“Why, yes,” Mrs. Mota said, startled “How on earth did you know my name?”
“We knew that man was coming here,” Jupiter explained. “Unfortunately, he delayed us. We really didn’t expect to find him still here, but I gather that you have just come home?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Mota nodded. “Billy and I were out. We came home only a few minutes ago. Billy went straight up to his room, and the next thing I knew he was calling for help!”
The small boy, no more than ten years old, said eagerly, “He was up on the stairs to the top floor! He jumped down when he saw me and grabbed my crooked cat!”
“Of course, you had the crooked cat with you!” Jupiter understood in a flash. “That was why he was still here! He couldn’t find the cat in the house, so he had to wait!”
“After he had Billy’s cat,” Mrs. Mota went on, “he started down, saw me, and ran up to the second floor. That was when I began to call for help.”
Pete said, “And he climbed out of the second-floor window and down the wall!”
“Like a human fly!” Bob exclaimed.
“Billy,” Jupiter said, “Did you find anything on that crooked cat? Or anything inside it?”
“Nope,” Billy Mota said. “I guess I never looked.”
The boys all looked glumly at each other. The last crooked cat was in the hands of the tattooed man. They stood in the dusk trying to think of what they could do next.
“He got what he wanted,” Bob said. “We’ll never find him.”
“We could still get the licence number of his car traced,” Pete said hopefully.
“That will take time, Second,” Jupiter said again. “It has to be sent to Sacramento. Perhaps we should — ”
Konrad, who had been standing silently by all this time, now stepped up to Jupiter and broke in.
“We now call the police, Jupiter.”
Jupiter protested, “But, Konrad, by the time — ”
Konrad shook his head. “You call the police now. Your Uncle Titus would say that, too. This lady is robbed, her house broken in. The man is dangerous, I think. We have lost him. It is now for the police.”
Bob agreed. “We can’t catch him now, Jupe.”
“We’d better call Chief Reynolds, First?” Pete said.
Jupiter sighed and his shoulders dropped. “I suppose you’re right. May we use your telephone, Mrs. Mota?”
“Of course you can, boys,” Mrs. Mota said. They all trooped inside, and Jupiter called Chief Reynolds. It didn’t take long. The Chief, respected anything the boys reported. Jupiter started to hang up.
“He’ll be right over here, and — ” Jupiter stared at the receiver in his hands. “Andy! Call your father at the carnival! Find out if anyone is missing!”
“Missing?” Andy frowned. “Jimmy, Jupe, I told you I never saw that man before.”
“We agreed he is probably in disguise,” Jupiter said. “That swarthy face could be a mask, and a tattoo can be hidden. Find out if everyone is at the carnival!”
“Well, all right,” Andy said, dubiously, “but my Dad’s awful busy just before the show opens, and it’s hard to be sure who’s there or not.”
“Try, Andy!” Bob urged.
Andy went to the telephone, and dialled. He listened for a time as the phone rang and rang.
“He’s not in the office, fellows,” the carnival boy said. “I’ll try the box office, and see if they can find Dad.”
Andy was still on the telephone when they heard police cars screech to a stop outside. Konrad looked relieved. Chief Reynolds himself strode into the house with some of his men. The boys quickly told the Chief their whole story.
“Good work, boys,” Chief Reynolds said. “With your description and the licence number we should be able to get him. Do you know what he is after in those crooked cats?”
“No, sir,” Bob admitted. “But it must be awful valuable, the trouble he’s taking,”
Pete added. “Jupe thinks maybe it’s something smuggled!”
Chief Reynolds nodded. “That is a very good thought. I’ll instruct my men to be alert for a valuable item inside the cat, and send out a call for any information the border patrol might have on a wanted smuggler.”
The Chief hurried out to the rest of his men. Andy Carson was still trying to get through to his father at the carnival. Jupiter, who was disappointed at having to call in Chief Reynolds before the boys even knew why the cats were valuable, watched Andy nervously.
“He would have had time to get back to the carnival by now,” the First Investigator said in dejection. “Unless, of course, he doesn’t go back at all this time,” he added hopefully. “Keep trying, Andy.”
