The Mystery of the Singing Serpent - M. V. Carey [18]
“I went in after he left, but she wouldn’t talk to me. She told me to run along, so I did, only I didn’t run far.”
“You stayed in the hall,” said Pete.
“You bet I did, and I heard her making a telephone call. She asked to speak to Mr. Van Storen.”
“How long did it take you to get to another telephone?” asked Jupiter Jones.
“Too long,” confessed Allie. “By the time I picked up the receiver downstairs, she was telling someone she’d send in her houseman with a letter of authorization, and a man said,
‘Certainly, Miss Osborne,’ and everybody hung up.”
“So then?” asked Bob.
“So then I heard Aunt Pat moving around upstairs. She called Bentley and he went up, and when he came down he was tucking a package all wrapped in brown paper into his pocket. He went out in Aunt Pat’s car. Said she’d given him an errand to do.”
“Did that interest Mr. Ariel?” questioned Jupe.
“It interested him plenty,” said Allie. “He went up those stairs like a shot out of a cannon.
Aunt Pat was ready for him. I could hear him yelling at her and she yelled back. She said she’d sent Bentley to Beverly Hills to pick up some special face cream for her, and that’s all.”
“Do you believe her?”
“No, and Ariel didn’t either. Only Bentley came back later with the face cream, so what could Ariel say? But it was a lie. Aunt Pat doesn’t buy face cream. She makes her own out of rose petals and glycerin and stuff.”
“Did you question your aunt?” asked Jupe. “Or did you speak to Bentley?”
“I didn’t need to question either of them,” said Allie. “I know where Bentley really went. Mr. Van Storen is one half of the firm of Van Storen and Chatsworth in Beverly Hills. He’s a jeweler and a very good one. I also happen to know the combination of the safe in my mother’s room, so I opened the safe. My mother’s necklace was gone.”
The boys sat silently on the sand for a moment, letting this news sink in.
Jupiter spoke up at last. “Do you mean that your aunt gave a necklace which once belonged to the Empress Eugénie to a man whom she scarcely knows and sent him to the jewelers with it?”
“I never said she was real bright,” said Allie. “She’s a grownup, so she’s supposed to be responsible. So I guess that’s why my mother gave her the combination of the safe — so she could get the necklace out in case the house burned down or something.”
“Does she know that you know the necklace is gone?” asked Bob.
“She sure does. I nailed her the second I got her alone. She claims my mother asked her to have the necklace cleaned while she was away.”
“Not a likely story?” asked Jupiter.
Allie made a wry face. “There’s no emergency about having a necklace cleaned,” she pointed out. “And she didn’t need to send Bentley. Van Storen and Chatsworth would have come for it.”
“So she went to some trouble to get the necklace to the jewelers without Ariel’s knowledge,” said Jupiter. “I think we can come to several conclusions.”
“Such as?”
“First, from what your aunt said about the Compton woman’s accident, it was caused
— or she believes it was caused — because she wished the Compton woman out of the way.
She invoked the power of the fellowship. She feels guilty.
“Second, Ariel is putting some pressure on her. He has stopped playing the role of an honored guest and is trying to bully her. Did he see the houseman with the package?”
“No,” said Allie. “He only saw Bentley get into the car and drive away.”
“Does he know the necklace was in the safe?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. He didn’t try to go near the safe. He only wanted to know why Aunt Pat sent Bentley out.”
“Which brings us back to the mysterious Bentley,” said Jupiter. “Is he the man who was hiding near your house the night your aunt entertained her friends from the fellowship? Or is he a stranger who happened to learn that