Chapter IX

The question was, what had the death of Kenneth Glamis accomplished, besides removing him from the scene? If blackmail had been afoot, then that was stopped. Was there anything else?

Roy Auckland looked into the deadly box, and remembered that it had not yet been established that the needle set inside it had really been the cause of death. Shirley would have to examine it, under Edholm's supervision.

The train of thought halted abruptly and he turned around. "Ekem-ve...?" he started to say, then stopped as he realized that the room was empty. Why had he thought a Vaec had entered?

What else had the murder accomplished? Well, the digging had been stopped and the expedition was virtually at an end. The supply ship was due soon, and it was almost certain that Edholm would insist that they leave if the mystery hadn't been cleared up. Everyone wanted it cleared up, but someone was promoting a false solution.

Anything else? He had been planning to spend some time with the Vaec. Could that have any connection?

He snapped his fingers suddenly as Shirley came in. "I was just going to look you up," he said. "There's something you can help me with."

She nodded listlessly and followed him to Glamis's room, which he had sealed with a special lock of his own. He produced the key and ushered her inside. It was as he had left it earlier.

"I want you to look around and see if anything appears to be missing." As she hesitated, he added softly, "Don't pretend you're not familiar with this room. You have spent quite a bit of time here."

There was a pleading look in her eyes as she said tiredly, "It's not what you think, Roy."

"How do you know what I think? I didn't say you went to him willingly. He had something on you, didn't he? That's what I think."

She sat down on the bed and buried her face in her hands, and he knew she was crying soundlessly. "You don't have to tell me what it was," he said. "Although you may have to tell someone else." He sat down beside her and put his arm around her slim shoulders. She didn't flinch; her body relaxed against him. "Think now, Shirl. Could anyone else have discovered what it was?"

She raised her face, tear-stained. "Thanks, Roy. He wasn't like that; he would have demanded to know everything."

"You don't have to tell me," Auckland repeated.

"But I want to," she said. "I've been afraid too long."

"Something to do with your resignation from the space service?" he asked.

She nodded, and the story came out between bursts of tears. She hadn't tried to save the passenger in the space-wreck. She had been in the sick man's room when disaster struck, had panicked and started to run. She'd struck her head, knocked herself out. By sheer coincidence, when the others found her, it looked as if she had hurt herself in the attempt to get him to safety.

No one suspected at the time, but accepting a citation was too much. Yet, she hadn't the courage to tell the truth. She didn't think that anyone save Glamis had found it out.

"How he knew, I'll never be able to figure out," she finished. "And the worst of it was that he didn't really care. He never liked his brother, and the inheritance came at a very convenient time for Kenneth Glamis. I guess I must have given myself away when he called on me to thank me for trying to save his bother--to thank me for failing, really. I knew then I would have to do whatever he wanted me to do."

It was not an unpleasant task, comforting blonde Shirley Mason.

Eventually, they got back to the situation at hand. "He was untidy, yet he always knew where everything here was," she said. "Have you any idea of what it is you're looking for?"

Then it wasn't Glamis who had been seen leaving James's quarters, going to his own, and searching. It was merely a man wearing a protective suit, walking in Carolinian twilight. Could either of the two women have dressed in such a way as to conceal the differences in outline which the Vaec found so interesting and curious? It didn't seem likely that either Shirley or Amelia could have passed for Glamis in the eyes of a Vaec watching, even allowing for dim light and distance.

"Was Ken playing a joke on someone, Shirl?"

She nodded, bending over the open drawers of the desk. "He didn't tell me who or what, but I knew he was up to something."

Auckland picked up a scrap of paper covered with doodles. "Could he have been writing something?"

"He might have been," she said, then straightened up suddenly, and said, "Of course!" She went to the file and started to finger through it. "He kept a reel of tape filed under 'Projects, Miscellaneous'--which was his code for humor. It was the only file he really kept in order." An instant later, she added, "No tape."

* * * * *

Calvin Burleigh looked haggard, as if he had spent a sleepless night on his knees, and there was a quality of tired resignation in his voice. He closed the door of his quarters and motioned Auckland to a chair. "I suppose you think I'm secretly glad about all this," he said.

Roy relaxed in the chair, wishing that they had brought some of the seemingly magical chairs from the villa. "Are you?"

Burleigh shook his head. "There is spite in me and I disliked him very much; my first feeling was one of satisfaction, Lord help me. But I'm not really glad he's dead. I'm only relieved that we'll be leaving Carolus."

