“What are you looking at?” he demanded.
“I was wondering if he did faint in his bath. He might have been got at.”
“For Pete’s sake! How?”
“Yes — how?” Conrad said, and ran his fingers through his hair. “There was no one hiding in here. If someone tried to get through the window Weiner would have had time to yell.” He turned quickly and stared at O’Brien. “I did think I heard him call out.”
“I didn’t; besides, no one could get through the window. It’s too small. Even a dwarf would have to struggle, and Weiner would have had time to come out.”
“Yes, I guess that’s right,” Conrad said after a moment’s thought. He went out into the passage again. “Any sign of life?” he asked Wilson, who shook his head.
“He’s gone, sir. The hot water in his lungs would have finished him quicker than anything.”
One of the guards brought a blanket and spread it over Pete’s body.
“Well, that’s that,” Conrad said in disgust. “After all the trouble we’ve taken to keep him safe from Maurer, he has to die accidentally.”
He heard a sound behind him and looked over his shoulder.