QED by Ellery Queen Page A

those three, all right .
    â€œI see we’ll have to do it the hard way,” Ellery said. “Sorry I can’t produce the thief with a flick of my wrist, the way it’s done in books, but in real life detection—like crime—is pretty unexciting stuff. We’ll begin with a body search. It’s voluntary, by the way. Anybody rather not chance a search? Raise your hand.”
    Not a muscle moved.
    â€œI’ll search the boys, Miss Carpenter. You roll those two bulletin boards over to that corner and search the girls.”
    The next few minutes were noisy. As each boy was searched and released he was sent to the blackboard at the front of the room. The girls were sent to the rear.
    â€œFind anything, Miss Carpenter?”
    â€œRose Perez has a single dollar bill. The other girls either have small change or no money at all.”
    â€œNo sign of the original envelope?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI found two boys with bills—in each case a single, too. David Strager and Joey Buell. No envelope.”
    Louise’s brows met.
    Ellery glanced up at the clock. 9:07.
    He strolled over to her. “Don’t show them you’re worried. There’s nothing to worry about. We have twenty-eight minutes.” He raised his voice, smiling. “Naturally the thief has ditched the money, hoping to recover it when the coast is clear. It’s therefore hidden somewhere in the classroom. All right, Miss Carpenter, we’ll take the desks and seats first. Look under them too—chewing gum makes a handy adhesive. Eh, class?”
    Four minutes later they looked at each other, then up at the clock.
    9:11.
    Exactly twenty-four minutes remaining.
    â€œWell,” said Ellery.
    He began to ransack the room. Books, radiators, closets, supplies, lunchbags, schoolbags. Bulletin boards, wall maps, the terrestrial globe. The UN poster, the steel engravings of Washington and Lincoln. He even emptied Louise’s three pots of geraniums and sifted the earth.
    His eyes kept returning to the clock more and more often.
    Ellery searched everything in the room, from the socket of the American flag to the insect-filled bowls of the old light fixtures, reached by standing on desks.
    Everything.
    â€œIt’s not here!” whispered Louise in his ear.
    The Buell, Ruffo, and Strager boys were nudging one another, grinning.
    â€œWell, well,” Ellery said.
    Interesting. Something of a problem at that .
    Of course! He got up and checked two things he had missed—the cup of the pencil sharpener and the grid covering the loudspeaker of the PA system. No envelope. No money.
    He took out a handkerchief and wiped his neck.
    Really it’s a little silly. A schoolboy!
    Ellery glanced at the clock.
    9:29.
    Six minutes left in which not only to find the money but identify the thief!
    He leaned against Louise’s desk, forcing himself to relax.
    It was these “simple” problems. Nothing big and important, like murder, blackmail, bank robbery. A miserable seven dollars lifted by a teen-age delinquent in an overcrowded classroom …
    He thought furiously.
    Let the bell ring at 9:35 and the boy strut out of Miss Carpenter’s room undetected, with his loot, and he would send up a howl like a wolf cub over his first kill. Who says these big-shot law jerks ain’t monkeys? The biggest! He’s a lot of nothin’. Wind. See me stand him on his ear? And this is just for openers. Wait till I get goin’ for real, not any of this kid stuff …
    No, nothing big and important like murder. Just seven dollars, and a big shot to laugh at. Not important? Ellery nibbled his lip. It was probably the most important case of his career.
    9:30:30.
    Only four and a half minutes left!
    Louise Carpenter was gripping a desk, her knuckles white. Waiting to be let down.
    Ellery pushed away from the desk and reached into the patch pocket of his tweed jacket for his pipe and tobacco, thinking harder