The Mystery of the Scar-faced Beggar - M. V. Carey [33]
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. “No
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ay!”
Ignoring Pete’s protest, Jupe went on. “Maybe he spotted you at that rally and followed you back to Rocky Beach. Or maybe he spotted the two of us at Denicola’s yesterday, or maybe all three of us at Mr. Bonestell’s the night before. Sometime in the last three days we crossed his path, and he followed us here. And just now I think he followed you inside. I wonder if he had a chance to plant another bug before I came in.”
Again Pete looked around as if the blind man lurked at his elbow. Then he and Jupe began to search the workshop. There was no trace of a second bug, and no sign that anything had been disturbed. The barriers of junk that surrounded the workshop were just as usual.
Pete looked very troubled. “I came here from home,” he said. “If he followed me here, you … you don’t suppose he was watching my house, do you?”
“Not necessarily,” said Jupe. “He could have been waiting here at the yard.”
Jupe got nails and a hammer and was preparing to nail up the gate in the fence when Bob appeared. After Bob helped close the secret gate, the three boys withdrew through Tunnel Two to Headquarters. Jupe took his accustomed place behind the desk and prepared to listen to Bob’s report on Gracie Montoya.
“It got interesting for a while,” said Bob, “because somebody named Ernie showed up to see Gracie. He looked like the guy you told me about. He rang the doorbell and Gracie didn’t invite him in. She came out of her apartment and stood by the swimming pool and they yelled at one another in Spanish.”
“No kidding!” Pete looked amused.
Bob nodded. “Actually, she did most of the yelling. He sounded as if he was trying to explain something to her, and she wouldn’t listen. Finally he got mad and he yelled, too. A lady who lived in the next building came out and stood on the sidewalk and listened, and then she threatened to call the police.
“Then the guy left, and Gracie Montoya went back in and got her handbag. I saw her drive away a few minutes later. I waited for half an hour or so but she didn’t come back, so I left.”
“Hm!” said Jupe. “I wonder what that was all about. Now, let’s see where we are.”
Jupe leaned forward, intent. “We can place the beggar at the scene of the crime,”
he said. “And through the wallet, we can also connect him with Ernie and his friends up near the pier. Gracie Montoya is involved with that group and also with Mr.
Bonestell, and it is most interesting that she is a makeup artist. Could she have been the one to disguise someone as the dead terrorist from Mesa d’Oro — Altranto? And could she have disguised herself as a man and taken part in the robbery? She’s tall enough to be one of the thieves, according to Mr. Bonestell’s description. And he told me this afternoon that only the thief who impersonated the cleaning man spoke during that robbery. The other two people never said a word.”
“If one of them was Gracie Montoya, she wouldn’t have said anything,” Pete said.
“Her voice would have given her away.”
“So one of the other robbers may have been a woman,” said Jupe, “or perhaps the other robbers didn’t speak English and didn’t want to reveal that fact. Perhaps they’re from Mesa d’Oro.”
“They could be the two guys who share the house with Ernie,” said Pete. “I mean, I don’t know where those guys come from, but they speak Spanish like natives. Maybe they don’t know any English.”
“And Ernie is fluent in both languages,” said Jupe. Suddenly he was brisk. “I think it’s time we learned more about Ernie and his friends. Bob, you’re the only one who isn’t known to the people at Denicola’s. You could simply hang around the pier.
Someone is always hanging around watching whenever a person works on a boat.
Ernie has already seen both me and Pete, so we can’t do