CHAPTER XVIII Reilly on the Case
The rain was coming down in torrents by the time the village was reached,and, going at once to Reilly's garage, the girls found him seated in hisnarrow little office reading a newspaper.
He smiled jovially as she saw them, his little blue eyes almost hiddenbehind many wrinkles.
"Afternoon, ladies!" he exclaimed. "How's this for weather? A cat canlook at a king."
But Arden had no time for polite preliminaries.
"Mr. Reilly," she began, "we have something very important to tell you."
"Have you, now? What's happened? Rain leakin' through into your dinin'room table? It never pours but the salt gets damp."
"Please, I'm serious," Arden said firmly, and taking a deep breath sheannounced:
"Dimitri Uzlov has disappeared!"
"Disappeared! What do you mean?"
"He's been gone from the houseboat for days, and nobody has heard fromhim. You said, yourself, you hadn't seen him lately. Remember?"
"Yes, I remember," agreed the chief. "But what makes you think he'sdisappeared?"
"His dog came over to our house, starving, with a piece of frayed rope onher collar," Terry burst out.
"The door of the houseboat was open, and the rain was pouring in,"volunteered Sim.
"Both his car and rowboat are there, and there's a cupboard broken openon the houseboat," Arden added excitedly.
"But perhaps he's just gone for a day or two," suggested the chief,obviously not wanting to start on a "case" in the riotous weather.
"Oh, you must believe us!" Arden exclaimed. "It takes more than a day ortwo to starve a big dog. And we inquired all around the village. No onehas seen Mr. Uzlov."
"Have you told anyone else about this?" Reilly asked professionally. "Howmany people know he's gone?"
"Just us and my mother and that woman who came to see him," Terryanswered.
"Oh, Terry!" Arden exclaimed. "And we don't even know her last name orher license number. We let her go away without asking."
"How stupid! That's just what we did, and I'm sure she knew more than shelet on," Sim said in dismay.
"Mr. Reilly," Arden pleaded, "won't you come with us to the _Merry Jane_?We'll feel better if you take a look around, because we'd never forgiveourselves if anything was wrong."
"Why--" Reilly rubbed his chin thoughtfully--"yes, I'll come. Might aswell go right now. Just in case----"
"Good! You follow us in your car, as we won't be coming back this wayagain," Arden decided as Chief Reilly slipped into his warm uniform coatwhereon a large shiny badge was prominently displayed.
He followed them back along the road in his ancient flivver, his fatcheeks shaking as he bounced over the ruts and puddles.
He slung one plump leg over the door without opening it and slid, ratherthan climbed, out. The girls waited impatiently as he stood surveying thelonely stretch of Marshlands from all angles.
Terry fidgeted. "What does he think he's going to see, looking aroundlike this? White pebbles as in the fairy tale?" she hissed.
"Shsh-h! he'll hear you," Arden cautioned.
Chief Reilly, having had his look around, mounted the wooden steps at therear side of the houseboat and asked, in his most businesslike manner:
"Everything just as you found it last?"
"Everything; except for the closed window," Arden replied.
Tania, delighted at seeing her friends again, "woofed" happily, andapparently Chief Reilly was her friend, too, for she allowed him to rubher silky ears.
"We came over here the day Tania ran to us, begging for food. And wefound the place deserted and this cupboard broken open," said Arden.
"Huhm-um," Reilly grunted, peering into the small compartment with itsshattered door.
"These paint brushes," Sim said, showing him one, "were never left by Mr.Dimitri to harden up like this. They were scattered about when we firstcame over."
"That so?" the chief asked. "I wouldn't know about that. I'm no painter."
"There's something else that's very odd," Arden stated. "Dimitri Uzlovhad in his possession a very valuable gold box. Besides ourselves, wedon't know just how many people knew about it, but we think the womanOlga did. Anyway, it's gone, too."
Reilly raised his eyebrows. The case was beginning to be interesting.What he had imagined to be the silly idea of excitable "summer folks"seemed now to have something to it after all.
"Did this artist have many visitors?" he asked.
"Two that we know about," replied Terry.
"The woman Olga, and a man who rowed over here in our boat a few nightsago. He came back toward morning," said Sim.
"The woman came first and asked the way over here. Terry rowed her over.Dimitri and she seemed to be very angry about something. We rowed herback again, and she took Melissa Clayton for a ride in her car, a greensport roadster," supplied Arden.
"Funny I never saw it go through town," Reilly remarked at this point."But what you don't know can't set the river on fire." He grinned.
"It's more than that," Terry agreed. "That woman didn't seem to want tobe seen in town at all."
"And something very queer about the whole thing," Sim interrupted, "iswhere has Melissa been all this while? She usually hangs around ourhouse."
"Oh, I wouldn't consider that," Reilly suggested. "This bad weatherprobably accounts for it. She's home."
"Well, then, after that," Arden went on with her story of events, "a man,dark, tall, and somewhat like Dimitri, drove up one night and he, too,asked the way to the _Merry Jane_. He wouldn't let us row him over. Hewas very polite about it, and he took our boat. Toward morning I saw himdrive away in his car that he had left parked at Terry's house,and--and--" Arden faltered as she realized another surprisingfact--"that's the last time we heard from Dimitri!"
Missing at Marshlands Page 18