You really think Fleming could have been bumped?"
"Yes. I think he could have been bumped," Rand understated. "I haven't
found any positive proof, but--" He told McKenna about his purchase, from
Rivers, of the revolver that had been later identified as the one brought
home by Fleming on the day of his death. "I still don't know how Rivers
got hold of it," he continued. "Until I walked in here not half an hour
ago and found Rivers dead on the floor, I'd had a suspicion that Rivers
might have sneaked into the Fleming house, shot Fleming with another
revolver, left it in Fleming's hand and carried away the one Fleming had
been working on. The motive, of course, would have been to stop a lawsuit
that would have put Rivers out of business and, not inconceivably, in
jail. But now ..." He looked toward the front of the shop, where another
photo-flash glared for an instant. "And don't suggest that Rivers got
conscience-stricken and killed himself. Aside from the technical
difficulties of pinning himself to the floor after he was dead, that
explanation's out. Rivers had no conscience to be stricken with."
"Well, let's skip Fleming, for a minute," McKenna suggested. "You think
this butler, at the Fleming place, was robbing the collection.
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