The Collection

by Fredric Brown

  He spent a pleasant-but futile-evening with Jane Gordon, again asked her to marry him, and again was refused. But he was used to that. She was a bit cooler this evening than usual, probably because she resented his unwillingness to talk about Willem Deem.

  And home, to bed.

  Out the window of his apartment, after the light was out, he could see the monstrous ball of Jupiter hanging low in the sky, the green-black midnight sky. He lay in bed and stared at it until it seemed that he could still see it after he had closed his eyes.

  Willem Deem, deceased. What was he going to do about Willem Deem. Around and around, until at last one orderly thought emerged from chaos.

  Tomorrow morning he would talk to the Medico. Without mentioning the sword wound in the head, he would ask Skidder about the bullet hole Brager claimed to have seen over the heart. If Skidder still said the blaster burn was the only wound, he would summon Brager and let him argue with the Medico.

  And then-Well, he would worry about what to do then when he got there. He would never get to sleep this way.

  He thought about Jane, and went to sleep.

  * * *

  After a while, he dreamed. Or was it a dream? If so, then he dreamed that he was lying there in bed, almost but not quite awake, and that there were whispers coming from all corners of the room. Whispers out of the darkness.

  For big Jupiter had moved on across the sky now. The window was a dim, scarcely-discernible outline, and the rest of the room in utter darkness.

  Whispers!

  "-kill them."

  "You hate them, you hate them, you hate them."

  "-kill, kill, kill."

  "Sector Two gets all the gravy and Sector Three does all the work. They exploit our corla plantations. They are evil. Kill them, take over."

  "You hate them, you hate them, you hate them."

  "Sector Two is made up of weaklings and usurers. They have the taint of Martian blood. Spill it, spill Martian blood. Sector Three should rule Callisto. Three the mystic number. We are destined to rule Callisto."

  "You hate them, you hate them."

  "-kill, kill, kill."

  "Martian blood of usurious villians. Yew hate them, you hate them, you hate them."

  Whispers.

  "Now-now-now."

  "Kill them, kill them."

  "A hundred ninety miles across the flat planes. Get there in an hour in monocars. Surprise attack. Now. Now. Now."

  And Rod Caquer was getting out of bed, fumbling hastily and blindly into his clothing without turning on the light because this was a dream and dreams were in darkness.

  His sword was in the scabbard at his belt and he took it out and felt the edge and the edge was sharp and ready to spill the blood of the enemy he was going to kill.

  Now it was going to swing in arcs of red death, his unblooded sword-the anachronistic sword that was his badge of office, of authority. He had never drawn the sword in anger, a stubby symbol of a sword, scarce eighteen inches long; enough, though, enough to reach the heart-four inches to the heart.

  The whispers continued.

  "You hate them, you hate them, you hate them."

  "Spill the evil blood; kill, spill, kill, spill."

  "Now, now, now, now."

  Unsheathed sword in clenched fist, he was stealing silently out the door, down the stairway, past the other apartment doors.

  And some of the doors were opening, too. He was not alone, there in the darkness. Other figures moved beside him in the dark.

  He stole out of the door and into the night-cooled darkness of the street, the darkness of the street that should have been brightly lighted. That was another proof that this was a dream. Those street-lights were never off, after dark. From dusk till dawn, they were never off.

  But Jupiter over there on the horizon gave enough light to see by. Like a round dragon in the heavens, and the red spot like an evil, malignant eye.

  Whispers breathed in the night, whispers from all around him.

  "Kill-kill-kill-"

  "You hate them, you hate them, you hate them."

  The whispers did not come from the shadowy figures about him. They pressed forward silently, as he did.

  Whispers came from the night itself, whispers that now began to change tone.

  "Wait, not tonight, not tonight, not tonight," they said.

  "Go back, go back, go back."

  "Back to your homes, hack to your beds, back to your sleep."

  And the figures about him were standing there, fully as irresolute as he had now become. And then, almost simultaneously, they began to obey the whispers. They turned back, and returned the way they had come, and as silently... .

