The Naked Sun Page 9

  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.

  7

  A DOCTOR IS PRODDED

  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.”

  “Is it that you think she——”

  Baley held up a hand. “Just find out, will you?”

  He strode out of the room, seeking solitude. Surely there could not be two independent attempts at murder so close together in time on a world like Solaria. And if a connection existed, the easiest assumption to make was that Gruer’s story of a conspiracy was true.

  Baley felt a familiar excitement growing within him. He had come to this world with Earth’s predicament in his mind, and his own. The murder itself had been a faraway thing, but now the chase was really on. The muscles in his jaw knotted.

  After all, the murderer or murderers (or murderess) had struck in his presence and he was stung by that. Was he held in so little account? It was professional pride that was hurt and Baley knew it and welcomed the fact. At least it gave him a firm reason to see this thing through as a murder case, simply, even without reference to Earth’s dangers.

  Daneel had located him now and was striding toward him. “I have done as you asked me to, Partner Elijah. I have viewed Mrs. Delmarre. She is at home, which is somewhat over a thousand miles from the estate of Agent Gruer.”

  Baley said, “I’ll see her myself later. View her, I mean.” He stared thoughtfully at Daneel. “Do you think she has any connection with this crime?”

  “Apparently not a direct connection, Partner Elijah.”

  “Does that imply there might be an indirect connection?”

  “She might have persuaded someone else to do it.”

  “Someone else?” Baley asked quickly. “Who?”

  “That, Partner Elijah, I cannot say.”

  “If someone were acting for her, that someone would have to be at the scene of the crime.”

  “Yes,” said Daneel, “someone must have been there to place the poison in the liquid.”

  “Isn’t it possible that the poisoned liquid might have been prepared earlier in the day? Perhaps much earlier?”

  Daneel said quietly, “I had thought of that, Partner Elijah, which is why I used the word ‘apparently’ when I stated that Mrs. Delmarre had no direct connection with the crime. It is within the realm of possibility for her to have been on the scene earlier in the day. It would be well to check her movements.”

  “We will do that. We will check whether she was physically present at any time.”

  Baley’s lips twitched. He had guessed that in some ways robotic logic must fall short and he was convinced of it now. As the roboticist had said: Logical but not reasonable.

  He said, “Let’s get back into the viewing room and get Gruer’s estate back in view.”

  The room sparkled with freshness and order. There was no sign at all that less than an hour before a man had collapsed in agony.

  Three robots stood, backs against the wall, in the usual robotic attitude of respectful submission.

  Baley said, “What news concerning your master?”

  The middle robot said, “The doctor is attending him, master.”

  “Viewing or seeing?”

  “Viewing, master.”

  “What does the doctor say? Will your master live?”

  “It is not yet certain, master.”

  Baley said, “Has the house been searched?”

  “Thoroughly, master.”

  “Was there any sign of another master beside your own?”

  “No, master.”

  “Were there any signs of such presence in the near past?”

  “Not at all, master.”

  “Are the grounds being searched?”

  “Yes, master.”

  “Any results so far?”

  “No, master.”

  Baley nodded and said, “I wish to speak to the robot that served at the table this night.”

  “It is being held for inspection, master. Its reactions are erratic.”

  “Can it speak?”

  “Yes, master.”

  “Then get it here without delay.”

  There was delay and Baley began again. “I said——”

  Daneel interrupted smoothly. “There is inter-radio communication among these Solarian types. The robot you desire is being summoned. If it is slow in coming, it is part of the disturbance that has overtaken it as the result of what has occurred.”

  Baley nodded. He might have guessed at inter-radio. In a world so thoroughly given over to robots some sort of intimate communication among them would be necessary if the system were not to break down. It explained how a dozen robots could follow when one robot had been summoned, but only when needed and not otherwise.

  A robot entered. It limped, one leg dragging. Baley wondered why and then shrugged. Even among the primitive robots on Earth reactions to injury of the positronic paths were never obvious to the layman. A disrupted circuit might strike a leg’s functioning, as here, and the fact would be most significant to a roboticist and completely meaningless to anyone else.

  Baley said cautiously, “Do you remember a colorless liquid on your master’s table, some of which you poured into a goblet for him?”

  The robot said, “Yeth, mathter.”

  A defect in oral articulation, too!

  Baley said, “What was the nature of the liquid?”

  “It wath water, mathter.”

  “Just water? Nothing else?”

  “Jutht water, mathter.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  “From the rethervoir tap, mathter.”

  “Had it been standing in the kitchen before you brought it in?”

  “The mathter preferred it not too cold, mathter. It wath a thtanding order that it be poured an hour before mealth.”

  How convenient, thought Baley, for anyone who knew that fact.

  He said, “Have one of the robots connect me with the doctor viewing your master as soon as he is available. And while that is being done, I want another one to explain how the reservoir tap works. I want to know about the water supply here.”

  The doctor was available with little delay. He was the oldest Spacer Baley had ever seen, which meant, Baley thought, that he might be over three hundred years ol
d. The veins stood out on his hands and his close-cropped hair was pure white. He had a habit of tapping his ridged front teeth with a fingernail, making a little clicking noise that Baley found annoying. His name was Altim Thool.

  The doctor said, “Fortunately, he threw up a good deal of the dose. Still, he may not survive. It is a tragic event.” He sighed heavily.

  “What was the poison, Doctor?” asked Baley.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know.” (Click-click-click.)

  Baley said, “What? Then how are you treating him?”

  “Direct stimulation of the neuromuscular system to prevent paralysis, but except for that I am letting nature take its course.” His face, with its faintly yellow skin, like well-worn leather of superior quality, wore a pleading expression. “We have very little experience with this sort of thing. I don’t recall another case in over two centuries of practice.”

  Baley stared at the other with contempt. “You know there are such things as poisons, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes.” (Click-click.) “Common knowledge.”

  “You have book-film references where you can gain some knowledge.”

  “It would take days. There are numerous mineral poisons. We make use of insecticides in our society, and it is not impossible to obtain bacterial toxins. Even with descriptions in the films it would take a long time to gather the equipment and develop the techniques to test for them.”

  “If no one on Solaria knows,” said Baley grimly, “I’d suggest you get in touch with one of the other worlds and find out. Meanwhile, you had better test the reservoir tap in Gruer’s mansion for poison. Get there in person, if you have to, and do it.”

  Baley was prodding a venerable Spacer roughly, ordering him about like a robot and was quite unconscious of the incongruity of it. Nor did the Spacer make any protest.

  Dr. Thool said doubtfully, “How could the reservoir tap be poisoned? I’m sure it couldn’t be.”

  “Probably not,” agreed Baley, “but test it anyway to make sure.”

  The reservoir tap was a dim possibility indeed. The robot’s explanation had shown it to be a typical piece of Solarian self-care. Water might enter it from whatever source and be tailored to suit. Microorganisms were removed and non-living organic matter eliminated. The proper amount of aeration was introduced, as were various ions in just those trace amounts best suited to the body’s needs. It was very unlikely that any poison could survive one or another of the control devices.