The Cause of Death (42 page)

And then another courier came in and dropped another report on his desk, on top of all the others. Darsteel gave up on the heap of papers on his desk and reached for the new one, on the theory that it had the latest news.

It did. He read it and started to get a sinking feeling in the gut of his stomach as he realized that it did indeed. It was, in a sense, the end of the case before it really began. Together with the evidence of the shoe's being concealed by the Hertzmanns, it was all but conclusive.

That should have made him happy, even relieved. But Darsteel had just discovered another little flaw in playing it straight. Sometimes it led to conclusions you didn't really want to reach.

TWENTY-FIVE
CONSPIRACIES

"So that's it," Darsteel said in disgust to Hannah, Jamie, and Brox. "There are multiple witnesses at the fire scene--including all of you--that place Georg Hertzmann here at the Keep once the fire starts, when he's supposedly been staying away in that museum of his all the time. There is the shoe print in the crime scene, and the shoe winding up in his daughter's possession. We found the other shoe of the pair found in Marta Herztmann's apartments in the Keep, which very strongly suggests Georg Hertzmann was there
before
the murder. As you suggested, Lawkeeper Mendez, finding it was central to the case. And then there's this." He dropped the report onto the table in the common room. "It's the information you asked for, Lawkeeper Mendez. Some of it, anyway. Last night, roughly two hours before the murder, Georg logged onto the Keep's reference net node and pulled up all the information he could about the succession. He didn't even try any of the standard dodges for hiding who he was. It's a positive lock ID that he was the one doing the research."

Darsteel looked bitterly at Hannah and Jamie. "He did it," he said at last. "Never mind all that high and proud language about the Pax Humana, and being willing to die but refusing to kill. Some of us on Reqwar admired that notion. We've gotten tired of every political problem being solved with a bang from a gun and a thud as the body hits the floor, tired of no one in the roomful of people seeing who did it. But it turns out Georg Hertzmann killed his adoptive father to become Thelm of all Reqwar. Perfectly legal, and fulfilling all the requirements of the law--but none of that makes it
right
. He might have done what the law told him to do--but the law is wrong."

"But none of this proves anything," Jamie objected. "If Georg committed the murder, he ascends to the Thelmship. That's the most clear-cut case of all. There's no doubt about it. There's no
need
for him to look it up. He knew that. It's only if he
didn't
do it that the question is uncertain."

"And," said Hannah, looking at the report Darsteel had thrown down, "it looks like what he pulled up here were very general texts on succession law--not legal cases or anything like that. Besides, this report doesn't tell you what parts he actually
read
--just the names of the reference files he found and opened up. And he does the lookup just a couple of hours
after
Jamie popped up with his idea about Penitence. And he pulled up a copy of the Pax Humana bylaws too. What could that have to do with anything? Any good Earthside defense lawyer could put together a totally different scenario."

"Such as?" Darsteel asked skeptically.

Hannah shrugged. "His wife contacts him and reports that the Thelm has been given a very dangerous idea that might threaten the family, please come over at once. He does. Marta tells him about the Penitence idea. He broods on that, and looks up succession law to see, I don't know, if there is anything about permanent exile. Or maybe he was trying to figure out what would happen to Moira if he went to Penitence alone.
Could
Moira be used as a pawn, a bargaining chip--or a rallying cry? It might be just about anything. Maybe he hoped there was something in the Pax Humana regs that would make it harder to deport the child of a member to Penitence for some reason. Who knows? Then it's late. He should get back to his glass house--but he hasn't seen his wife in a long time. Their child is asleep, but if he spends the night, he can see her in the morning--perhaps for the last time."

"And the very sad music starts to play," said Brox, with heavy sarcasm. "Just the sort of absurd story the Pavlat would love."

"All right, all right," said Hannah. "But I think I've made my point."

"Whatever the merits of your story," said Brox, "it's quite clear that this murder was planned sometime in advance. Why do something as basic as reviewing the succession law at the last minute?"

"So you're all saying that you don't think he did it," Darsteel said.

"I wouldn't go that far," said Hannah, "but I would say he seems an unlikely suspect."

"And if he
did
do it, it wouldn't make any sense for him to keep it hidden this way," said Jamie. "After all, this was the one murder
he
could commit that
wasn't
a crime."

"Unless," suggested Brox, "you consider what our noble friend Darsteel has just demonstrated--that at least some Reqwar Pavlat would like a Thelm who believes that murder is wrong. Legally, he can get away with this murder, yes. But he has the political savvy to realize that a damned alien coming to power by killing the Thelm isn't going to be too popular. He'd have motives beyond strict legality for wanting to keep people from thinking of him as a murderer. And I come back again to his Pax Humana membership as a strong motive for concealing the fact that he had committed murder, even legal murder."

There was a nervous cough from the doorway. Darsteel turned to see one of his more youthful-looking couriers standing there. "Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"Ah, sir, I have a message--"

"Of course you do," he said. "What else would a courier have but messages to bring?"

"Yes, sir," the courier agreed meaninglessly. "But it's a message for
them
. An invitation, really. I think yours is being delivered to your desk by another courier," he went on. "Sorry, sir."

Darsteel looked at the addressing on the big thick envelope. "From 'Thelm Georg Hertzmann' it says here.
He
didn't waste any time." He turned and glared at the messenger. "I seem to remember giving orders to keep Hertzmann in isolation--no contact with outsiders."

"Yes, sir. And they followed those orders--right up until the Court of High Crime ruled that Georg Hertzmann should ascend to the Thelmship."

Darsteel let his ears droop wearily and leaned up against the side of the table. "And someone decided that Thelm Georg ought to be informed. And the new Thelm started giving orders, and people started obeying them."

