The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [29]
“Dr. Brandon, isn’t it curious that your fossils were also stolen?” said Jupe.
“It isn’t curious,” snapped Brandon. “It stinks!”
“But is it likely that a second thief is involved?” said Jupe. “Let’s assume that the same person who took your hominid from the cabinet also took the cave man. Who knew about the hominid in the cabinet?”
Brandon was suddenly attentive.
“My gosh! You’re right! It’s presence in Citrus Grove wasn’t publicized. Well, the people at the foundation knew. Mrs. Collinwood. Dr. Terreano here.”
“What about Eleanor Hess?” said Jupe.
“That scared little rabbit of a girl?” Brandon said. “She wouldn’t have the nerve to steal even if she knew about my hominid. And yet … yet I think she watches me. I’ve caught her staring at me. She peeks out from behind the furniture. It’s very strange.”
Terreano laughed.
“Didn’t you know?” he said. “She’s got a crush on you. She has all the symptoms.
She bumps into things when you’re around, and she drops things. She’s very young.
It’s just a nice schoolgirl crush.”
“Oh, blast!” said Brandon. He had gone rather red.
“Eleanor Hess is in an intriguing position,” said Jupiter. “She’s familiar with the doings of the people here, and she knows everything about the McAfee house.”
Brandon looked narrowly at Jupe.
“Just why are you so interested?” he asked.
“My friends and I are detectives,” said Jupe.
“Detectives?” Brandon chuckled.
“Yes,” said Jupe, pulling a small card out of his pocket and handing it to Brandon.
It read:
THE THREE INVESTIGATORS
“We Investigate Anything”
? ? ?
First Investigator – Jupiter Jones
Second Investigator – Peter Crenshaw
Records and Research – Bob Andrews
“Very impressive,” said Brandon, passing the card to Terreano and winking at him.
“We are not amateurs, Mr. Brandon,” said Jupe with great dignity. “We have solved puzzles that have baffled sleuths far older than ourselves. Usually we act on behalf of a client. This time, however, we have no client. But the riddle of a kidnapped cave man is unique. We are most anxious to find out what really happened.”
“That makes two of us,” said Brandon sincerely. “All right, my curious young friend, I agree that Eleanor Hess is in an interesting position. She is Newt McAfee’s niece, and also an employee here. But she doesn’t have the nerve to pull off a theft.”
“She was very friendly with Dr. Birkensteen,” said Jupe. “Could there be some connection between the theft of the cave man and Dr. Birkensteen’s trip to Rocky Beach?”
“When he died?” said Terreano. “But that was almost three months ago! Before the cave man was even discovered!”
“Even so,” said Jupiter, “do you know why Dr. Birkensteen went to Rocky Beach?”
Brandon scowled. “No. He didn’t confide in any of us.”
“I think Eleanor knows,” said Jupe, “but she doesn’t confide in anyone either.
There are pages missing from Dr. Birkensteen’s appointments book. They are the pages for the end of April and the beginning of May. I was wondering if I might look at his notes for those days. They might hold some clue.”
Brandon looked at Terreano, and then nodded.
“Everything is still in Birkensteen’s room,” he told Jupiter. “His papers haven’t been disturbed.”
The three left Brandon’s workroom and went down the corridor to Birkensteen’s laboratory.
There were sheaves of notes. They were neatly arranged in loose-leaf folders marked “Reaction Times” and “Manual Dexterity” and “Communications Skills”.
There were notebooks having to do with chemical stimulation and with X-ray exposure times, and there were headings that Jupe could not even begin to comprehend.
“It would take another geneticist to explain it,” said Terreano.
Jupe nodded. “Still,” he said, “there might be something. And remote as it might seem, there may be a connection with the cave man.”
There was silence in the laboratory after that as Jupe and Brandon and Terreano leafed through the notebooks. After a while Jupe said, “There are no notes for experiments after