  Rod Caquer awoke with a mild headache and a hangover feeling. The sun, tiny but brilliant, was already well up in the sky.

  His clock showed him that he was a bit later than usual, but he took time to lie there for a few minutes, just the same, remembering that screwy dream he'd had. Dreams were like that; you had to think about them right away when you woke up, before you were really fully awake, or you forgot them completely.

  A silly sort of dream, it had been. A mad, purposeless, dream. A touch of atavism, perhaps? A throwback to the days when peoples had been at each other's throats half the time, back to the days of wars and hatreds and struggle for supremacy.

  This was before the Solar Council, meeting first on one inhabited planet and then another, had brought order by arbitration, and then union. And now war was a thing of the past. The inhabitable portion of the solar system--Earth, Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter--were all under one government.

  But back in the old bloody days, people must have felt as he had felt in that atavistic dream. Back in the days when Earth, united by the discovery of space travel, had subjugated Mars-the only other planet already inhabited by an intelligent race-and then had spread colonies wherever Man could get a foothold.

  Certain of those colonies had wanted independence and, next, supremacy. The bloody centuries, those times were called now.

  Getting out of bed to dress, he saw something that puzzled and dismayed him. His clothing was not neatly folded over the back of the chair beside the bed as he had left it. Instead, it was Strewn about the floor as though he had undressed hastily and carelessly in the dark.

  "Earth!" he thought. "Did I sleep-walk last night? Did I actually get out of bed and go out into the street when I dreamed that I did? When those whispers told me to?"

  "No," he then told himself, "I've never walked in my sleep before, and I didn't then. I must simply have been careless when I undressed last night. I was thinking about the Deem case. I don't actually remember hanging my clothes on that, chair."

  So he donned his uniform quickly and hurried down to the office. In the light of morning it was easy to fill out those forms. In the "Cause of Death" blank he wrote, "Medical Examiner reports that shock from a blaster wound caused death."

  That let him out from under; he had not said that was the cause of death; merely that the medico said it was.

  * * *

  He rang for a messenger and gave him the reports with instructions to rush them to the mail ship that would be leaving shortly. Then he called Barr Maxon.

  "Reporting on the Deems matter, Regent," he said. "Sorry, but we just haven't got anywhere on it yet. Nobody was seen leaving the shop. All the neighbors have been questioned. Today I'm going to talk to all his friends."

  Regent Maxon shook his head.

  "Use all jets, Lieutenant," he said. "The case must be cracked. A murder, in this day and age, is bad enough. But an unsolved one is unthinkable. It would encourage further crime."

  Lieutenant Caquer nodded gloomily. He had thought of that, too. There were the social implications of murder to be worried about-and there was his job as well. A Lieutenant of Police who let anyone get away with murder in his district was through for life.

  After the Regent's image had clicked off the visiphone screen, Caquer took the list of Deem's
friends from the drawer of his desk and began to study it, mainly with an eye to deciding the sequence of his calls.

  He penciled a figure "1" opposite the name of Perry Peters, for two reasons. Peters' place was only a few doors away, for one thing, and for another he knew Perry better than anyone on the list, except possibly Professor Jan Gordon. And he would make that call last, because later there would be a better chance of finding the ailing professor awake-and a better chance of finding his daughter Jane at home.

  Perry Peters was glad to see Caquer, and guessed immediately the purpose of the call.

  "Hello, Shylock."

  "Huh?" said Rod.

  "Shylock-the great detective. Confronted with a mystery for the first time in his career as a policeman. Or have you solved it, Rod?"

  "You mean Sherlock, you dope-Sherlock Holmes. No, I haven't solved it, if you want to know. Look, Perry, tell me all you know about Deem. You knew him pretty well, didn't you?"

  Perry Peters rubbed his chin reflectively and sat down on the work bench. He was so tall and lanky that he could sit down on it instead of having to jump up.

  "Willem was a funny little runt," he said. "Most people didn't like him because he was sarcastic, and he had crazy notions on politics. Me, I'm not sure whether he wasn't half right half the time, and anyway he played a swell game of chess."

