The Mystery Of Wandering Caveman Part 10

"No, ma'am," said Pete. "I can take the bus."

"All right, then." She opened the trunk of the car and started to take out a bag of groceries. Pete hurried to help, and she murmured her thanks and led the way to the side door of the house.

"Are you Mrs. DiStefano?" asked Pete.

"Frank's mother? No indeed. I'm his landlady. He rents a room from me."

Pete put the groceries down on the kitchen table.

"Do you live in Citrus Grove?" said the woman. Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Were you there yesterday when that spooky thing happened and everyone went to sleep? I'll bet there's something getting into our drinking water. The authorities ought to look into it."

"They did," said Pete. "They a.n.a.lysed the water at the crime lab. There wasn't anything in it."

The woman shook her head. "It's scary. I could have shot Frank yesterday. Of all days to be sick, he had to pick yesterday and miss all the excitement. Of course, it's a wonder he isn't sick more often, up till all hours playing that stereo. Yesterday all he could do was lie in bed all morning snoring. If he'd gone to Citrus Grove, he could have told me all about it. I suppose he would have noticed a few things, even if he is so wrapped up in himself that he hardly knows that other people are alive. I would have gone to see the cave myself, but where would I have parked?"

"I don't know," said Pete. He began to back out of the kitchen.

"Should I tell Frank you are here?" asked the woman. "What name should I say?

Not that he gets interested enough to pay a lot of attention to names, but you never can tell."

"Pete," said Pete. "He may not remember me."

"I'll tell him anyway," she promised.

Pete escaped and went back to the main street, where he caught the bus to Citrus Grove.

Pete found Jupiter sitting in an old swing in the McAfees' backyard. Jupe listened to the report on Centerdale and sighed.

"So Frank DiStefano really was sick yesterday morning," Jupe said. "I wondered if he might not have had something to do with the kidnapping, but I guess not. He was the only person we know who had no alibi, and now he has one." He shrugged. "So it goes."

Pete stretched out on the gra.s.s, and Jupe sat brooding and pulling at his lip in a way that signalled intense concentration. Bob found the two of them there when he returned at four o'clock.

"Well?" said Jupe as Bob came up the drive.

"Birkensteen had an appointment with Dr. Henry Childers the day he died," Bob announced triumphantly. "Childers lives on Harbourview Lane. He's an anaesthetist who practises at St. Brendan's Hospital in Santa Monica. When I asked him whether Dr. Birkensteen had left his briefcase there in May, he jumped as if a wasp had stung him. He'd waited for Birkensteen all that day, and Birkensteen never showed. Of course, he later found out about Birkensteen's death."

"An anaesthetist?" said Jupe. "Was he a friend of Birkensteen's?"

"No. A mutual friend at UCLA suggested that he and Birkensteen might meet. He didn't know why Birkensteen wanted to see him, and neither did the UCLA friend.

Anyway, I thought it was super interesting that he was an anaesthetist, so I asked him whether there was an anaesthetic so powerful that it could put an entire town to sleep in seconds."

"Ah!" said Jupe. "What did he say?"

"He said no. He'd heard about what happened here yesterday, but he still said no."

"Urn!" said Jupe.

Just then Eleanor came out on the back porch, nodded to the boys, and headed for the barn. Her uncle followed her outside.

"Ellie, where you goin'?" called Newt.

"Doris Clayton asked me to supper," said Eleanor.

"Well, mind you're home early," warned Newt.

The pickup truck roared and Eleanor backed out of the barn.

Her uncle stood watching her as she drove away.

Jupe came forward from the swing, clearing his throat so that McAfee turned and faced him.

"I was just wondering," Jupe said, "have you heard anything more from the kidnapper?"

"No," said McAfee, disgusted. "And I don't know as I'll tell you when I do." And he stomped inside.

The boys spent part of the evening at the Lazy Daze Cafe wondering about anaesthetics, and part of the evening wandering through town.

Eleanor returned home after midnight. Up in the loft the boys heard her drive the truck into the barn. They also heard Newt McAfee call from the house, demanding to know where she had been until this hour. After she went into the house, the windows were slammed down, and the sounds of raised voices and weeping were m.u.f.fled.

"Golly!" said Pete. "How old is she, anyway? They treat her like a little girl."

"She's old enough to walk away," Bob said.

Things were quiet at the house at last, and the boys dropped off to sleep. They were up early Monday morning and out before anyone in the house was stirring. After breakfast they called Les Wolf to find out when he was returning to Rocky Beach and were happy to learn that he needed to stay in Citrus Grove at least one more day.

The boys were walking back up Main Street when they saw Eleanor drive the truck down the road. She pulled into the petrol station near the park and began to put petrol into the truck.

"She must really have been out joy riding with her girl friend last night," said Bob.

"I saw Newt McAfee fill that tank yesterday, and if it's out of petrol this morning ..."

But Bob stopped, for the pump shut off just after the bell rang for the second time.

Eleanor removed the hose from the tank, put the cap back on, and took money out of her pocket to pay the attendant.

"Two gallons and a bit more," said Jupe, watching Eleanor drive away. "That would be about forty miles on that truck. She could have driven as far as Centerdale, couldn't she?"

"Maybe that girl friend lives in Centerdale," said Pete. "Or maybe she went to meet someone else. Maybe she's topping off the tank so that her uncle won't wonder where all the petrol went."

Jupiter grimaced. "We have no reason to suspect that," he said. "We really don't have a reason to suspect her of anything at all. It's all speculation. Maybe it would be wiser - and more efficient - to simply get everything out in the open and ask her whether she knows anything about the cave man that might be helpful."

