The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [44]
“The McAfees had really convinced her that they were the only ones who could ever care about her. She told Mrs. Collinwood at one point that Thalia McAfee said she was such a poor hopeless thing that nobody would ever marry her, and after Newt and Thalia were gone, she’d wind up waiting on tables at some greasy cafe and living in a rented room somewhere. I don’t think Eleanor really believed it, but she wasn’t too sure. And she had no education or training. The McAfees saw to that.”
Mr. Sebastian shook his head. “Vicious people,” he said. “They should go to jail, along with DiStefano.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” said Bob. “My mum says not to worry, though. People like that find a way to make themselves miserable.”
“But whose idea was it to hold the relics hostage?” said Mr. Sebastian. “Was it Eleanor’s? Did she think it was a way to get even?”
“Eleanor isn’t really sure who thought of it first,” said Jupiter. “She had told DiStefano about Dr. Birkensteen’s formula. After Birkensteen died, the members of the board of the foundation planned to go through his papers and decide what to do with them. When he learned this, DiStefano suggested to Eleanor that it would be a shame to let a terrific thing like the anaesthetic get away. He said they could really make money with a thing that would put everybody to sleep and then evaporate without leaving a trace.
“Eleanor says now that she thought he was joking, and she said something like,
‘Sure. We could put Uncle Newt to sleep and run off with his cave man and sell him to the nearest museum.’ She claims she didn’t mean it when she said it, but DiStefano picked up on the idea and said, ‘We wouldn’t sell the cave man. We’d hold him for ransom.’
“She still thought DiStefano was joking, but the more they talked about it, the more sense it seemed to make. Eleanor knew it would be wrong, and she didn’t really like DiStefano a lot. She says he was always trying to get something for nothing. But he kept talking about how she never got an even break from the McAfees, and he laughed about how funny it would be to put the whole town to sleep. Eleanor finally decided it was all right and showed him where to find Birkensteen’s formula and also the key to the museum. She did have something coming to her from that Hollywood house. She never thought — DiStefano would ask for ten thousand, and she never thought he’d try to leave town with the formula and perhaps use it to commit other crimes elsewhere.”
Mr. Sebastian nodded. “There’s almost no limit to the criminal possibilities of a formula like that,” he said. “He could rob banks, clean out jewellery stores — do almost anything that occurred to him.”
“What he will do is some hard time,” said Bob. “He’s been charged with extortion and burglary and kidnapping, to say nothing of resisting arrest. And just for good measure, it’s a felony to use an anaesthetic on another person so that you can commit a crime, so they’ve got him for putting the town to sleep. He’s a real creep. He thought no one would ever catch him. I don’t know why, but he did.”
“It’s an almost universal failing of criminals,” said Mr. Sebastian. “They never think they’ll get caught. But what about Hoffer? Where is he?”
“He’s gone from the Spicer Foundation — in disgrace,” said Jupe. “He probably will never have to do more than pay a fine, but it’s known now that he made a vicious attempt to destroy Brandon’s reputation. He’ll have a hard time keeping his own reputation. And of course he won’t get the Spicer Grant. The board of the foundation has decided that no one will get it this year.
“The irony of the whole thing is that Hoffer might have got the money if only he’d kept still — let Brandon alone. His work is valuable.”
“What about the bones?” said Mr. Sebastian.
“Both sets are locked up at the sheriffs station,