Starfire

39

From the private diary of Oliver Guest.

When all else in the universe has been explained, the mystery of the human mind will remain. I am far from the first to make this observation. However, for this particular moment it possesses a special relevance.

Consider. Humanity was suffering its greatest threat ever. I, and my darlings, might not survive to see another sunrise. In the longer term, life itself might become impossible on the lands and in the oceans of Earth.

And what, at this time of crisis, occupied my mind? Three things: Was I right? Would my plan work? Were we about to apprehend the Sky City murderer?

To this should be added a fourth factor affecting all of the first three: No matter what Seth did on Sky City, I might be unable to observe it. In an unpardonable display of stupidity, I had overlooked the possibility of decreased telecommunication capability between Earth and Sky City. As the particle storm grew to its height, the images received at Otranto Castle faded and dimmed. Although I saw a flickering image of a dark-clad figure moving along one of the guy ropes, closing in on the white shroud, the picture quality was inferior and the angle was wrong for me to see the face. Seth, clear of his hiding place, glided forward with his beam weapon held at the ready.

He made no sound that I could hear. The other was facing the wrong direction to see him. Nonetheless, when he was still ten meters away the newcomer turned from the shrouded figure and looked directly toward Seth.

At last I had a view of the face. It was Lauren Stansfield.

I felt a thrill of immense satisfaction. No matter how powerful a theory might be and no matter how supported by collateral evidence, when verification comes through observation it is a special moment.

“No need to look inside the bandages, Lauren,” Seth said quietly. “You didn’t leave any evidence there. We checked.”

Lauren Stansfield remained totally still. I could see her shocked face. Even now, at this time of ultimate crisis, she wore dark eyeliner and careful makeup. Her clothes were elegant and well cut to show off her figure.

Finally she said, “What do you mean, I didn’t leave evidence on the body?” Apparently she didn’t realize that the figure was a dummy. “I didn’t kill Doris Wu. What possible reason could I have for killing Doris Wu? I didn’t even know her.”

Seth and I had agreed in advance on our approach. We had to hit her with so many facts, or what she thought were facts, that she would assume a watertight case against her.

“I agree, you didn’t know Doris Wu,” Seth said. “I thought for a while you might be part of some big conspiracy, a group killing for some fancy motive. But it wasn’t that. It was all you. A solo effort. What reason could you have for killin’ Doris Wu, if you didn’t even know her? Why, the same reason you had for murderin’ Myra Skelton an’ Tanya Bishop an’ all the rest of ’em. Except for Lucille DeNorville, I mean. She was the one you were really after. The rest, and the fake sexual attacks, they were all smoke screens.”

“Why would I want to kill Lucille-” But Lauren Stansfield paused and swallowed.

“Because of who you are,” Seth said calmly. “Or rather, because of who you believe you deserve to be.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Lauren turned her head and stared haughtily away from Seth. “And I don’t need to talk to you at all.”

“Ah. What is it, Princess Lauren? Don’t like communing with the peasants?”

I saw the swift head movement and the flash of her eyes. “My family was royalty when yours was still-”

Seth nodded. “Nobodies? Indeed we were. It wasn’t the money, was it? Though that would be nice, given the way you dress beyond your income. But it’s never been about money. It’s about bloodlines, and privilege, and position. If there hadn’t been a late second marriage in the DeNorville family two generations ago, everything that Lucille DeNorville stood to inherit — title and property and money and family estate-would have been yours.”

Lauren was silent. I saw the look of distilled hatred on her face, but you cannot convict based on a facial expression. We had to have much more.

Seth knew it. He went on, “You’re related to Lucille, of course. Not that close, otherwise you’d never have needed to work on Sky City. But it’s no good sayin’ that even with her out of the way you don’t inherit, because there’s others in line before you. That’s true enough, but they’re old, all three of ’em. If they died in the next few years, nobody would think it odd that they went sooner rather than later. You killed twelve teenage girls, all to get your hands on Lucille’s title and inheritance. After that, a few old-timers on Earth would be easy meat.”

