"Carey, M.V. - The Three Investigators 31 - The Mystery of the Scar-Faced Beggar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carey M.V)

"Did you see where the cleaning man came from?" asked Jupe. "I mean, whether he came into the lobby from the elevator or the street?"

Bob shook his head. "The guy was already at the bank door in the lobby when I noticed him. I thought he'd come back down in the elevator. But I guess he could have come in from the street, if he wasn't one of the cleaners in the building."

"Which opens up an interesting line of thought," said Jupiter. He picked up the wallet that Bob had left on the workbench. "Say the man came down the street. The blind man dropped his money just as the bogus cleaning man was approaching the bank door. You and the woman at the bus stop bent down to pick up the money. Anyone would do the same. And you were so occupied with the task that you didn't see the robber enter the lobby. Does that suggest anything?"

Bob gulped. "The blind man was a lookout!"

Jupe examined the wallet. "This is very nice," he said. "It's made of ostrich skin and it came from Neiman-Marcus. That's one of the most expensive stores in the city."

"I didn't notice that," said Bob. "I only looked to see if the blind man had a telephone number in it so I could call him. But he doesn't."

Jupe looked through the wallet. "One credit card, twenty dollars in cash, and a temporary driver's licence. Now what would a blind man be doing with a driver's licence?"

Bob nodded. "Right. Of course. He was faking. He's not blind."

"Hector Sebastian," said Jupe, reading from the licence. "According to this, he lives at 2287 Cypress Canyon Drive in Malibu."

"Malibu is a nice place," said Pete. "Maybe being a beggar pays better than you'd think."

"It may not be the beggar's address," Jupe pointed out. "Perhaps the man is a pickpocket and he stole the wallet. Or perhaps he just found it somewhere. Have you looked in the telephone directory for Hector Sebastian, Bob?"

"He's not listed," Bob answered.

Jupiter stood up. "We may have something here that would interest the police," he said. "On the other hand, the fact that a blind man dropped this wallet may mean nothing at all. The fact that the blind man ran away may mean nothing. But Cypress Canyon Drive isn't very far from here. Shall we investigate before we decide what action to take?"

"You bet!" said Bob.

The boys all had their bicycles with them. In a few minutes they were on Pacific Coast Highway pedalling north towards Malibu. In less than half an hour they had passed the main shopping area of the famous beach community.

Cypress Canyon Drive was a narrow road that turned and twisted for a couple of hundred metres as it climbed up from the Coast Highway, then ran roughly parallel to the highway but some distance inland from it. As the boys rode along the drive they could hear cars and trucks on the highway, and they could glimpse the ocean between the trees that lined the drive on the left. On the right, the coast range sloped up and away, with the sky clear and blue beyond the tops of the mountains.

"I don't think anybody really lives here," said Bob, after they had gone some distance along the rutted, muddy road. "I don't see a single house. Do you suppose the address on that driver's licence is a phony?"

"The plot thickens," said Pete. "Why would a blind man have a driver's licence? And if that is the beggar's licence, why would it have a fake address?"

The drive dipped into a hollow where a small stream of water ran across. Then it climbed again. On the far side of the rise the boys stopped. There was a gully in their path which might have been dry in summer, but which was now a torrent of brown water. And beside the road on the left, almost at the edge of the muddy wash, there was a shabby, barnlike old building with dormer windows in the second story. Neon tubing ran along its eaves. A sign across one end proclaimed that it was Charlie's Place.

"A restaurant?" said Bob.

Jupe took the wallet out of his pocket and looked again at the driver's licence. "Number 2287," he said. "That's the number on that new mailbox out in front."

The boys heard a car on the road behind them. They moved aside, and a red sports car came splashing slowly through the little stream they had already forded. A thin man with greying hair and a lined, somewhat sad face passed without seeming to notice the boys. He turned into the muddy yard that was the parking lot of Charlie's Place, stopped his car, got slowly out, and took a cane from the floor of the vehicle. Then he went slowly up sagging steps into the ramshackle building, letting a dilapidated screen door slam behind him as he disappeared.

"He's got a limp!" exclaimed Pete. "Hey, Bob, didn't you say that the beggar limped when he ran off last night?"

"Well, he limped after he got hit by the car. Who wouldn't limp?"

"Could that man be the beggar?" said Jupe. "Is he at all like the beggar?"