No.
3 - 8 - 7 - 4 . No.
4 - 3 - 7 - 8 . No.
4 - 7 - 3 - 8 . No.
4 - 7 - 8 - 3 . No.
4 - 3 - 8 - 7 . No.
4 - 8 - 3 - 7 . Yes!
The door opened. Propping it slightly ajar with a wad of balled-up Kleenex, just in case it became necessary to get back and the keypad on the other side of the door had a different combination, Sister Mary Grace tiptoed down the broad gray-painted metal stairs to the next floor, and there was the gray metal door to Hendricksonâs apartment, with a keypad beside it. She tried 4 - 8 - 3 - 7, but it didnât work, so she went on down the stairs one more flight to the same closed and locked mesh screen gate that Dortmunder and Kelp would be studying two months later. This gate defeated her. She could see the hall door down on the landing, but if she were to shout, and if someone passing by were to hear her out there in the public hall, what were the chances of that someone being connected to the Margrave Corporation?
Excellent.
So she retreated from the mesh gate, as Dortmunder and Kelp would do later, and went back up to her apartment/prison on seventy-six, where she picked up the Pam again. Back down to seventy-five she went, and sprayed the keypad for Hendricksonâs apartment door, and just to be a completist she sprayed the keypad on the outside of her own apartment/prison door as well.
By the next evening, she knew her own door was 4 - 8 - 3 - 7 on both sides, and Hendricksonâs door used the numbers 2 - 5 - 8 - 9. After long trial, the right combination turned out to be 9 - 5 - 8 - 2, but then Hendricksonâs door was bolted , from the inside! The only time it wouldnât be bolted was when Hendrickson was upstairs pestering her, when sheâd be unable to get away and come down here. If he were in his own apartment, or anywhere out in the world (using the apartmentâs front door), this door would be bolted, from the inside, and impassable.
The guardsâ door was in much more frequent use, which made things trickier, but that was the only other alternative. The Pam trick got her through it, and down the narrow carpeted stairs with the wood-paneled walls, down two flightsâthere were only bare walls at the landing on seventy-fiveâto the back entrance to the Margrave Corporation. Pam again, and into Margrave.
Which was never empty. Never . Sister Mary Grace sneaked down there over and over, day and night, risking exposure a dozen times, and it was permanently just no good. There were several offices she could prowl through more or less safely at night, but toward the front of the area there were always people on duty. Men sat at consoles and studied closed-circuit television screens. Men talked on phones. Men unlocked gun cabinets and took out guns or put guns away. Beyond all these men, just glimpsed, women staffed a reception area, day and night, facing the only exit to the public hall. It was impossible to get through.
One of the many reasons Sister Mary Grace needed to escape from this tower was that it was so filled with the occasions of sin. During her two verbal hours every Thursday afternoon, she constantly overstepped herself, committing sins of anger and disrespect, and in her head for the rest of the week she was frequently uncharitable, unforgiving and proud. But the worst was when she had finally accepted the fact that all her cleverness with the keypads had come to naught, that she had merely expanded her prison without escaping from it, and that the farther barriers were absolutely impassable; at that point, and for some time after, she was guilty of the deadly sin of despair.
It wasnât that she exactly contemplated suicide, although she did find herself asking God in her prayers why He didnât simplify matters by drawing her now to His Bosom. And she was, without noticing it, eating less and less, until poor Enriqueta Tomayo finally made such a fuss one day, carrying on and crying in two and a half languages (some Indian
3 - 8 - 7 - 4 . No.
4 - 3 - 7 - 8 . No.
4 - 7 - 3 - 8 . No.
4 - 7 - 8 - 3 . No.
4 - 3 - 8 - 7 . No.
4 - 8 - 3 - 7 . Yes!
The door opened. Propping it slightly ajar with a wad of balled-up Kleenex, just in case it became necessary to get back and the keypad on the other side of the door had a different combination, Sister Mary Grace tiptoed down the broad gray-painted metal stairs to the next floor, and there was the gray metal door to Hendricksonâs apartment, with a keypad beside it. She tried 4 - 8 - 3 - 7, but it didnât work, so she went on down the stairs one more flight to the same closed and locked mesh screen gate that Dortmunder and Kelp would be studying two months later. This gate defeated her. She could see the hall door down on the landing, but if she were to shout, and if someone passing by were to hear her out there in the public hall, what were the chances of that someone being connected to the Margrave Corporation?
Excellent.
So she retreated from the mesh gate, as Dortmunder and Kelp would do later, and went back up to her apartment/prison on seventy-six, where she picked up the Pam again. Back down to seventy-five she went, and sprayed the keypad for Hendricksonâs apartment door, and just to be a completist she sprayed the keypad on the outside of her own apartment/prison door as well.
By the next evening, she knew her own door was 4 - 8 - 3 - 7 on both sides, and Hendricksonâs door used the numbers 2 - 5 - 8 - 9. After long trial, the right combination turned out to be 9 - 5 - 8 - 2, but then Hendricksonâs door was bolted , from the inside! The only time it wouldnât be bolted was when Hendrickson was upstairs pestering her, when sheâd be unable to get away and come down here. If he were in his own apartment, or anywhere out in the world (using the apartmentâs front door), this door would be bolted, from the inside, and impassable.
The guardsâ door was in much more frequent use, which made things trickier, but that was the only other alternative. The Pam trick got her through it, and down the narrow carpeted stairs with the wood-paneled walls, down two flightsâthere were only bare walls at the landing on seventy-fiveâto the back entrance to the Margrave Corporation. Pam again, and into Margrave.
Which was never empty. Never . Sister Mary Grace sneaked down there over and over, day and night, risking exposure a dozen times, and it was permanently just no good. There were several offices she could prowl through more or less safely at night, but toward the front of the area there were always people on duty. Men sat at consoles and studied closed-circuit television screens. Men talked on phones. Men unlocked gun cabinets and took out guns or put guns away. Beyond all these men, just glimpsed, women staffed a reception area, day and night, facing the only exit to the public hall. It was impossible to get through.
One of the many reasons Sister Mary Grace needed to escape from this tower was that it was so filled with the occasions of sin. During her two verbal hours every Thursday afternoon, she constantly overstepped herself, committing sins of anger and disrespect, and in her head for the rest of the week she was frequently uncharitable, unforgiving and proud. But the worst was when she had finally accepted the fact that all her cleverness with the keypads had come to naught, that she had merely expanded her prison without escaping from it, and that the farther barriers were absolutely impassable; at that point, and for some time after, she was guilty of the deadly sin of despair.
It wasnât that she exactly contemplated suicide, although she did find herself asking God in her prayers why He didnât simplify matters by drawing her now to His Bosom. And she was, without noticing it, eating less and less, until poor Enriqueta Tomayo finally made such a fuss one day, carrying on and crying in two and a half languages (some Indian
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