The Captain said slowly, ‘My suspect is in the building. I think he opened the door with his own switch . Then this person came downstairs and went into Langley-Smythe’s flat with the other men. When they got inside, somebody shot the Englishman.’
‘But not immediately,’ the Chief Inspector reminded them. ‘He was shot in the back when he was going into his bedroom. We need to know why he was going into the bedroom.’
To the safe?’ Jeffreys asked
But why?not to get money out The dealer paid him. Money would go into the safe-not out
The captain looked thoughtful. Why did they argue? And why did they leave the furniture here? They’d came to take it away. And why did they leave the angle’s head here? This is an extremely valuable piece, with a government seal. There’s no chance of getting an export permit for it. It’s stolen and they’d want to get it out of the country as quickly as possible. I imagine that somebody has already paid quite a lot of money for it. So why? He stared out into the dark courtyard. On the opposite wall he could see a square of light from a window above.
Suddenly he turned to Carabinere Bacci. Go up to the Ciprianis apartment, he said. ‘Find out if that child put the light on when the bangs worke her. Then he picked up the telephon on the Englishman’s desk and called Headquarters.
I want this message to be sent immediately by radio to all the men who are questioning the antique-dealers. The message is this. ‘The Langley-Smythe business is closed, repeat, closed. We have no proof. Make sure all the dealers know this. Got that? Good. When the men get back to headquarters, tell their chief to phone me here for orders. I’ll need them all night.