"We Investigate Anything"

  Skinny Norris est l'ennemi juré de Jupiter/Hannibal, Peter et Bob. Chacune de ses interventions n'a pour but que se moquer d'eux et de parasiter l'enquête en cours. La première allusion à ce personnage se trouve dans le Chapitre 3 de The Secret of Terror Castle / Au Rendez-vous des revenants . et c'est l'occasion pour le lecteur d'en apprendre beaucoup sur ce personnage malveillant:   "[...] First I ought to tell you that Skinny Norris kept hanging over my shoulder all morning, trying to snoop into what I was doing."   "I hope you didn't let that goop know anything!" Pete exclaimed. "He's always trying to poke his nose into everything we're doing."   "I certainly didn't tell him anything. But he was awfully insistant. When I arrived at the library, he stopped me to talk about Jupe's winning the car for thirty days. He asked me how I thought he was going to use it."   "Skinny is...

  Jupiter/Hannibal, s'étant bêtement blessé à la fin du Chapitre 10, ne peut temporairement pas poursuivre l'investigation sur le terrain. Au Chapitre 11, il envoie donc Peter et Bob pour une autre expédition au Château des Épouvantes. La séance photo effectuée au chapitre suivant par Bob tourne soudain à la petite frayeur:     "Let's look at the pictures," [Bob] suggested. "Which one looked at you with the living eye?"   "Over there," Pete pointed across the room to a picture of a one-eyed pirate. "One minute the eye was alive, and the next it was just painted."   "That's something we can investigate," Bob said. "Stand on a chair and see if you can reach it."   Pete pushed a carved chair underneath the picture. But even on tiptoe, he couldn't reach the painting.   "There's a sort of balcony up above," Bob said. "The pictures are hung by long wires from the balcony. Maybe if...