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"But with Byron Leopold it was different"

He looked at me "Do you knohat it is to be obsessed?" he demanded

"I'd have to say I do"

"If the disease were to run its course and he to die of it, I would get seventy-five thousand dollars If he should happen to be struck by a car, or slip and fall in the bathtub, or die in a fire, then I would receive twice that alasses, held them in both hands, and stared atelse," he said "I could not get the fact out ofelse that happened I began to think of it as an to feel entitled to it"

I've heard certain thieves say so and the thief wants it, and inhis mind a transfer of ownership occurs, and it becomes his-his money, his watch, his car And he sees you still in possession of it and beconation When he relieves you of it, he's not stealing it He's reclai, "half the et over the idea of what a colossal waste it would be It's not as though he would get the money, or his heirs, or anyone at all It would be completely lost But if he died accidentally, by misadventure-"

"It would be yours"

"Yes, and at no cost to anyone It wouldn't be his money, or anybody else's money It would just come to me as a pure windfall"

"What about the insurance company?"

"But they assumed that risk!" His voice rose, in pitch and in volume "They sold him a policy with a double-indeested it No one ever deliberately asks for it And its presence would have her than it would have been otherwise So the money was already there If it wasn't a windfall for me, it would be a windfall for the insurance co that when his voice dropped and he said, "Of course theto come from out of thin air It was the insurance coan to see it that way If he died accidentally it was mine, all of it If he died of his disease, I'd be cheated out of half of it"

"Cheated out of it"

"That's how I began to see it, yes" He lifted the teapot, filled both our cups "I started is that ht happen In this part of the country people are killed in auto accidents with awful frequency I don't suppose that happens as often in New York"

"It happens," I said, "but probably not as often"

"When you think of New York," he said, "you think of people getting h the actual h there coh, no"

"It's her in New Orleans," he said, and went on to name a couple of other cities "But in the public erous in the nation In the world, even"

"We have the reputation," I agreed

"So I i swift and surgical And do you knohat I thought?"

"What?"

"I thought what a blessing it would be To both of us"

"Both you and Byron Leopold?"

"Yes"

"How did you figure that?"

"A quick death"

"Al ironic, but is it lessyou with less and less, finally taking away the will to live before it finally takes your life? Do you knohat it's like to watch that happen to sorateful"

"I aain, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand "She died by inches," he said

I didn't say anything

"My wife It took her years to die It put her on crutches and it put her in a wheekhair It would take a bite of her life, and ould adjust to that and become accustomed to that And then it would take another bite And it never got better And it always got worse"

"It must have been very hard for you"