Eyes gleaming, Jupe reached for the sugar bowl. He poked a finger deep into it and quickly lifted out a small, flat plastic box with perforations in one side.
Mr. Bonestell looked at the thing. “What is it?” he asked.
“A listening device, Mr. Bonestell,” said Jupe. “A bug. You didn’t have to talk to Shelby. Once that sugar bowl was put on the table, he was able to eavesdrop on everything that was said here.”
Jupe went to the kitchen telephone. “Shelby works at Systems TX-4,” he said. “Do you know their number offhand?”
Mr. Bonestell told him the number, “and Jupe dialled. It was just 4:59 when his call went through. He asked to speak to Shelby Tuckerman, and was told that no one by that name worked at Systems TX-4.
“Mr. Tuckerman used to work there,” said Jupe. “When did he leave?”
“I can’t give you that information,” said the operator. “If you call back Monday morning, perhaps someone in Personnel can help you.”
Jupe thanked the operator and hung up.
“He doesn’t work there?” said Mr. Bonestell. “I don’t understand. He has to work there. He was in Fresno on a job for TX-4 just the other day.”
“I doubt that very much,” said Jupe. He went to the refrigerator and opened the freezer compartment. The frozen food that Shelby had put in several days ago was gone. It had been a huge cache of TV dinners and frozen pizzas. But nothing remained except for a single carton of ice cream back in the corner.
Jupiter closed the freezer. “That must be where it was the whole time,” he said.
“What?” said Mr. Bonestell.
“Nothing,” said Jupe. “That is, I’m not sure. And we may be too late. Mr. Bonestell, did you say that Shelby Tuckerman kept his door locked?”
“That’s right. Shelby’s a very private person.”
“An understatement if ever there was one,” said Jupiter. “Mr. Bonestell, I have to get into his room–and I have to do it right away!”
18
The Prisoners
JUPE AND MR. BONESTELL GOT an extension ladder from the garage and put it up on Shelby Tuckerman’s window. The window was unlocked and Jupe got in that way.
There was a recording system set up on the dresser. Jupe rewound the tape on the machine and played it back. He heard the conversation he had just had with Mr. Bonestell. He heard himself dial the telephone and talk with the operator at Systems TX-4. He heard the refrigerator door open and close, and he heard his remark that it might be too late.
Jupe smiled grimly and erased the tape. Then he set the machine to record again, and he turned away and began a quick investigation of Shelby’s room.
It was a strangely barren place. No letters or postcards lay on the desk; no books rested on the bedside table. There were no pictures and no plants. There was not so much as a stray safety pin to show that anyone lived there.
Jupe looked into the closet and saw jackets and shirts and slacks. The pockets were empty. He opened the dresser drawers and saw underwear and socks and turtlenecks.
But then, in the bottom drawer, covered over with folded sweaters, he saw the knife.
It was a very sharp knife, in a fine leather sheath. It was not the kind of knife used for sharpening pencils or for cutting bits of fishing line. It was the kind of knife one might use for throwing.
Jupe left it where it was. He climbed out of the window, and told Mr. Bonestell what he’d found while they put the ladder away.
“I wonder if he wears the knife strapped to his ankle, the way he wears the gun,” said Jupe.
Mr. Bonestell shook his head in a dazed way. “He says he needs the gun because he’s out on the road so much, and you never know what might happen if you break down. But a knife? Why does he need a knife? He doesn’t go camping or anything like that. He doesn’t do anything interesting. Just watches TV and takes a lot of naps.”
Jupe nodded. “He doesn’t act very dashing, but he’s a man with secrets. He bugged your kitchen. And he kept something very valuable in your freezer.”
“What? All he had in there was his frozen food.”
“I don’t think those packages held food. I think they held money. It may have been the loot from the bank robbery.”
