Harry Reese Mystery 01 - Always A Cold Deck (v5.0) by Robert Bruce Stewart

Author:Robert Bruce Stewart
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Amazon.com
Publisher: Street Car Mysteries
Published: 2012-06-02T07:00:00+00:00

D 2 A

R 1 C

Y 2 E

“What do you think it means?” she asked.

“I have no idea. But he definitely took the boat to Toronto. I guess it’s something he’s supposed to find, or do, there.”

“Who was it who sent him the telegram?” she asked.

“It had to be his boss, Conners.”

I then explained Whitey’s connection to Conners and told her about the luncheon party earlier.

“Conners is worried that I’m looking for your uncle, and that the message to Sadie was from him. Whitey was sent along to make sure I didn’t find him. Conners wants your uncle to remain dead until the Elevator Company collects from the insurance policy on him and pays off that loan. It may be that he somehow found out the message was referring to the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto and he wired Whitey to go there and warn your uncle. Maybe that cryptograph you saw is just the room number and an alias.”

“But you think Whitey’s on the wrong track, because the postcards came from Mason.”

“Yes, I think we can be sure the cards were from Mason. Sadie was receiving them before your uncle disappeared. Then there’s the use of the names from Thackeray, which Mason had done before. And the connection to Montreal.”

“But if the card was referring to the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto, why did Sadie take the train east?”

“It suddenly dawned on me when I saw that map of the steamship routes at the hotel. There’s a lake port just up from Rochester, called Charlotte. And there’s a steamship that plies between there and Toronto. Sadie was just taking a roundabout way of getting to the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto.”

“So Miss Parker took the train to Rochester last night so she could catch a boat to Toronto. She hoped by taking that route we would mistake her intent. Mr. Whitner made you think his destination was here, but just passed through, taking the boat to Toronto. So presumably, Mason, Miss Parker, and Whitner are all converging at the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto as we speak.”

“That’s it in a nutshell.”

“So, we arrive at ten o’clock and surprise them. Unless Whitey unintentionally warns them off.”

“Or intentionally. If Whitey sees Sadie, he’ll assume she’s there to meet Elwell and will tell her I’m on to her. Unless Whitner already has. All he’s after is money. He too expects to find your uncle meeting Sadie. If he finds Mason there instead, he’ll just work him. He doesn’t want him caught as long as he can milk him.”

“But would he know Mason?”

“I imagine he knows all about Mason’s record, but perhaps wouldn’t recognize him. He seems to know quite a bit about all of this. And I’d like to find out how he learned it.”

The dinner was simple but good, and from there we headed down to the dock.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.