His thoughts were scattered by the sharp report of a rifle from the other side of the door. Hoag pushed open the door: at the far end of the long dark room Muller was faintly silhouetted against the window, the rifle still raised; he stood with his feet apart on a kitchen table he had dragged to the sill. He turned his head to the source of the disturbance and instantly back to the window and his rifle sight, dismissing Hoag for the moment with the same contempt he had shown in their encounter at Hoag's apartment.

Hoag stretched his left hand to the wall and fumbled for the switch: evil flourishes in the dark. The room was bathed in light at the instant Muller's second shot came. Muller, nakedly exposed at the bright window like a deer pinned in a car's headlights, threw down the rifle and turned to jump from the table; his face wore a look of outrage. A shot caught him and straightened him up in screaming pain; a following volley of shots shattered glass, ripped the ceiling, and sent him lurching heavily from the table. He was dead before his body made contact with the floor. Hoag stumbled back into the hall, leaned against the wall, and started to retch.

After Captain Docherty sent Arleigh Griffith for Hoag he was able to complete his detailed inspection of the third floor and to receive a report from his man covering the floors above before Griffith returned, buoyed up by a brief stop for another glass of champagne.