with the brain. By accident, or perhaps because the needle had been twisted savagely to tear the nerve
paths, there had been paralysis of respiration and almost instant death.
I withdrew the probe and turned to McCann.
"This man has been murdered," I said. "Killed by the same kind of weapon with which Ricori was
attacked. But whoever did it made a better job. He'll never come to life again as Ricori did."
"Yeah?" said McCann, quietly. "An' me an' Paul was the only ones with Ricori when it happened. An' the
only ones here with this man, Doc, was his wife an' baby! Now what're you going to do about that? Say
those two put him on the spot-like you thought we done the boss?"
I said: "What do you know about this, McCann? And how did you come to be here so-opportunely?"
He answered, patiently: "I wasn't here when he was killed-if that's what you're getting at. If you want to