“Now, Sonny Elmquist was asleep when the burglary took place, so he couldn’t be guilty. Bob’s investigation at Ruxton confirmed that. Bob learned that Elmquist could possibly be in two places at once, but that he couldn’t do anything, move anything, while he wandered. Harley Johnson had an easily checked alibi for the night of the burglary. That left Alex Hassell and John Murphy.
“Both Hassell and Murphy were away from home at the time of the burglary,” continued Jupe. “And both heard Mrs Bortz announce that she was going to drain the pool. I remembered later that her words startled Murphy. And later that evening he drove off somewhere.”
“No doubt to get the explosive,” put in Mr Hitchcock. “It isn’t the sort of thing one keeps around the house.”
“He went to a friend who manufactures chemicals,” said Jupe. “The device he wired to Mrs Bortz’s car wasn’t really deadly, but it did make a lot of noise and smoke. He only wanted to upset her so that she’d forget about the pool for a day or two. That’s all the time he needed–a day or two.
“I would have been sure sooner that Murphy was the burglar if it hadn’t been for that fire in his apartment. I didn’t think it was an accident because Murphy was careful with his cigarettes. He looked like still one more victim of the criminal. He had no apparent connection with the pool, but I thought that possibly the burglar wanted to remove all potential witnesses. So I began to think that Alex Hassell was the criminal–that he had gotten into Murphy’s apartment and set the fire in some way. We wouldn’t have seen him–we weren’t watching our TV monitor carefully when the fire started. Hassell could then have moved to the motel to try to establish an alibi, just as Murphy actually had himself moved to the hospital.
“But when the letter came with the directions for the delivery of the ransom, I knew the burglar couldn’t be Hassell. It had to be Murphy. The ransom was to be put in the waste-paper bin in the park at exactly five o’clock, and that’s when Hassell fed the cats! If Hassell had been the burglar, the ransom would have been delivered at some other time–never at five.”
Mr Hitchcock laughed. “No. Never at five. Even if he had been willing to keep the cats waiting, he wouldn’t have dared to say five o’clock. His absence would have been noticed. But why did Murphy take such chances for ten thousand dollars? He was a reputable broker. Did he need money that badly?”
“He thought he did,” Jupe answered. “He confessed that, as Harley’s guardian, he had borrowed money from Harley’s account for his own speculations on the stock market. He lost it all. Harley will be of age next month. At that time, Murphy would have to explain the missing money–and the explanation would put him in jail. So he desperately needed ten thousand dollars to put back into Harley’s account.”
Mr Hitchcock sighed. “A sad story, and an old one.”
“Harley has forgiven him,” said Jupiter. “But of course, the matter is out of Harley’s hands. It’s up to the courts. Murphy did strike Earl, and he did send poisoned chocolates to Gwen Chalmers so that she’d be too ill to swim. And he did commit a burglary and attempt to extort money from Mr Prentice.”
“Which brings us to another point,” said Mr Hitchcock. “How did Murphy know the Carpathian Hound would be at Lucan Court that day?”
“Sonny Elmquist told him!” said Bob. “Jupe was right all along–there was a connection between the shadow in Prentice’s apartment and the burglary. You see, last Monday Elmquist’s astral body overheard Prentice on the phone, making arrangements with Charles Niedland for the delivery of the dog. At least, that’s what we think happened. Elmquist denies it–claims he heard the story from Mrs Bortz earlier. But she didn’t know exactly when the Hound was arriving.
“At any rate, after Elmquist woke up from his wandering, he ran into Murphy in the courtyard and mentioned the Hound to him. Elmquist didn’t know what the Hound really was–but Murphy knew the name Niedland and could guess. So he went over to Lucan Court with a ski mask and gun, intending to hold up Niedland.”
“He certainly was desperate,” commented Mr Hitchcock.
“Yeah, and he got more so!” put in Pete. “I mean, he thought he could just grab the crystal dog and run right home. Everything looked a cinch when Niedland wasn’t even there. But then the cops came and almost caught him. He didn’t dare go home, so he ran into the church and started thinking fast. He posed as a statue, then beaned poor old Earl with his gun, and hid the crystal dog. Then he slipped outside, tossed his mask and dark jacket in the rubbish bin near the park, and strolled home.”
“And went back for the dog the next night, disguised as the phantom priest!” exclaimed the director.
Jupe shook his head. “No. Murphy told us that he saw the phantom priest, too!”
“Hm!” said Alfred Hitchcock.
“It shook him up a lot,” Pete continued. “But he pulled himself together and beat it, locking in Jupe behind him. Later, after everything quietened down, he lowered the dog into the pool. We figure Elmquist was wandering around in his astral body and saw him do it. Elmquist was home that night.”
“What will happen to Elmquist?” asked the director.
“Nothing,” said Pete. “Maybe he intended to commit a crime and hold on to the Hound, but he didn’t actually do it. He didn’t have a chance. He’s still hoping to get to India, but right now he isn’t going any farther than West Los Angeles. Mr Prentice got in touch with the company that owns the building. They made Elmquist move.”
“Has his astral body returned to haunt Prentice?” Mr Hitchcock wanted to know.
“No. He’s been gone two weeks now, and Mr Prentice has had nothing but peace. Mrs Bortz left, too. Said the neighbourhood was going to the dogs, with all those crimes, and she just couldn’t be responsible. Mr Prentice has a new manager in the apartment house. He says she doesn’t care what the tenants do, so long as they don’t play their stereos too loud or swim after ten at night. Mr Prentice is very glad. He doesn’t have to worry about snoopers any more.”
“So all of his problems have been solved,” said Mr Hitchcock. “But there is still the matter of the phantom priest.”
“Possibly Elmquist in his astral body,” said Jupiter. “When seen in his astral form, he was always wearing whatever his real body then wore. In a white turtleneck and dark sweater, he might look like a priest at a distance. But there’s still the problem of the white hair–Elmquist’s is black–and the candle. I don’t think an astral body can hold a real, flickering candle.
“A second possibility is that the phantom priest was Elmquist in the flesh. Elmquist’s astral body might have seen the crystal dog in the church, and Elmquist himself might have come over to investigate. Assuming he had a little larceny in his heart, he could have disguised himself as the phantom priest to scare off anyone who came in. But there’s a problem with this explanation, too–how would Elmquist get outside again when the doors were locked after my rescue?”
Alfred Hitchcock nodded. “And that leaves you with a third possibility . . .”
“That there is a phantom priest!” finished Bob. “We will never really know.”