Authors: Isaac Asimov
Baley shrugged. “You speak of a weapon. Where is it?”
Gruer shifted position. He held out his hand toward an empty glass and a robot entered the viewing field and filled it with a colorless fluid that might have been water.
Gruer held the filled glass momentarily, then put it down as though he had changed his mind about drinking. He said, “As is stated in the report, we have not been able to locate it.”
“I know the report says that. I want to make absolutely certain of a few things. The weapon was searched for?”
“Thoroughly.”
“By yourself?”
“By robots, but under my own viewing supervision at all times. We could locate nothing that might have been the weapon.”
“That weakens the case against Mrs. Delmarre, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” said Gruer calmly. “It is one of several things about the case we don’t understand. It is one reason why we have not acted against Mrs. Delmarre. It is one reason why I told you that the guilty party could not have committed the crime, either. Perhaps I should say that she apparently could not have committed the crime.”
“Apparently?”
“She must have disposed of the weapon someway. So far, we have lacked the ingenuity to find it.”
Baley said dourly, “Have you considered all possibilities?”
“I think so.”
“I wonder. Let’s see. A weapon has been used to crush a man’s skull and it is not found at the scene of the crime. The only alternative is that it has been carried away. It could not have been carried away by Rikaine Delmarre. He was dead. Could it have been carried away by Gladia Delmarre?”
“It must have been,” said Gruer.
“How? When the robots arrived, she was on the floor unconscious. Or she may have been feigning unconsciousness, but anyway she was there. How long a time between the murder and the arrival of the first robot?”
“That depends upon the exact time of the murder, which we don’t know,” said Gruer uneasily.
“I read the report, sir. One robot reported hearing a disturbance and a cry it identified as Dr. Delmarre’s. It was apparently the closest to the scene. The summoning signal flashed five minutes afterward. It would take the robot less than a minute to appear on the scene.” (Baley remembered his own experiences with the rapid-fire appearance of robots when summoned.) “In five minutes, even ten, how far could Mrs. Delmarre have carried a weapon and returned in time to assume unconsciousness?”
“She might have destroyed it in a disposer unit.”
“The disposer unit was investigated, according to the report, and the residual gamma-ray activity was quite low. Nothing sizable had been destroyed in it for twenty-four hours.”
“I know that,” said Gruer. “I simply present it as an example of what might have been done.”
“True,” said Baley, “but there may be a very simple explanation. I suppose the robots belonging to
the Delmarre household have been checked and all were accounted for.”
“Oh yes.”
“And all in reasonable working order?”
“Yes.”
“Could any of those have carried away the weapon, perhaps without being aware of what it was?”
“Not one of them had removed anything from the scene of the crime. Or touched anything, for that matter.”
“That’s not so. They certainly removed the body and prepared it for cremation.”
“Well, yes, of course, but that scarcely counts. You would expect them to do that.”
“Jehoshaphat!” muttered Baley. He had to struggle to keep calm.
He said, “Now suppose someone else had been on the scene.”
“Impossible,” said Gruer. “How could someone invade Dr. Delmarre’s personal presence?”
“Suppose!” cried Baley. “Now there was never any thought in the robots’ minds that an intruder might have been present. I don’t suppose any of them made an immediate search of the grounds about the house. It wasn’t mentioned in the report.”
“There was no search till we looked for the weapon, but that was a considerable time afterward.”
“Nor any search for signs of a ground-car or an air vehicle on the grounds?”
“No.”
“Then if someone had nerved himself to invade Dr. Delmarre’s personal presence, as you put it, he could have killed him and then walked away leisurely. No one would have stopped him or even seen
him. Afterward, he could rely on everyone being sure no one could have been there.”
“And no one could,” said Gruer positively.
Baley said, “One more thing. Just one more. There was a robot involved. A robot was at the scene.”
Daneel interposed for the first time. “The robot was not at the scene. Had it been there, the crime would not have been committed.”
Baley turned his head sharply. And Gruer, who had lifted his glass a second time as though about to drink, put it down again to stare at Daneel.
“Is that not so?” asked Daneel.
“Quite so,” said Gruer. “A robot would have stopped one person from harming another. First Law.”
