Architects of Emortality - Brian Stableford [108]
“He knows,” he said. “He may not understand exactly why Rappaccini wants to kill him, but he knows what’s behind it. The strange thing is that although he doesn’t care at all about the possibility of being murdered, there’s still something he does care about. I think I understand, now, what Rappaccini has done, and maybe even why he’s done it—but only in broad terms. There’s still a devil somewhere in the detail. Maybe if I can talk to McCandless. He lives on Kauai; he must know Walter and Rappaccini, alias Moreau. He may even have made up some of the jokes that Walter found so strangely objectionable—after all, there can’t be many people on Kauai familiar with the work of H. G. Wells.” “Why don’t you let me do this one?” Charlotte asked as politely as she could. “I am supposed to be the detective, after all.” Wilde’s answering smile was very faint. The cabin lights had come up automatically as darkness had fallen, but they seemed somewhat lacking in power, like the plane itself.
“Please do,” he said as infuriatingly as ever. Despite what Walter Czastka had said about the Era of Courtesy and the obsolescence of hatred, it wasn’t too difficult for Charlotte to imagine that a man like Oscar Wilde might be hated—or that a man like Oscar Wilde might be capable of hate.
It didn’t take as long as Charlotte had expected to get through to the ex-vice-chancellor. Hal had obviously been at his most brisk and businesslike.
As she had also expected, Stuart McCandless was not answering his phone in person, but this time there was no need for begging or blustering. She simply fed his sim her authority codes and it summoned him to the comcon without delay.
“Yes?” he said, his dark face peering at her with slightly peevish surprise. He would be able to see that she was in a vehicle of some kind, but he wouldn’t necessarily be able to identify it as a plane. “I’m still going through the data you people dumped into my system, although I’m sure that it’s quite unnecessary.
It’s going to take some time to look at it all. I promised that I’d get back to you as soon as I could—this isn’t helping.” “I’m Sergeant Charlotte Holmes, UN police, Professor McCandless,” she said. “I’m in an airplane which has apparently been programmed by Gustave Moreau, alias Rappaccini. He seems intent on providing my companion, Oscar Wilde, with a good seat from which to observe this unfolding melodrama. We’re heading out into the ocean from the American coast. We don’t know what destination has been filed, but we may well be heading your way, and I’m afraid that the killer might get there ahead of us. Have you ever met Moreau?” “Once or twice. I know very little about him, except for the jokes that people tell. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never seen his alleged foster daughter on Kauai, and I certainly can’t imagine that he or she could have anything against me.” McCandless’s voice was by no means as bitter as Walter Czastka’s, but he did seem petulantly resentful. He plainly did not believe that anyone might be trying to kill him, in spite of the fact that the only thing the four known victims had in common was an item of biography that he shared.
“Have you remembered anything about your time at Wollongong that might link you to the four dead men and Walter Czastka?” Charlotte demanded, desperate to get something from the interview to justify the fact that she had placed the call in Wilde’s stead. “Anything at all?” McCandless shook his head reflexively but vigorously. “I’ve already answered these questions,” he said irritably. “I’ve tried—” “But you’ve looked at the tapes of the girl who visited Gabriel King and Michi Urashima, haven’t you? Are you certain that you’d be able to recognize her if she altered her disguise yet again?” “I’d be able to study your tapes more closely if you’d allow me time to do it, Sergeant Holmes,” McCandless snapped back. “I’m looking at them now, but quite frankly, in these days of ever-changing appearances it’s almost impossible to recognize anyone except people one knows intimately. I don’t know whether the person in