  "Was that his only hobby?"

  "No. He liked to make things, gadgets mostly. Some of them were good, too, although he did it for fun and never tried to patent or capitalize anything."

  "You mean inventions, Perry? Your own line?"

  "Well, not so much inventions as gadgets, Rod. Little things, most of them, and he was better on fine workmanship than on original ideas. And, as I said, it was just a hobby with him."

  "Ever help you with any of your own inventions?" asked Caquer.

  "Sure, occasionally. Again, not so much on the idea of it as by helping me make difficult parts." Perry Peters waved his hand in a gesture that included the shop around them. "My tools here are all for rough work, comparatively. Nothing under thousandths. But Willem has-had a little lathe that's a honey. Cuts anything, and accurate to a fifty-thousandth."

  "What enemies did he have, Perry?"

  "None that I know of. Honestly, Rod. Lot of people disliked him, but just an ordinary mild kind of dislike. You know what I mean, the kind of dislike that makes 'em trade at another book-and-reel shop, but not the kind that makes them want to kill anybody."

  "And who, as far as you know, might benefit by his death?"

  "Um-nobody, to speak of," said Peters, thoughtfully. "I think his heir is a nephew on Venus. I met him once, and he was a likable guy. But the estate won't be anything to get excited about. A few thousand credits is all I'd guess it to be."

  "Here's a list of his friends, Perry." Caquer handed Peters a paper. "Look it over, will you, and see if you can make any additions to it. Or any suggestions."

  The lanky inventor studied the list, and then passed it back.

  "That includes them all, I guess," he told Caquer. "Couple on there I didn't know he knew well enough to rate listing. And you have his best customers down, too; the ones that bought heavily from him."

  Lieutenant Caquer put the list back in his pocket.

  "What are you working on now?" he asked Peters.

  "Something I'm stuck on, I'm afraid," the inventor said. "I needed Deem's help-or at least the use of his lathe, to go ahead with this." He picked up from the bench a pair of the most peculiar-looking goggles Rod Caquer had ever seen. The lenses were shaped like arcs of circles instead of full circles, and they fastened in a band of resilient plastic obviously designed to fit close to the face above and below the lenses. At the top center, where it would be against the forehead of the goggles' wearer, was a small cylindrical box an inch and a half in dismeter.

  "What on earth are they for?" Caquer asked.

  "For use in radite mines. The emanations from that stuff, while it's in the raw state, destroys immediately any transparent substance yet made or discovered. Even quartz. And it isn't good on naked eyes either. The miners have to work blindfolded, as it were, and by their sense of touch."

  Rod Caquer looked at the goggles curiously.

  "But how is the funny shape of these lenses going to keep the emanations from hurting them, Perry?" he asked.

  "That part up on top is a tiny motor. It operates a couple of specially-treated wipers across the lenses. For all the world like an old-fashioned windshield wiper, and that's why the lenses are shaped like the wiper-arm arcs."

  "Oh," said Caquer. "You mean the wipers are absorbent and hold some kind of liquid that protects the glass?"

  "Yes, except that it's quartz instead of glass. And it's protected only a minute fraction of a second. Those wipers go like the devil-so fast you can't see them when you're wearing the goggles. The arms are half as big as the arcs, and the wearer can see out of only a fraction of the lens at a time. But he can see, dimly, and that's a thousand per cent improvement in radite mining."

  "Fine, Perry," said Caquer. "And they can get around the dimness by having ultra-brilliant lighting. Have you tried these out?"

  "Yes, and they work. Trouble's in the rods; friction heats them and they expand and jam after it's run a minute, or thereabouts. I have to turn them down on Deem's lathe-or one like it. Think you could arrange for me to use it? Just for a day or so?"

  "I don't sec why not," Caquer told him. "I'lltalk to whomever the Regent appoints executor, and fix it up. And later you can probably buy the lathe from his heir. Or does the nephew go in for such things?"

