And Rivers was away a lot, on buying trips and so on, and when he was,
nobody ever saw Cecil leave the Rivers place in the evenings. At least,
that's the story; personally, I wouldn't know. Of course, where there's
smoke, there may be nothing more than somebody with a stogie, but, then,
there may be a regular conflagration."
"That would be a perfectly satisfactory motive, under some
circumstances," Rand admitted. "And the other?"
"Cecil might have been doing funny things with the books, and Rivers
might have caught him."
"That would also be a good enough motive." It would also, Rand thought,
furnish an explanation for the burning of Rivers's record-cards. "I'll
mention it to Mick McKenna; he's hard up for a good usable suspect. And
by the way, the news of this killing will be out before evening, but in
the meantime I wish you wouldn't mention it to anybody, or mention that
I was in here to tell you about it."
"I won't. I'm glad you told me, though.... Do you think there may be a
chance that we can get the collection, now?"
"I wouldn't know why not. Rivers's offer was pretty high; there aren't
many other dealers who would be able to duplicate it.... Well, don't take
any Czechoslovakian Stiegel.
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