“Are your dreams always about danger?” Jupe asked.
“Oh, no!” She smiled suddenly. “I dreamed of a young lady with red hair before my son Alfredo met Eileen. That was a good dream . . .”
Jupe saw that she was about to embark on family history, and hastily changed the subject. “The man you call Ernesto–is he a relative?”
“No that one!” She looked scornful. “He is what we call the beach bum, eh? He does not amount to much. But perhaps he has a good heart. Those two who live with him in the little house on the beach, they are from South America. Always Ernesto has one or two from South America. They live with him until they have jobs. They learn a little English. Then they move on. I think Ernesto’s father was from South America, and once he needed such help, and now Ernesto gives help out of respect for his father. And so no one is completely without worth.”
Mrs. Denicola frowned now. “And you?” she said to Jupe. “You did not really come to find a wallet, did you? And your friend who pretends to be a schoolboy idler–I think he was spying, was he not? Who does he spy on? On Ernesto? Something is happening that we do not know. Something that is hidden from Eileen and me.”
“I think something is happening,” said Jupiter. “But I don’t know exactly what. Mrs. Denicola, you dreamed of a blind man who found a wallet. Have you seen that man since your dream? When you were awake?”
“No. I have not seen him.”
“But my friend Bob has seen him, and so have I,” said Jupe.
Jupe took a Three Investigators card out of his wallet, wrote a number on it, and gave it to her. “If you see the blind man, would you call this number?” he said. “If I’m not there, someone will take the message. And if anything unusual happens–perhaps something Ernie does or says–would you let us know? I’m worried about my friend.”
“Yes,” she said. “You are wise to worry.”
“In fact,” said Jupe, “I’d like to use your telephone, if I may. Maybe there’s been some word from Bob.”
Mrs. Denicola gestured towards the hall, and Jupe went to the telephone there. He dialled the number of Headquarters. Pete answered after half a ring.
“Hey, Bob called,” said Pete. “Just after you left. He was somewhere in Oxnard. He said there’s a new person in our puzzle–a guy named Strauss. He’s going to see if he can find out what he’s up to, and he’ll check in later this afternoon.”
“Good!” said Jupe. “He left his bike here, and I was afraid something had happened to him.”
“No. He’s okay. Where are you?”
“I’m with Mrs. Denicola. I’ll be back later.”
Jupe hung up. Mrs. Denicola had come to stand beside him. “So your friend is all right?” she said.
Jupe smiled. “Yes. He called from Oxnard. He had an . . . an errand to do there.”
“Very good,” she said. “So for now the mind is relieved and I go to get dinner for my guest, who comes soon. And you, you will be about your business, I think. But go carefully, eh?”
Jupe promised he would. He then headed up the highway to the house where Ernie lived with the two young men from South America.
Jupe found a good place to sit on a bank of ice plant across the road. He held his camera and he waited. It was more than an hour before a dusty old truck rolled down the highway and deposited one of Ernie’s room-mates beside the road.
Jupe aimed the camera. The shutter clicked and clicked again. Before Ernie’s friend disappeared into the little house, Jupe had photographed him six times with the telephoto lens.
Jupe relaxed and prepared to wait some more. When the Maria III came into view, he smiled. The fishing boat ran past him and docked at the pier. Two figures left the boat. Ernie and Eileen. Sooner or later, thought Jupe, Ernie would return to the house across the road. In the meantime, Jupe would wait for the second room-mate.
The minutes ticked by, and Jupe watched the gulls dip and soar over the beach. When he looked to the left he could see Denicola’s driveway. Now and then a car turned in there, and now and then one pulled out again. The Denicola house blocked Jupe’s view of the office, but he guessed Eileen Denicola was inside it. Possibly Ernie was helping her.
Jupe looked away and surveyed the beach to the right. Surf fishermen were there, busy with their lines, and a man was slowly making his way along the beach with a metal detector. Surfers waited for waves far out in the water. Clouds were building up on the horizon, and the wind was colder. The day had started clear and beautiful, but it would end in rain.
Ernie’s room-mate came out of the house across the road and started down towards the pier.
Jupe glanced at his watch. It was almost three now. Bob had told Pete that both of Ernie’s room-mates were on hand this morning. Where was the third man now?
Jupe looked towards the Denicola house. Earlier he had seen a station wagon parked in the carport beside the house. Now he suddenly noticed that it was gone. When had it been moved? He had not seen anyone drive it away. He had been hypnotized–lulled by the wind and the gulls and the sound of the surf.
Jupe got up and started to walk down the highway. When he was opposite Denicola’s driveway, Jupe saw that Eileen Denicola was not in the office near the pier. Ernie was there, sitting in Mrs. Denicola’s chair with his feet up on her desk. He was smoking, leaning back and laughing easily. His room-mate sat cross-legged on the desk, and he seemed to be telling a story to Ernie. His face was animated and he talked steadily, his hands making motions in the air.
Where was Eileen Denicola? Was she in the house with her mother-in-law? What would she say if she looked out and saw Ernie and his friend lounging in her office, sitting on her desk? Jupe felt quite certain that she would be furious.
But then Jupe noticed that the house had a vacant air. The windows were closed and the drapes had been drawn. As Jupe wondered, a car pulled into the drive and stopped by the house. A white-haired woman got out, carrying a little package wrapped in pink paper. Jupe guessed that she must be Mrs. Denicola’s dinner guest. He watched her ring the doorbell of the Denicola house. No one came, and after a minute she rang again. Still there was no answer. She walked across to the office.
Ernie had been watching her, and he got slowly to his feet. His friend still sat cross-legged on the desk.
Ernie and the woman exchanged a few words. Then she wrote something on a paper, folded it, and handed it to Ernie. When she returned to her car, her face was set in angry lines.
Ernie sat down after she drove away. He put his feet back on the desk, and flipped the note the woman had given him into the wastebasket.
Ernie’s friend laughed.
Now Jupe was thoroughly alarmed. He turned away and walked up the highway until the Denicola house was between himself and the men in the office. Then he crossed the road to the house.
There was an unlocked window in the rear of the place, next to the kitchen door. When Jupe got the window open, he reached through and turned the lock on the inside of the door. He went into the kitchen and closed the door behind him, but did not lock it again. He might have to leave in a hurry.
The kitchen was warm, and the air was heavy with the smell of food. But the sauce for pasta was congealing in a kettle on the stove, and a roast was cooling in the oven while greens for salad grew warm in a colander. Old Mrs. Denicola must have left in a hurry.
Jupe moved silently into the dining room, where the table had been set for three. The room was gloomy with the drapes drawn, and so was the living room where he had sat with Mrs. Denicola only an hour or two earlier. In the living room there was now an unpleasant tang in the air that almost overcame the odour of food from the kitchen. Jupe saw that someone had dropped a cigarette on Mrs. Denicola’s hearth, and had stepped on it to put it out.
Jupe went to the foot of the stairs and called softly, although he really did not expect to be answered.
“Mrs. Denicola! Are you there? It’s me! Jupiter Jones!”
There was silence in the house. After a moment Jupe went up the stairs.