“Who’s there, Marvin?” called Madeline Bainbridge.
“Bunch of kids. They probably came up from Malibu,” said Gray. “Ought to call the sheriff and have them thrown in the clink!”
Jupe’s heart began to beat wildly. Was it possible that Gray didn’t recognize him?
“Hey, mister,” said Jupe. “Call the dog, huh?”
“All right, Bruno,” said Gray. “Here, boy!”
The dog stopped growling and went to Gray.
“Now what are you doing here?” asked Gray again. “Can’t you see this is private property?”
“Not in the dark,” said Jupe boldly. “We were hiking in the hills. We got off the path and we couldn’t find our way back.”
“Marvin!” Madeline Bainbridge sounded impatient. “Let the boys go, and come back. You’re holding us up!”
Jupiter looked past Gray to Madeline Bainbridge. Then he glanced at Gray. Gray looked hesitant. He obviously couldn’t decide what to do.
Jupe started towards Bainbridge. “We’re really very sorry,” he said. “We didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“The circle!” gasped Clara Adams. “He’s profaning the circle!”
Jupe went on towards the table where the women stood, repeating his apologies. One hand was at his belt, unfastening the antenna of the walkie-talkie. With the other hand he held the little radio set at his side, out of sight of the women. He was quite near the table when the antenna came away from his waist. He stumbled on something in his path and fell, stretched out full length on the ground, his head and shoulders almost under the table.
“Marvin!” cried Madeline Bainbridge.
Jupe’s hands disappeared for a moment under the black cloth that draped the table. Then he pulled himself to his hands and knees. “Sorry,” he said again. “That was clumsy of me. We didn’t mean to upset you, honest. If you could just point us in the direction of the road . . .” Jupe got to his feet.
“Marvin, show these boys how to get to the main road,” said Madeline Bainbridge.
“Thank you,” said Jupiter.
Gray led The Three Investigators out from under the trees. He pointed across the fields to the place where, as the boys knew, the paved road led down to the Coast Highway. “There!” said Gray. “Keep going until you hit the road. Then turn right and don’t come back.”
“Thanks a lot, mister,” said Pete.
Gray stood watching as The Three Investigators walked away through the tall, moonlit grass.
“He isn’t going to take his eyes off us until we’re off this property,” predicted Bob.
“I don’t blame him,” said Jupiter. “Would you want strangers at secret rites in your backyard? Let’s hope that he doesn’t look under the table and discover that I put my walkie-talkie there!”
“So that’s why you fell!” exclaimed Pete.
“I thought it might be interesting to listen in on any conversation that occurs after we leave,” said Jupe. “I wrapped part of the antenna wire around the set so that the button is pressed down. The radio won’t receive, but it should send. Let’s not go too far or we’ll be out of range.”
The boys stepped from the meadow on to the paved road. Bob looked back. Marvin Gray had disappeared. “He’s probably back in the grove of oak trees,” Bob said. He followed Jupe and Pete down the road to the shelter of a clump of bushes.
“Turn on your set, Bob,” said Jupiter. “Let’s listen in on the coven.”
Bob knelt beside the bushes and turned the knob that activated his set.
“. . . gone for the time being,” they heard Gray say. “They won’t try to come back. Not after Bruno pinned them down that way.”
“I had hoped that Bruno was locked up someplace,” Jupe muttered.
Gray was speaking again. “It was dumb to let them go,” he declared.
“What should we have done?” said Madeline Bainbridge.
“Run them off a cliff!” growled Gray.
“Marvin!” cried a woman’s voice. It was not Madeline Bainbridge, so the boys assumed that Clara Adams had been shocked at Gray’s suggestion.
“Well, I don’t like kids snooping around,” said Gray. “They’ll go home and talk about what they’ve seen. Next thing we know, there’ll be photographers and reporters hiding behind every tree. I can see the headlines now: ‘Mystery Rites at Movie Star’s Ranch!’ Before you know it, the cops are poking around and–”
“We hardly need to worry about the police,” said Madeline Bainbridge. “We’re doing nothing wrong.”
“Not now!” said Gray.
“Not ever!” said the actress.