Andy nodded, and dialled once more, just as Chief Reynolds came back into the house. The Chief was walking fast, his face serious as he approached the boys.
“Boys, you may have stumbled on to something far more important than you know! I’ve just had a report that a man who answers your cat-thief’s description, tattoo and all, is suspected of a daring one-man bank robbery only last week! He escaped with over $100,000!”
Jupiter cried quickly, “In San Mateo, sir?”
“What?” Chief Reynolds said, looking at Jupiter. “Now, how did you know that, Jupiter?”
“The fire at the carnival, sir! It was in San Mateo. I’m convinced that the cat-thief is a member of the carnival. He must have set off the fire by accident after the robbery, or maybe on purpose to help him to escape!”
“You can’t be sure of that, Jupiter,” the Chief said.
“The coincidence would be too much, Chief,” Jupiter insisted. “If you go to the carnival, you’ll — ”
Andy cried out, “I’ve got my Dad!”
They all stopped to listen as the carnival boy spoke eagerly into the telephone, and they waited impatiently as Andy’s Dad checked who was at the carnival. Chief Reynolds left the room again when one of his men called him. Moments later, Andy was nodding into the telephone.
“Yes, Dad. Jiminy, I’m sorry! But is anyone missing? No, all right Yes, Dad. Right away!”
Andy hung up. “Everyone’s there, Jupiter. At least they are now — all except me! The show’s already open. I’ve got to get there right away. I won’t even have time for dinner.”
Bob and Pete both jumped as if shot, their faces pictures of dismay. “Oh my gosh,” Pete moaned, “we’ve missed our dinners!”
“We're in real trouble, Jupe,” Bob echoed. Jupiter, too, paled a little. Konrad chuckled at the thought of what Aunt Matilda would say to Jupe. The boys knew that nothing annoyed their parents and guardians more than missing dinner, no matter what tight spots their investigating work got them into. But Jupiter hated to leave before Chief Reynolds could tell them something more. So the boys stood there nervously until the Chief returned. He nodded grimly to them.
“We don’t have to go to the carnival, boys,” the Chief announced. “We just found the car only four blocks from here in the highway. The crooked cat was in the car. It had been cut open, there was nothing in it. Tyre marks on the grass show he was either picked up by another car, or had a second car ready and waiting. Anyway, we’ll have to alert the whole state now. I’m afraid he got what he wanted and left Rocky Beach in a hurry, boys. I guess you’d better go home. We’ll get him, but it will take time now.”
The boys nodded dejectedly. They hurried down to the truck with Konrad, more worried now about being late than about losing the cat-thief.
Or, rather, Bob, Pete and Andy were worried. Jupiter was thinking about something else, something interesting. His eyes were speculative, but no one noticed.
“Looks like Uncle Titus has bought another load no one knows what to do with,” he announced.
Jupiter grunted. He had stopped his reading and was sitting deep in thought, his eyes closed. Bob looked back through the See-All.
“Here comes Pete!”
This time Jupiter didn’t even grunt. Soon Pete came up through the trapdoor and stared at the silent Jupiter.
“What’s Jupe doing?” he wanted to know.
“Don’t ask me,” Bob replied. “The Great Brain is at work,”
“Why all the newspapers? Is he going to find the tattooed man by putting another ad in the paper?”
Jupiter looked up, his eyes bright. “That won’t be needed, Second. I think I know where the tattooed man is.”
“You do, Jupe?” Bob cried. “Where?”
“Where he’s been all the time — here in Rocky Beach, at the carnival.”
Pete groaned. “Gosh, Jupe, like Chief Reynolds said, we don’t know that. Why, he’s been seen in six different places!”
“Seven, to be precise,” Jupiter agreed.
“That proves he’s sure not here,” Bob said.
“On the contrary, Records,” Jupiter pronounced. “I’ve been studying the reports on him in the papers. The seven people saw him in seven different places as much as two hundred miles apart! I would venture to say that no one has seen him!”
Bob nodded. “I see that, Jupe. But what makes you so sure he’s still in Rocky Beach, and at the carnival?”
Jupiter jumped up and began to pace the tiny room. “I’ve read everything I could find about the bank robbery. There are three items — two in the San Mateo paper and one in a Los Angeles paper. I also took a trip to San Mateo today while you two were paying for missing dinner.”
