Then he swung it up and slammed down with
it, and left it sticking through Rivers and in the floor."

McKenna nodded. "Lights on when you got here?" he asked.

"No; I put them on when I came in. The killer must have turned them off
when he left, but the deadlatch on the door wasn't set, and he doesn't
seem to have bothered checking on that."

"Think he left right after he killed Rivers?"

Rand shook his head. "No, that was just the first part of it. After he'd
finished Rivers, he went back to that desk and got all the cards Rivers
used to record his transactions on--an individual card for every item. He
destroyed the lot of them, or at least most of them, in the fireplace.
Now, I'm only guessing, here, but I think he took out a card or cards in
which he had some interest, and then dumped the rest in the fire to
prevent anybody from being able to determine which ones he was interested
in. I am further guessing that the cards which the killer wanted to
suppress were in the 'sold' file. But I am not guessing about the
destruction of the record-file; I found the fireplace full of ashes,
found one card that had escaped unburned--you can be sure that one
wasn't important--and found the drawer where the record-system was kept
empty."

"Think he might have stolen something, and covered up by burning the
cards?" McKenna asked.

Rand shook his head again. "I was here yesterday; bought a pistol from
Rivers. That's how I noticed this card-index system. Of course, I didn't
look at everything, while I was here, but I can't see where any quantity
of arms have been removed, and Rivers didn't have any single item that
was worth a murder. Fact is, no old firearm is. There are only a very few
old arms that are worth over a thousand dollars, and most of them are
well-known, unique specimens that would be unsaleable because every
collector would know where it came from."

"We can check possible thefts with Rivers's clerk, when he gets here,"
McKenna said. "Now, suppose you show me these things you found, back at
the rear ... Aarvo, you and the boys start taking pictures," he told
the corporal, then he followed Rand back through the shop.

He tested the temperature of the water in the ice-bowl with his finger.
He looked at the ashtray, and bent over and sniffed at each of the two
glasses.

"I see one of them's been emptied out," he commented. "Want to bet it
hasn't been wiped clean, too?"

"Huh-unh." Rand smiled slightly. "Even