The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels (49 page)

“Jenny, I hope you haven’t told him anything about me,” the housekeeper mentioned.

“Oh, no, Maud. For that matter, he’s said nothing about you since you were here.”

Mrs. Weems cast Penny an “I-told-you-so” glance which was not lost upon Al Gepper who entered the room at that moment.

“I am ready for you, ladies,” he said. “Kindly follow me.”

In the upstairs room blinds had been drawn. Al Gepper indicated that his audience was to occupy the chairs around the circular table.

“Before we attempt to communicate with the departed souls, I wish to assure you that I employ no trickery,” he announced, looking hard at Penny. “You may examine the table or the cabinet if you wish.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Gepper,” murmured Mrs. Hodges. “We trust you.”

“I’ll look, if you don’t mind,” said Penny.

She peered beneath the table, thumped it several times, and pulled aside the curtain of the cabinet. It was empty.

“Now if you are quite satisfied, shall we begin?” purred Mr. Gepper. “It will make it much easier, if each one of you will give me a personal object.”

“A la the Celestial Temple method,” muttered Penny beneath her breath.

“What was that?” questioned the medium sharply.

“Nothing. I was merely thinking to myself.”

“Then please think more quietly. I must warn you that this séance cannot be successful unless each person present concentrates, entering into the occasion with the deepest of sincerity.”

“I assure you, I am as sincere as yourself,” Penny responded gravely.

Mr. Hodges deposited his gold watch on the table. His wife offered a pin and Mrs. Weems a plain band ring. Penny parted with a handkerchief.

After everyone was seated about the table, Al Gepper played several phonograph records, all the while exhorting the Spirits to appear.

Taking Mrs. Weems’ ring from the tray before him, he pressed it to his forehead. A convulsive shudder wracked his body.

“Someone comes to me—” he mumbled. “Someone comes, giving the name of David—David Swester.”

“My cousin,” breathed Mrs. Weems in awe.

“He is tall and dark with a scar over his left eye,” resumed the medium. “I see him plainly now.”

“That
is
David!” cried the housekeeper, leaning forward in her eagerness.

“David, have you a message for us?” the medium intoned.

There was a long silence, during which the man could be seen writhing and twisting in the semi-darkness. Then his voice began again:

“David has a message for a person called Maud.”

“I am Maud,” said Mrs. Weems tremulously. “Oh, what does he say?”

“That he is well and happy in the Spirit World, but he is worried about Maud.”

“Worried about me? Why?”

The medium again seemed to undergo physical suffering, but presently the message “came through,” although not in an entirely clear form.

“David’s voice has faded. I am not certain, but it has something to do with six thousand dollars.”

“The exact amount he left to me!” Mrs. Weems murmured.

“David is afraid that you will not have the wisdom to invest the money wisely. He warns you that the present place where you have it deposited is not safe. He will tell you what to do with it. Now the voice is fading again. David has gone.”

With another convulsive shudder, Al Gepper straightened from the position into which he had slumped. Resuming his normal tone he said:

“That is all. The connection with Cousin David has been broken.”

“Can’t we contact him again?” Mrs. Weems asked in disappointment.

“Not today. Possibly tomorrow at this same hour.”

“Couldn’t you call up another Spirit by using my pin or Pa’s watch?” Mrs. Hodges suggested wistfully.

Al Gepper raised one of the window blinds. “I am very, very tired,” he said. “This séance was particularly exhausting due to the presence of someone antagonistic. Tomorrow if conditions are right, I hope actually to materialize Cousin David. The poor soul is trying so hard to get a message through to the one he calls Maud.”

“You mean I’ll be able to see him?” the housekeeper asked incredulously.

“I hope and believe so. I must rest now. After a séance I should refresh myself with sleep.”

“Of course,” agreed Mrs. Hodges. “We are selfish to overtax you.”

Recovering their trinkets, the elderly couple and Mrs. Weems went from the room. Penny was the last to leave.

“Well, sister?” inquired the medium in a low voice. “Were you convinced, or do you still think that you can show up Al Gepper?”

“I think,” said Penny softly, “that you are a very clever man. But clever as you are, one of your well-trained ghosts may yet lead you to the city jail!”

CHAPTER 13

COUSIN DAVID’S GHOST

When Penny reached the lower floor she found Mrs. Weems and the Hodges excitedly discussing the séance. The seamstress and her husband emphatically declared that they had given the medium no information regarding either the housekeeper or the deceased Cousin David.

“Then there can be only one explanation,” Mrs. Weems said. “We were truly in communication with a departed spirit.”

“Don’t you agree, Penny?” inquired Mrs. Hodges.

“I am afraid I can’t,” she replied.

“The test was a fair one,” Mrs. Weems insisted. “Mr. Gepper couldn’t have described Cousin David so accurately if he hadn’t actually seen him as he materialized from the spirit world.”

“Al Gepper could have obtained much of his information from persons in Riverview,” Penny responded.

“About me, perhaps,” the housekeeper conceded. “But not about Cousin David. Why, I doubt if anyone save myself knew he had a scar over his eye. He received it in an automobile accident twelve or thirteen years ago.”

“Just think!” murmured Mrs. Hodges. “Tomorrow you may actually be able to see your departed cousin!”

In vain Penny argued that Al Gepper was a trickster. She was unable to offer the slightest evidence to support her contention while, on the other hand, the Hodges reminded her that the medium had never asked one penny for his services.

From the cottage Penny went directly to the
Star
office, feeling certain that her father would have returned there from his trip. Nor was she mistaken. Gaining admittance to the private office, she wasted no words in relating everything which had transpired during his absence. Her father’s attention was flattering.

