"Case Varcek and Dunmore, when they come in; see if either of them is rod-heavy. Find anything, last night?"
Ritter shook his head. "I searched Varcek's lab, after everybody was in bed, and I searched the cars in the garage, and a lot of other places. I didn't find them. Whoever he is, the chances are he has them in his room."
"Did you look back of the books in the library?" Rand asked. When Ritter shook his head, he continued: "That's probably where they are. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference."
"If I'd found them, it'd of given me something to watch; then I'd know when the fun was going to start." Ritter broke off suddenly. "Yes, sir. Will you have your coffee now, or later, sir?"
Gladys entered, wearing the blue tailored outfit she had worn to Rand's office, on Wednesday.
"At ease, at ease," she laughed, dropping into her chair. "Anything new?"
Rand shook his head. "We'll have to wait. I'm expecting some action this morning; I hope it'll be over before you're home from church."
She looked at him seriously. "Jeff, you're using yourself as murder-bait," she said. "Aren't you?"
"More or less. He knows I'm onto him. He's pretty sure I haven't any real proof, yet, but he doesn't know how soon I will have. He realizes that I'm cat-and-mousing him, the way I did Walters. So he'll try to kill me before I pounce, and when he does, he'll convict himself. What he doesn't realize is that as long as he sits tight, he's perfectly safe."
Neither of them mentioned the obvious corollary, that conviction and execution would be almost simultaneous. It must have been uppermost in Gladys's mind; she leaned over and put her hand on Rand's arm.