"She'll lie," said Bob. "She's lying about the trip to Rocky Beach, isn't she?"

"I think so. But she seems very much alone, and she might be relieved to talk to someone. What have we got to lose?"

"Nothing," said Bob, "only if you want to talk to her, maybe you'd better do it alone. She'll cry, for one thing, and that always makes me feel like a crumb. And we don't want it to look like we're ganging up on her."

"All right," said Jupe.

When the boys reached the McAfee house, they found that Eleanor had already gone up to the foundation, so Jupe left his friends and went up the road after her. He was about to ring the foundation's doorbell when he heard Eleanor shouting.

"What do you mean it's too late?" she cried. "It can't be too late!"

Jupe backed away from the door. The living room window was open, and he turned and looked in.

No one was there. The animal heads on the wall stared blankly into the room.

"I don't care if you've already called him," said Eleanor. "Call him back. Tell him it was all a joke!"

Jupe remembered that there was a telephone on the wall in the hallway outside the laboratories. Evidently Eleanor was using this phone.

"You're a liar!" she snapped. "You didn't do it for me. You don't care what happens to me!"

There was a brief silence. Then Eleanor said, "All right, you'll find out what I'm going to do."

The receiver crashed down.

Jupe stepped away from the window. An instant later the front door was s.n.a.t.c.hed open and Eleanor came out. Her head was up and her lips were set, and she did not glance to the left or the right as she dashed down the steps and out the gate.

Jupe went after her, but he did not call out. He was halfway down the road when he saw her cross the field by the McAfee house and throw open the barn door. Pete and Bob came to the loft window and watched as the pickup truck backed out.

Eleanor made a hasty, jolting turn, then sped into the road and was gone, racing through the town.

Pete and Bob came out of the barn as Jupe reached it.

"Where's she off to?" Pete asked.

"I don't know," said Jupe. "She's very angry about something. I think she's finally going to take some action."

"She's not the only one," said Bob. "Newt McAfee came out about ten minutes ago looking all grim and determined, and his wife was yelling after him to not spend any more money. She said they'd wasted enough on that cave man already. He didn't seem to hear her. He went on down into the town."

"The ransom," said Jupe after a moment. "He's going to pay the ransom! Things are breaking at last!"

Chapter 15.

A Double Surprise "COME ON!" ordered Jupe. "Let's see how Newt handles the ransom payment!"

He trotted off towards town.

"How's he going to pay it?" demanded Pete as he caught up with Jupe. "He didn't take the car."

"Then he's making arrangements," said Jupe impatiently. "Come on!"

The boys went down Main Street. They were just pa.s.sing the little park when they saw McAfee come out of the Lazy Daze Cafe. Mr. Carlson, the cafe owner, was with him, and so were two other men. Jupe recognized one as the man who ran the drugstore. As the four headed for the bank on the corner, they were joined by a man who came hurrying from the motel.

"Just as I suspected," said Jupe. "All the merchants in town have a stake in the cave man, and they're all going to contribute to the ransom."

Jupe sat down on one of the park benches. He saw through the plate-gla.s.s window that the bank manager came from behind his desk to meet the men. He looked very serious as he shook hands with Newt, nodded to the other men, then ushered the group into a room at the rear of the bank.

"What do we do now?" wondered Bob.

"We wait," said Jupe. "And we shouldn't have to wait long."

Five minutes later, as the clock in the church tower was striking ten, Newt McAfee came out of the bank. He carried a canvas money sack. The cafe owner was with him.

"Aha!" said Jupiter.

McAfee and his companion went to the parking lot next to the cafe. They got into a Volkswagen that was parked there and drove off.

"I have a feeling they won't be gone long," said Jupe. He gestured towards the bank across the street. The two men who had entered the bank with McAfee were coming out now with the bank manager. They stood on the pavement for a few minutes, looking anxious and uncertain. Then they went into the Lazy Daze Cafe and sat in a booth near the counter.

The boys waited as the church clock struck ten fifteen and ten thirty. Then Newt and his companion came driving up the street and parked. When they walked into the cafe, Newt was not carrying the money sack.

"Do we dare join the party?" said Jupe.

He stood up and started across the street. After hesitating briefly, the other two boys followed him.

Except for the men in the booth, the counterman, and a waitress who was filling sugar bowls, the cafe was empty when the boys went in. McAfee stared at the boys and then looked away. Jupe and Pete and Bob took a table across the aisle from the men, and Jupe nodded in a friendly fas.h.i.+on.

"Are you waiting for the phone call from the kidnapper?" he said.

McAfee's jaw dropped open, then closed again.

"You paid the ransom, didn't you?" said Jupe.

McAfee floundered out of the booth and grabbed the front of Jupe's s.h.i.+rt. "What do you know?" he demanded. "You ... you're a part of it! You've been spying on us the whole time!"

Jupe didn't struggle. He simply said, "I am not part of anything."

"Hey, Newt, take it easy," said the cafe owner.

McAfee scowled, but he let go of Jupe's s.h.i.+rt.

"Crime is a hobby of mine, and of my friends," said Jupe easily. "It's more than a hobby. It's a vocation. However, we don't commit crimes. We try to solve them, and often we succeed."

"Punk kid!" grumbled McAfee. He went back to the booth.

"Do you think the thief will tell you where the bones are?" said Jupe.

McAfee didn't answer, but the cafe owner spoke up. "We ... we don't have any way of being sure, do we? We can only hope."