Skip shrugged. “Perhaps he did.”
“He was a m-machine.”
“He was a cyborg, part human and part machine. They do it with accident victims when there aren’t enough limbs and organs available. I’ve met a few. Possibly they’re capable of love, or some are. I wouldn’t know.”
“I thought you knew everything.”
“A moment ago, you said I’d made a mistake already. Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”
“I suppose.” Her voice was weak. “Why did you come to see me?”
“There were three reasons, and it’s going to take me a while to go through all three. What was my mistake?”
The wan smile flickered again. “Give me the first reason and I’ll tell you.”
Skip smiled in return. “I’ll give you the first two—there would be no point in separating them. I care about you, Susan. I care about you, but I’ve treated you badly. I know that. I owe you damages. Damnum absque injuria is damage still. Is there anything at all I can do for you? Anything I can get you?”
Her head moved from side to side, five degrees one way and five the other.
“Then I’ll go on to the second. We’ll make port soon, and it could be as soon as tomorrow. An officer I spoke to thought it would be possible with fair winds and good luck. When we do, you’ll probably—probably, not certainly—be arrested. If you talk, you may be charged with murder.”
“Or even if I don’t talk.”
“Correct. Who killed the nurse?”
“Rick did.” Susan shut her eyes. When she opened them again she said, “He’d wanted me to. I said I didn’t think I could shoot another woman, so we traded. I shot the doctor. Then Rick shot him when he didn’t die right away.”
“Shot him twice.”
Susan’s eyes closed again. “Several times. I don’t know how many.”
“I’ll defend you, if you want me to, without fee. If you’d like to engage me, we need to get that settled right now. As things stand, it will be hard for me to withhold information from the police. On some matters it will be nearly impossible. Make me your attorney and it will get much easier. Once we’re ashore, I’ll resign the case and assign someone else to handle the trial.”
“I’d rather have you.” She was groping for his hand.
Skip made sure that she did not find it. “I’ll be a witness for the defense, so that’s out. Do you want me to represent you? Now?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then that’s settled. I’ll deal with the police to the best of my ability. You must insist upon having your attorney—Mick Tooley or me—present before you’ll talk to them. I can see you’re badly hurt, and that will make it difficult.”
Susan’s eyes closed. “Difficult is my specialty.”
“Fine. I’ll enlist Dr. Ueda if I can. She would be of enormous assistance to us.”
Susan did not speak.
“I think I know what happened to you. Do you want to tell me?”
“I thought he loved me.…” Susan’s voice hardly rose above a whisper.
“Perhaps he did. He was not simply a machine.”
“He used me.”
“So did I.” Skip’s voice was as soft as hers.
“Don’t go. Please don’t go.”
“I’ll have to leave soon, but I’m not leaving now. Who is the old man who shot Rick?”
“I don’t know. Why did he shoot Rick?”
“That’s one of the things I’m trying to find out. You called him Mr. White, and said Mr. White had said you could be the one to kill me.”
Susan nodded.
“Who is he?”
“He was Rick’s boss.…” Her voice faded away.
“Is he a passenger on this ship?”
“Rick did what he said to do. Except when he didn’t. Rick called him Mr. White, so that was what I called him. Can’t you see that none of this matters, Skip?”
He bent nearer her. “What does? What matters, Susan? Tell me.”
“Love.”
“Love made you cut your arms.”
“I— Yes. Yes, it did that. You’d been talking about cutting wrists.…”
Skip waited.
“You showed us that woman’s arm. Made her show it.”
He nodded. “I suppose I did.”
“So I thought that might work for me. Did you know I’d tried to kill myself before?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t tell me, but I guessed it. You were in a suicide ring. I found that out shortly after you came on board.”
He paused, expecting her to ask how he knew, and ready to refuse that information. She did not.
“You planted the bomb. It killed two young women.”
Susan shook her head.
“You didn’t plant it?”
“We didn’t want to kill them. Just Edith Eckhart.”
“She’s effectively dead now,” Skip said. “You don’t have to worry about her anymore.”
“She’s here.… Another name.”
From the doorway, Dr. Ueda said, “You’re tiring her. Please leave immediately.”
“I’ve got one more question,” Skip told Dr. Ueda. “After that, I’ll have a few for you. It will be to your advantage to answer them, believe me.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Hardly. We’ve got a mess here, and the sooner we straighten it out and see that the right people go to jail—if anyone does—the better it will be for all of us.”
He turned back to Susan. “Answer this, and I’ll go. You said we didn’t want to kill them. By we, did you mean the ring? Or someone here?”
“Rick. Rick helped me and I helped him. Then she was with you. I didn’t think I could do it so he said it was all right, he’d set it off. He’d send a signal. Only he’s dead now, isn’t he? Isn’t Rick dead?”
Skip rose. “Yes. That was why you tried to cut your wrists.”
“I nearly won.” Susan’s voice was louder that he had expected, and firmer. “There was a glass in the bathroom.” Her voice rose again. “I was brave!”
“You’re brave enough to live,” Skip told her, and kissed her forehead.
* * *
When they were seated in the tiny book-lined office that had become Dr. Ueda’s, she asked, “Are you trying to put that poor girl in prison?”
“No. I’m an attorney, Doctor.”
“I know. A famous one.”
“Did you also know that your patient—you called her ‘that poor girl’—is my secretary?”
Folklore, Skip reflected, insisted that Orientals never showed emotion. Dr. Ueda’s surprise was evident, although less than obvious. Another myth discredited.
“She is. Naturally, my firm will defend her. As I told her, I’ll be a witness for the defense; so I can’t be her trial attorney. Even so, I want to lay the groundwork now. Are you aware that she planted the bomb that killed two young women on this ship?”
Slowly, Dr. Ueda shook her head. “I didn’t know that, either.”
“She did. She admitted it to me in there, and I feel certain she’ll admit it to others—to the police, as soon as we dock. It means we can’t simply try to convince a jury that she isn’t guilty. That would be unethical, and unwise as well. We’ll have to plead her deranged mental and emotional state. If we succeed—as I think we will—she may get the treatment she needs. If we fail…” Skip shrugged.
“Lethal injection.”
“Correct. We’ll need a deposition from you. If the prosecution doesn’t challenge your deposition, we won’t have to call you as a witness. I’m not asking for that deposition now. You’ll need time to think, and you may want to consult your own attorney. When you’ve had time for both, I’ll send somebody to depose you.”
“She tried to kill herself.” Dr. Ueda hesitated. “Tried hard. She had slashed her arms—both arms—with broken glass.”