The Mystery Of Wandering Caveman Part 9

"And I'll go to Centerdale," Pete decided.

"What's in Centerdale?" asked Bob.

"I don't know for sure," said Pete, "but it's the next town down the road, and that's where the ransom note for the cave man was mailed. Maybe I can pick up some clues there."

"Good enough," said Jupe. He closed his eyes and listened to the clock in the church tower down the road begin to strike the hour. He began to count the strokes, but didn't finish. He dropped off to sleep, and it seemed only a minute later that he woke to find Pete shaking him.

"It's almost eight," said Pete. "Let's go!"

Bob was already up. Jupe and Pete joined him at the outside tap, and the three washed, s.h.i.+vering in the chill air.

The boys ate a hearty breakfast at the cafe on the main street, and then they separated. Jupe went up the road to the Spicer Foundation.

The front door of the big house was open, and he could hear Mrs. Collinwood inside.

"I could swear it wasn't there yesterday," said Mrs. Collinwood. "I looked and looked."

Jupe peeped through the door. Mrs. Collinwood was in the living room. This morning she wore a brown wig that fell almost to her shoulders.

"I told you it would turn up," said a second woman. She was dressed in a blue uniform and a white ap.r.o.n. She had a feather duster in her hand, and she stood and watched Mrs. Collinwood adjust her wig in front of a mirror.

"You mislaid it, that's all," she said.

"It wasn't there!" insisted Mrs. Collinwood. "You don't just mislay a wig!"

The woman trailed away with her duster, and Mrs. Collinwood noticed Jupe hovering in the doorway.

"If you've come to see Eleanor, she's not here yet," said Mrs. Collinwood.

"Is Dr. Brandon in?" Jupe asked.

"He is, if you've got the gumption to face him," said Mrs. Collinwood. "You know where his room is."

Jupe thanked her and went through the living room and into the hall. Even before he reached Brandon's workroom, he could hear the archaeologist. Brandon was shouting, and there were b.u.mps and crashes. It sounded as if he were throwing things.

Jupe hesitated in front of the workroom door, wondering whether he dared to knock. Suddenly the door was s.n.a.t.c.hed open.

"What is it?" shouted Brandon when he saw Jupe. "What do you want?"

"Don't take the boy's head off," said a second person. It was Terreano, sitting quietly in an armchair near Brandon's desk.

Brandon opened his mouth as if to shout again, but suddenly he smiled. "I'm sorry," he said. "Come on in."

Jupe entered the workroom. He saw books and papers scattered on the floor, and the typewriter table upset.

Terreano smiled at him. "Excuse the mess. Dr. Brandon was giving vent to some strong feelings."

Brandon flushed and looked embarra.s.sed. He picked up the typewriter table and set it in place next to the desk. Then he picked up the typewriter. The roller dropped to the floor and bounced away.

"Oh, blast!" cried Brandon.

"Dr. Brandon never actually strikes anyone," said Terreano, "but he's very hard on the furniture."

"Who wouldn't be mad?" demanded Brandon. "That b.u.t.terball McAfee is saying I stole his cave man to keep the sightseers from trampling it, and then I sent a ransom note so it would look as if somebody else did it. Then, according to him, I hid the fossil bones I had here so it would look like some kind of nut was running around taking bones." Brandon glared at Jupe. "McAfee had the gall to telephone and say that. I may kill him!"

"Jim, n.o.body seriously believes that you stole anything," said Terreano. "McAfee is sore because his cave man is gone. He's striking out blindly."

"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 a.s.sume 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 gos.h.!.+ 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 b.u.mps 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 Jupiter Jones Second Investigator Peter Crenshaw Peter Crenshaw Records and Research Bob Andrews Bob Andrews "Very impressive," said Brandon, pa.s.sing 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 April tenth."

Brandon flipped to the back of the book he held. "You're right," he said. "The last notes in this one are for March twenty-fifth."

They took down book after book and looked at the last entries. There were no notations made after the first days of April.

"But he didn't stop work," said Brandon. "He worked every day. And he was very methodical. He would have made notes. What happened to them?"

"The same thing that happened to the pages from his calendar," said Jupiter.

There was a small stack of magazines on the workbench, and Jupe picked one up and leafed through it. Someone had inserted a slip of paper halfway through to mark a place. The magazine was rubber-stamped "Property of the California State Library".

"Dr. Birkensteen was reading about the effects of Sodium Pentothal on brain function," said Jupe.

"Sodium Pentothal is an anaesthetic," said Terreano. "It deadens feeling. And makes you lose consciousness."

Jupe picked up a second magazine. It was a copy of the Journal of the American Journal of the American Medical a.s.sociation Medical a.s.sociation, and it contained an article on nitrous oxide.

"Another anaesthetic," said Brandon. "I used in dentistry a lot. They call it laughing gas."

There were other magazines and other articles. All were on anaesthetics of one type or another.

"Well, of course," said Terreano. "He operated on the chimps from time to time.

He needed anaesthetics."

"And yesterday an entire town was put to sleep," said Jupe quietly.

Jupe and the two men searched the lab. They found nothing that could possibly be used as an anaesthetic. There was no ether, no Sodium Pentothal. There wasn't even any Novacain.

When Jupe left the laboratory at last, his thoughts were on Eleanor. Could she have taken the notes? If so, why? why? And had she destroyed the pages from the calendar? And had she destroyed the pages from the calendar?

If so, why? why? She was too timid to have taken part in a theft. She was too timid to have taken part in a theft.

Or was was she? she?

Chapter 14.

Questions and More Questions BY NOON PETE CRENSHAW had decided he was wasting his time. Centerdale was larger than Citrus Grove, but not much different. There were two supermarkets instead of just one and four petrol stations instead of two. The Greyhound bus didn't stop in front of the drugstore. It stopped at the Centerdale Hotel. There was nothing suspicious-looking. Besides, Pete didn't know exactly what he was looking for.

He sighed and wished that he had gone to the Spicer Foundation with Jupe. No sooner had this thought crossed his mind when a dusty old car pa.s.sed him on the street and turned a corner.

Driving it was Frank DiStefano.

Pete sprinted to the intersection where the young handyman had turned. He saw DiStefano pull into the driveway of a shabby house halfway down a tree-lined street.

DiStefano parked in the drive and went into the house carrying a brown-paper parcel.

Pete waited. After a minute or two DiStefano came out again. He got into his car, backed out of the drive, and came towards Pete.

Pete looked away as DiStefano neared the corner. After DiStefano turned and sped off in the direction of Citrus Grove, Pete walked down the street to the house where the handyman had parked. He stood staring at it. He was wondering what his next move should be when a car came down the street and turned into the driveway.

It stopped and a plump woman with short grey hair got out.

"Did you want something?" she said to Pete.

"No, ma'am," said Pete. He paused for a second to think of an excuse for loitering there, then he gave a friendly grin. "I was wondering if I could get a lift back to Citrus Grove with Frank DiStefano. I mean, if he should be coming back here. I just saw him drive away."

"Oh, you should have called to him," said the woman. "I'm afraid he's gone for the day."

She looked concerned. "Don't you have any way to get to Citrus Grove?" she said nervously. "You won't hitchhike, I hope. It's so dangerous!"