“All right,” said Baley. “Granted. But it must have been close. It was on the scene when the other robots arrived. Say it was in the next room. The murderer is advancing on Delmarre and Delmarre cries out, ‘You’re going to kill me.’ The robots of the household did not hear those words; at most they heard a cry, so, unsummoned, they did not come. But this particular robot heard the words and First Law made it come unsummoned. It was too late. Probably, it actually saw the murder committed.”
“It must have seen the last stages of the murder,” agreed Gruer. “That is what disordered it. Witnessing harm to a human without having prevented it is a violation of the First Law and, depending upon circumstances, more or less damage to the positronic brain is induced. In this case, it was a great deal of damage.”
Gruer stared at his fingertips as he turned the glass of liquid to and fro, to and fro.
Baley said, “Then the robot was a witness. Was it questioned?”
“What use? He was disordered. It could only say ‘You’re going to kill me.’ I agree with your reconstruction that far. They were probably Delmarre’s last words burned into the robot’s consciousness when everything else was destroyed.”
“But I’m told Solaria specializes in robots. Was there no way in which the robot could be repaired? No way in which its circuits could be patched?”
“None,” said Gruer sharply.
“And where is the robot, now?”
“Scrapped,” said Gruer.
Baley raised his eyebrows. “This is a rather peculiar case. No motive, no means, no witnesses, no evidence. Where there was some evidence to begin with, it was destroyed. You have only one suspect and everyone seems convinced of her guilt; at least, everyone is certain no one else can be guilty. That’s your opinion, too, obviously. The question then is: Why was I sent for?”
Gruer frowned. “You seem upset, Mr. Baley.” He turned abruptly to Daneel. “Mr. Olivaw.”
“Yes, Agent Gruer.”
“Won’t you please go through the dwelling and make sure all windows are closed and blanked out? Plainclothesman Baley may be feeling the effects of open space.”
The statement astonished Baley. It was his impulse to deny Gruer’s assumption and order Daneel to keep his place when, on the brink, he caught something of panic in Gruer’s voice, something of glittering appeal in his eyes.
He sat back and let Daneel leave the room.
It was as though a mask had dropped from Gruer’s face, leaving it naked and afraid. Gruer said, “That was easier than I had thought. I’d planned so many ways of getting you alone. I never thought the Auroran would leave at a simple request, and yet I could think of nothing else to do.”
Baley said, “Well, I’m alone now.”
Gruer said, “I couldn’t speak freely in his presence. He’s an Auroran and he is here because he was forced on us as the price of having you.” The Solarian leaned forward. “There’s something more to this than murder. I am not concerned only with the matter of who did it. There are parties on Solaria, secret organizations.… ”
Baley stared. “Surely, I can’t help you there.”
“Of course you can. Now understand this: Dr. Delmarre was a Traditionalist. He believed in the old ways, the good ways. But there are new forces among us, forces for change, and Delmarre has been silenced.”
“By Mrs. Delmarre?”
“Hers must have been the hand. That doesn’t matter. There is an organization behind her and that is the important matter.”
“Are you sure? Do you have evidence?”
“Vague evidence, only. I can’t help that. Rikaine Delmarre was on the track of something. He assured me
his
evidence was good, and I believed him. I knew him well enough to know him as neither fool nor child. Unfortunately, he told me very little. Naturally, he wanted to complete his investigation before laying the matter completely open to the authorities. He must have gotten close to completion, too, or they wouldn’t have dared the risk of having him openly
slaughtered by violence. One thing Delmarre told me, though. The whole human race is in danger.”
Baley felt himself shaken. For a moment it was as though he were listening to Minnim again, but on an even larger scale. Was
everyone
going to turn to him with cosmic dangers?
“Why do you think I can help?” he asked.
“Because you’re an Earthman,” said Gruer. “Do you understand? We on Solaria have no experience with these things. In a way, we don’t understand people. There are too few of us here.”
He looked uneasy. “I don’t like to say this, Mr. Baley. My colleagues laugh at me and some grow angry, but it is a definite feeling I have. It seems to me that you Earthmen
must
understand people far better than we do, just by living among such crowds of them. And a detective more than anyone. Isn’t that so?”
