Murder in the Gunroom - H. Beam Piper (digital ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“You understand,” Rand took over, “Mr. Gresham didn’t retain me merely to help him clear himself. I don’t accept that kind of retainers. I was retained to find the murderer of Arnold Rivers, and I intend to continue working on this case until I do. I hope that the same friendly spirit of mutual cooperation will exist between your office and my agency as exists between me and the State Police. I certainly don’t want to have to work at cross purposes with any of the regular law-enforcement agencies.”

“Oh, certainly; of course.” Farnsworth didn’t seem to like the idea, but there was no apparent opening for objection. He and Rand exchanged mendacious compliments, pledged close cooperation, and did practically everything but draw up and sign a treaty of alliance. Then Farnsworth and Corporal Kavaalen accompanied Rand and Pierre Jarrett to the front door.

Some of the reporters who were ravening outside must have spotted Rand as he had entered; they were all waiting for him to come out, and set up a monstrous ululation when he appeared in the doorway. With Farnsworth beaming approval, Rand assured the Press that he was no more than a mere spectator, that the State Police and the efficient District Attorney of Scott County had the situation well in hand, and that an arrest was expected within a matter of hours. Then he and Pierre hurried to his car and drove away.

Neither of them spoke for a moment or two. Then, after they had left the criminological-journalistic uproar at the Rivers place behind and were approaching the village of Rosemont, Pierre turned to Rand.

“You know,” he said, “for a disciple of Korzybski, you came pretty close to confusing orders of abstraction, a couple of times, back there. You showed that Stephen was at home while Rivers was taking that phone call, a little after ten. But when you talk about clearing him completely, aren’t you overlooking the possibility that he came back to Rivers’s after you and Philip Cabot left the Gresham place?”

Rand eased the foot-pressure on the gas and spared young Jarrett a side-glance before returning his attention to the road ahead.

“Understand,” Pierre hastened to add, “I don’t believe that Stephen was fool enough to kill Rivers over that fake North & Cheney, but weren’t you producing inferences that hadn’t been abstracted from any descriptive data?”

“Pierre, when I’m working on a case like this, any resemblance between my opinions and the statements I may make is purely due to conscious considerations of policy,” Rand told him. “I don’t want Farnsworth or Mick McKenna going around bitching this operation up for me. If they feel justified in eliminating Gresham on the strength of that phone call, I’m satisfied, regardless of the semantics involved. Right now, the thing that’s worrying me is the ease with which I seem to have talked Farnsworth into laying off Gresham. He and Olsen both have single-track minds. They may just dismiss that telephone alibi, such as it is, as mere error of the mortal mind, and go right ahead building some kind of a ramshackle case against Gresham. Since they picked him for their entry, they won’t want to have to scratch him.⁠ ⁠… Damn, I wish I could think of where Walters could have sold those pistols!”

“Well, if Rivers wasn’t involved somehow, why was he killed?” Pierre wondered. “Hey! Maybe Walters sold the pistols to Umholtz! He’s just as big a crook as Rivers was, only not quite so smart.”

Rand nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe so. And suppose Rivers found out about it, and tried to declare himself in on it. That stuff would be worth at least ten thousand; I doubt if whoever bought it paid Walters more than two. In the Umholtz-Rivers income bracket, the difference might be worth killing for.”

“That’s right. And Umholtz was in the infantry, in the other war; he served in the Twenty-eighth Division. He was trained to use a bayonet. And he’d pick that short Mauser; it has about the same weight and balance as a 1903 Springfield.”

“Well, you know, the killer wouldn’t need to have been trained to use a bayonet,” Rand pointed out. “Mick McKenna made that point, this afternoon. There have been a lot of war-movies that showed bayonet fighting; pretty nearly everybody knows about the technique that was used. And against an unarmed and probably unsuspecting victim like Rivers, a great deal of proficiency wouldn’t be needed.” He slowed the car. “Up this road?” he asked.

“Yes. That’s my place, over there.”

Pierre pointed to a white-walled, red-roofed house that lay against a hillside, about a mile ahead, making a vivid spot in the dull grays and greens of the early April landscape. It consisted of a square two-story block, with one-story wings projecting to give it an L-shaped floorplan. It reminded Rand of farmhouses he had seen in Sicily during the War.

“Come on in and see my stuff, if you have time,” Pierre invited, as Rand pulled to a stop in the driveway. “I think I told you what I collect⁠—personal combat arms, both firearms and edge-weapons.”

They entered the front door, which opened directly into a large parlor, a brightly colored, cheerful room. A woman rose from a chair where she had been reading. She was somewhere between forty-five and fifty, but her figure was still trim, and she retained much of what, in her youth, must have been great beauty.

“Mother, this is Colonel Rand,” Pierre said. “Jeff, my mother.”

Rand shook hands with her, and said something polite. She gave him a smile of real pleasure.

“Pierre has been telling me about you, Colonel,” she said. There was a faint trace of French accent in her voice. “I suppose he brought you here to show you his treasures?”

“Yes; I collect arms too. Pistols,” Rand said.

She laughed. “You gun-collectors; you’re like women looking at somebody’s new hat.⁠ ⁠… Will you stay for dinner with us, Colonel Rand?”

“Why, I’m sorry; I can’t. I have a