A story with J.G.Reeder as the investigator. It was nice, since Reeder is a peculiar character, a bit like Columbo but without the incessant questions. It’s not easy to know what happens, since every connection is explained in the last page by Reeder after the case is closed, but it is possible to make some wild guess and get it right, since basically all the known characters are involved.
It starts with young Kenneth in love with Margot, and jealous when he sees her with a much older man. He works in a bank, and is ordered by his boss to pay any sum requested on the bank account of a client named Wentford. So he does, giving a large sum of money to a woman with her face covered.
Kenneth McKay didn’t have much money or friends, and at a club he only had one: Rufus Machfield. McKay senior had long ago lost all his fortune gambling.
One night, a lawyer and his secretary find a policeman on the snowy road, and find out that there is a corpse on the ground, Wentford. Reeder happens to be there as well, apparently all these people had been called by Wentford himself. So Reeder starts investigating the matter.
Margot was at Wentford’s house because he was her uncle and she worked for him.
Wentford, his real name Lynn, was not the nicest of men, and he was extremely paranoid.
The cheque that Kenneth paid to that woman came out a fake, and his boss denied having told him to pay it. Kenneth had a debt with a pawbroker and was sent some money anonymously to pay it off. It turns out the boss had a gambling habit and also a big crush on the woman sent to get the money at the bank. Rufus and Wentford years ago had conned McKay senior out of his money. The croupier involved had been arrested, and once freed had come here to work with Rufus. They found Wentford and killed him but didn’t find the money. They tried to abduct Margot but Reeder was at her house. Kenneth got the money from Rufus to implicate him in the fraud.
ITA incluso in Mister Reeder indaga
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