“Shelby was Alejandro, wasn’t he?” said Mr. Sebastian.
“Alejandro is his middle name,” said Jupe. “His mother was from Mesa d’Oro. She was a terrorist who had to flee the country, and she married an American named Tuckerman. Shelby is named after his father, and after Alejandro, his mother’s father.
“Although Shelby is an American, his mother raised him to believe that he is an aristocrat of Mesa d’Oro, and that the cause there is all-important. Shelby’s mother was very active. She spoke at fund-raising events and made a lot of money for Mesa d’Oro. After she died a few years ago, Shelby tried to take over and do the same thing. He didn’t have the magic, however. He couldn’t persuade people to give till it hurt, so he became a courier instead.”
“How did you know he had kept back some of the robbery loot?” asked Mr. Sebastian.
“I didn’t, but it seemed a reasonable guess. I had to say something to delay Ernie and Shelby so Mr. Bonestell would have time to get the police. Also, I was afraid of what Shelby might do if Ernie departed on the Maria and left Shelby behind. We and the Denicolas could accuse him, couldn’t we? But if Shelby got his hands on Mr. Bonestell and then silenced all of us . . .”
Jupe stopped. He looked grim.
“Yes,” said Mr. Sebastian. “Your position was delicate. You’re probably lucky that Ernie took Shelby when he got aboard the Maria III.”
“I know we’re lucky,” said Bob. “You see, it was Shelby who brought me to the motel. He discovered me at Strauss’s place when he arrived with the first half of the gun money. Boy, was he mad! I heard him arguing with Ernie about what to do with me. Ernie didn’t care because he was leaving the country. But Shelby was on the spot. He tried to convince Ernie to take me on the boat and drop me overboard at sea!”
Mr. Sebastian grimaced. “You boys could certainly make things hot for him, but was there any actual proof that he was part of the bank robbery?”
Pete chuckled. “Right there in the ice-cream carton, like Jupe guessed. Shelby was supposed to fence some jewellery that Ernie took from safe-deposit boxes during the robbery. But Shelby hung on to the prime pieces, and they were there in the freezer for the police to find. They were identified by the owners.
“And the police found the makeup and the wigs in the trunk of Shelby’s car. Shelby thought it was daring and dramatic of him to be the lookout for the robbers while he was disguised as the terrorist Altranto.”
Mr. Sebastian laughed. “I guess I’m glad this was your case, not mine,” he said. “Shelby is so busy playacting it’s hard to believe he’s for real.”
“He’s for real, all right,” said Jupe. “So are Ernie and his friends. They’re doing their own kind of playacting right now. If you’re a terrorist in Mesa d’Oro and you get caught, it’s stylish to boast about how really black your crimes have been. It seems to make you a hero, instead of just an unbalanced person who likes explosives and firearms.”
“Better a revolutionary than a beach bum, eh?” said Mr. Sebastian.
“Nobler,” said Jupiter. “Of course, I should have suspected Shelby right away. He was in the perfect position to know about the routine at the bank, and he said to Mr. Bonestell, ‘According to your system of justice, you’re innocent until you’re proven guilty.’ A person who thought of himself as an American would have said, ‘According to our system of justice . . .’ ”
“True,” said Mr. Sebastian, “but don’t be so hard on yourself. You did all right.”
Bob grinned. “Thanks for not saying, ‘You did all right for a bunch of kids.’ ”
“You did all right, period,” said Mr. Sebastian. “You did better than a lot of investigators might have done. I imagine Shelby was anxious for Mr. Bonestell to hire you because he thought you wouldn’t do all right. Then, later, he must have had second thoughts about it and tried to wire your workshop for sound.”
“And he wired the sugar bowl on the table,” said Jupe. “Once I found the bug in the sugar bowl, I knew he was the scar-faced man and the link to the robbers. But I didn’t guess that gun-running was involved. I thought it might be drugs or aliens.”
“Speaking of gun-running, what about that moving company in Oxnard?” asked Mr. Sebastian.
“Strauss and his cronies are hijackers,” said Bob. “The shipment of guns and ammunition was hijacked from a truck back east. Divers recovered some of the guns and they’ve been identified. Strauss and his men have disappeared. They left everything and ran. We heard that the trucks and equipment they left behind were no great loss. Pacific States Moving and Storage Company was about to declare bankruptcy.”
“It must be hard to run an efficient moving business when you’re so busy with stolen goods,” said Mr. Sebastian. “Well, what about the makeup woman who made the speech at the rally that night?”
“Grade Montoya wasn’t part of the plot,” said Pete. “Her family’s from Mesa d’Oro and she was brought up to believe in the Republican cause, that’s all.”
“It’s a tradition,” said Jupiter. “It’s handed down from parent to child. I think Gracie is having second thoughts about that tradition now. She didn’t mind collecting money for an exile in Mexico, but collecting money for guns to kill people–that’s something else.”
“The police asked her about the fight she had with Ernie,” Bob put in. “He wanted a date with her, and she didn’t want to go out with him. That’s all that was about.”
“Good for her,” said Mr. Sebastian.
He handed the file back to Bob. “These are good notes,” he said.
“I’m glad you like them,” said Bob, “because, if you’re not too busy, maybe you’d do something for us.”
Mr Sebastian looked inquiringly at the boys. It was Jupe who put the request to him at last.
“Mr. Hitchcock used to introduce our cases for us,” he said. “I know you’re busy with your own writing, but the introduction needn’t be long.”
Mr. Sebastian grinned. “I’ll do my best. And when I’m finished, perhaps you’ll take me up on my original offer of a speedboat ride. Of course, I’m not so dashing with a boat as Eileen Denicola, and we probably won’t sink any fishing boats. On the other hand, you never really know.”
Mr. Sebastian paused and grinned. “That’s what makes life interesting, isn’t it? You never really know!”