Through a cousin who works with
Gelder he found out the retail firms who had bought the busts.
He managed to find employment with Morse Hudson, and in that
way tracked down three of them. The pearl was not there.
Then, with the help of some Italian EMPLOYE, he succeeded in
finding out where the other three busts had gone. The first was
at Harker's. There he was dogged by his confederate, who held
Beppo responsible for the loss of the pearl, and he stabbed him
in the scuffle which followed."
"If he was his confederate why should he carry his photograph?"
I asked.
"As a means of tracing him if he wished to inquire about him
from any third person. That was the obvious reason. Well,
after the murder I calculated that Beppo would probably hurry
rather than delay his movements. He would fear that the police
would read his secret, and so he hastened on before they should
get ahead of him. Of course, I could not say that he had not
found the pearl in Harker's bust. I had not even concluded for
certain that it was the pearl; but it was evident to me that he
was looking for something, since he carried the bust past the
other houses in order to break it in the garden which had a lamp
overlooking it.
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