The Mystery of the Rogues' Reunion - Marc Brandel [32]
Who? Bonehead? But Bonehead had always been the worst actor of all the Wee Rogues. Most of the time he couldn’t even remember his lines. And when he did remember them, he could never speak them as though he meant them. His only talent had been wiggling his big ears.
The wind was whistling around the old mobile home hidden behind its pile of junk.
And Bonehead had an open sports car. It gave Jupe on idea. He picked up the phone once more and called Gordon Harker. He arranged with the chauffeur to collect Pete and Bob and bring them to the salvage yard as quickly as he could.
After Jupe had hung up, he sat for a few more minutes behind his desk. With the plan that had formed in his mind, he would have a use for that secret investigator’s camera sooner than he had expected. There was a tiny darkroom inside Headquarters. Jupe went into it and loaded the camera with film. It had been impossible to fit spools into the flat case. The one flaw in Jupe’s new invention was that it was only equipped to take a single exposure before the film had to be changed.
But a single exposure would be enough if the First Investigator’s hunch was correct and he timed it just right.
He slipped the camera back under his lapel and adjusted the lens in his buttonhole. It hardly showed, a small circle of glass surrounded by a brass star that could easily have been mistaken for a badge.
He didn’t have to wait long for Pete and Bob at the gate.
“Some wind,” Bob said as Jupe climbed into the back of the limousine.
“Yes,” he agreed. “A lucky wind. At least I hope it will be.”
He didn’t explain what he meant by that. He didn’t say anything else until Gordon Harker parked the limousine across the street from the Magnolia Arms.
“You go, Pete,” he said then.
“Oh, no,” the Second Investigator protested. “Not another special job for me.”
Jupe smiled. “All you have to do is look in the car park,’’ he said. “See if Bonehead’s sports car is there.”
Pete was back in three minutes.
“Yep,” he said. “It’s there all right. A little red job,”
Jupe leaned forward in his seat. “Is the top down?” he asked.
“Yep. One of those canvas things.”
Jupe nodded, pleased. “Let’s hope it stays down,” he said. “Then it really could be a lucky wind.”
He glanced at his watch. Not quite half past twelve. There was no telling how long they might have to wait before Bonehead left for the television studio, and he didn’t want to wait in the limousine, parked directly across from the archway in front of the apartments. Bonehead was sure to notice the long black car as soon as he stepped out onto the pavement.
Ten metres away was the entrance to a narrow cross street running into Las Palmas.
“Could you park down there?” he asked Gordon Harker. “Facing Las Palmas? Then whichever way he turns when he comes out of the car park, we’ll be able to follow him.’’
“Sure,” the chauffeur agreed. “Good idea.”
He drove the limousine forward, then backed into the cross street, pulling far enough back from Las Palmas not to be noticeable from the courtyard.
Jupe checked his camera, then sat back to wait.
It was just after one o’clock when the Three Investigators saw Bonehead walk out through the archway and head for the car park. Gordon Harker switched on the ignition. By the time Bonehead’s little red sports car pulled out on to Las Palmas and made a right turn towards Hollywood Boulevard, the limousine was already gliding forward.
Harker went after Bonehead.
Bonehead made another right turn on the boulevard. He was obviously going to the television studio.
“Keep a little behind him,” Jupe advised the chauffeur. “Then when I say ‘Now,’ speed up and come up beside him. Get me as close to him as you can.’’
The First Investigator was sitting on the right hand side in the back seat. Looking through the windscreen, he could see the red sports car with Bonehead at the wheel. His long blond hair was streaming back