“Penny, you actually saw all this?” he questioned when she had finished.

“Oh, yes! At the Celestial Temple Louise was with me, too. We thought you might take up the matter with the police.”

“That’s exactly what I will do,” decided Mr. Parker. “I’ve turned the matter over in my mind for several days. The
Star
will take the initiative in driving these mediums, character readers and the like out of Riverview!”

“Oh, Dad, I was hoping you’d say that!”

Mr. Parker pressed a desk buzzer. Summoning DeWitt, he told of his plan to launch an active campaign.

“Nothing will please me better, Chief,” responded the city editor. “Where do we start?”

“We’ll tip the police to what is going on at the Celestial Temple. Have them send detectives there for tonight’s meeting. Then when the usual hocus-pocus starts, arrests can be made. Have photographers and a good reporter on hand.”

“That should start the ball rolling,” agreed DeWitt. “I’ll assign Jerry Livingston to the story. Salt Sommers is my best photographer.”

“Get busy right away,” Mr. Parker ordered. “We’ll play the story big tomorrow—give it a spread.”

“How about Al Gepper?” Penny inquired after DeWitt had gone. “Could he be arrested without involving the Hodges?”

“Not very easily if he lives at their place. Has he accepted money for the séances he conducts there?”

“He hasn’t taken any yet from Mrs. Weems. I am sure he must have other customers.”

“You have no proof of it?”

“No.”

“Suppose we forget Al Gepper for the time being, and concentrate on the Celestial Temple,” Mr. Parker proposed. “In the meantime, learn everything you can about the man’s methods.”

“No assignment would please me more, Dad. I’ve the same as promised Mr. Gepper he’ll land in jail, and I want to make good.”

Mr. Parker began to pace the floor. “I’ll write a scorching editorial,” he said. “We’ll fight ignorance with information. Our reporters must learn how these mediums do their tricks, and expose them to the gullible public.”

“I’ll do everything I can to help,” Penny promised eagerly. “May I have Al Gepper for my particular fish bait?”

“He’s your assignment. And I’m depending upon you to see that he doesn’t work any of his trickery on Mrs. Weems. If she can’t be persuaded to remain away from the Hodges’, then we must protect her as best we can.”

“I’ll try to accompany her every time she goes there, Dad. I am afraid he may be after her money.”

“Gepper doesn’t know she inherited six thousand dollars?” Mr. Parker asked in alarm.

“Yes, she dropped the information that she had come into money. He supplied figures himself.”

“I wonder how?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea, Dad. Gepper is as clever a man as ever I met. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he does produce Cousin David at tomorrow’s séance.”

Mr. Parker snorted in disgust.

“Tommyrot! The man will make an excuse about the conditions not being right, and fail.”

“Perhaps, but he seems pretty confident.”

“You expect to attend the séance?”

“Oh, definitely. Jungle beasts couldn’t keep me away.”

“Then be alert every instant—without appearing too suspicious, of course. Try to learn how the man accomplishes his tricks.”

“Leave it to me,” chuckled Penny. “Mr. Al Gepper is due for his first shock when he wakes up tomorrow and reads that the Celestial Temple has been raided. Unless I am much mistaken, that place is one of his favorite haunts.”

Leaving the newspaper office, Penny went directly home. She longed to stop at the Sidell home, but she had promised her father to say nothing about the planned raid until it was an accomplished fact. Feeling the need of work to occupy her time, she washed the maroon car and waxed the fading paint of Leaping Lena.

At six o’clock her father came home for dinner.

“Any news?” Penny asked, running to meet him.

“Everything’s set,” he answered. “DeWitt laid your information before the police. Tonight three detectives will attend the meeting at the Temple. If anything out of the way happens, the raid will be staged.”

Penny was so tense with expectation that she was unable to do justice to the delicious dinner which Mrs. Weems had prepared. Her father, too, seemed unusually restless. After dinner he made a pretense of reading the paper, but actually his eyes did not see the print.

The hands of the clock scarcely appeared to move, so slowly did time pass. Eight o’clock came, then nine. Suddenly the telephone rang.

Penny was away in an instant to answer it. From the next room she called to her father:

“It’s for you, Dad! DeWitt, I think.”

“I told him to telephone me as soon as the raid was staged.” Mr. Parker arose and went quickly to take the receiver. Penny hovered at his elbow.

“Hello! DeWitt?” the publisher asked, and after a slight pause: “Oh, I see. No, I don’t think Penny was mistaken. It’s more likely there was a tip-off.”

He hung up the receiver and turned toward Penny who anticipated the news.

“The raid was a failure?”

“Yes, Penny. Detectives spent two hours at the meeting. Nothing happened. It was impossible to make arrests.”

“They must have been recognized as detectives.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“Others will be assigned to the case?”

“I doubt it, Penny. DeWitt reports that the police have become convinced that the spiritualists who use the Temple are not operating for profit.”

“Louise and I know better because she was approached.”Penny anxiously regarded her father. “Dad, even if the police do give up, we won’t, will we?”

“No, we’re in this fight and we’ll stay in it,” he answered grimly. “We’ll put some new teeth in our trap. And the next time it’s sprung, I warrant you we’ll catch a crook.”

CHAPTER 14

WET PAINT

Promptly at two o’clock the following afternoon, Penny and Mrs. Weems presented themselves at the Hodges’ cottage for the appointed séance. Already Mr. Gepper awaited them in the darkened apartment on the second floor.

Penny’s glance about the room found everything in the same order as upon the previous visit, save that an easel with a large black sheet of artist’s paper stood beside the cabinet.