Murder at the Opera - Margaret Truman [84]
“You can’t figure people
“Did you know him?”
“Sure. I must have done half a dozen interviews with him
“No, I mean before the murder. You were taking courses at Georgetown around the time Musinski was killed, weren’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I was. I’d just started my master’s program, thanks to the Metropolitan Police Department’s largesse. That education program really helped
“You never ran across Grimes while you were there?”
“No
“But you must have known Musinski. He’d been there a long time, a high-profile guy
“I might have met him once or twice. He was in the Music Department, I was art history. But yeah, I think I was introduced to him once
“I never saw that in any of your reports
“Never occurred to me to include it. Didn’t have any bearing on the investigation
“Right. Despite Willie’s conviction that Grimes is guilty—you know Willie, he’s never met a suspect who wasn’t guilty—”
“Not a bad way to police,” Pawkins said.
“That aside, what I can’t figure is why Grimes would have killed Musinski
Pawkins thought for a minute and shrugged. “Those missing musical manuscripts aren’t a bad motive
“I have a problem with that
“Why?”
“A couple of reasons. To begin with, you indicated in your reports—and I remember having conversations with you about it—you questioned whether there ever were such manuscripts
“I still do. All we had to go on was a letter from Musinski to his niece, and her claim that he came back from London with them. I never saw them. Neither did anyone else I know of
“There was his partner over in Europe, wasn’t there?”
Pawkins nodded. “I spoke with him a couple of times. He mentioned the scores but didn’t press it. If anybody had a reason to raise hell about them disappearing, it was him. The fact that he didn’t raise hell tells me that maybe they never existed in the first place
“Maybe you’re right,” Berry said, “but there’s something else that bothers me
“I’m all ears
“If anybody took those manuscripts—what were they, string quartets written by Mozart and Haydn?”
“So they say
“If anybody took them, they would have sold them as fast as possible
Pawkins pondered Berry’s analysis. “Not necessarily,” he said. “There are art lovers who steal paintings, or pay to have them stolen, who just want them to look at them every night over a snifter of brandy. Gives them some sort of solace
“I can understand that with works of art, Ray, but musical scores? Not much to look at there, brandy or no brandy. I could understand recordings, or if whoever stole them plays the piano. By the way, Grimes doesn’t play—the piano, that is
“Still
“I’m not ruling out what you said
Berry did a decent impression of TV’s Columbo about to leave a scene but having a sudden new thought. “What bothers me, Ray, is that Grimes doesn’t live like a man who’s sitting on a million dollars’ worth of rare manuscripts. He, his wife, and two kids live in university-subsidized housing, nothing fancy. He drives a beat-up old car. His bank account gives him maybe a couple of months of living expenses. No savings, aside from a self-funded pension plan at the university. If he murdered Musinski to get his hands on those scores, what the hell did he do with them?”
“Beats me,” Pawkins said. “What about the niece? Maybe she grabbed them the night she reported her uncle murdered
Berry shook his head. “We checked her out, too, recently. Another modest liver, nothing to point in her direction
“If I were you, Carl, I’d forget about these so-called Mozart-Haydn scores and concentrate strictly on the forensics where Grimes is concerned. I’d love to see you nail him. That case has bugged me for six years, the fact that we couldn’t bring it to a conclusion. Grimes did it.” He laughed. “Hell, even Willie knows that. Well, got to run. Great seeing you again. If I come up with anything in the Lee case, you’ll be the first to hear—no, the second, after my esteemed client, the Washington National Opera.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Milton Crowley decided to extend his stay in Washington for a few days.