The Case of the Exploding Plumbing Read Online Free PDF

killed by my toilet!”
    Encyclopedia didn’t waste time with questions. “I’ll be right over,” he said.
    Winslow lived nine blocks away in an apartment house. He was waiting out in front when Encyclopedia arrived.
    The detective got off his bike as a small station wagon stopped at the curb. It was jammed with all kinds of junk. There wasn’t room left to fit anything larger than a pencil among the mess of old dishes, lamps, glassware, and whatnots.
    The driver, Gladys Smith, was eighteen and a junk collector like Winslow. She seemed surprised to see him standing in front of the apartment house.
    “Is everything all right, Winslow?” she called.
    “Everything except my toilet,” answered Winslow.
    Two fire trucks pulled up. Firemen raced into the building.
    “We’d better use the back entrance,” said Winslow. He motioned Encyclopedia and Gladys to follow him. He went around to the rear, through the parking lot, and into the service elevator.
    “I flushed the toilet and it started to make funny noises,“ he said. ”Hot water shot up. So I ran. Then the toilet exploded.”

    “Hot water shot up. Then the toilet exploded.”
    The elevator stopped at the sixth floor. Winslow opened the door of his apartment. “Don’t worry, Mom,” he shouted. “Encyclopedia Brown is here.”
    His mother was sitting dazedly in the living room. His father was at the telephone asking questions about insurance. The floors were soaked, and water was dripping from the ceilings.
    “This way,” said Winslow. He walked into the bathroom. Nothing was left of the toilet but pipes and little white pieces.
    “Boy, am I glad I ran,” he said.
    “This is just terrible,” said Gladys. “But we’d better get started, Winslow.”
    “Gladys is driving me up to Cedartown,” Winslow said to Encyclopedia. “The biggest antique market of the year is being held there today. I have a lot of things to sell.”
    “I’ll help you carry them to my car,” said Gladys.
    “They’re in two orange crates in the boiler room,” said Winslow. “My folks won’t let me store anything in the apartment. What about the toilet, Encyclopedia? Was it a bomb?”
    “I don’t know yet,” answered Encyclopedia.
    He went to the window. Winslow’s apartment faced the rear of the building. The detective stared down at the parking lot.
    “I want to see the boiler room,” he said.
    Two firemen and the building’s handyman were in the boiler room. The handyman told Winslow he could take his boxes of antiques, but to be careful. The floor was covered with water.
    “Golly,” said Winslow uneasily. “I hope my antiques are all right.”
    His orange crates were split apart. Everything inside them was smashed.
    “My lion ... !” whimpered Winslow.
    While he fought back tears, Gladys explained about the lion.
    Two weeks ago, she and Winslow had found two small marble lions in a garage sale. They were ugly, but they looked rare and old and so might be worth a lot of money.
    “Winslow, bought one, and I bought the other,” she told Encyclopedia. “We were going to have them checked by an expert at the antique sale today.”
    Encyclopedia nodded and moved about the pipes and tanks of the boiler room. In the corner he saw a pickax, a shovel, and a sledgehammer. He showed the sledgehammer to Winslow.
    “The person who smashed all your antiques also exploded your toilet,” the detective said. “Probably with this.”
    Winslow looked at the sledgehammer questioningly.
    “The guilty person was swinging it at your antiques when it slipped,” said Encyclopedia. “It smashed this—the central coil within these two heat exchangers.”
    The firemen and the handyman stopped talking. They stepped closer to Encyclopedia and stood listening.
    “With the heat exchangers broken, the boiling water from the central heating plant escaped into the regular hot- and cold-water pipes,” said Encyclopedia.
    “Of course!” said the handyman. “That would cause the