She was smart, and she was tough. Her first couple of remarks had been slightly wrong as responses of an innocent party. Now she said, “You’re crazy. I had nothing to do with killing anyone. The Sky City murders were committed by a man.”

“That’s what we were supposed to believe. An’ everybody did, for a long time. But if we’d been thinkin’ logical, we’d have asked some basic questions. After the first death or two, how could a man wander around alone with nobody askin’ him what he was doing? I tried that, an’ I’ll tell you, it can’t be done. But you were in charge of Sky City’s life-support systems, you could go anywhere with a good reason. And nobody would notice a woman, except maybe to tell her to take care about bein’ alone. An’ after the first deaths, what girl would let herself get in a situation where she was alone with a man she didn’t know well? Nobody would. But a woman, if she offered to provide a girl with a safe escort, an’ said there was safety in numbers, no problem. How many did you kill, Lauren, when they were off guard because they thought you were there to protect them?”

Lauren stood her ground. When I zoomed in under maximum magnification I could see her eyes, thinking, calculating. Finally she shook her head and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know how somebody did the murders, but I’m not a security officer and it’s not my job. I only know that I had nothing to do with it.”

It was my worst fear. All that she needed to do was sit tight and deny everything. She could insist that she had wandered into the chamber with Doris Wu’s body by accident, or because she simply had been curious, or because some component of the life-support systems merited her attention.

“Ask her why she came here, Seth,” I said softly. “Make her talk.”

He did not betray, by the slightest look or gesture, that he had heard my suggestions in his earpiece. But he said, “Lauren, you’ll have to do better than that. We got you, an’ we got plenty of other evidence, so you might as well admit it. Julia Vansittart was killed at a time when the outside detection system on Sky City was down for maintenance. The murderer-you-had to be in a position to arrange that, or at least to know about it. And Lucille DeNorville’s body had to be found. Otherwise questions would have been raised when you came to inherit. People would have asked, was she really, provably dead?”

Lauren Stansfield stood still and said nothing.

Seth went on, “And why would you come in here, lookin’ at Doris Wu’s body, if you weren’t afraid you might have left somethin’ on it?”

“I was taking a shortcut, on my way to see if the particle storm was doing any damage to the city’s air systems.”

She had her composure back. I noticed, for the first time, that she was carrying a weapon. A beam device, much the same as Seth’s, sat inconspicuously in a belt holster close to her right hand.

“Seth,” I said urgently. “She’s armed. If she were innocent, there’d be no possible reason for her to be armed. Ask her why she’s carrying a gun if she’s doing her usual work.”

Again, his actions did not indicate that he had heard my remarks. This time he also ignored my suggested question. I wondered if my words were getting through-the image was beginning to break up. Then he said, “Lauren, we could stand around here and talk all day. But there’s no point to it, so let’s get this over with. I’m arresting you.”

“You can’t arrest me.” On that point I was inclined to agree with Lauren Stansfield. If she simply sat tight, we lacked hard evidence. She went on, “And you’re not security. You haven’t been long on Sky City. I don’t even think you are working with security.”

“Quite right. I’m not security. I don’t live on Sky City. I’m a bounty hunter, and you know the reward for catchin’ the Sky City killer. I got more than enough evidence to ice you down for a long time. Come on, let’s go.”

Bounty hunter! What was the man gibbering about? He was no bounty hunter. But that was not what made me gasp. What Seth did next was something I would not have believed had I not witnessed it. He stuck the beam weapon that he was holding into his belt and casually began to turn away from Lauren.

Before I could do more than cry, “Look out!,” she had her own weapon out and was pointing it at Seth. I saw a blue-green flare, and at the same moment heard a loud double crack. The weapon flew out of Lauren’s hand. She spun around and fell backward onto the web of ropes.

Seth waited a few moments, then began to approach her slowly and carefully. He held his old projectile weapon in his left hand, and when he was a few feet away from Lauren he blew into the barrel and returned it to its rear holster. As he lifted her I could see why the weapon was now unnecessary. Her delicate nose had been ruined by a bullet that entered just above the nostrils and continued until it hit and destroyed the base of her brain. She had another wound in her chest.

