Dangerous to Know Read Online Free PDF

I gave him a penetrating look, asked, “Well, don’t you?”
    He brought his hand up to his face, rubbed his mouth and his chin, suddenly reflective. “I don’t know,” he answered. “This afternoon I would have agreed with you, but now I’m vacillating. Not sure of anything.”
    “Do you honestly think he was attacked? By an intruder?” I pressed.
    “Maybe. He could have gone into the farmhouse and surprised a burglar.”
    “Before the burglar had an opportunity to steal anything? Is that what you think? After all, you said there’s nothing missing.”
    “Well, the paintings and the major art objects are in place. On the other hand, Sebastian could have had something else there worth stealing, something to tempt a thief.”
    “Such as what?” I frowned, shaking my head. “I don’t get it, Jack.”
    “Cash, Vivienne. You know Sebastian always carried a lot on him.
    I was often warning him about that. Or maybe there were some documents around.”
    “Documents,” I said sharply, staring at him. “But if someone stole documents that smacks of premeditation, doesn’t it? Listen, a thief breaking in at random, looking for loot, is one thing. A thief breaking in and stealing documents is a different thing altogether. It suggests prior knowledge to me.”
    Jack nodded. “You’re right there.”
    “What made you think of documents? Are there any missing? And what kind of documents did you have in mind?”
    “I don’t know, and to be honest, I don’t know why I thought of them.
    Except that Sebastian said he was going to the farm to work.
    Whatever else he was, he wasn’t a liar. If he said he had to go over papers, then he was telling the truth. But there weren’t any, at least none that he’d been working on-“
    “What about all those scattered around the library?” I cut in.
    “The letters on the floor and spread over the desk were just the usual things. Correspondence, bills, personal notes from people. The way he spoke on Thursday he sounded as if he had real work to do on nnportant documents. Come to think of it, he did actually say docu men. I guess that’s why I just thought of them now.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Look, I haven’t been at Laurel Creek Farm in a coon’s age, Viv, so how would I know if there’s anything missing? Mrs.
    Crane’s the best person to ascertain that, but then only as far as the art is concerned.
    Not even she would know if any papers have disappeared .”
    “No, she wouldn’t.” I let out a long sigh. “It looks as if we’re back to square one.”
    “Yep …” Jack shook his head, his puzzlement surfacing again.
    Then he said suddenly, in a torrent of words, “Look, Viv, I disagree with you. I don’t think he died of natural causes, as you do.
    I think he was killed. Most probably by an intruder. Sebastian surprised him.
    The intruder ran out. Sebastian chased him. They struggled. And Sebastian got himself killed. Sort of inadvertently.”
    “Or he was murdered by someone who was with him at the farm, for reasons we don’t know,” I remarked.
    Jack pondered for a moment. Then slowly, and more thoughtfully than usual, he said, “We’re speculating. We’d better stop. It’ll lead nowhere.” Pinning me with his eyes, he added, “Let’s admit it, Vivienne, we won’t know exactly how he died until the police get that autopsy report from the Chief Medical Officer in Farmington.”
    I could only nod. I agreed with him, at least as far as his last comment was concerned.
    Long after Jack had left, I prowled around the house, stacking the dishwasher, clearing up, making the den and the dining room neat and tidy.
    At one moment I even had another stab at my story, hoping to do the final edit, but I was not very successful. I would try again tomorrow, and if my concentration still eluded me I would have to let it go out as it was. The piece had to be at the newspaper in London by Friday at the latest, and I would have to FedEr it on