  Perry Peters shook his head. "Hope, he wouldn't know a lathe from a drill-press. Be swell of you, Rod, if you can arrange for me to use it."

  Caquer had turned to go, when Perry Peters stopped him.

  "Wait a minute," Peters said and then paused and looked uncomfortable.

  "I guess I was holding out on you, Rod," the inventor said at last. "I do know one thing about Willem that might possibly have something to do with his death, although I don't see how, myself. I wouldn't tell it on him, except that he's dead, and so it won't get him in trouble."

  "What was it, Perry?"

  "Illicit political books. He had a little business on the side selling them. Books on the index-you know just what I mean."

  Caquer whistled softly. "I didn't know they were made any more. After the council put such a heavy penalty on them-whew!"

  "People are still human, Rod. They still want to know the things they shouldn't know-just to find out why they shouldn't, if for no other reason."

  "Graydex or Blackdex books, Perry?"

  Now the inventor looked puzzled.

  "I don't get it. What's the difference?"

  "Books on the official index," Caquer explained, "are divided into two groups. The really dangerous ones are in the Blackdex. There's a severe penalty for owning one, and a death penalty for writing or printing one. The mildly dangerous ones are in the Graydex, as they call it."

  "I wouldn't know which Willem peddled. Well, off the record, I read a couple Willem lent me once, and I thought they were pretty dull stuff. Unorthodox political theories."

  "That would be Graydex." Lieutenant Caquer looked relieved. "Theoretical stuff is all Graydex. The Blackdex books are the ones with dangerous practical information."

  "Such as?" The inventor was staring intently at Caquer.

  "Instructions how to make outlawed things," explained Caquer. "Like Lethite, for instance. Lethite is a poison gas that's tremendously dangerous. A few pounds of it could wipe out a city, so the council outlawed its manufacture, and any book telling people how to make it for themselves would go on the Blackdex. Some nitwit might get hold of a book like that and wipe out his whole home town."

  "But why would anyone?"

  "He might he warped mentally, and have a grudge," explained Caquer. "Or he might want to use it on a lesser scale for criminal reasons. Or-by Earth, he might be the head of a gove
rnment with designs on neighboring states. Knowledge of a thing like that might upset the peace of the Solar System."

  Perry Peters nodded thoughtfully. "I get your point," he said. "Well, I still don't see what it could have to do with the murder, but I thought I'd tell you about Willem's sideline. You probably want to check over his stock before whoever takes over the shop reopens."

  "We shall," said Caquer. "Thanks a lot, Perry. If you don't mind, I'll use your phone to get that search started right away. If there are any Blackdex books there, we'll take care of them all right.'

  When he got his secretary on the screen, she looked both frightened and relieved at seeing him.

  "Mr. Caquer," she said, "I've been trying to reach you. Something awful's happened. Another death." "Murder again?" gasped Caquer.

  "Nobody knows what it was," said the secretary. "A dozen people saw him jump out of a window only twenty feet up. And in this gravity that couldn't have killed him, but he was dead when they got there. And four of them that saw him knew him. It was-"

  "Well, for Earth's sake, who?"

  "I don't-Lieutenant Caquer, they said, all four of them, that it was Willem Deem!"

  * * *

  With a nightmarish feeling of unreality Lieutenant Roc Caquer peered down over the shoulder of the Medico. in-Chief at the body that already lay on the stretcher of the utility men, who stood by impatiently.

  "You better hurry, Doc," one of them said. "He won' last much longer and it take us five minutes to get there.'

  Dr. Skidder nodded impatiently without looking up and went on with his examination. "Not a mark, Rod,' he said. "Not a sign of poison. Not a sign of anything He's just dead."

  "The fall couldn't have caused it?" said Caquer.

  "There isn't even a bruise from the fall. Only verdict I can give is heart failure. Okay, boys, you can take him away."

  "You through too, Lieutenant?"

  "I'm through," said Caquer. "Go ahead. Skidder, which of them was Willem Deem?"

  The medico's eyes followed the white-sheeted burden of the utility men as they carried it toward the truck, and he shrugged helplessly.