Brass Rainbow Read Free Page B

she got no answer.”
    I made a mental timetable. Radford had been alive at one-fifteen when Weiss came. Say fifteen minutes or so for Sammy in the study: one-thirty. At two o’clock no one answered the door. I wasn’t sure I wanted to find Weiss. Not if they were all telling the truth.
    â€œWhat about enemies? Business troubles? Who gets rich now?”
    But I had lost him. He might have been shaken by the murder, and I had flattered him for a moment, but he was not a fool. His eyes had hardened while I was thinking over the timetable.
    â€œAre you working for this Weiss, Mr. Fortune?”
    â€œIn a way,” I admitted.
    His voice was flint. “I see. You believe him innocent?”
    â€œI want to hear a real motive.”
    â€œIsn’t $25,000 enough for a man like that?”
    â€œYou mean the money Walter owed him? Why would he …?”
    â€œI mean the $25,000 he stole, Mr. Fortune.”
    So there it was. If I were the police, I would be after Weiss.
    â€œThe money was taken from the apartment?” I said.
    â€œFrom a drawer in the study,” Ames said. “Weiss was here to collect the money, Mr. Fortune. He was here at the time of the murder. The weapon was at hand. The money is gone.”
    I said nothing. What could I say?
    â€œNow you come to ask questions while Weiss is apparently still at large,” Ames said. “When a rich man is murdered, only a fool fails to consider anyone who might gain by his murder. I’ve thought about it all night. There is no one. You can believe me when I tell you there was no one with a good enough reason to murder Jonathan. There is only your Weiss.”
    I nodded. “Can I look at the study?”
    â€œI believe I …” he began angrily, and stopped. He hesitated. “Very well. I don’t see why not.”
    The study was down a small corridor. It was book-lined and leather-furnished. A stain on a large rug showed that the body had been partly behind the desk. There were four windows. They were all closed and inaccessible from outside except to a bird. The room had one door, and it had been thoroughly searched.
    I went out and stood in the small corridor. To the right it led into the kitchen. There was a back door to the kitchen. It was locked inside by a spring lock. Through it was the usual back staircase for garbage, deliveries and fire. The lock did not seem to have been tampered with.
    I returned to the living room and thanked Ames. He nodded. His well-tended face was frosty. I was nosing, unasked, into his affairs. There’s nothing like self-interest to bring a man out of shock or sorrow.
    In the lobby I braced the doorman. “What time did Radford come home yesterday afternoon?”
    â€œAround one o’clock, with the Fallon girl. I already told the Captain. I seen the fat guy go up maybe one-fifteen. Miss Fallon come down right after that, like I said.”
    He was eying my missing arm. He assumed I was a cop, and the arm probably made me look like a tough cop.
    â€œWhen did the fat guy come down?”
    â€œI didn’t see. I had to help old lady Gadsden with her groceries. Two million bucks, and she carries her own stuff.”
    â€œWhere do the back stairs open out?”
    â€œAlley in the rear. It locks inside, only you know.”
    I knew. Half the time it would be open. I went out into the snow. It was still coming down, but not as heavy. I started up to the corner, thinking about what I could do next. George Ames had sounded pretty certain about no one else killing Radford. He could be right—as far as he knew. But there was another side to the coin, a side Ames might not know.
    Maybe Sammy Weiss had killed and stolen $25,000, but he hadn’t acted last night like a man with $25,000. He had been really scared, I knew that much, and it wasn’t like him not to flash that money at me if he wanted help. On top of that, how did Weiss get owed $25,000 in the first