Page 30 - The Gluckman Occasional Number One

kicked off that ball rather more quickly than usual. Perhaps you were
in league with Stellanova—or else, her unwitting accomplice.”
“Why, you—” began Karpechki.
“Stop! Stop!” yelped Trixie. “You’re making my head throb. Now,
what about you, Gurmovnik? Where were you when Provornin was
beaned? Didn’t you notice anything unusual?”
“No. I gave him his final instructions and I got out of the limelight.
He seemed a little giddy, but I attributed that to the excitement of
going on for me on such short notice.”
“Wait a minute!” interjected Raskeloff. “He’s not telling you
everything. He says they were friends, but I think Provornin had
been blackmailing Gurmovnik.”
“Really?” said Trixie, her eyebrows arching shaggily.
“Yes. Don’t deny it, Gurmovnik. When you came to us looking for
work, Provornin said he knew something about your past. But he
never told us what it was. Now he has been silenced forever.”
“That’s preposterous!” retorted Gurmovnik hotly. “A long time
ago we traveled on the same carpet bag, that’s all. He was just
teasing me, the way friends do.”
“I’m not so sure,” Karpechki muttered. “How do we know you
didn’t give him false instructions on when to be ready, or lie to him
about the trajectory of the ball? For that matter, can you prove your
leg is really injured?”
“What! You doubt my word?” roared Gurmovnik. Trixie’s scalp
tickled with scuffling fleas.
“Halt!” the dog ordered. “It’s evident that each of you had the
means, the motive and the opportunity to kill Provornin. Now I see
why you came to me. It happens that you are in luck: you’ve given
me enough clues to solve the crime.”
“We have?” came a falsetto choir.
“Most certainly. First, tell me: where was Provornin immediately
prior to the performance?”
After an embarrassed silence, a voice piped up: “He went to get a
drink.”
“Of what?”
“Of you.”
“Well, there you have it. Yesterday morning I found a half-empty
bottle of gin behind the loges and took a little nip. Not long
afterwards Provornin apparently did the same.”
“You mean—”