told him. “What do you want me to do?”
Jupe explained about the stolen silver cups, about Luther Lomax engaging them to find the thief. He took one of the Three Investigators cards from his pocket and showed it to Harker.
“You see,” he said, “when we’re on a case like this — even though we’ve already found those cups — well, we can’t give up until we’ve solved the whole mystery. We have to find out who stole the cups. That’s the way the Three Investigators work. We’ve never left a case unsolved.”
Harker nodded. He seemed to understand that.
“How can I help you?” he asked.
“It seems to me we’ve got two main suspects,” Jupe told him. “Bonehead and Footsie.” He had been thinking about that while waiting for the chauffeur and had come up with an idea that seemed to rule out those coincidences he disliked so much.”
“Let’s suppose they pulled off the cup theft together,” he suggested. “That way, everything begins to make more sense. Bonehead and Footsie agreed to meet at the movie studio today at noon. As far as they knew, those stolen cups were still hidden in that arc light and they wanted to get them. Bonehead was outside the sound stage waiting for Footsie. He saw me go in. It gave him an idea. Winning that twenty thousand dollars was much more important to him than those cups. So he locked me in Stage Nine to keep me away from the quiz show. When Footsie showed up on his motorbike, Bonehead simply told him the sound stage was padlocked, they’d have to try again some other time.”
“So Footsie wasn’t surprised to see you show up in time for the quiz,” Pete put in.
“But Bonehead was,” Bob agreed.
“Right.” Jupe looked at Gordon Harker. “That’s where we need your help,” he said.
“Okay. As a teacher I enjoy solving problems as much as you do.” The tall young man finished his coffee. “But you still haven’t told me what you want me to do.”
“We want to tail them,” Jupe explained. “See if they get together again. See if they go back to that sound stage this evening.”
“Okay.” Gordon Harker stood up. “Where do we start?”
“That’s the whole point.” Jupe stayed in his seat, looking up at Harker. “That’s where we need your help first. We don’t know where either Bonehead or Footsie is living. So we don’t have a place to start unless we can get their addresses.”
“I don’t know.” Harker shook his head. “Neither of them was assigned a limo because they both have their own transportation. Bonehead has a little British open sports job. And Footsie has that motorbike. So the office of Easy-Ride Limos wouldn’t have their addresses