Murder for Money by Roy Lewis

Author:Roy Lewis [Lewis, Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books mystery, crime, thrillers and suspense fiction
Published: 2018-11-19T22:00:00+00:00

Wilhelm Grunfeld. Check:

(a) date of birth — January 15, 1915

(b) facial characteristics

(c) number and sex and names of children

(d) signature correspondence

Crow frowned.

‘Signature correspondence? What’s he mean by that?’

‘I’ve no idea. But that’s all there is, as far as I can see. The Berlin trips are largely noted as expenses checks apart from that note. I’ll go through them carefully now, of course, but—’

‘Go through them very carefully, Wilson. And keep your eyes open for the name Romanoff.’

‘The stranger who stayed at the Three Bells?’

‘And who was met by Charles Rutland,’ Crow said. ‘You know, things are beginning to move, it seems to me. We can’t see the pattern yet, but the pieces are all there — I’ve the feeling they’ll all fit into place for us pretty soon. Charles Rutland, flying between Berlin and Yorkshire; a stranger called Romanoff in the Three Bells; notes on Wilhelm Grunfeld and a story on Conrad Gunther, which might, to say the least, be embarrassing for that "honest soldier of the Third Reich"; a search around the countryside for a tramp called Shuffler and lights on the moor at Lockyer’s Tarn—’

‘And there’s the Orchards too, sir,’ Wilson added quietly.

‘Peripheral only, I suspect,’ Crow said. ‘I’m beginning to feel that Bert Orchard is telling the truth. Maybe he did go around there and knock Rutland about, but that’s where it ended. Somebody else finished Rutland off. So Orchard’s part is peripheral, I believe. But Doris Orchard . . . you remember what she said about Rutland’s attitude? About his excitement, what he said before he made love to her, when they were fighting?’

‘Blood money,’ Wilson said.

‘And what does that mean? How would you define the term?’

Wilson screwed up his eyes in thought, like a little boy trying to remember his sums. ‘Blood money . . . I suppose it’s any money you’d get by laying or supporting a capital charge against someone — at least, that was the old idea. I mean, it’s payment for informing, isn’t it?’

Crow nodded and smiled. ‘The danger was, of course, that the charges laid might not be true. False charges — but you’d still get your money if the accused person was hanged.’

‘I don’t really see the relevance—’

‘Nor do I, not yet, not entirely. But perhaps it’s a mistake to take Rutland’s words too literally. Let’s keep them in mind, nevertheless: perhaps the charges he had in mind were false, perhaps they weren’t. Either way, I suspect from what Doris Orchard’s told us, he was after blood money all right — so someone killed him rather than pay it.’

‘You mean Rutland was a blackmailer?’

‘It’s beginning to look that way. Scathe magazine was certainly the kind of rag that would give him a good training for that kind of operation.’

‘So where do we go from here?’

Crow rose abruptly and headed for the door. ‘I want you to follow up those papers. Carry out a complete check on Wilhelm Grunfeld and do the same thing for Conrad Gunther. I have a

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