Part 2

"Within a pretty narrow range. The dilation of the pupils is an accurate gauge. I don't say you killed him, Lefler. I hope they rule it was suicide."

Silently, Lefler went back to the centerdeck, undressed and strapped himself into his bunk. He found it hard to get to sleep. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. He hoped he wouldn't dream of Makki again.

* * * * *

When Lefler assumed his duty watch at 1800, he asked Robwood to stay in the control room with him for a talk. Robwood strapped himself in the astrogator's chair and waited while Lefler made the position readings. Then Lefler swung his chair around to face Robwood.

"I want to check some things with you, Robwood," he said. "I've listened to your report and Taat's and I've seen a film of Taat's that seems to give you both an alibi. After Makki relieved you and you ate lunch, was suppertime the only time you came back into the personnel sphere?"

"That's right," said Robwood. "Taat and I played cards a while after lunch, but I think you were awake then."

"How long did your supper period last?"

"Oh, half an hour. Maybe a little longer. You were asleep and snoring."

Lefler shook his head savagely.

"Robwood, I'm afraid you're going to have to take over the ship. I want you to put me in irons and turn me over for Makki's murder when we get to Marsport."

Robwood started so violently he almost broke his retaining straps. He stared at Lefler for a full thirty seconds before he found his voice.

"You're not serious!" he exclaimed. There was a pleading note to his tone. "Lefler, you didn't shoot him, did you?"

"I must have, Robwood. But not consciously. I've been able at last to remember a nightmare I had just before I found Makki's body.

"Makki and I were boys together, and he was just as mean and evil then as he was when he grew up. I was dreaming about the time Makki smashed my toy electric train and laughed about it. I tried to kill him then. I beat him with the semaphore and cut his face all up before he knocked me down and kicked me half senseless. I lived through that experience again in my dream.

"My bunk straps were loose when I woke up. I must have acted that dream out in a semi-conscious state. I must have gone up to the control room, tackled Makki and finally shot him."

"That's the silliest thing I ever heard of," retorted Robwood.

"It must be true, Robwood. Neither you nor Taat could have killed him, and Taat's got the film to prove it."

Robwood unstrapped himself and pushed himself to the companionway with some determination.

"Well, I'm not going to take over the ship and I'm not going to put you in irons," he said spiritedly. "I couldn't handle the ship on a twenty-four-hour basis for the next hundred and eighty-six days, and I'd rather think Makki killed himself."

He paused at the top of the companionway.

"Don't forget," he said. "The Earth transit ought to be at midpoint in a couple of hours."

Then he disappeared below.

Lefler took the magnetized pencil from the memorandum pad and wrote a reminder: "E.T. midpoint. Should check 28:16:54."

Lefler leaned back gloomily in the control chair. Had he killed Makki? It seemed the only way it could have happened, unless Makki had, indeed, committed suicide. And he just didn't think Makki had.

The chronometer said 1839. Exactly twenty-four hours ago, he had awakened from a nightmare and had come up to find Makki dead in this same chair. It seemed a century.

He glanced idly back at the memorandum pad. 28:15:64. He'd have to make an entry in the log in a little under two hours. How could he check accurately when the time of entry into transit was estimated?

Twenty-four plus two. Twenty-six.

He sat bolt upright, straining at his straps. He snapped down the communicator button.

"Robwood, come back up here!" he bellowed.

Unbuckling himself hastily, Lefler headed across the room toward the heat-gun rack.

* * * * *

Taat was playing solitaire, waiting patiently for Robwood, when Lefler and Robwood came down to the centerdeck together.

Lefler pointed a heat-gun at Taat.

"Go below and get the irons, Robwood," he said. "Taat, I'm sorry, but I'm arresting you for the murder of Makki."

Taat raised an eyebrow and continued shuffling cards.

"I don't think you want to do anything like that, Robwood," he said mildly. "Do you?"

Robwood hesitated and cast an anxious glance at him, but turned and headed for the companionway to the storage deck.

"You've convinced him, have you, Lefler?" said Taat. "I didn't believe you were guilty, but this makes me think you are."

Lefler said nothing, but held the gun steadily on Taat. Taat appeared relaxed, but Lefler sensed a tension in him.

"What makes you think I did it, Lefler?" sparred Taat. The light glinted from his spectacles as he turned his eyes from Lefler's face to watch the shuffling cards.

"Two things," said Lefler. "If I'd killed him in a half-asleep daze, I wouldn't have put gloves on him to make it look like suicide. Second, your film started at 1500--a strangely precise hour--and Makki was killed before then."

"The first point is good psychology," conceded Taat. "Since Robwood couldn't have done it, I'll admit it looks like suicide. But your second point doesn't hold water. Medical examination is accurate almost to a fine point on the time of death so soon afterward."

"Medical evidence may not lie, but the examiner can, Taat," said Lefler.

The clank of the chains resounded up the companionway. Robwood was coming back. The spring in Taat uncoiled.

With a single sweep, he hurled the deck of cards at Lefler's head and surged upward. Lefler lost his balance and fell sidewise as he dodged the improvised missile. But even as he lost his equilibrium, he pressed the trigger of the heat-gun and brought it downward in a fast chop.

The straps that held Taat to his chair were his doom. The searing beam swept across them, freeing him but at the same time blasting a six-inch swath across his stomach. Taat screamed hoarsely as the beam swung past him and burned along the floor of the centerdeck.

Lefler regained his balance and floated to Taat's side, pushing aside the cards that drifted in a swirling cloud about the room. Robwood appeared from below, the manacles in his hands.

"Your third point wins the day," gasped Taat, his hands writhing over his mangled abdomen. "I won't last long, but if you'll get me to the control room I'll radio a confession that'll clear you and Robwood completely."

"Help me get him to a bunk, Robwood," ordered Lefler, grasping Taat by the arms. "Taat, you'll have to tell us what to do for you."

"No use," groaned Taat. He managed a ghastly smile. "I unbuckled your bunk straps to throw you off course, Lefler, but I don't want you to think I was trying to blame it on you. I was trying to make it look like Makki killed himself."

"But why, Taat?"

"It wasn't just that Makki cheated me," replied Taat with some difficulty. "I'd saved several thousand dollars to build a little clinic in Mars City--something I've dreamed of all my life. That's why I let Makki talk me into investing--I needed just a little more. But the business was almost worthless. He stole most of my money. I was arguing with him about it in the control room, when he drew the gun and threatened to kill me. He was strapped down. I wrestled with him, and he was killed in the scuffle. That's it."

They maneuvered Taat into a bunk and tried to arrange the straps to avoid the gaping wound in his stomach. Taat raised his hand weakly and removed his spectacles. He blinked up at Lefler.

"I didn't think you knew enough about medicine to tell how long a man had been dead," he said.

"I don't," said Lefler. "But you set the time of Makki's death at 1830 hours. You said you could tell.

"The Earth transit started at 1612, Taat. I've known Makki all my life. If he'd been alive then, he'd have recorded it in the log. And he didn't.

"I just figured the only man who had any reason to lie deliberately about the time of Makki's death was the man who shot him."

Lefler looked at the centerdeck chronometer. It was 2025.

"Do what you can for him, then bring him up to the radio, Robwood," he said. "I've got to get up to the control room and record the midpoint of the Earth transit."