The Mystery of the Singing Serpent - M. V. Carey [25]
“You don’t think he’ll come back here?”
Jupe hesitated. “He might be brazen enough to try,” he told Allie, “but we got into his apartment and we saw enough to make us suspect that Bentley might be trying to blackmail your aunt. He has a credit report on her. Also, it was Bentley who was hiding in the garage the night your aunt and Ariel met with the members of the fellowship. He has a tape recording of that meeting.”
“That doesn’t figure,” said Allie. “You couldn’t blackmail Aunt Pat. She’s clean.”
“If she’s clean, why is she so upset about Mrs. Compton’s accident?”
Allie didn’t answer.
“Where is your aunt, by the way?” asked Jupe.
“She’s upstairs crying.”
“And Hugo Ariel?”
“He’s in the library, doing whatever he does.”
“Have you heard that singing again?”
“No. It’s peaceful as a tomb here, and just about as cheery,” said Allie.
“Well, keep your eyes open,” called Pete, “and let us know if Bentley shows up.”
But Bentley did not show up. Allie called the Jones house first thing in the morning to report the nonappearance of her houseman. Later in the day, Jupiter and Bob rode down to Santa Monica, to Tennyson Place. The windows in the little building behind the stucco house looked blank, and again Jupe rang the bell at the main house. A wispy woman answered the door and told Jupe that it would not be possible for him to deliver a prescription from the drugstore to her tenant in the garage, since he was no longer there.
He had moved out that morning and had left no forwarding address.
“Do you recall what moving company he used?” asked Jupe. “There’s an unpaid bill at the store.”
“He moved himself,” said the woman. “He went someplace and got a car and a trailer and moved himself. He didn’t have that much to move.”
Jupe thanked her and rejoined Bob on the sidewalk. “I think we’ll hear nothing at present from Bentley,” he told Bob. “I don’t know whether I’m glad or sorry.”
Chapter 13
The Empress Diamonds
“I’M BEGINNING TO MISS BENTLEY,” Allie told Jupiter on the third day after the houseman’s disappearance. “He at least moved around. Aunt Pat sits in her room and broods, or she sits on the patio and broods. Ariel hovers. He hardly lets her out of his sight.”
“Is he hovering this morning?”
“No. He’s having his hair cut.”
“What do they talk about?” asked Jupe. He and Allie were leaning on the fence in back of the Jamison house, watching Allie’s horse.
“They don’t.”
“I’m afraid your aunt is involved in something sinister,” said Jupe. “Bob has been researching witchcraft, and many of the things your aunt has been doing are mentioned in the witchcraft books. Drawing a circle around her bed with a knife is one. There are also many formulas for invoking spirits or casting spells which involve lighted candles.”
“We haven’t lit any candles for days,” said Allie.
“The auction of the Castillo estate takes place next week,” Jupiter told her. “Does your aunt plan to attend? Mrs. Compton won’t be there to bid on that crystal ball.”
“No, Mrs. Compton won’t go anyplace for months. Her leg was broken in two places.
But I don’t think Aunt Pat plans anything,” said Allie. “She’s numb. The only thing she does is call the hospital every day to check and see how Mrs. Compton is doing, and even then she doesn’t talk to Mrs. Compton. She talks to the nurse.”
Allie looked toward the front of the house. A black limousine had pulled into the drive.
A chauffeur got out and opened the back door, and an elegant man dressed in striped trousers and a morning coat emerged from the car holding a package in his gloved hands.
Jupe goggled. Such glory was seldom seen in Rocky Beach, and never at eleven in the morning.
Allie’s eyes narrowed. “Van Storen and Chatsworth!” she announced. “Everything they do is a major production. They can’t make a plain old delivery. I think my mother’s necklace is home again. Suppose we meander inside and watch what happens?”
Jupe followed her in through the kitchen. Aunt Pat Osborne was in the hall in the act of accepting the package from the messenger. Jupe