He
destroyed the lot of them, or at least most of them, in the fireplace.
Now, I'm only guessing, here, but I think he took out a card or cards in
which he had some interest, and then dumped the rest in the fire to
prevent anybody from being able to determine which ones he was interested
in. I am further guessing that the cards which the killer wanted to
suppress were in the 'sold' file. But I am not guessing about the
destruction of the record-file; I found the fireplace full of ashes,
found one card that had escaped unburned--you can be sure that one
wasn't important--and found the drawer where the record-system was kept
empty."
"Think he might have stolen something, and covered up by burning the
cards?" McKenna asked.
Rand shook his head again. "I was here yesterday; bought a pistol from
Rivers. That's how I noticed this card-index system. Of course, I didn't
look at everything, while I was here, but I can't see where any quantity
of arms have been removed, and Rivers didn't have any single item that
was worth a murder. Fact is, no old firearm is. There are only a very few
old arms that are worth over a thousand dollars, and most of them are
well-known, unique specimens that would be unsaleable because every
collector would know where it came from.
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