The Mystery of the Singing Serpent - M. V. Carey [15]
Chapter 8
The Serpent Strikes
WHEN THE THREE INVESTIGATORS arrived at the Jamison house the next morning, Allie was sitting on the front steps, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“A dream of a man!” she announced. “Listen!”
Jupiter, Bob and Pete listened. From inside the house came the drone of a vacuum cleaner.
“I didn’t even mention it to him,” said Allie. “He stowed his suitcase in Marie’s room, took one look around the house, went for the broom closet and got busy. So much for Aunt Pat’s cobwebs.”
“Then he’ll be living here?” asked Bob.
“Isn’t that nice?” said Allie. “We can really watch him.”
“Let’s hope it will be nice,” replied Jupe. “What did your aunt say when you told her you’d hired a man for the house?”
“Whose house is it, anyway?” demanded Allie. “I told her I’d asked around and this man seemed okay, and she said that was nice of me, dear, and went to bed. She’s fuzzy about details.”
“Where has he worked before?” asked Jupiter.
“He didn’t say and I never pry,” said Allie, virtuously.
“The heck you don’t!” exclaimed Pete.
“Want to see him?” asked Allie. “Think you can tell if he’s the same man who was in the garage?”
“I doubt if I could,” said Jupe. “I hardly saw him. Bob had the best look at him.”
Bob nodded.
“If he is the man,” said Jupe, “don’t accuse him, Bob. Pretend not to recognize him.”
Allie yanked open the screen door and the boys followed her into the house. The new houseman was laboring over the green-gold carpet in the living room. He looked up, saw the boys standing in the hall with Allie and switched off the vacuum.
“Was there something you wanted, Miss Jamison?” he asked.
“Not a thing, Bentley,” said Allie. “We’re going to get some soda.”
“Very well, Miss Jamison.” The man clicked the vacuum on again and continued with his work.
In the kitchen, Allie took four bottles of pop from the refrigerator. “Is it him?” she asked.
“I couldn’t be sure,” admitted Bob. “He’s about the same size and the mustache looks right. But it was dark when that man knocked Jupe down and it all happened so quickly.”
“He doesn’t look like the kind who knocks people down,” said Pete. “He’s sort of …
well, sort of neutral.”
“Beige,” said Allie. “He’s a beige person. Not too tall and not too short and not too thin and not too fat. Sandy hair and eyes that aren’t any particular color. He’d be invisible if he didn’t have that mustache.” She took a bottle opener from a drawer and began to remove the caps from the pop bottles. “And what have you three to report?”
Jupiter quickly outlined the events of the evening before. When he finished, Allie said,
“I think I’m way ahead of you. All you managed to do last night was fall off a wall, while I found a genuine, one-hundred-percent mystery man.”
“You came to us to get rid of a mystery man,” Pete reminded her. “By the way, aren’t you afraid that vacuuming is going to wake your house guest?”
“Ariel went out,” said Allie, and swallowed some soda pop.
“I thought he never went out in the daytime.”
“This morning he went out. He took Aunt Pat’s car and departed for points unknown.”
Aunt Pat appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Allie, who is that man in the living room?” asked Miss Osborne. She was dressed in a lavender housecoat with a purple sash, and her lavender hair was perfectly arranged.
“It’s the new houseman, Aunt Pat,” said Allie. “We hired him last night, remember?”
“Oh, yes. How nice. What did you say his name was, dear?”
“I didn’t,” said Allie, “but it’s Bentley.”
“Bentley. Bentley. Like the car. I’ll remember that.” She smiled in an absent-minded way at the boys, who murmured good-morning to her.
“Can he cook?” Miss Osborne asked Allie.
“He said he could cook.”
“Then I’ll go and talk to him about dinner.” Miss Osborne wandered out of the kitchen.
Allie leaned against the sink. “I don’t care if he runs off with the silverware, just so we get one decent meal out of him. There’s more to this pots and pans stuff than meets the eye.” She turned her head and glanced out into the back court. “Speaking of things