Dave Ritter, driving his small coupe, kept his eye on the white State
Police car ahead. Rand, who had come away from the Fleming home in the
white car, had called Ritter from the office of the Justice of the Peace
while waiting for Walters to put up bail, after his hearing. Now, en
route to Gwinnett's, he was briefing his assistant on what had happened.
"So everything's set," he concluded. "Mrs. Fleming jumped at it; she
knows you're coming in your own car, which you may keep in the garage
there. You've left New Belfast about now; if you show up around three,
you'll be safe on the driving time. Your name is Davies; I decided on
that in case I suffer a _lapsus linguae_ and call you Dave in front of
somebody."
"Yeah. I'll have to watch and not call you Jeff, Colonel Rand, sir." He
nodded toward the glove-box. "That Leech & Rigdon's in there; you'd
better get it out before I go to the Flemings'. The guy at the drive-in
made a positive identification; it's the one he sold Fleming. I saw the
rest of the pistols he has there; don't waste time looking him up about
them. They stink. And I saw Tip this morning. He got young Jarrett sprung
on a writ." He thought for a moment. "What does this do to the Rivers and
Fleming murders?"
"We can look for one man for both jobs, now," Rand said. "Probably the
motive for Fleming was that merger he was so violently opposed to, and
the Rivers killing must have been a security measure of some sort. There;
that must be Gwinnett's, now."
The State Police car had pulled up in front of a large three-story frame
house with faded and discolored paint and jigsaw scrollwork around the
cornices, standing among a clump of trees beside the road. McKenna and
Kavaalen got out, with Walters between them, and started up the path to
the front steps. Ritter stopped behind the white sedan, and he and Rand
got out. By that time, Walters and the two policemen were on the front
porch.
Suddenly Ritter turned and sprinted around the right side of the house.
Rand stood looking after him for a moment, then started to follow more
slowly; as he did, a shot slammed in the rear. Jerking out the changeling
.38-special, he whirled and ran around the left side of the house,
arriving at the rear in time to see Gwinnett standing on a boardwalk
between the house and the stable-garage behind, with his hands raised.
There was a fresh bullet-scar on the boardwalk at his feet. Ritter was
covering him from the corner of the house with the .380 Beretta.
Rand strolled over to Gwinnett, frisked him, and told him to put his
hands down.
"Nice, Dave," he complimented. "I thought of that, too, about a minute
too late. As soon as he saw Walters coming up the walk with the police,
he knew what had happened. Come on, Gwinnett; we'll go through the house
and let them in."
Gwinnett's eyes darted from side to side, like the eyes of a trapped
animal. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, stiff-lipped.
"What is this, a stick-up?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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