He said that he had been unable
to understand who else could have murdered Lane, until you had pointed
out to him that the house could have been entered from the garage, and
the gunroom from the library. Then, he said, he had had a conversation
with some unnamed gentleman at the party last evening, and had learned
that Lane had discovered that Humphrey Goode was deceiving him, and had
been about to have him dismissed from his position with the company, and
to sever his personal connections with him."
"The devil, now!" Rand gave a good imitation of surprise. "What sort of
jiggery-pokery was Goode up to?"
"Fred said that his informant told him that Lane had proof that Goode had
accepted a bribe from Arnold Rivers, to misconduct the suit which Lane
was bringing against Rivers about a pair of pistols he had bought from
Rivers. It seems that Goode was Rivers's attorney, also, and had been
involved with him in a number of dishonest transactions, although the
connection had been kept secret."
"That's a new angle, now," Rand said. "I suppose that he killed Rivers in
order to prevent the latter from incriminating him. Why didn't Fred come
to me with this?" he asked.
"Eh?" Evidently Varcek hadn't thought of that.
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