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"It was cyanide? The account I read just said poison"

"Cyanide My guy knew it froht away A shalass before Whitfield drank it"

"A shalass"

"No, he just knocked it right back, and then it knocked hiren had to roll hiren's your op?"

"I had torking He's the one was upstairs with Whitfield Other guy was in the lobby If I'd have put theonna do, sit up all night playing gin rummy? The procedure was the correct one"

"Except the client died"

"Yeah, right The operation was a success but the patient died How do you figure poison in the whiskey? The apartlar alaruy swears he set it, the one who picked Whitfield up yesterday ren, swears it was set when he opened up last night So soht or nine yesterday h two locks, a Medeco and a Segal, and bypassed a brand-new Poseidon alarm How, for Christ's sake?"

"The alarm was new?"

"I ordered it myself The Medeco cylinder was new, too, on the top lock I had it installed the day we came on the job"

"Who had keys?"

"Whitfield hi, he was never the first one to go through the door Then there were two sets of keys, one for each of the men on duty When they were relieved they passed on their keys to the next shift"

"What about the building staff?"

"They had keys to the Segal, of course But we didn't give the wo for hi as he's had the apartet a key to the Medeco, or the four-digit code for the burglar alarured there wasout to be a nice old Polish lady froot one who didn't need one On Tuesday afternoons one of our men would meet her there, let her in, and stick around until she was done He's sitting there reading aand on her hands and knees scrubbing out the bathtub, and you know his hourly rate's three or four ti Don't you ever let anybody tell you life is fair"

"I'll remember that," I said

"Let me answer a question or two before you ask it, because the cops already asked and I already answered The alarm's not just on the door The s are also wired in That was probably excessive, since there's no fire escape, and do we really figure Will to be capable of doing a hu down from the roof on a couple of knotted bedsheets?"

"Is that what flies do?"

"You knohat Ito reporters, so don't expect me to sound like Shakespeare It doesn't cost that much more to hook up the alar Besides, if this guy could get Patsy Salerno and Whatsisname in Omaha, who's to say he can't walk up a brick wall?"

"What about a service entrance?"

"Youor the apart, and a separate service elevator There's also a service entrance for the apartot on the case One of the first things I did was throw a bolt on it and keep it perot tays in and out of a place you've got the potential for headaches froets to lock the service door So I had it all but welded shut, and thatway around when she took the trash to the compactor chute, but she didn't seem to mind"

We talked some more about the security at the apartot back to the cyanide I said, "It was in the whiskey, Wally? Do we know that for sure?"