"Well, ah, yes sir."

"Including you."

A hint of green came to the courier's face as he blushed. "Yes, sir."

"All right," said Darsteel. He pulled a packet out of his blouse. "I might as well open this now," he said. "It's the report from the Court of High Crimes." He pulled out the papers and stared at the top one. "'The said human Georg Hertzmann-Lantrall, having been duly adopted by the late Thelm, and the late Thelm having duly named him in the line of succession, and all other persons with prior claims to the succession having died, and, conditional to confirmation that the Thelm died properly, the said Georg Hertzmann-Lantrall is provisionally found to have succeeded to all the rights, titles, and powers, of the late Thelm, and shall hereafter be styled Thelm-Designate until such time as the propriety of the death of the late Thelm is confirmed.' "

Brox frowned. "Either I missed something, or that is a very long-winded way of saying 'we haven't decided yet, but he's probably the Thelm.' "

Darsteel nodded. "You're right. Everything hinges on the words 'conditional' and 'provisionally.' "

"So he's bending the rules pretty hard right from the start," said Hannah, taking the message from the courier. "He's calling himself Thelm instead of Thelm-Designate."

"And he's sent another message, just by sending us that one," said Jamie. "He's telling us he knew the three of us were here, together. Don't you just wonder how he found that one out, when he was supposed to be kept in isolation--just like us?"

Darsteel glared again at the courier.

"It--it wasn't me, sir," the courier protested.

"No, it never is. It's always the one who's not here."

Hannah had been reading the invitation. "All that Thelm-Designate stuff won't matter long anyway," she said. "We're summoned to join in witnessing the 'formal declaration of ascension' in which it will be certified that 'the late Thelm did truly die properly and thus that his heir-designate is hereby declared his heir in fact, and named to all his heritable titles, ranks, powers, rights, and other things.' "

"In other words," Jamie said grimly, "he's going to wheel out a stack of Bibles and swear that he did it."

"So much for running a proper investigation," Darsteel said with savage anger. He turned to the courier. "You and all your friends who all say 'it wasn't me' are going to find out the hard way that this job is not about protecting yourself from your own actions. It's about protecting others, protecting the innocent from harm."

Hannah was studying the invitation, and only half-listening--until the last words that Darsteel spoke. Yes! That was it. That was the key! She understood. But it was down to two cases, one of two things that could have happened. Did it matter which? It
might
matter, a very great deal. She had to find out, and the answer ought to be in the papers right in front of her. But there was something they left unsaid. She checked the ruling from the Court of High Crime, and saw the same omission. "Neither of these say anything about ruling that Georg killed the Thelm," she said. "They just say the Thelm died 'properly.' "

"Which is a nice, polite way of saying Georg killed him, or whatever," said Darsteel.

"What do you mean, 'or whatever'?"

"Legal nonsense. 'Proper' in this case means 'without besmirching the honor of the Thelm or the heir.' I checked the law over as best I could last night, after locking all of you in. The law covers all the absurd contingencies. The Thelm, while in the act of attempting to commit suicide, is accidentally hit by a car driven by a contract killer hired by the heir. That sort of thing."

"And
would
it be proper for him to die that way?" Brox asked.

"What does it matter?" Darsteel snapped.

"It might matter a very great deal," said Hannah, with some iron in her voice. "Please be so kind as to answer the Inquirist's question."

"It would depend on a lot of things," Darsteel said. "It all stems from ordinary inheritance law, and there's all sorts of precedents for that. If the Thelm was attempting to kill himself by throwing himself in front of a car, that would be proper--so long as the heir had not
compelled
him to suicide, and the Thelm had chosen suicide for honorable reasons--and what is and isn't an honorable reason for suicide is hugely complex. Hiring a third party to do your killing for you is wrong, dishonorable, and illegal. But, if the hired killer was not, at that moment,
attempting
to kill the Thelm, and his death
was
accidental, that would be a proper death.
But
if the contract murderer was in fact on his way to try to kill the Thelm, so that his driving the vehicle at that place and time was due to an intended attempt on the Thelm's life commissioned by the heir, or
if
the heir had bullied or tricked or manipulated the Thelm into suicide, or if the suicide was to avoid shame or scandal--then that would not be proper."

"What if the killer was working for himself, or hired by someone besides the heir?" Hannah asked.

"Well, that wouldn't besmirch the honor of Thelm or heir, would it? It would of course be murder, and a crime--but insofar as touching the honor of the Thelm and heir, it would be an entirely proper death."

"In other words, just looking at the inheritance, and not thinking about criminal acts, it's okay for the heir to kill the Thelm, or for a third party to kill the Thelm--but
not
for the heir to get someone to do his killing for him."

"To do so would smack of cowardice, squeamishness, and venality--very, very, improper."

She flipped through the ruling, puzzling out the Greater Trade Writing, looking for the citations, the precedents. The Reqwar Pavlat loved precedents, the old ways, what had come before. The quickest, most hurried read possible through the strange language seemed to confirm what Darsteel was saying. If the picture she was starting to see was right, this could be bad. It could be very bad indeed. Winning the battle but losing the war would scarcely cover the case.

She turned on the courier. "You!" she said. "Answer my next questions, and answer with the knowledge you have, not with what I want to hear or what will make Darsteel happy with you. Don't answer with what you think will help your new Thelm-Designate. I'm not sure which answer would."
That
was a flat-out lie, but she needed to press the courier hard. She held up the papers the courier had just brought in. "Did Georg Hertzmann help write these? Did he talk things over with the lawyers and judges or whoever it was, or did he just sign what they brought him?"