Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 306 by Maxwel l Grant

Author:Maxwel,l Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

Cranston and Sherly were driving along a road. It was the road that lead to Sturm's palatial mansion. The briefcase on Cranston's lap jiggled in time to the cobbles they were riding over.

"Glad you could come along, Cranston. I know I'm just sticking my neck out. I have nothing to go on, really. I just want to pass the time of day with the estimable director."

"I imagine too, you want to check on that helicopter?"

Sherly nodded. "I want to check on a lot of things. That shooting routine, for instance. Although the shot hit Sturm in the back, there was no reason why it couldn't have been self-inflicted!"

"You noticed the books in the roomette, then."

"I certainly did. I even found a length of string that could have gone from the trigger out to the doorknob and back to his hand. He could have stood with his back to the gun. This is all after he could have clouted Flip Hiller on the head, of course, and after aiming carefully, have pulled the string which released a bullet at his back."

"His motivation for this dangerous act?" asked Cranston.

"As a throw-off. I imagine that if he is the killer, he's pretty jittery and thought that would be a good way to mis-direct attention away from him."

"I see."

The road stretched ahead of them interminably. Sherly spoke again, he was obviously thinking aloud. "If we could know what the blackmailer knew about the people in the case it would help a lot! For instance, we know his hold over Genia, but what has he got on Don Barron, or is Barron being blackmailed?"

"Barron doesn't live too well, if that's any indication."

"But Sturm does! He's one of the few people involved in all this that really seems to spend some of the dough-re-mi that he makes!"

"Yes, his baronial barn certainly is expensive to keep up."

"Do you have any idea," asked Sherly, "whether or not Gainsworthy himself is paying off?"

Cranston pictured the scene where Gainsworthy had projected the torpedo out the window and nodded his head. "Yes, indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if the blackmailer takes more money from him than any of his other victims."

"Wonder what Gainsworthy has on his conscience that he doesn't want the world let in on?"

"I don't think the blackmailer holds that sort of thing over him at all.

I have an idea that his threat is even more horrible. After all, all the blackmailer has to do is either threaten to disfigure a batch of stars so no one will ever work for Gainsworthy, or, and this may be more probable, he may threaten to make all the stars he controls go on a sit-down strike."

"Wow, that's an idea! Sure, all he'd have to do is say no work, and there'd be no work!" Sherly chewed on his lip thoughtfully. "That routine with Flip Hiller's model ship in the bottle turned out to be of real value. My men found some microscopic traces of the bottle and some tiny fragments of wood when they went through the place.

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