“I doubt whether anyone around here has. Probably one of Rashta-purdi’s hired thugs. No need to ask you about the other one.”
Rabinowitz braced herself and turned slowly. The object on the floor that had initially tripped her was another body—Fredericksen’s body. She stared down at it, feeling an inner hollowness but no surprise. “I think indirectly I killed him,” she said quietly.
“Care to explain your reasoning on that?”
“I called Nils from the airport to let him know I was coming over. That probably panicked Rashtapurdi.”
“Why would that panic him?” Hoy asked.
“Because I knew and I could prove that Nils killed Levexitor.”
Hoy arched an eyebrow. “How?”
“For one thing, he made a tiny slip I didn’t even notice at the time. When he called me shortly after the murder, I told him I’d been present when Levexitor died. I never said ‘murdered,’ but Nils asked me if the police had any idea who killed him.”
“That’s pretty flimsy,” Hoy said. “We live in a violent society. It’s natural to assume a violent death. If I took that to a prosecutor I’d be laughed out of his office.”
Rabinowitz walked slowly over to one of the large armchairs facing the desk. The kick to her stomach had made standing uncomfortable. “Levexitor himself gave me the biggest clue,” she said as she sat down.
“Did he come back from the grave, or wherever Jenitharp dispose of dead bodies?”
“No, but the scene is sharply etched in my memory. Levexitor was calmly talking to me, then suddenly he looked up, cried out and slumped over his work table.”
“So?”
“Up,” Rabinowitz said wearily. “He looked up. That’s such a simple gesture for us, but it has a whole new world of meaning on Jenithar. Levexitor had the title ‘Highest’; he was among the tallest on Jenithar. There could only be a few people on the planet he’d look up to, and certainly not his assistant. Chalnas would have to stand on a ladder to do that, and he could hardly have surprised his boss that way.”
“What about Rashtapurdi?” He’s an entertainment mogul, very important—”
“He’s also a convicted felon. The Jenitharp keep them out on general principles—very commendable in Rashtapurdi’s case. No, I wasn’t thinking in terms of money. The Jenitharp don’t care about that nearly as much as they care about status. Say, someone with the rank of UN Secretary for Interstellar Commerce.”
“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but Fredericksen had a pretty tight alibi. At the time of the murder he was attending an opera on Dikwan. Lots of people saw him. I checked that out myself.”
“Have you ever seen a Dikwanic opera?”
“Never had the pleasure.”
“If you had you’d never use ‘pleasure’ in conjunction with it. I’m sure Nils had a rented body on Dikwan sitting at attention for hours in the audience, surrounded by people who’d swear he was there. But I know from personal experience how easy it is to slip out of that rented body and come home for awhile—or maybe even to rent a second body on another world. Nils told me he’d been to Jenithar a lot in the last year. They’ve got a system that bypasses all their paperwork and lets you keep a body on permanent reserve. He could have slipped into that without anyone seeing him and gone to visit Levexitor. That body would have been as tall or taller than Levexitor’s—and the heavy metal arm would be the only murder weapon he needed. If you look a little more closely at Nil’s phone records, I bet you’ll find that ‘simultaneous’ jump.”
“You’ve got means and opportunity, but you haven’t mentioned motive,” Hoy said.
Rabinowitz sighed. “Well, I think he killed Levexitor in simple panic. Levexitor was having second thoughts and was about to tell me what he was mixed up in when Nils struck him. Knowing Nils, I’ll bet he was horrified at his own actions. But his larger motives, why he was in this deal in the first place—we’ll just have to guess. I do know he was upset about losing the secretary general post to Chien, far more than he let on. Maybe he wanted to start a scandal to embarrass Chien. Maybe he wanted to get what was coming to him after so many years of service. But beneath it all he was still a patriot. Look what he chose to steal. The Indians made those movies by the thousands, the ultimate potboilers. Not even their creators would call them literature. They’re some of Earth’s assets, sure, but we’d never really miss them.”
“What about the attacks on you and Whitefish—not to mention that assassin on the floor over there?”
“Nils would never have done anything like that. You can lay those to Rashtapurdi, the real villain of the piece. When the deal started unraveling he just decided to cut off the loose ends. Now there’s no one to give hard evidence against him. Want to bet he walks free from this?”
“No taker. May I call on you socially now?”
Rabinowitz looked at him, horrified. “I have just dealt with the shock of having a man I cared about, someone who raised me like an uncle, be a murderer. And then I trip over his dead body. How could you possibly suggest such a thing?”
“I did save your life twice.”
“It wouldn’t have needed saving if you hadn’t put me on that list of yours.”
“Oh, that. You were never really on it, you know. Fredericksen put some political heat on my bosses and they wouldn’t let me go after him directly. I had to try a more roundabout route.”
“I see.” She stood up and started for the door.
“May I at least call you Deborah?”
She looked him dead in the face. “I don’t have relationships with men who use me as a tool.”
“Well, that’s OK, too,” Hoy said amiably. “How do you want to be used?”
“I really don’t have the time for this,” Rabinowitz said icily as she brushed past him.“I’ve got a regicide to manage and a civil war to plan. Birnam Wood doesn’t move by itself, you know.”