“You may have been mistaken about what the man wrote down,” commented her father.
“That’s possible, but he was staring straight at the car.”
“I doubt if the incident had any connection with the burglary, Penny. With the Motor Vehicle Department closed, he would have had no means of quickly learning who the Kohls were or where they lived.”
“Couldn’t he have recognized them?”
“In that case he would have no need for the license number. You didn’t see the man note down the plates of other cars?”
“No, but he may have done it before I noticed him standing by the theatre.”
Turning idly through the morning paper, Penny’s attention was drawn to another news story. Reading it rapidly, she thrust the page into her father’s hand.
“Dad, look at this! There were two other burglaries last night! Apartment houses on Drexel Boulevard and Fenmore Street were entered.”
“H-m, interesting. The Kohls occupy an apartment also. That rather suggests that the same thief ransacked the three places.”
“And it says here that the families were away for the evening!” Penny resumed with increasing excitement. “I’ll bet a cent they were at the theatre! Oh, Dad, that man in gray must have been the one who did it!”