Rand nodded.  He was familiar with the type.

“The story is that Fleming found it hanging back of the counter at some roadside lunch-stand, along with a lot of other old pistols, and talked the proprietor into letting it go for a few dollars,” Gresham continued.  “It was supposed to have been loaded at the time, and went off while Fleming was working on it, at home.”  He shook his head.  “I can’t believe that, Jeff.  Lane Fleming would know a loaded revolver when he saw one.  I believe he deliberately shot himself, and the family faked the accident and fixed the authorities.  The police never made any investigation; it was handled by the coroner alone.  And our coroner, out in Scott County, is eminently fixable, if you go about it right; a pitiful little nonentity with a tremendous inferiority complex.”

“But good Lord, why?” Rand demanded.  “I never heard of Fleming having any troubles worth killing himself over.”

Gresham lowered his voice.  “Jeff, I’m not supposed to talk about this, but the fact is that I believe Fleming was about to lose control of the Premix Company,” he said.  “I have, well, sources of inside information.  This is in confidence, so don’t quote me, but certain influences were at work, inside the company, toward that end.”  He inspected the tip of his cigar and knocked off the ash into the tray at his elbow.  “Lane Fleming’s death is on record as accidental, Jeff.  It’s been written off as such.  It would be a great deal better for all concerned if it were left at that.”

CHAPTER 5

Rand drove slowly through Rosemont, the next day, refreshing his memory of the place.  It was one of the many commuters’ villages strung out for fifty miles along the railroad lines radiating from New Belfast, and depended for its support upon a population scattered over a five-mile radius at estates and country homes.  Obviously a planned community, it was dominated by a gray-walled, green-roofed railroad station which stood on its passenger-platform like a captain in front of four platoons of gray-walled, green-roofed houses and stores aligned along as many converging roads.  There was a post office, uniform with the rest of the buildings; an excessive quantity of aluminum trimming dated it somewhere in the middle Andrew W. Mellon period.  There were four gas stations, a movie theater, and a Woolworth store with a red front that made it look like some painted hussy who had wandered into a Quaker Meeting.

Over the door of one of the smaller stores, Rand saw a black-lettered white sign:  Antiques.  There was a smoke-gray Plymouth coupe parked in front of it.