“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her.”

“How would you know it wasn’t a trap? Just by her voice?”

“I knew her voice, but there’s a password.”

“What is it?”

Egan tightened his lips.

“You won’t be using it anymore,” I assured him, “so let’s have it.”

“‘Said a spider to a fly.’”

“What?”

“That’s the password. That’s how I got the lead on Leopold Heim. You asked who I would deliver dough to with Birch dead. I thought she would phone and tell me.”

“Why didn’t she tell you when she phoned you the lead on Heim?”