[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
and we don't even have to know where the crystal is.'
* *
What he analyzed was simple. In bringing back Billy Bing ham at her command, the crystal had
deposited the boy nearly two miles away. True, at the time, she had been holding the crystal in her hand.
But that didn't apply to her negative thought about farmer Seth Mitchell, which had occurred after she
had mailed the crystal and was approximately a hundred yards from the post office.
So if she had indeed uncreated the mentally ill farmer, then the distance of the crystal's human orientation
in this instance one of the Edith Prices from the crystal was not a factor.
When he had finished, Edith did not speak at once.
'You don't agree?' said the detective.
'I'm thinking,' Edith said. 'Maybe I'm not really the orientation.'
'We'll test that tomorrow.'
'What about Athtar?' Edith asked. 'I keep feeling he may have special weapons. And besides, the crystal
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
cannot affect him. What about that?'
'Let me think about Athtar,' said the man.
While she waited, Edith was reminded of what Athtar had asked about the figure in the crystal: Was it of
a man or a woman?
It was her first time for trying to remember, and so she sat there in the darkness next to the man, and
was aware of two separate lines of thought in her mind.
The first: She attempted to visualize the human design in the crystal.
The second
VIII
She watched his profile, as he drove in silence. And she thought: How brilliant he is! Yet surely a mere
detective, no matter how keen his logic, cannot be the best of all possible Seth Mitchells. A man in such a
profession has got to be somewhere in the middle which in this competition is the same as the worst.
And he disappeared.
For many seconds after she had that thought, the suddenly driverless car held to its straight direction. Its
speed, which had been around seventy, naturally started to let up the instant there was no longer a foot
on the accelerator.
The only error was when Edith uttered a scream, and grabbed at the wheel, turning it. The machine
careened wildly. The next second she grasped it in a more steadying way; and, holding it, slid along the
seat into a position where presently she could apply the brake. She pulled over to the side of the road
and stopped. She sat there, dazed.
The detective's aide, Marge, had slowed as soon as she saw that there was a problem. She now drew
up behind Edith, got out of the car, and walked to the driver's side of the other machine.
'Seth,' she began, 'what '
Edith pushed the door open and climbed, trembling, out onto the road. She had a mad impulse to run
somewhere. Her body felt strange, her mind encased in a blank anguish. She was vaguely aware of
herself babbling about what had happened.
It must have taken a while for the incoherent words to reach through to the blond woman. But suddenly
Marge gasped, and Edith felt herself grabbed by the shoulders. She was being shaken; a breathless voice
was yelling at her, 'You stupid fool! You stupid fool!'
Edith tried to pull away, but Marge's fingers seemed embedded in the shoulders of her dress.
The shaking became pain. Her neck hurt, then her arms. Edith thought for the first time: I must be
careful. I mustn't do or say anything that will affect her.
With that thought, sanity returned. For the first time she saw that Marge was in a state of hysteria. The
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
shaking was actually an automatic act of a person almost out of her mind with grief.
Pity came. She was able to free herself by a simple action. She slapped Marge lightly on the cheek,
once, twice, three times. The third time, the woman let go of her and leaned against the car, sobbing. 'Oh,
my God!' she said.
A wind was blowing out of the darkness from the west. Car headlights kept glaring past them, lighting
the scene briefly. The two women were now in a relatively normal state, and they discussed the problem.
Edith tried to recreate Marge's employer with the same command that she had used for Billy Bingham.
'Seth Mitchell, the detective, back here, now!'
She had had a feeling that it wouldn't work the Seth Mitchells were undoubtedly due to be eliminated
one by one and it didn't. The minutes ticked by. Though she yelled the command in many variations
into the night, there was no sign of the vanished Seth whose presence had for a long half-day brought to
the whole situation the reassurance that derives from a highly intelligent and determined mind.
In the end, defeated, the two women in their separate cars drove on to Harkdale. Since Marge had a
room reserved at the Harkdale Hotel, she went there, and Edith drove wearily to the rooming house
where she lived.
It was nearly four o'clock when she finally limped into her little suite. She lay down without undressing.
As she was drifting off to sleep, she had a tense fear: Would the best of all possible Ediths be this sloppy
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]