“I would. But suppose I knew that Doris Wu’s body wasn’t in space? Suppose I knew that I’d done some-thin’ else with her-chopped her up, or burned her. Maybe I ate her.”
“This situation is disgusting enough without your adding to it. If you, as murderer, know that Doris Wu is not in space, then you also know that the report of her discovery is bogus. My plan would fail.”
“I think it will anyway. It sounds real dodgy to me.”
“Feel free to offer an alternative.”
“You got me there. All right, I guess we try it. But we need some help from people up here.”
“That is your department, not mine.”
“I know a way we might work it. But we can’t do it yet. We hafta wait a few days ’til things settle down a bit on Sky City. Until we’re out at the end of the shield nobody has time for anythin’ but work.”
“How long?”
“A couple of weeks. But we’ll get bigger signal delays.”
“That is inevitable and acceptable. Before we act we must discuss the fine details.”
“Why not now?”
“Because I have yet to think the matter through. This may be our only chance to catch the murderer, and we cannot afford to act precipitately.” I prepared to end the conversation, but I was struck by one more thought. “I am receiving a useless visual feed from your apartment. Why do you not wear the RV jacket?”
“For three reasons. First, if you’re not sitting there with the helmet on, an’ mostly you’re not, there’s no point in me sendin’ back scenes of me doin’ the grand tour of Sky City when nobody’s watchin’. Second, it’s damn hot inside that thing.”
“It is also hot inside this helmet. And the third reason?”
He hesitated. “It’s them godawful pansy colors. Pink ’n’ purple — who chose ’em? I had four guys hittin’ on me in the first two days.”
He broke the connection prematurely, leaving me filled with esprit d’escalier. “It is not the jacket, Seth, it is merely your native charm that attracted them.” Or “I’m sure they told you that the colors contrast beautifully with your eyes.”
Yes, yes. Cheap wit, unworthy of me. Also, in the case of Seth, not without its dangers. I have commented already on his sense of self-preservation. To that let me add his air of latent violence. Far better Seth Parsigian as an ally than an adversary. I must never forget my own vulnerability.
I am sitting half asleep in my chair, gradually becoming comatose after a long day; but tomorrow’s imagined news lead drifts through my mind:
Sky City Killer Caught Thanks to Efforts of Determined Pair
Two men, Seth Parsigian and Oliver Guest, today captured the long-sought Sky City murderer. Seth Parsigian receives a large reward and the thanks of a grateful world. Serial killer and legendary ghoul Oliver Guest goes back tomorrow to continue his sentence of long-term judicial sleep.
24
On her previous meetings with Seth Parsigian, Maddy had found him totally focused. This evening he was morose and distracted. Although he was the one who had insisted on the get-together, he acted like a man who had other things on his mind.
Well, so had she. With every hour that passed, the value of her prized position as Vice President of the Argos Group faded in importance. Gordy Rolfe seemed less the inspired electronics designer and organizing genius behind a huge international corporation, and more the eccentric and unkempt taskmaster who expected work from his minions twenty-four hours a day.
Those minions apparently included Seth Parsigian. As Sky City wound its slow way out toward its new position, Maddy had made a dozen visits to the engineering information center. She was looking for John Hyslop, but he was never there. Maddy learned that he spent most of his time out at Cusp Station, where the new particle defense system was under construction. The person who was always there, night or day, was Seth. He could usually be found studying a screen displaying scheduled meetings of personnel, timetables for equipment procurement, and recent use of facilities in Sky City and on the shield. If he hoped to pull out of those bald statistics useful information relating to the Sky City murderer, then good luck to him. Maddy felt sure that over the past six months the records had been dissected infinitely finely by scores of investigators.
When Seth arrived in her room he had a strange expression on his face. Was he still mad because their Sky City wanderings had produced no useful result? He should know, as well as anyone, the golden rule of the Argos Group when it came to cooperation: Your own assignment came first. Someone else’s success would not balance your failure. If he couldn’t find what he wanted, that was his problem.
He said abruptly, “I think I’m gonna do you a favor. You say you were sent up here to keep an eye on John Hyslop, right?”
“That’s correct.” Maddy added to herself, And a lousy job I’m making of it.
“If that isn’t why you’re here, then you better watch it. You’re leavin’ tracks big enough to fall over.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That’s what you would say, no matter what. Listen hard, ’cause I’m only gonna say this once. When we got nowhere a-walkin’ the halls up here, I had to find me a different tack. I set up shop in the information center. I looked at what people in Sky City was doin’ at the time of each of the murders.”
“I don’t think you’ll find the killer that way. Other people must have attempted the same thing.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they did. But you see, now I have me an advantage. I know the name of the murderer.” Seth watched Maddy’s reaction. “I guess that’s news to you.”
“It certainly is. Who is it?”
“Mebbe I’ll tell you who — in good time. But first you gotta help me some more. An’ I’ll help you. Tit for tat.”
“Forget it. I’ve done enough for you.”
He went on as though she had not spoken, “See, it’s not enough to know a name. You still have to catch ’em.”
“Seth, I’m going. I don’t need to listen to nonsense.”
“Me neither. So when your buddy John Hyslop came over to talk to me last week, I didn’t much listen at first. Then me an’ him got to talkin’. Want to know what we said?”
He was goading her, luring her with Hyslop’s name. “Go on.”
“He’d been catchin’ up on things that happened while he was away, records and actions and materials, that sort of crap. An’ I’d been skimmin’ the data banks. He told me he’d noticed somethin’ peculiar. I told him that I had, too. We compared notes. He told me he didn’t have time to follow up on it, the new defense system was takin’ every minute he had. But what he’d noticed involved the Argos Group, and I was with the Argos Group. So he said, maybe I could take a closer look at it.”
Why didn’t John ask me? Maddy said, “You’re here for the murders. Argos Group activities seem more like my line of experience than yours.”
“That’s what I thought, too. Why not you? Me, I’m not a chart-and-figures type. But I doubt Hyslop’s hopin’ to get into my pants, so that could make a difference.”
“If he wants to get into mine, he’s certainly taking his own sweet time.”
“As a friend of mine who you’ll never meet an’ would never want to keeps tellin’ me, you have to be patient. Fact is, Hyslop asked me because I was already there an’ already diggin’. So I look at the stuff he’s pulled out, compare it with mine, an’ guess what? Some of the Argos Group records are awful strange. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s fiddlin’ going on that don’t sound like violins.”
“Cheating?”
“Records of deliveries that were never made. Double entries for shipments. Differences between stated quantities delivered and shop counts. I’d call that cheatin’.”
“I have nothing to do with shipments.”