“No,” said Mr. Bonestell. “That’s not it. Shelby’s been keeping heaps of frozen food for a long time. It wasn’t that he ate at home. It just seemed to make him feel secure to have food on hand. He knew I hardly ever used the freezer, so he kept it filled with his food.”
“Hm!” said Jupe. He pulled at his lower lip and frowned. “If he didn’t eat at home, what eventually happened to the things in the freezer? Did he ever take anything away?”
“Why, come to think of it, I . . . I don’t know what happened to all the food. Once in a while he cooked. And he did bring in a lot, but . . . but it couldn’t have been money from a robbery unless Shelby’s been a bank robber for a long time. Somehow, I don’t think Shelby is like that.”
“Aha!” said Jupe. “Then it could be drugs. That would explain his connection with the crew at Denicola’s. The Maria III might be used to rendezvous with another boat out at sea. Or perhaps to go to Baja California to get drugs.
“Or perhaps Shelby and Ernie are bringing in illegal immigrants and the blind man–”
Jupe pulled himself up short. “No,” he said. “That wouldn’t have anything to do with the freezer unless . . . well, we can’t be sure. We don’t have enough to go on. Not yet.”
“Are we going to call the police?” said Mr. Bonestell.
“I don’t think we can. How could we prove that Shelby didn’t take his frozen food and give it to the poor? Or that the bug in the sugar bowl isn’t a practical joke? Is Shelby involved with the bank robbery, or is he concerned with something else entirely? What about the Denicolas? Where are they? I have a strong feeling that Shelby knows.”
For the first time, Mr. Bonestell looked determined and angry. “I want to help,” he said. “What can I do?”
“A lot,” said Jupe, and he told his plan to Mr. Bonestell. Bonestell agreed eagerly, and he and Jupe went to the house next door and asked to use the telephone. Mr. Bonestell explained to the woman who came to the door that his own telephone was out of order.
Jupiter called Pete at Headquarters, and Pete agreed to meet Jupe and Mr. Bonestell at the corner of Dolphin Court and Second Street.
“I should be there in twenty minutes,” said Pete.
“In case we’re not there,” said Jupe, “go back to Headquarters and I’ll call you when I can.”
After Jupe finished talking with Pete, he and Mr. Bonestell went to Mr. Bonestell’s backyard and rehearsed. Then they went into the kitchen and put on a brief performance for the benefit of the bug, which Jupe had replaced in the sugar bowl.
“Mr. Bonestell,” said Jupe, being careful to speak clearly, “I know you must be getting impatient, but we may have news for you soon. Eileen Denicola may be about to give us the break we need. Pete was in to see Chief Reynolds in Rocky Beach just a little while ago, and Eileen Denicola called while he was there. Pete only got one end of the conversation, of course, but he gathered Mrs. Denicola was hysterical. Chief Reynolds kept trying to calm her down. Finally he said he’d be right there, and he got up and ran out of the office.”
“But I don’t even know Mrs. Denicola,” said Mr. Bonestell carefully. “What could she have to do with the bank robbery?”
“There’s some connection,” said Jupe. “We’re sure of that. Pete wants us to come to the Rocky Beach Police Station. He thinks Chief Reynolds will bring Mrs. Denicola there.”
“I’ll get my jacket,” said Mr. Bonestell.
Jupe snapped off the overhead light in the kitchen, and he and Mr. Bonestell went out and got into Mr. Bonestell’s little car. Mr. Bonestell backed out of the drive and went to the corner, where he parked in the shadows beneath a huge willow tree that overhung the sidewalk. They waited.
Soon Pete appeared on his bicycle. Mr. Bonestell flicked his headlights on and off to let him know they were there, and Pete stowed his bike under some shrubs that grew nearby. He climbed into the back seat of the car.
“What’s up?” he said eagerly.
“Shelby has been bugging Mr. Bonestell’s kitchen with a device in the sugar bowl,” said Jupe. “He has a voice-activated tape recorder in his bedroom. Does that remind you of anyone?”