Page 47 - Three Adventures

Deflator Mouse

“Oh. Certainly. Thank you, sir.”
Quite an emergency, and just in the nick of time. Dr. Wolfe was in
the doghouse. He had been met at the entrance to his office that
morning by two of Jack Lampson’s men and more-or-less frog-
marched to a sound-proof room in the basement of the
administration building. Beveledge had found the incriminating piece
of evidence in a thick dossier containing background interviews
conducted during routine security checks on Dr. Wolfe several years
earlier.
It was well past midnight when Captain Jack, his pH significantly
altered by coffee and unprescribed amphetamines, had heard his
colleague crow, “Eureka!”
“Eh? You got something, Doctor?”
“Why, yes, I do believe I do. I truly do believe I do.” Lampson
noticed the manic gleam in Oscar’s eyes, and dared not hope beyond
a closely-guarded optimism. “Here: let me recite the relevant passage
to you, Captain Lampson. Listen to this; it’s the fifth-grade teacher of
our own dear Dr. Ralph Wolfe: ‘He was a very bright boy, always first
to raise his hand with the right answer; got along well with other
children, as far as I know. The only disciplinary problem I ever had
with him was after the first drop drill in our school. I remember he
was very disturbed after I explained why they had to cover their
heads and turn away from the window. For several weeks he kept
passing notes around the room; he thought I didn’t see who was
doing it, but children that age don’t know how to dissimulate. Oh, I
don’t remember exactly what was scribbled on those notes;
something like “You looked out the window, Sally. Boom! Your
eyeballs just melted.” No, I never confronted him with the pranks.
You don’t want to traumatize a good student like that. He stopped
doing it after a while.’’’
Captain Jack had traced his buried jaw-line with thumb and fingers.
“And he had the means and opportunity to commit the Deflator
Mouse crimes?”
“Yes, yes, of course he did. We wouldn’t be digging this deeply
into his past otherwise. This is it: this is the clue we’ve been searching
for! Ralph Wolfe is Deflator Mouse!”

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