The Mystery of Monster Mountain - Carey M. V. - Страница 7

“I can see why that’s important,” said Pete, “but couldn’t you go to the bank and explain that you lost the key? They’d give you a duplicate, wouldn’t they?”

“My father lost the key to his safe deposit box,” said Bob. “He didn’t have any trouble about it. Oh, he did have to see an officer at the bank, and I think they had to change the lock on his box. There was a fee for that, but not very much.”

“I am embarrassed,” said Anna. “At the bank in Bishop they have much respect for me. They know I am careful, and when I needed money to buy the ski lift, they lent it to me. I do not wish to go to the bank and say I have been so foolish that I lost such an important thing.”

“Very well,” said Jupiter. “The Three Investigators should be able to save you that embarrassment. It can’t be an impossible task. The inn isn’t large. Where did you usually keep the key, by the way?”

“In the drawer of my desk. But now… ” Anna spread her hands in a gesture of despair. “I remember thinking that my inn would be empty, and I would hide the key in case someone breaks in. But I cannot remember where.”

“So we search,” said Pete. He pushed back his chair and got up from the table.

“Shall we start with the office?” asked Jupiter.

“We have already looked in the office,” Anna told him. “It is not there.”

“We can look again.” Jupe’s round face assumed a hopeful expression. “We might think of something you missed.”

“If you like.” Anna began to clear the table.

The Three Investigators went immediately to the office, which was still a jumble of papers, folders, and ledgers.

“I think we’re wasting our time here, Jupe,” said Pete. “Cousin Anna and her husband have really turned this place upside down. They’d have found a pin if it had been lost here.”

“I agree.” Jupe sat down at the desk. From the kitchen came the clatter of dishes and the rushing sound of water filling the sink. “But we may discover what Anna’s husband was doing in here last night when everyone else was in bed. Hans and Konrad have asked us to find out all we can about Havemeyer. So first we’ll find out what interests him so much in this office.”

Jupe began leafing through a stack of papers on the desk. “Hmmm. A letter from Hans, and another from Konrad. This one’s over two years old. Anna must have saved all the letters her cousins sent her.”

“No reason for Havemeyer to sit up all night reading them, is there?” Bob took a ledger from the stack on the bookcase and began to page through it. “Hans and Konrad are here now, in the flesh, and if he wants to know anything about them he can just ask.”

“No reason at all.” Jupe leaned on his elbows and began to pull at his lower lip, a sure sign that he was concentrating intensely.

“Say, here’s something,” said Bob. He thrust a ledger across the desk to Jupiter. “Cousin Anna’s record of her savings.”

“That’s a pretty hefty bankbook,” observed Pete.

“It’s not a bankbook at all. It’s only a record book. There’s a column for money put in, and one for money taken out, and the last column on each page is for money that’s available.”

Jupiter nipped the pages until he was halfway through the ledger. Then he stopped. “The latest entry is for the week before last.” he told Bob and Pete. “The week before last, Anna put 176 dollars wherever she puts her money. She took nothing out, and the last column indicates that she has 10,823 dollars available.”

“Wow!” cried Pete. “If that’s in cash, Cousin Anna is way ahead of about ninety percent of the American public. I learned that in social studies this year. Most people never have cash, and they’re so far in debt that a flat tire can be a real emergency.”

“So Cousin Anna is very well off,” said Jupe. “But, we’d better find her key as quickly as possible, and then get to a telephone in the village and call your father. I’d be very interested to know if the credit bureau in Reno has a file on Havemeyer.”

“You think he could be planning to get his mitts on Cousin Anna’s loot?” asked Pete.

“It’s possible. Certainly Hans and Konrad suspect this, and it’s easy to see that Hans and Konrad make him uncomfortable. He was not pleased when they decided to spend their vacation here helping with the pool. And that doesn’t make sense. The pool itself doesn’t make sense. Sweeping the yard doesn’t make sense. A tranquilizer gun doesn’t make sense.”

Jupe held up a warning hand at the sound of footsteps in the living room. A few seconds later, Anna appeared at the door of the office. “Well?” she said.

“You were right,” Jupiter told her. “The key isn’t here.”

“We’ll search the rest of the inn,” Bob assured her. “Will Mr. Jensen and Mr. Smathers mind if we look in their rooms? Would you hide the key in a guest room?”

“Perhaps,” said Anna. “I had no guests when I left for my wedding. But do not touch the luggage. It is not necessary, and they would be very angry if you touched their things.”

“Of course not.” Jupe stood up. “Would you like us to straighten this room for you?”

“It is better if I do it,” said Anna. “You will not know where things belong.”

“Very well.” Jupe came out from behind the desk. He was almost at the door when he stopped, struck by a sudden thought. “Have you used your checkbook lately?” he asked Anna. “I didn’t see a checkbook here.”

“I do not have a checkbook,” Anna told him. “I always pay for things with cash.”

“Everything?” Jupe was astonished. “Isn’t it dangerous to keep a lot of cash here?”

“I do not keep much cash here,” said Anna.

“I keep my money in the bank, in the safe deposit box. You see, that is why the key is so important. Soon I must pay my bills. I will need money. Also, my husband has ordered cement for the swimming pool. I wish to pay for that when it is delivered.”

“In cash?” asked Jupe.

“It is safer,” declared Cousin Anna. “If I have a checkbook, someone can steal my checks and sign my name. Someone can take all I have before I even know. If I have real money, I do not keep more than I need and no one steals it. I put it under my pillow at night. In the daytime, I have it with me.”

“I don’t think the police would approve of your system, Mrs. Havemeyer,” said Jupiter. “If you pay cash for everything, people must know that you have large sums here from time to time. Suppose someone held you up?”

Cousin Anna smiled. “I think my husband would shoot someone who did that,” she said.

“You know” said Pete, “I think he would!”

6

Monster Mountain

The Three Investigators devoted the rest of the morning to a painstaking search of the inn. They turned back rugs and peeked under bureaus and felt along the tops of window frames and doorways. Pete got up on a chair and took all the dishes down from the top shelves in the kitchen. Bob shook each jar, upended every cup, and probed the flour cannister and the sugar bowl with a long spoon. Jupe scanned every rafter on the second floor of the inn, and then went down into the basement to poke in cracks and corners in the cement walls. Anna’s shoes were taken out of the closet and examined. Her coat pockets were searched and her handbags were turned out.

“Are you sure it’s here?” asked Jupe, when he and Bob and Pete assembled for lunch. “Are you sure you didn’t drop it someplace — perhaps at the bank the last time you used it?”

Anna was sure.

Pete slumped at the table. “Beats me,” he said. “We’ve gone over every inch of this place. How could you hide anything that well and not remember where you hid it? That takes genius!”

Anna sighed and put a platter of grilled cheese sandwiches on the table. “Perhaps you should rest and look again tomorrow,” she suggested. “I will try to remember. But I try and try, and I cannot remember.”

“Don’t try,” advised Jupiter. “Don’t even think about it and it may come to you.”