we knew that,â said Mr. Plum, âweâd know a lot.â
âAre you sure that his door was locked?â
âIâve been locking doors for eighteen years,â said Mr. Plum, âand Iâve never made a mistake yet.â
âItâs a complete mystery,â said Sir Lankester.
Slowly they walked on to the next group of cages, and as soon as they were out of earshot Mr. Parker demanded excitedly, âWhat is it all about? What is the mystery now?â
Dinah told him the whole story, and Mr. Parkerâs great dark eyes grew so large with amazement that Dinah and Dorinda could see their whole reflection in them.
âQuickly, quickly!â he exclaimed. âGet out your note-book. Write it all down. Write down C onspiracy to begin with. Do you know how to spell it? Câ o ânâsâp. . . s â p . . .Well, call it a Plot. Pâ l â o â t , Plot.â
âI can spell Conspiracy, thank you,â said Dinah, and wrote it down.
âItâs very bad manners to use a difficult word when a simple word will do just as well,â said Mr. Parker. âAnd what is worse, youâve interrupted my train of thought.â
âOh, all right,â said Dinah. âIâll call it a Plot.â
âGood,â said Mr. Parker. âNow write this: There is a Plot between Bendigo and Sir Bobadil. Therefore Bendigo is Sir Bobadilâs accomplice. Aâ c â c â m . . . No, thatâs not right. Aâ c â u â m . . . Oh, call him a Partner. Therefore Bendigo is Sir Bobadilâs partner. Have you written that?â
âYes,â said Dinah, and this time she didnât argue, because she herself wasnât quite sure how to spell accomplice .
âAlternatively,â said Mr. Parker, âSir Bobadil is Bendigoâs accompliceâor partner, as we have agreed to call it.â
âIâve written that,â said Dinah.
âGood,â repeated Mr. Parker. âAnd what can we deduce from that?â
âI donât know,â said Dinah.
âNeither do I,â said Dorinda.
âNor do I,â added Mr. Parker after a minute or so of hard thinking. âItâs baffling, isnât it? Very baffling indeed. But we have two suspects now instead of one,â he went on more cheerfully, âand itâs always a good thing to have several suspects. Because if youâre disappointed in the first, you may still be lucky with the second.â
Mr. Parker scratched his right ear with his right hind foot, and a new thought seemed to strike him. âHave you ever,â he asked, âseen egg stains on Bendigoâs chest?â
âI donât think so,â said Dinah.
âA pity,â said Mr. Parker, âbecause an egg stain would be a very good clue. Well, I must go in and think about this new development. Hard thinking will be necessary before we solve this most baffling of all my cases. Thereâs no rest for a detective, just hard work and hard thinking.â
Taking a good look at the lintel of the door, Mr. Parker carefully lowered his head and disappeared from view. A few minutes later Dinah and Dorinda heard a familiar noise: rrip, rrip, rrip , and then a long shrill whistle.
âThatâs what he calls thinking,â said Dinah.
âFather used to call it meditating,â said Dorinda.
âFather didnât snore ,â said Dinah.
âWell, not loudly,â said Dorinda. âPoor Father, I wonder where he is now?â
âI hope he isnât in danger,â said Dinah.
In the afternoon, when the animals went into the park, there was a great deal of excited conversation, for the news had already gone round that Bendigo had been out all night and was now in solitary confinement.
Nearly everybody took it for granted that the Grizzly Bear was the criminal, and the Ant-eater, a Toucan, and a Sacred Baboon were all saying loudly,
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
John O'Riley
Brenda Sinclair
Christopher George
Stephen Lloyd Jones
Karl Iagnemma
Celya Bowers
Jill Gregory
Aria Cunningham