"When this merger idea first took shape, last summer, Dunmore saw how
unalterably opposed to it Mr. Fleming was, and he began wishing him out
of the way. Some time later, he decided to do something about it. I
suppose Anton Varcek gave him the idea, in the first place, with his
jabber about the danger of a firearms accident. Dunmore decided he'd fix
one up for Mr. Fleming. First of all, he'd need a firearm, collector's
type and in good working order. It couldn't be one of the guns in the
collection. He'd have to keep it loaded all the time, waiting for an
opportunity to use it; he couldn't take a weapon out of the collection,
because it would be missed, and he couldn't load one and hang it up
again, because that would be discovered. So he had to get one of his own,
and he got it from Arnold Rivers."
"You know that? I mean, that's not just a guess?"
"I know it. The gun he got from Rivers was a .36 Colt, 1860 Navy-model,
serial number 2444," Rand told her. "Rivers had that gun last summer. He
had it refinished by a gunsmith named Umholtz. After Umholtz refinished
it, the gun was in Rivers's shop until November of last year, when it was
sold by Rivers personally. And that was the revolver that was found in
Lane Fleming's hand, and the one I got from the coroner, with a letter
vouching for the fact that it had been so found."
He finished his cocktail. Gladys picked up the shaker mechanically and
refilled his glass.
"Now we have Dunmore with this .36 Colt, loaded with powder, caps and
bullets from the ammunition supply in the gunroom, waiting for a chance
to use it. And also, he has this Mill-Pack contract in his safe deposit
box at the bank. That takes care of the weapon and the motive; only the
opportunity is needed, and that came on the 22nd of December, when Mr.
Fleming brought home that Confederate Leech & Rigdon .36 he had just
bought. It was just a piece of luck that both revolvers were alike in
caliber and general type, but it wouldn't have made a lot of difference.
Nobody was paying much attention to details, and Dunmore was on the scene
to misdirect any attention anybody would pay to anything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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