“I guess that does it,” Seth said. “Over-the-shoulder shots. Pretty nice, eh?”

“You shouldn’t have put your gun away when you did,” I said. “She almost killed you.”

“Not a chance.” He leaned easily against the web of ropes-but I noticed that a patch of hair on top of his head was charred. “I wanted her to fire at me.”

“Why?”

“Because otherwise she’d have got away with everythin’.”

“We had evidence. Not strong evidence, admittedly, but if we had-”

“Doc, pardon me for interruptin’. You’re a genius, an’ I’d never have made it to first base on this case without you. But now you’re on my territory. I want to ask a sorta personal question. When they tried you, did you have a defense lawyer?”

“Of course I did. The state insisted on it. Not a very good lawyer, I thought.”

“Well, I’m tellin’ you, Lauren Stansfield would have had a very good lawyer. The best that money can buy. She’s third in line to a superfortune, and she’d be royalty as well. The top scumbags in the business would have lined up to take her case on a contingency basis. An’ with the miserable evidence we had, she’d have walked.”

“But to put your weapon away like that, knowing that she was a multiple murderer . . .”

“I had to. She didn’t know we had lousy evidence, but I did. That’s why I told her I was a bounty hunter, goin’ after the reward for the Sky City murderer.”

“Which you’re not.”

” ’Course I’m not. But if she believed that, then I was halfway there. Bounty hunters operate lotsa different ways, but you can bet on a couple of things: They don’t want nobody beatin’ ’em to it, and they don’t want to share a reward. So she thought, ’Hey, he won’t have told anybody what evidence he has. If I take him out and get rid of the body, I’m home free.’ ”

“But you put your gun away-you turned your back on her.”

“I put one gun away. I took the other one out as I turned. See, she had to take a shot at me. That way, I got a reason for firin’ at her. If she hadn’t tried to get me, I’d be the one facin’ charges. As it is, with her tryin’ to put me out of action, plus your evidence pointin’ to her as the murderer, we’re in good shape. ’Specially with her not here to argue.”

“You wanted to kill her,” I said.

“Let’s say I didn’t much like her. I don’t care for people who look down on me. But I only kill people who try to kill me.” He came across to where the RV jacket still hung on the wall, and put it over his arm. My view of Sky City became even worse, random and distorted as well as horribly noisy. “Anyway, Doc, you know what she did, an’ you know why. Are you tellin’ me you think she should have got away alive an’ free an’ rich? Should she have been a queen?”

“I think that Earth-and the rest of the universe-is much better off without Lauren Stansfield.”

“So what’s to talk about? We’re agreed.” Seth, carrying the RV jacket over his arm and making me feel rather like a ventriloquist’s dummy, started to stroll out of Cargo Bay Fourteen. “I’m headin¹ forward. It’s time to find out if there’s goin’ to be anyplace to be better off without Lauren Stansfield.”

“I will leave that to you,” I said. “I’m losing the picture, and I must attend to matters here. Call me later.”

“Have to be after storm peak. Even with redundancy we lose signal, up and down, a few minutes from now.”

“That’s all right. Make it a video link-if you can get one.”

“Hard to come by today. Might have to call you tomorrow — if there is one.”

There was a final grainy swirl of color, and Seth was gone. I yanked the RV helmet off my head. For the past few minutes the contribution of the local scene to what I saw had steadily faded. Now I knew why. Before I donned the helmet, flaming streamers of light had filled the heavens outside the castle. Where had they gone? Peering through the shutters, I saw nothing. Earth was descending to hell, Milton’s hell, I thought. “Not light, but darkness visible” and “Hide me from the heavy wrath of God.”

I had switched poets in midstream — in midsentence — but that is one of the problems facing those of us of a morbid or fanciful disposition. We overdramatize. Fortunately, there is a cure. I left my study and headed for the elevator that led to the deep cellars.

The elevator does not go all the way, and the final descent is made down a long flight of stairs. Even before I reached the first step I could hear the screams and shouts of laughter. The storm party was going well.

I continued down, to fulfill the role of stern parent and to read the riot act. The putative end of the world deserved to be taken more seriously.