13. The plot to kill Michael Malloy, Part Two
Finally one night, after Marino started Malloy off with cheap whiskey soon replaced with pure wood alcohol – his regular pattern – Malloy suddenly collapsed to the floor, unconscious, though still breathing. Marino and his cronies decided to allow him to remain on the floor where he lay, certain that death was imminent. A few hours later Malloy awoke, stretched, and got to his feet, ordering another drink as he did so. The astonished and somewhat flabbergasted conspirators decided the time had come to increase their efforts. After ruling out simply hitting the old man over the head as too dangerous they decided to serve him oysters, poisoned by soaking them with denatured alcohol, as he enjoyed his nightly drinking.
When Malloy enjoyed the oysters, which were served him gratis, the conspirators decided food poisoning via sardines left out to go bad would work. For good measure, they included metal shavings and carpet tacks among the sardines, served in a sandwich. Malloy ate them. He enjoyed them so much that he asked for another sandwich. The understandably bewildered conspirators decided after the sardines too failed that the entire project was becoming too expensive, with their intended victim consuming liquor, wood alcohol, oysters, denatured alcohol, and sardines without either paying for them or succumbing to their effects. Another approach was necessary in order to cash in on the insurance, for which they had also borne the cost, and for which another premium was soon due.