CHAPTER ELEVEN

Mr. West opened his door. The wolfhound padded out into the corridor, searching in both directions. West moved into the hall to look to his right and left, and as he turned to enter his apartment, he saw the yellowing newspaper page hanging on his door. He flicked on the light switch in the entrance hall and looked at the page closely. He screamed. He slammed the door into the wall violently, pushing it away from himself with both arms. The security guard who had been posted outside Mayra’s door came bounding down the staircase.

“There is someone in this building,” West said hoarsely. “Find him. Bring him to me.” He took the page down and entered his apartment, slamming the door. The security man ran down the stairs.

West sat on a low hassock in front of a coffee table, the dog sitting alertly beside him. He stared downward at the large portrait of Mary Lou Mayberry as a show girl, beautiful and nearly nude. The doorbell rang. He shouted to come in and turned the page face down on the coffee table. Arno Ehrlich, the security chief, glided into the room, alarmed. Two subordinates remained in the background as Ehrlich held out a mounted newspaper page to Mr. West. “What’s that?” West asked shrilly.

“It was taped to the door of the elevator, sir.”

“Why are you here? Get out of here,” he screamed at Ehrlich. “Find the man who was able to break through the most perfect security of all time and who is waiting out there to murder me.” Ehrlich left at once, on the double, the two men right behind him.

He wanted them out of the building. He didn’t need them. He knew who had done this reckless and capricious thing. Willie had decided to blackmail him to get the nigger girl. Willie had done this. Only Willie could have saved these crumbling records for all these years, because from the beginning he had meant to use them for blackmail. Blackmailers must be dealt with. Blackmailers must be put down and broken, never to rise again. He left the apartment, the gigantic dog at his side, and moved to the lift. When he entered the lift with the dog he pressed the button for the first floor. He left the lift and crossed the hall to Willie’s room, to Willie who had so carefully said he had to go to New York with Smadja and Herr Zendt to recruit the new hotel staff people. West took the master key from his pocket.