So he had to get one of his own,
and he got it from Arnold Rivers."

"You know that? I mean, that's not just a guess?"

"I know it. The gun he got from Rivers was a .36 Colt, 1860 Navy-model,
serial number 2444," Rand told her. "Rivers had that gun last summer. He
had it refinished by a gunsmith named Umholtz. After Umholtz refinished
it, the gun was in Rivers's shop until November of last year, when it was
sold by Rivers personally. And that was the revolver that was found in
Lane Fleming's hand, and the one I got from the coroner, with a letter
vouching for the fact that it had been so found."

He finished his cocktail. Gladys picked up the shaker mechanically and
refilled his glass.

"Now we have Dunmore with this .36 Colt, loaded with powder, caps and
bullets from the ammunition supply in the gunroom, waiting for a chance
to use it. And also, he has this Mill-Pack contract in his safe deposit
box at the bank. That takes care of the weapon and the motive; only the
opportunity is needed, and that came on the 22nd of December, when Mr.
Fleming brought home that Confederate Leech & Rigdon .36 he had just
bought. It was just a piece of luck that both revolvers were alike in
caliber and general type, but it wouldn't have made a lot of difference.
Nobody was paying much attention to details, and Dunmore was on the scene
to misdirect any attention anybody would pay to anything.

"Now, we come to the mechanics of the thing; the _modus operandi_, or,
as it is professionally known, the M.O. You remember what happened that
evening. Nelda had gone out. You and Geraldine were listening to the
radio in the parlor, over there. Varcek had gone up to his lab. Mr.
Fleming was alone in the gunroom, working on his new revolver. And Fred
Dunmore said he was going to take a bath. What he did, of course, was to
draw a tub full of water, undress, put on his bathrobe and slippers, hide
the .36 Colt under the bathrobe, and then go across the hall to the
gunroom, where he found Mr. Fleming sitting on that cobbler's bench,
putting the finishing touches on the Leech & Rigdon. So he fired at close
range, wiped the prints off the Colt with an oily rag, put it in Lane
Fleming's right hand, put the rag in his left, grabbed up the Leech &
Rigdon, and scuttled back to his bathroom, deadlatching and shutting the
gunroom door as he went out. This last, of course, was a delaying tactic,
to give him time to establish his bathtub alibi."

He lifted t