Vineyard Deceit by Philip R. Craig

Author:Philip R. Craig [Craig, Philip R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780060542900
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1991-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

— 16 —

A man came in as we went out. He was firm of step and purposeful. A Thornberry man, apparently. One of Helga Johanson’s underlings, in that case. He looked slightly askance at her arm tucked in mine, but said nothing.

She gave him a stony look as I walked her past him. “We’ll be in the… we’ll be upstairs for a few minutes, George. The list you want is on the big desk.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said George.

We went up the grand staircase. She gestured down a hallway. “The Padishah and his people are there. That is to say, they are occupying that wing of this floor. At the moment I believe they’re all in Washington, except for Colonel Nagy.”

“Is the Colonel out checking up on the SDL?”

“What do you know about the SDL?” she asked sharply.

We were walking down a hall leading away from the Padishah’s wing.

“Only what I heard from your boss and from Jasper Cabot.” I told her what Cabot had said. “My master plan is to try to track one or two local Sarofimian types down and ask them some questions.”

“The police are doing that now,” she said. “You’re probably just wasting your energy.”

I smiled down at her. “I’ll save some for the really important things. What’s your theory about the missing necklace?”

“Thornberry Security prefers to work from facts, Mr. Jackson, not theories.”

“Call me J.W.”

“Oh, very well…”

“Good. I have a couple of ideas, Helga. Want to hear them? They’re not much, but they’re what I’ve got.”

“I don’t expect them to be much, Mr… J.W., but I suspect I’m going to hear them whether I want to or not.”

We came to the master bedroom and went in. The room was as I remembered it. The wandering Damon’s dusty weapon collection was still hanging on the walls. I peeked into the adjoining bathroom. I didn’t find the missing necklace lying in the middle of its floor.

“Naturally you’ve searched the house thoroughly.”

“Naturally. Water closets and all. You were going to tell me your ideas.”

“Well, I figure there are a lot of ways the necklace could have been stolen. First, of course, it might have been stolen before it even got here. Willard Blunt is the obvious suspect since he’s been in charge of the necklaces for decades and afterwards apparently shot himself on the beach. Guilt, shame, and all that. Maybe he bought off Dr. What’s-his-name of the Sarofimian National Museum to just say he put the necklace in the safe. Or, second, maybe Blunt could have stolen it from the safe between the time Dr. What’s-his-name put the necklace in there and the night of the party. Who’d have suspected him? Trustworthy old New England lawyer and all that. Maybe he just carried it out in his pocket. Did anybody search him? I don’t know. Third, still on old Willard’s case, maybe he passed them to a crony from here in this room. What do you think so far?”

“Naturally we have considered all of those possibilities, Mr… J.W. However, Mr.

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