Baley half nodded and held his tongue.
Gruer said, “In a way, this murder was fortunate. I have not dared speak to the others about Delmarre’s investigation, since I wasn’t sure who might be involved in the conspiracy, and Delmarre himself was not ready to give any details till his investigation was complete. And even if Delmarre had completed his work, how would we deal with the matter afterward? How does one deal with hostile human beings? I don’t know. From the beginning, I felt we needed an Earthman. When I heard of your work in connection with the murder in Spacetown on Earth, I knew we needed you. I got in touch with Aurora, with whose men you have worked most closely, and through them approached the Earth Government. Yet my own colleagues could not be persuaded into agreeing
to this. Then came the murder and that was enough of a shock to give me the agreement I needed. At the moment, they would have agreed to anything.”
Gruer hesitated, then added, “It’s not easy to ask an Earthman to help, but I must do so. Remember, whatever it is, the human race is in danger. Earth, too.”
Earth was doubly in danger, then. There was no mistaking the desperate sincerity in Gruer’s voice.
But then, if the murder were so fortunate a pretext for allowing Gruer to do what he so desperately wanted to do all the time, was it entirely fortune? It opened new avenues of thought that were not reflected in Baley’s face, eyes, or voice.
Baley said, “I have been sent here, sir, to help. I will do so to the best of my ability.”
Gruer finally lifted his long-delayed drink and looked over the rim of the glass at Baley. “Good,” he said. “Not a word to the Auroran, please. Whatever this is about, Aurora may be involved. Certainly they took an unusually intense interest in the case. For instance, they insisted on including Mr. Olivaw as your partner. Aurora is powerful; we had to agree. They say they include Mr. Olivaw only because he worked with you before, but it may well be that they wish a reliable man of their own on the scene, eh?”
He sipped slowly, his eyes on Baley.
Baley passed the knuckles of one hand against his long cheek, rubbing it thoughtfully. “Now if that——”
He didn’t finish, but leaped from his chair and almost hurled himself toward the other, before remembering it was only an image he was facing.
For Gruer, staring wildly at his drink, clutched
his throat, whispered hoarsely, “Burning … burning …”
The glass fell from his hand, its contents spilling. And Gruer dropped with it, his face distorted with pain.
Daneel stood in the doorway. “What happened, Partner Eli——”
But no explanation was needed. Daneel’s voice changed to a loud ringing shout. “Robots of Hannis Gruer! Your master is hurt! Robots!”
At once a metal figure strode into the dining room and after it, in a minute or two, a dozen more entered. Three carried Gruer gently away. The others busily engaged in straightening the disarray and picking up the tableware strewn on the floor.
Daneel called out suddenly, “You there, robots, never mind the crockery. Organize a search. Search the house for any human being. Alert any robots on the grounds outside. Have them go over every acre of the estate. If you find a master, hold him. Do not hurt him” (unnecessary advice) “but do not let him leave, either. If you find no master present, let me know. I will remain at this viewer combination.”
Then, as robots scattered, Elijah muttered to Daneel, “That’s a beginning. It was poison, of course.”
“Yes. That much is obvious, Partner Elijah.” Daneel sat down queerly, as though there were a weakness in his knees. Baley had never seen him give way so, not for an instant, to any action that resembled anything so human as a weakness in the knees.
Daneel said, “It is not well with my mechanism to see a human being come to harm.”
“There was nothing you could do.”
“That I understand and yet it is as though there were certain cloggings in my thought paths. In human terms what I feel might be the equivalent of shock.”
“If that’s so, get over it.” Baley felt neither patience nor sympathy for a queasy robot. “We’ve got to consider the little matter of responsibility. There is no poison without a poisoner.”
“It might have been food-poisoning.”
“Accidental food-poisoning? On a world this neatly run? Never. Besides, the poison was in a liquid and the symptoms were sudden and complete. It was a poisoned dose and a large one. Look, Daneel, I’ll go into the next room to think this out a bit. You get Mrs. Delmarre. Make sure she’s at home and check the distance between her estate and Gruer’s.”