The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [18]
“The man’s been drinking!” said someone in the crowd.
But John had not been drinking, and the caveman was truly gone.
Eventually the television people withdrew, and the sheriff left two men on guard and drove away. The bystanders drifted off. McAfee stood by the barn talking to one of the deputies who had stayed to keep watch. And the Three Investigators, who had been hovering around, walked over to the museum.
“Sorry, boys,” said the deputy who stood at the door of the museum. “You can’t come in here.”
Jupe eyed the door, which was partly open. “The person who stole the bones had a key, didn’t he?” he said.
The deputy looked surprised, and he glanced around at the door.
“The door isn’t damaged in any way,” said Jupe. “Neither is the door frame. If the intruder had had to break in, there would be marks on the door and the frame.”
The deputy grinned, then stepped aside. “All right, Sherlock Holmes,” he said.
“Want to look in here and see what else you can tell me?”
Jupe went into the museum with Pete and Bob.
The small building was orderly except for black smudges where the fingerprint team had been working. Jupe glanced around, then crossed the room and looked into the lighted cavern. The dirt on the floor of the cave was disturbed where the bones had been but was otherwise smooth.
It was then that Jupe noticed a single footprint in the dirt beside the place where the bones had rested. “That print was made by someone wearing rubber-soled shoes,”
said Jupe. “Newt McAfee wears cowboy boots and John the Gypsy wears laced-up work boots with leather soles. I deduce that since Mr. McAfee and John were the only people who were in here today before the theft, the print was made by the person who took the fossils. The thief wore sneakers or running shoes with a star pattern in the middle of the heel and in the sole.”
The deputy nodded. “That’s how we see it. A photographer took a shot of that print. We can’t go rummaging through closets to find the shoes that made the print, but you never know when a photo will come in handy as evidence.”
Jupe took a metal tape measure from his pocket and measured the print. It was twelve inches long.
“A fairly large man,” said Jupe.
The deputy grinned. “You’re doing okay. Are you going to be a detective some day?”
“I’m a detective now,” said Jupe. He didn’t bother to explain this remark. Instead he looked around, puzzled. “Why?” he said. “That’s what I don’t understand.
Someone went to a lot of trouble. Someone obviously introduced some chemical into the sprinkler system to put the town to sleep …”
“That’s what we figure,” said the deputy. “One of our guys took samples of the water from the sprinklers for testing in the lab. They’ll test the water from the reservoir, too, just above town. That’s where the water supply comes from.”
“It’s bizarre,” said Jupiter. “Like a science fiction movie. With the town asleep, the thief puts on a frightening disguise and creeps up on John the Gypsy and probably sprays him with something that will knock him out. Or perhaps vapours from the sprinklers affect him all the way up here. Then the thief gets into the museum and makes off with the fossils.
“And the question remains, why? Old bones aren’t valuable in themselves, like gold or jewellery. And they are important only when linked to the site where they were discovered. The two people most interested in the stolen bones are McAfee and Brandon, and they were both unconscious when the crime took place.”
“A weird crime,” agreed the deputy. “And we don’t even know what to call it. Is it grand larceny, and should squads of men be working on it, running down every lead?
Or is it just petty larceny, or even just malicious mischief?”
“Do you think you’ll be able to find the thief?” asked Bob.
“Odds are we won’t.” The deputy looked discouraged. “A lot of thefts never do get solved, you know. There are just too many — and not enough law enforcement people. My guess is that this bone case will go into the crime reports and