“I can’t say. I doubt that he’d be foolish enough to let them get away with their memories intact. But big men sometimes slip up in the details.” A signal flashed at the door. “Elena’s here.”
He had her sent in — without any of the guards who had picked her up and accompanied her here. Risa was taken aback by the fury in her eyes; Elena seemed to be bubbling with wrath. She was dressed in what was for her a plain, even dowdy costume, and she strode into the room with a vigor far removed from her usual languid saunter.
“Mark! Oh, Mark, I’ve got so much to tell you!” she burst out. “I imagine you have,” Mark said. He shot a glance at Risa, who had quietly switched on the recording cube. Risa nodded.
Elena looked at her too. “In private,” she said. “You can speak in front of Risa. She’s already aware of what’s happened. At least, she knows as much about it as I do. But you must know a lot more.”
Color came to Elena’s cheeks. She looked clearly uncomfortable about Risa’s presence. There was an exchange of glares. Mark said, “I want to know what took place in this apartment on Thursday, Elena.”
Elena paced the room in barely suppressed rage. “For most of the day, I have no idea. Martin St. John was here, in the guest bedroom, watched over by a squad of robots.”
“Yes. Then?”
“Charles Noyes came to me. He said he had important business to discuss with St. John. He begged me and begged me until I agreed to bring him here.”
“That was a grave mistake, Elena.”
“I know, Mark. But I brought him. We went into St. John’s bedroom together.”
“You saw St. John? What condition was he in?”
“Alive,” said Elena. “Fatigued, but doing well. Your uncle was working hard to get control over the body. Noyes asked me to leave him alone with St. John for a few minutes. I did. Very shortly Noyes came out of the room. St. John was screaming. He was having peculiar convulsions. Noyes left the apartment, and soon St. John was dead.”
“Would you say he was murdered by Noyes?”
“That’s reasonable to assume,” Elena admitted. “How did Noyes explain what had happened?”
“He said St. John had had a kind of stroke.”
“Did you notify the quaestorate?” Mark asked. Elena shook her head. “I stayed here for a while after Noyes had left. Then I went home. I notified no one.”
“Not even me.”
“Not even you, Mark.”
“You helped Noyes discorporate St. John, then,” Mark said. “No.” Elena’s nostrils flared in anger. “I had no idea he would do such a thing! I swear it, Mark! I was wrong to let him in here, to allow him to be alone with St. John, but I never suspected he meant to murder him!”
“Perhaps,” said Mark. “But in any case your actions are strange. First you let a known agent of Roditis into my house and give him carte blanche to murder my guest. Then you rush off without calling the authorities. And the following morning you fly away to see Roditis himself. You spent a couple of hours in Evansville today, didn’t you? Didn’t you, Elena?”
“Yes,” she said hoarsely. “But I was never working for Roditis. I had no part in this murder, except through stupidity in giving Noyes access. I’ll take a mindpick to prove it. Let the quaestors pick all they want.”
“I will,” he assured her. “If Roditis had obtained any help in discorporating St. John, don’t you think he would have blanked me while I was in Evansville?”
Kaufmann conceded the point. Clearly Elena hadn’t been blanked, which meant that Roditis had no knowledge of her status as an accessory. “But what were you doing there, then?”
“You won’t like the answer, Mark.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Not in front of your daughter.”
“Risa can hear it.”
“What I have to say is — not complimentary to you,” Elena said. “You would prefer not to have anyone but yourself hear it.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Well, then,” Elena said, “I went to Evansville to make love with Roditis. I’ve desired him for months. This was my opportunity. You were away. Noyes was with me, and he was flying to Evansville, and I asked him to take me along. While Noyes was being blanked by Roditis’ men, I went to Roditis and—”
“Noyes was blanked?” Kaufmann said leadenly. “Of course. Roditis knew that he’d probably be traced to St. John. Noyes had to be blanked so that the trail wouldn’t lead back to Roditis. So I went to Roditis. He would not have anything to do with me. He refused me!” She was flushed, agitated, her breasts heaving wildly. “I went close to him, and he pushed me, like this — away. So it was all for nothing. I humiliated myself to him and he pushed me.”
There was a lengthy silence in the room. Risa feared that Elena might hear the throbbing of the recording cube, so silent did everything become. But Elena stood transfixed, hearing nothing but the thunder of her own indignation.
—She was turned down, Tandy said. No wonder she’s so mad now! She’s willing to tell your father anything, just to get even with Roditis.
Risa agreed. She could not help feel a pang of pity for Elena in this moment of her defeat. To be spurned by Roditis, to have to come back here and reveal not only her promiscuity but her rejection — how that must sting!
Mark said finally, “Noyes was definitely blanked, eh? You’re sure of that.”
“Positive. He will be of no use to you as a witness. I am the only one who can testify,” Elena said.
Mark shook his head. “You didn’t see the crime. We’ve already got evidence that you and Noyes were at the apartment at the time of the discorporation, but the best we could hope for from that would be to get a mindpick on Noyes. Which will come up blank. We couldn’t possibly get any court to grant a mindpick of Roditis on your suspicions alone. We’re stopped, Elena.”
“No! No! Fight, Mark! We all know Roditis was behind this murder! Put your best lawyers to work!” Mark smiled coolly. “You’d love to see Roditis ruined, wouldn’t you, Elena? But only because he turned you down. If he had slept with you, you’d be selling me out right and left, wouldn’t you?”
“Don’t deal in ifs, Mark. I’ve told you the truth. You’re free to hate me, free to throw me aside, but don’t preach to me. All right?”
“All right, Elena. Will you go into that bedroom and wait there? I want to talk to Noyes now.”
“He’s here?”
“They’re holding him upstairs. Please stay out of sight while I’m questioning him.”
“You will get nothing from him. Nothing!”
“Please,” Mark said. Elena entered the bedroom and closed the door. Risa’s eyes met her father’s. Mark looked wearier than ever, but that strange Paul-like effect was even more pronounced. He appeared to be drawing on an inner reservoir of will.
He picked up the phone and asked to have Charles Noyes brought in.
Noyes edged into the room like a beast brought to bay by hounds. The strain was getting fearful. All the way back from Evansville he had pretended to Elena that he was Kravchenko, to keep her from turning on him again. And meanwhile Kravchenko had recovered from his shock and was awake again, fighting more strongly than ever to gain control, now that he had had a night’s taste of freedom.
Kravchenko hammered at Noyes’ forehead. Noyes’ clothing was pasted to his skin by the sweat of fear. His knees were watery. His eyes moved in quick birdlike flickers, nervously, warily. He knew he was caught, knew that all was over. Elena, in her fury with Roditis, was determined to spill everything. And he, unblanked, was caught in the middle, his mind full of unwanted knowledge that was sure to come out.
Guilty of willful discorporation. Sentenced to erasure. Not so bad, perhaps. Peace at last. No more turns of the wheel of karma. Oblivion, nirvana. At-one-ment.
Mark Kaufmann confronted him. The financier showed evidences of strain. His face was different, Noyes noticed immediately. Well, no doubt mine is, too. We’ve all been living on this anvil so long, taking blow after blow.