Free Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer Page A

holding a badly worded request for five hundred pounds, written in Kenneth's nervous fist. The letter stated with exquisite simplicity that Kenneth was broke, engaged to be married, and must have funds to pay off a few debts. Appended to it was a typewritten sheet, headed Copy, stating with equal simplicity that Arnold had no intention of giving or lending a feckless idiot five hundred pence, let alone pounds. Further search in the file brought to light a second letter from Kenneth, scrawled on a half-sheet of notepaper. It was laconic in the extreme, and expressed an ardent desire on the writer's part to wring his brother's bloody neck.
    'Very spirited,' said the Superintendent noncommittally. 'I should like to keep these letters, please.'
    'Do, by all means,' said Giles. 'Particularly the last one.'
    'Kenneth Vereker is, I take it, a client of yours?'
    'He is.'
    'Well, Mr Carrington, we won't hedge. You're no fool, and you can see as clearly as I do that his movements on Saturday night will have to be accounted for. But I'm no fool either, and we shall get along a good deal better if I tell you here and now that these letters don't make me want to go after a warrant for this young man's arrest at once. A man who makes up his mind to kill someone isn't very likely to write and tell his victim that he'd like to do it.'
    Privately Giles placed no such confidence in his cousin's level-headedness, but he only nodded, and said:
    'Just so.'
    The Superintendent folded the three letters and tucked them into his pocket-book. His eyes twinkled a little. 'But if he's anything like his sister well, that alters things,' he said. 'Now let's take a look at this memorandum.'
    He picked it up as he spoke and opened it. Giles began to replace the papers in the drawers. 'Hullo!' said Hannasyde suddenly. 'What do you make of this, Mr Carrington?'
    Giles took the book, and found it open at a page of figures. In the first column were pencilled various dates; against these were set names, apparently of different firms; in the third column were certain sums of money, each with a note of interrogation beside it, and a countersum, heavily underlined. At the bottom, each line of figures had been totalled, and the difference, which amounted to three hundred and fifty pounds, not only underlined, but wholly encircled by a thick black pencilmark.
    'John Dawlish Ltd,' said Giles slowly, reading one of the names aloud. 'Aren't those the people who make drills? These look to me like Company accounts.'
    'They look to me as though someone has been monkeying around with the accounts, and Arnold Vereker found it out,' said Hannasyde. 'I think we'll step round to the Shan Hills office, if you don't mind, Mr Carrington.'
    'Not at all,' replied Giles, 'but I don't see quite why you should want me to -'
    He was interrupted by the butler, who at that moment opened the door, and stood holding it. 'I beg your pardon, sir, but Mr Carrington would like to speak to you on the telephone,' said Taylor.
    Giles looked up surprised: 'Mr Carrington wishes to speak to me?'
    'Yes, sir. Shall I switch the call through to this room or would you prefer to speak from the hall?'
    'No switch it through, will you?' Giles lifted the receiver of the desk telephone, and glanced towards Hannasyde. 'Do you mind? —- It's my father, though what he wants, I can't imagine. By the way, it is he who is the legal adviser to Arnold's Company. Arnold transferred his private affairs to me, partly because we were more of an age, and partly because he and my father couldn't hit if off, but the business remained in - Hullo, sir! 'Morning. Yes, Giles speaking.'
    The Superintendent opened his note-book and began tactfully to read through the entries. He could hear a staccato quacking noise, which he rightly inferred to be the voice of Mr Carrington, Senior. It sounded irascible, he thought.
    Giles's side of the conversation was mild and soothing. He said: 'So sorry, sir. Didn't I tell you I should come