“Then you want the cops up here?” asked Gray. “You should have used your power on those kids, just the way you did on Desparto that night!”
“I never harmed Ramon!” cried the movie star. “Not even when he betrayed me!”
“Of course not!” Gray’s voice was mocking. “You wished him long life and happiness.”
“Marvin, don’t!” Clara Adams pleaded.
“You keep bringing that up!” The actress’s voice was rough with anger. “Over and over again. All right, I was furious with Ramon. But I didn’t hurt him. I wouldn’t use my power to hurt anyone, and you know it. In fact, you’re counting on it, aren’t you?”
“Madeline! Please!” said Clara Adams.
“Okay, okay!” grumbled Gray. “There’s no use going on with the rite now. Let’s get into the house.” He raised his voice. “Bruno! Here, Bruno!”
“Perhaps we should leave the dog outside,” said Clara Adams, “just in case those boys come back.”
“They won’t come back,” predicted Gray. “And if we leave him out, he’ll get restless at three in the morning and set up a howl, and I’ll have to get up to let him in. That’s what we get for raising a guard dog who thinks he’s a member of the family.”
There was no more conversation from the walkie-talkie. After a few moments, Jupiter drew a deep breath. “Marvin Gray wanted Madeline Bainbridge to use her power on us, just as she used it on Ramon Desparto,” he said. “What, I wonder, did she do to Desparto?”
“Nothing, according to her,” answered Bob. “She said she never harmed anybody.”
“Desparto died in an auto accident,” said Pete. “The brakes on his car failed when he was leaving here one night after a party.”
“Was it a party?” said Jupiter. “Or was it like the ritual we saw tonight? One thing we now know for sure: Madeline Bainbridge is a witch, or she thinks she’s a witch. And she believes she has some kind of power.”
“The power to . . . to kill someone?” said Pete. His voice was very low.
“Murder by magic?” Bob shook his head. “Impossible!”
“Perhaps,” said Jupiter. “However, it appears that Madeline Bainbridge feels some guilt about Desparto. She wouldn’t deny her responsibility so furiously if she didn’t believe it was possible for her to have hurt him in some fashion.”
“That Marvin Gray,” said Pete. “Why’d he get her all stirred up that way? He didn’t have to rake up that stuff from the past.”
“Perhaps he’s manipulating her,” said Jupe. “He may be the real power in her household–perhaps the only power.”
“I don’t like him,” said Pete.
“Nor do I,” agreed Jupe. “Not after hearing him over the walkie-talkie. The man’s a bully I wonder if he tells lies just to protect Madeline Bainbridge’s privacy. He may be even more interested in protecting his own.”
“Jupe?” said Bob. “Could Gray have been involved in the theft of her manuscript?”
Jupe shrugged. “I don’t see why or how. He couldn’t have taken the manuscript himself–he was being interviewed by Jefferson Long when it was stolen. And he has no apparent motive for theft. Quite the opposite. As Bainbridge’s business manager, it’s to his advantage to have the book published and earning money. But did he talk to someone–anyone–about the book? Or did Bainbridge? After what we’ve heard tonight, I’m almost sure the answer to the mystery of the missing manuscript is hidden in Bainbridge’s past–in that magic circle which existed long ago.”
Jupe stood up. “We’ve done all we can do tonight. I’ll go and retrieve my walkie-talkie and meet you where we left our bikes. Tomorrow . . . tomorrow we investigate the former coven.”
“If that’s what it was,” said Bob.
“I think that’s just what it was,” said Jupiter, and he started across the fields towards the haunted wood.
9
The Crime Fighter
“YOU’RE KIDDING!” said Beefy Tremayne. “Madeline Bainbridge really is a witch?”
Beefy was guiding his sports car along Santa Monica Boulevard. Jupiter sat beside him, and Pete and Bob were squeezed into the back seat.
“She’s a witch now,” declared Jupiter, “and it seems more than likely that she was a witch back in the days when she was active in films. We think that she may have headed a coven, and that sinister things may have gone on among the people in it. Someone who was involved may well want to prevent her memoirs from being published. We plan to interview her close associates to see if we can establish some connection with Bainbridge within the last couple of days. We have to find someone who knew where the manuscript was on the night before last.”