“And, three, that Walters stole the pistols in the first place,” Ritter added.  “You know, it’s possible that somebody else in that house might have stolen them.”

“Yes.  As I said, anything’s possible, within structural limits, but possibilities exist on different orders of probability.  We can’t try to consider all the possibilities in any case, because they are indefinitely numerous; the best we can do is screen out all the low-order probabilities, list the high-order probabilities, and revise our list when and as new data comes to light.  Well, I’ve told you why I think Walters is a good suspect.  From what I’ve seen of that household, I think Walters was personally loyal to Lane Fleming, and I don’t believe he feels any loyalty to anybody else there, with the exception of Gladys Fleming.  He might keep quiet about the missing pistols if she were the thief; if Dunmore, or Varcek, or either of the girls had done the stealing, he’d tell Gladys, and she’d pass it on to me.  She would be glad of anything that could be used against any of the others.  And if, on the other hand, she had stolen the pistols herself, she wouldn’t have wanted me poking around, and wouldn’t have brought me in, at least not to handle the collection.”  Rand looked regretfully at his empty glass and decided against ordering another.  “Dave, I just thought of something,” he said.  “How do you think this would work?”

He told Ritter what he had thought of.  Ritter drank beer slowly and meditatively.

“It just might work,” he considered.  “I’ve seen that gag work a hundred times:  hell, I’ve used something like that, myself, at least fifty times, and so have you.  And I don’t think Walters would be familiar enough with dick-practice to see what you were doing.  But if it turns out that Walters didn’t sell the pistols to Rivers at all, what then?”

“Well, if he sold them to Umholtz, Pierre Jarrett’s theory is still valid until disproved,” Rand said.  “And if he didn’t sell them either to Rivers or Umholtz, we’ll have to conclude that Rivers and Fleming were killed by the same person, the Rivers killing being a security measure.  That is, unless we find that Rivers was killed by Pierre Jarrett, which is a sort of medium-high-order probability.  Jarrett and the girl left Gresham’s early enough for him to have killed Rivers; they were both pretty hard hit by that twenty-five-grand blockbuster Rivers had dropped on them....  Give me back that Colt, Dave.  All you have to do is get an identification on the Leech & Rigdon from the barbecue man.  I’m going to let Mick McKenna handle Umholtz, one way or another, after we’ve concluded the Walters experiment.  Until then, we don’t want to stir Umholtz up, at all.”

CHAPTER 15

Parking in the drive, Rand entered the Fleming house by the front door.  The butler must have been busy with his pre-dinner tasks in the rear; it was Gladys herself who admitted him.