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"It would be pretty useless if you could."
Csurik stood silent a moment.
"Are you trying to conceal some lesser crime on your conscience? Is that the
bargain you wish to strike?
An amnesty? It ... might be possible. If it's short of another murder, that
is."
"No, lord. I've never killed anybody!"
"Then maybe we can deal. Because if you're innocent, I need to know as soon as
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possible. Because it means my work isn't finished here."
"That's . . . that's the trouble, m'lord." Csurik shuffled, then seemed to
come to some internal decision and stood sturdily. "I'll come in and risk your
drug. And I'll answer anything about me you want to ask. But you have to
promise -- swear! -- you won't ask me about . . . about anything else. Anybody
else." "Do you know who killed your daughter?"
"Not for sure." Csurik threw his head back defiantly.
"I didn't see it. I have guesses."
"I have guesses too."
"That's as may be, lord. Just so's they don't come from my mouth. That's all I
ask."
Miles bolstered his stunner, and rubbed his chin.
"Hm." A very slight smile turned one corner of his lip. "I admit, it would be
more -- elegant -- to solve this case by reason and deduction than brute
force. Even so tender a force as fast-penta."
Csurik's head lowered. "I don't know elegant, lord.
But I don't want it to be from my mouth."
Decision bubbled up in Miles, straightening his spine. Yes. He knew, now. He
had only to run through the proofs, step by chained step. Just like 5-Space
math. "Very well. I swear by my word as Vorkosigan, I
shall confine my questions to the facts to which you were an eyewitness. I
will not ask you for conjectures about persons or events for which you were
not present. There, will that do?"
Csurik bit his lip. "Yes, lord. If you keep your word."
"Try me," suggested Miles. His lips wrinkled back on a vulpine smile,
absorbing the implied insult without
comment.
Csurik climbed the yard beside Miles as if to an executioner's block. Their
entrance created a tableau of astonishment among Karal and his family,
clustered around their wooden table where Dea was treating Pym.
Pym and Dea looked rather blanker, till Miles made introduction: "Dr. Dea, get
out your fast-penta.
Here's Lem Csurik come to talk with us."
Miles steered Lem to a chair. The hill man sat with his hands clenched. Pym, a
red and purpling bruise showing at the edges of the white tape circling his
chest, took up his stunner and stepped back.
Dr. Dea muttered under his breath to Miles as he got out the hypospray. "How'd
you do that?"
Miles's hand brushed his pocket. He pulled out a sugar cube and held it up,
and grinned through the C
of his thumb and finger. Dea snorted, but pursed his lips with reluctant
respect.
Lem flinched as the hypospray hissed on his arm, as if he expected it to hurt.
"Count backwards from ten," Dea instructed. By the time Lena reached three, he
had relaxed; at zero, he giggled.
"Karal, Ma Karal, Pym, gather round," said Miles.
"You are my witnesses. Boys, stay back and stay quiet. No interruptions,
please."
Miles ran through the preliminaries, half a dozen questions designed to set up
a rhythm and kill time while the fast-penta took full effect. Lem Csurik
grinned foolishly, lolling in his chair, and answered them all with sunny good
will. Fast-penta interrogation had been part of Miles's military intelligence
course at the Service Academy. The drug seemed to be working exactly as
advertised, oddly enough.
"Did you return to your cabin that morning, after you spent the night at your
parents'?"
"Yes, m'lord," Lem smiled.
"About what time?"
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"Midmorning."
Nobody here had a chrono, that was probably as precise an answer as Miles was
likely to get. "What did you do when you got there?"
"Called for Harra. She was gone, though. It frightened me that she was gone.
Thought she might've run out on me." Lem hiccoughed. "I want my Harra."
"Later. Was the baby asleep?"
"She was. She woke up when I called for Harra.
Started crying again. It goes right up your spine."
"What did you do then?"
Lem's eyes widened. "I got no milk. She wanted Harra.
There's nothing I could do for her."
"Did you pick her up?"
"No, lord, I let her lay. There was nothing I could do for her. Harra, she'd
hardly let me touch her, she was that nervous about her. Told me I'd drop her
or something."
"You didn't shake her, to stop her screaming?"
"No, lord, I let her lay. I left to look down the path for Harra."
"Then where did you go?"
Lem blinked. "My sister's. I'd promised to help haul wood for a new cabin.
Bella -- m'other sister -- is getting married, y'see, and -- "
He was beginning to wander, as was normal for this drug. "Stop," said Miles.
Lem fell silent obediently, swaying slightly in his chair. Miles considered
his next question carefully. He was approaching the fine line, here. "Did you
meet anyone on the path? Answer yes or no."
"Yes."
Dea was getting excited. "Who? Ask him who!"
Miles held up his hand. "You can administer the antagonist now, Dr. Dea."
"Aren't you going to ask him? It could be vital!"
"I can't. I gave my word. Administer the antagonist now, doctor!"
Fortunately, the confusion of two interrogators stopped Lem's mumbled willing
reply to Dea's question. Dea, bewildered, pressed his hypospray against Lem's
arm. Lem's eyes, half-closed, snapped open within seconds. He sat up straight
and rubbed his arm, and his face.
"Who did you meet on the path?" Dea asked him directly.
Lem's lips pressed tight; he looked for rescue to
Miles.
Dea looked too. "Why won't you ask him?"
"Because I don't need to," said Miles. "I know precisely who Lem met on the
path, and why he went on and not back. It was Raina's murderer. As I shall
shortly prove. And -- witness this, Karal, Ma Karal
-- that information did not come from Lem's mouth.
Confirm!"
Karal nodded slowly. "I ... see, m'lord. That was . .
. very good of you."
Miles gave him a direct stare, his mouth set in a tight smile. "And when is a
mystery no mystery at all?"
Karal reddened, not replying for a moment. Then he said, "You may as well keep
on like you're going, m'lord. There's no stopping you now, I suppose."
"No."
Miles sent runners to collect the witnesses, Ma Karal in one direction, Zed in
a second, Speaker Karal and his eldest in a third. He had Lem wait with Pym,
Dea, and himself. Having the shortest distance to cover, Ma Karal arrived back
first, with Ma Csurik and two of her sons in tow.
His mother fell on Lem, embracing him and then looking fearfully over her
shoulder at Miles. The younger brothers hung back, but Pym had already moved
between them and the door.
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"It's all right, Ma," Lem patted her on the back. "Or
. . . anyway, I'm all right. I'm clear. Lord
Vorkosigan believes me."
She glowered at Miles, still holding Lem's arm. "You didn't let the mutie lord
give you that poison drug, did you?"
"Not poison," Miles denied. "In fact, the drug may have saved his life. That [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]