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"If he knew-"

"If he knew," I said, "maybe he's the one who put the cyanide in the scotch That would explain how Will lar-proof apartment He was never there at all Whitfield killed himself"

"Is that what you think happened?"

"I don't knohat I think," I said, and got up to answer the phone

It was Wally Donn, with the sa," he said "What do you figure, Matt? You knew him pretty well"

"I hardly knew him at all"

"Well, you knew him better than I did, for Christ's sake Was he the type to kill himself?"

"I don't knohat type that is"

"The ren is he was ot a letter from Will I'd be twice as moody if I had what Whitfield had"

"If he knew he had it"

"For that you'd need his medical records, and his doctor's out of town for the weekend They'll be getting in touch with hi this son of a bitch, deliberately taking poison right in front of a young felloho's getting paid to protect his life"

"You know," I said, "you're calling him a son of a bitch, but if it wasn't suicide…"

"Then I' a man after I already failed to protect hihed "The world's a confusing fucking place to be in, and don't let anybody tell you different"

"I wouldn't drea souise it, make it look like murder?"

"Usually it's the other way around"

"Guys killing people, trying to fix it so it looks like they killed themselves Why would you turn it around? Insurance?"

"That would only make sense if there's a policy he took out recently The clause that excludes suicide only applies for a certain amount of time"

"Usually a year, isn't it?"

"I think so It's to prevent a person fro out a policy with the intent of killing hi preation to hiot depressed and took a dive in front of the F train"

"I don't know," he said "We've done enough insurance work over the years to convincethey can They're the worst when it co items e bill the of bills, if it turns out he did it hined on to protect him and we couldn't even protect him from himself? I'd rather eat it than try to collect it"

When there's enough media attention, you can't find a place to hide where so so far, but Philip M Bushing, MD, didn't have an equal talent for conceal reporter hadwas Adrian Whitfield's physician, specializing in internal ht to cover just about everything but dere to those patients ere still breathing, and so felt free to disclose that he had diagnosed Adrian Whitfield's illness in the spring, and had had the sad task of co that fact to the patient

Whitfield had taken it well, Bushing recalled, ulti the physician as a hostile witness He'd forced Bushing to adery nor cheot him to esti told hi

Whitfield called that man, a Dr Ronald Patel, and 's diagnosis and proposed an aggressive protocol of radiation and cheht win the patient another year of life Whitfield thanked hiain

"I assumed he wanted another opinion," Patel said