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"Yes. The old man may not have long. I don't want him going off burdened by
knowing somebody got away with betraying him."
"Right. Then what I'll do is subcontract a search for the fence. Sometimes it
helps to come back at a thief from the other end. Work me up a description of
four or five outstanding items and I'll have somebody try to find them."
"You'll have to pay for that?"
"Yes. You going to squeeze the General's coppers?"
He smiled. "I shouldn't. But I'm not used to not having to watch every one.
Anything you need?"
"I need to know more about the people here." I looked at my list. "Counting
three guys I haven't met and not counting my ghost lady, I come up with eleven
names. Cook tells me eighteen. Where're thethe other seven?"
"I told you she has some loose threads. She's been here since they built the
first place literally and she never quite knows what year it is. When we first
came here from theCantard there were eighteen people, counting her and
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Jennifer. More before the old man finished dismissing the old staff. Now
eleven is right."
"Where did the others go?"
"Sam andTark just up and died on us.Wollack got on the wrong end of a bull
when we were breeding cows and got himself gored and trampled. The others just
drifted away. They got fed up, I guess, hung around less and less, then just
didn't come back."
I leaned forward, got a fresh sheet of paper, divided five million by two and
gave two and a half mil to Jennifer, then divided two and a half by sixteen
and came up with a hundred fifty-six thousand marks and change.
Not bad. And I never knew anybody who would walk on a hundred fifty thousand,
gold or silver.
I did some more math. Nine into two and a half million came out two hundred
seventy-seven thousand and change. Damned near double your money.
Was there something else going on here?
I didn't mention it. It was something to keep in mind, though.
"You onto something?" Peters asked.
"I doubt it."
Time for some footwork. "Having a little trouble making sense of things.
There any way we can find out where those four men are now? Also, I'm going to
need to know more about the General's bequeathal arrangements."
He frowned. "Why?"
"It's a large estate. You said he used his bequests as a hammer. Maybe he ran
those guys off. Maybe one of them might be trying to get even, either by doing
the stealing or slipping him poison."
"You've got me there." He looked it.
"Two things, then. A copy of the will. And find out if there was a clash
between the General and any of those four."
"You don't really think they'd be sneaking back?"
I didn't, no. I thought they were dead. With my confidence in human decency
aroused, I was sure somebody was playing a game of last one left and doing
such a damned good job, nobody else was suspicious. But . . . If somebody was,
then that somebody was innocent of trying to murder the old man. That somebody
would want to keep the General healthy while the field was narrowed. That
somebody might even bring in an outside specialist . . . presuming he had a
genuine cause for concern.
"Anyone have a spare key or master key for my room?"
That caught him from the blind side. "Dellwood. Why?"
"Somebody picked the lock and got in between the time I left for supper and
the time I came back here."
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"Why would . . . ?"
"Hey. That's a petty one compared to why would somebody want to kill the
General. If that somebody exists he might be real nervous about me. What did
you all do when you split up after supper?" I was going to play logical
puzzle. Eliminate me and Cook because I didn't do it and she was with me.
TakeDellwood off the hook because he didn't need to pick locks. Peters because
he knew about me already. Eliminate anybody who was with them the whole time .
. .
"Dellwoodwould have gone to get the General up and ready for dinner. I assume
Jennifer went with him. She usually does. She stays till Cook brings his food
and helps him eat if he can't manage himself. I was in my quarters writing up
the list from notes."
"Uhm." I thought a minute. "I do have one problem with this,Sarge . And
that's a reason for being here. I need to ask questions. I need to find loose
strings I can pull on. Kind of hard to do that when I don't have a good
excuse. Cook's already told me I'm too nosy."
"I suppose. I had hopes but I didn't really think you could manage without
giving yourself away."
"How many people know about the missing trinkets? As opposed to how many know
you think somebody's trying to kill the General? Why not tell the truth? Say
the old man hired me to find out who's stealing from him. They might even find
it amusing if they think he's imagining it. And the would-be assassin should
relax. The others might open up after I convince them somebody is stealing
from the old man. Right?"
"I suppose." He didn't like it, though.
"Figure out a way to let it get out. So everybody knows but it seems like I
don't know they know. Maybe joke about the General having another fantasy."
"All right. Anything else?"
"No. I'm going to turn in. I'm going to roll out early and make a run into
the city to put somebody on the track of the stolen goodies."
"Is that a hint?"
It was. "I didn't think of it that way. But I guess it is."
"I'll see you in the morning, then." He went out.
I locked the door behind him, returned to the writing table.
Seemed to me there might be three puzzles here: who was stealing from the
General, who was trying to kill him, and who was eliminating his heirs. It
seemed reasonable to suppose that each thing if any were fact would be going
on independent of the others, since the thefts were petty compared to murder
and killing the General wouldn't be in the interest of whoever was trying to
enlarge his share of the estate.
I could be up to my neck in villains.
I did hit the sack right away. I doubt Peters believed I would, because he
knew the hours I keep. But I did need sleep and I had plans for the wee hours
of the morning.
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