"You really think man is so evil that he must be kept away from alien beings?"

"Not evil, Roy. Just foolish and unready. I'm a scientist; I believe that the universe contains many secrets which will be unlocked to whomever asks the right questions. My life has been spent trying to learn some of the right questions to ask. But we humans are too impatient. We rush out and ask questions the answers to which are dangerous to us because we've not asked the right questions about ourselves yet, as a whole.

"Like a man who discovers that it is possible for blood to be transfused from one person to another, but hasn't bothered to learn, or even thought to ask, about the possibility of antagonistic blood-types." He shrugged. "And sometimes you'll get away with it, sheerly through luck."

Auckland nodded. "I see the point. But I don't see what you and I can do about it, outside of trying to get some measure of humility ourselves and trying to influence anyone else who will listen. And always remembering that we may be awfully wrong just where we're sure we are most right."

Burleigh smiled. "I couldn't have put it better myself." Auckland was surprised at the warmth of that smile. "But I don't think you came here for a philosophical and theological discussion, as much as I would be willing to engage. I know that I'm a suspect, so go ahead and examine me."

Auckland took out his notebook and leafed through it. "Doc James dropped in on you after we broke up last night. What did he talk about?"

"The Rosetta stone book, mostly." Burleigh closed his eyes. "I had a feeling that there was something else on his mind, something else he really wanted to talk about but just couldn't get around to."

"Amelia, perhaps?"

"Perhaps."

"You've known him longer than I have, Cal. And I gather that Amelia is something of a flirt." Burleigh said nothing, but there was the slightest suggestion of a quirk around the corner of his lips. No doubt he had noticed Auckland's own nocturnal excursions with the woman. "Was James jealous? Was he jealous of Glamis, or you?"

"He had no reason to be jealous of me!" came the answer sharply. "Unless, of course, she lied like Potiphar's wife about Joseph. But I don't think that happened," he added after a pause. "She wants men but she doesn't strike me as the kind who gets frantic if she can't have a particular man, especially if there are other acceptable ones available." The slight quirk appeared again.

"Do you think he was jealous of Glamis?"

"I don't think James is jealous of the fact that Amelia has any particular affair in itself. But there's such a thing as carrying on in a manner that's offensive in itself. I think he found Ken's manner insufferable. And I think that she did, too, after a while. It had stopped before you arrived, and for once, I don't think he was the one who broke off."

"Any idea why?"

Burleigh tapped on the desk with his finger. "Amelia James is more than you would suspect. In all other areas, she is a loyal and devoted wife. I think that is why Howard isn't jealous of her." He looked out the window. "I suppose you have your own theories about this business."

"I'd like to hear yours."

"Hmmm. Well, it seems to me, Auckland, that there's one very deceptive thing about it all. You know the old fallacy, 'After it, therefore because of it.' I think that trying to connect the alleged attempts on Doc James and the murder of Ken Glamis is a trap."

"Then what was the meaning of the _dodlig_ in the soup and the bomb in the basement?"

"Practical jokes, meant to be discovered. He was capable of pretty sophomoric humor. But someone else either saw a use for them, or fitted them into plans already made."

"You think Glamis would have been murdered anyway?"

"Possibly--no, I'd say more surely than that. But someone thought they saw how it could be passed off as an accident in another attempt on Howard." He declined a cigarette. "I'm not opposed to tobacco, just don't go for it. Of course, there is the possibility that someone did want to get Howard, and that Ken did get killed by mistake. But if that's so, I still think that Ken perpetrated those two attempts out in the field, and the real killer made use of them."

Auckland's gaze rested on the desk and his eyes ran down the side to the intercom box. Suddenly he stiffened; the switch was on. Had Burleigh been talking to someone else earlier, or...?

"Have you been in all the time since we came back, Cal?"

"Yes. Why?"

He stood up and looked out the window to see Edholm coming from the storage shed. Then he wasn't the listener. "Nothing. Just a thought. I think a good part of the key lies with the Vaec, but I don't see how yet. I have an answer but it doesn't make sense, yet. I have a feeling that Ekem-ve knows. He said to ask a question when the muddy thoughts were clear; think I'll go over to the village, after a bite to eat."

There was just one more thing to do before he left, Auckland thought, as he said good-bye and stepped out into the sunset. He found Edholm in the office and maneuvered him outside, telling him about the open intercom. "I told Burleigh so that whoever was listening would hear, too. Keep an eye out, will you? I have a feeling that someone will follow me later."