“Why didn’t you have to work?” Pete demanded hotly. “You missed dinner, too!”
“I did have to work,” Jupiter said, and grinned. “But it just happened that I knew of some very interesting junk that could be purchased in San Mateo. When I told Uncle Titus about the junk there, he sent me to get it with Hans and Konrad.”
Pete sighed. “Some people are just lucky, I guess. Nothing ever gets me out of working around the house.”
“What did you learn about the robbery, First?” Bob asked.
“Well,” Jupiter said, his face eager now, “it happened on the Friday night of the carnival fire, all right. On Fridays, the San Mateo bank is open until six o’clock, the weekend deposits are large, and the carnival opens earlier than usual! Also, fellows, that Friday was the carnival’s last day in San Mateo! They were due to leave San Mateo late than night, travel here, and open on Saturday night!”
“Gosh,” Pete said. “Just right if a member of the carnival wanted to rob the bank and get away fast!”
“Exactly, Second,” Jupiter said. “The robber of the bank was dressed all in black, with a close-fitting black hood and black tennis shoes.”
“Gabbo’s costume!” Bob exclaimed.
Jupiter nodded. “Only the robber’s arms were bare. All the witnesses agreed on that. The robber had rolled up his sleeves.”
“That’s how everyone noticed the tattoo,” Bob realized.
“Yes, Records,” Jupiter said. “The robber entered the bank at five minutes before six. He captured a guard and went into the open vault where the money was. He held the guard hostage until he was outside. Then he stunned the guard and ran into an alley beside the bank. The alarm had been turned on the moment he left the bank, and a police car arrived within minutes.”
“But he got away, didn’t he, Jupe?” Pete asked impatiently.
“He got away, but they don’t know how!” Jupiter said. “The police ran into that alley within minutes after the robber. They didn’t find him — and yet it was a totally blind alley! There was no way out of that alley at all. Only three building walls with high, locked windows. Yet the robber was gone!”
“Just like when we chased that moustached man!” Bob said. “He climbed a wall,”
Pete exclaimed. “A human fly!”
“That is what I believe,” Jupiter nodded. “The San Mateo police put out the alarm and looked for the robber. They found no trace of him until they had a fortunate piece of luck. A policeman on duty outside the carnival — a policeman who had been told about the bank robber — went to stop a scuffle among the people waiting to get into the carnival. In the melee a man wearing a raincoat was knocked down, and his coat flew open. The policeman saw a tight black costume under the coat, and glimpsed a tattoo under the sleeve of the coat!”
“Wow, that was real luck, Jupe?” Pete declared.
“Yes,” the First Investigator agreed, “but many crimes are solved by such small mischances, Second. Anyway, the man wearing the raincoat got away in the crowd. The policeman called for help, and other police rushed over to the carnival. They cordoned off the area, and moved in. They were sure they would find the robber, but — ”
“I know,” Bob said quickly, “the fire broke out!”
“It did,” Jupiter said in triumph. “That was a great danger, so the police had to help put it out. When they had the fire out, they continued their search, but they didn’t find the robber or the money. Yet I’m certain he was there!”
“Why, Jupe?” Bob asked.
“Well, the robber had escaped. He was safe. His only problem was to get out of San Mateo unseen. To go out in the open at the carnival would have been very foolish of him — unless he was a member of the carnival who had planned all along to escape from San Mateo with the carnival. I’m convinced that his whole plan was to rob the bank, escape up the wall of that alley, then slip back into the carnival and remove his disguise. A simple and very safe plan.”
“Only he was accidentally spotted,” Bob went on, “and then he had to have time to get out of his disguise. So he started the fire to gain time and distract everyone — the same sort of idea as letting Rajah loose later.”
Pete asked, “You mean the way he looked at the bank in San Mateo, and every time we’ve seen him, he’s been in a disguise?”
“I do,” Jupiter stated somewhat pompously. “At the bank, and in that house where he bought the crooked cats, his face was stained swarthy, or be had on a plastic mask. His hair was darkened, perhaps his nose changed — and he had a false tattoo!” Bob and Pete didn’t say anything for a full minute.