The Mystery Of Wandering Caveman Part 14

Jupiter nodded. "In spite of his carelessness, he almost succeeded. Oddly enough, it was his one attempt to be careful that tripped him up. He destroyed the pages in Birkensteen's calendar where Birkensteen had noted his appointment with the anaesthetist and possibly other events having to do with the anaesthetic. When I discovered that the pages were missing, Eleanor had to pretend she didn't know why.

But I was sure she did."

"Poor, foolish Eleanor," said Mr. Sebastian. "Do you think DiStefano would have gone off and left her in that crypt? And left you?"

"Who knows?" said Jupiter. "He probably didn't bother to think about what would happen to us eventually, and I doubt that he cared."

"The guy's mind jumps around like a gra.s.shopper," said Pete. "He just didn't pay attention to what he was doing. Like carrying around that scuba gear when he didn't swim, and not getting rid of that green pen."

"He picked up the ransom money from under the picnic table in a rest area between Citrus Grove and Centerdale," said Bob, "and he tossed it into the trunk of his car and left it there. The shoes he wore when he stole the cave man were under his bed in Centerdale. With the photograph the sheriff has of the footprint in the cave, they became evidence."

"What made you suspect him at the end?" asked Mr. Sebastian. "He did have an alibi for the time the cave man was stolen."

"I think it was the fact that he was never present when anything happened," said Jupe. "He always bobbed up later. He wasn't asleep in the park with the rest of us when the theft took place. The day the bones were found in the trunk, he didn't even walk over to the railway station to see what was happening. Any normally curious person would have wanted to see for himself.

"Also, he was the only one who seemed to be a.s.sociated with all the elements of the case. He knew Eleanor Hess, so he could know about Newt McAfee's keys. And from Eleanor, he could know about Birkensteen's chemical that put people to sleep.

He knew the routine at the foundation and the plans for the opening of the cave.

"His alibi for the time of the theft did seem airtight until I realized that his landlady hadn't actually seen him - she'd just heard him snoring. It turned out that he had taped an hour and a half of loud snoring and put it on his tape deck. He told his landlady he wasn't well, turned on the tape, and went out the window and over to Citrus Grove. He didn't have to worry about the landlady looking in on him, because she never did. He didn't like to be looked in on.

"He drove to the Citrus Grove reservoir, probably along back roads to avoid being seen. He put the anaesthetic into the water, then waited for the sprinklers to go off.

He had reset the timer, of course, so that the sprinklers would go off at ten twenty.

Once the sprinklers went off, he went down to the museum wearing his scuba gear, sprayed John the Gypsy with the chemical, swiped the key to the museum from the McAfees' kitchen, and went ahead with his crime. He put the fossils into a sack and took them to the train station. They were in the trunk in the baggage room before anyone woke up.

"Some of that has to be conjecture because DiStefano won't talk, but we can deduce what happened. We have a witness who saw his car parked by the reservoir, and Eleanor saw him leave the foundation the afternoon before the theft with the scuba gear. The anaesthetic was taken from Birkensteen's laboratory, of course.

"Eleanor was shocked and frightened when he asked for ten thousand in ransom, instead of just one or two, but she was afraid to pull out of the plot."

"Poor, foolish girl," said Mr. Sebastian again. "What will happen to her?"

"She'll testify against DiStefano," said Pete, "and she'll probably be on probation for a while. But she won't go to prison. She's ashamed of her part in the scheme, and I guess that figures."

"She's talked freely and in detail," Jupe added. "She admits that she talked about Newt and Thalia McAfee behind their backs, even though she never had the courage to stand up to them. She resented the way they treated her, and she hated never having any money when they were probably getting a good rent for that house in Hollywood. Yet she was afraid to leave and go out on her own.

"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 n.o.body 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 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." 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 is valuable." valuable."

"What about the bones?" said Mr. Sebastian.

"Both sets are locked up at the sheriffs station," said Jupe. "They won't be released until DiStefano's and Hoffer's cases are disposed of. Newt McAfee is hopping mad because he can't open his museum until then. Dr. Brandon is going to Sacramento to see the governor about having McAfee's hillside made into a reservation of some kind so that he and Terreano can search for more fossils. He also hopes to have the bones made available to him for study before they go on exhibit.

"Eleanor Hess will move into her house in Hollywood. The tenants there notified McAfee that they wanted to move, so she'll live in the house and turn it into a residence for girls who come to the city and have no place to stay. It will give her some income while she goes to college and she won't be lonely."

"I approve," said Mr. Sebastian. "And what about that astounding anaesthetic?"

"DiStefano had a paper in his pocket when he was arrested," said Pete. "When the deputies took the handcuffs off him at the jail, just as they were going to book him, he ate the paper. They think it was the formula for the anaesthetic. Evidently DiStefano destroyed Birkensteen's laboratory notes. They can't be found anywhere."

"So all's well that ends well," said Mr. Sebastian.

"Except that we'll never know if the anaesthetic could have benefited humanity,"

said Jupe.

"Just one last thing," said Sebastian. "Jupe! how did you guess where Hoffer put the cave man?"

"It was only a guess," Jupe admitted, "but the crypt seemed logical. Hoffer would be afraid to hide the bones anywhere in the foundation, and he would hardly take the time to bury them in the middle of the night when he was barefoot and almost naked.

"The sheriffs men recovered the bones from one of the niches in the wall of the crypt. The niches had been emptied and the bodies removed to the cemetery in Centerdale when the church was abandoned and the property sold."

"I see," said Mr. Sebastian. "All right. I will flush these strange little cakes and this drinkable melon flip down the drain, and if you like we can go to Marvin's Marvellous Burgers and eat ourselves out of shape!"

"Great!" cried Pete.

"But before we go," said Jupiter, "if you aren't too busy, would you be willing to introduce this case? We'd really appreciate it."

Mr. Sebastian smiled. "It is a bizarre and, well, a nutty case, and I am greatly impressed with your sleuthing. I'll be delighted to write an introduction. In fact, it will be the first thing I compose on my word processor. Now I'm extra glad I bought that machine. At the rate you boys encounter mysteries, I'm really going to need it!"

THE END.