“In any case, I don’t think we want to go that far,” Maxine said with a faint smile. “No, I tend to agree with you, Laverna. In fact, I arrived at much the same conclusion yesterday.”
“You did?” Her advisor made no effort to hide the surprise in her voice. “Then how come you’ve been having me-“
“There might have been an option I overlooked,” Max said. “That, and I guess I’ve been stalling having to say it out loud. This isn’t the first time I’ve been outmaneuvered, but it doesn’t make me any happier about running up the white flag.” She rose and wandered over to the window. “I think what irritates me the most,” she said, looking down at the inevitable stream of passing tourists, “is that I can’t figure out just how he managed to do it.”
“That’s simple enough,” Laverna said as she gathered up her work sheets. “The man used his money better than you used yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s clear that he’s been spreading bribe money around the staff pretty good-or, at least, better than we have. There’s no way he could have pulled this off without a lot of inside information.”
“You think so? That’s interesting. I assumed that Huey Martin provided him with all the information he needed.”
“Uh-uh. He got more information somewhere than what Huey had to sell. There have got to be other folks in this complex serving as his eyes and ears-and I don’t mean the security guards.”
“Speaking of that,” Maxine said, “has there been any word as to the whereabouts of that bartender? The one who so effectively removed Mr. Stilman from the picture?”