The Rodriguez Affair (1970) Read Online Free

he had no enemies.”
    Alletson pursed his lips. “It seems that he had nevertheless.”
    “Yes,” Cade said. And then: “How did you get my name and address?”
    “He’d jotted it down in a notebook.”
    “He must have done that when he looked it up in the telephone directory.”
    “Then he tore the page out.”
    “Tore it out?”
    “We assume so. We couldn’t find it.”
    “Then how—”
    “He must have pressed rather heavily on the pencil. The impression went through to the next page.”
    Cade was thinking. It could, of course, have been as Alletson had suggested; Banner could have torn out the page and destroyed it. On the other hand, it was just as possible that the murderer had taken it. And if that should be so other unpleasant possibilities came up; such as another visit to his own flat, and not this time by a police-constable.
    “When was he killed?” Cade asked.
    “Almost certainly soon after he returned last night His body was discovered by a maidservant He’d left instructions to be called early.”
    “Yes. He was going away for a few days.”
    “He told you that?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he say where he was going?”
    “No. Just that he was going away.”
    “But he intended coming back?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he make any arrangements to meet you again?”
    “Nothing definite. He said he would let me know when he was back in London.”
    “You knew he was staying in this hotel of course?”
    “No. He didn’t tell me where he was staying.”
    “Didn’t you consider that strange?”
    “I thought he had his own reasons for not telling me. I didn’t press him.”
    “Perhaps he didn’t want to involve you.”
    “In what?”
    Alletson gave a wry smile. “If we knew that our problem would be half solved. But perhaps we shall find out. The two men might be able to help us with the answers—if we could trace them.”
    “What two men?”
    The photographer was packing his gear. “I’ve finished here, sir.”
    Alletson nodded. The fingerprint man also appeared to have run out of likely material for his attentions.
    “What two men?” Cade repeated.
    Alletson looked at him. “Didn’t I tell you? The proprietor saw Banner arrive last night at about a quarter to eleven with two men. They were walking close together. They went up the stairs together.”
    “Would he recognise them again?”
    “He doesn’t think so. They had their coat collars turned up and hats pulled down low over their faces.”
    “Did he see them go away?”
    “He caught a glimpse of two men leaving the hotel about half an hour later. Just the back view as they went out of the door. He believes it was the same two men.”
    “So they were the men who killed Harry Banner?”
    “We don’t know that,” Alletson said.
    “It seems pretty obvious.”
    “In my business we try to avoid jumping to the obvious conclusion. It isn’t always the right one.”
    “Didn’t anybody hear any noise coming from this room? A struggle or something of that kind.”
    “Nothing unusual. Besides, killing a man with a knife can be quite a silent operation—when it is done by an expert. Whoever killed Mr. Banner was certainly an expert.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    “There was only one thrust. It was enough.”
    “Have you found the knife?”
    Alletson shook his head sadly. “Unfortunately, no.”
    Cade looked again out of the window. The view had become no less depressing. The day seemed to be trying to make up its mind whether to be rainy or merely grey and cold. When he turned his gaze back to the room he saw that two ambulancemen had come in with a stretcher.
    “All right,” Alletson said. “You can take him away now.”
    They lifted Banner on to the stretcher and draped a blanket over him. They had a little difficulty in gettingtheir burden out of the room; the corridor was narrow and they had to tilt the stretcher. Cade felt an urge to shout at them, warning them to be careful because it was his friend Harry Banner