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(R) PREDATOR
Isaac Asimov.
The man who never lied.
Sand paused. His blue sparkling eyes moved from
one person to another. Then he said:
- Gentlemen, I am telling you the honest truth. I have money and papers
didn't take it.
Halstead quickly ran his hand from his forehead to the back of his head, as if torturing
trying to shake off my doubts.
“Mr. Sand,” he said, “apparently your colleagues like you.”
believe. You can always open a safe with securities. And in
at the same time you play at the races.
- So what? Many people play at the races.
- But you are losing.
- This happened unintentionally.
- Don’t you risk losing your job this way?
- I have one advantage, sir. It is that I
I work under my uncle. He knows about my weakness, he
He also knows that I never lie. He also understood that the average
property, and I had the opportunity to steal. Knew about my debts. I
I told him about them myself. Everything, literally everything turned against me
, but my uncle asked me one single question: am I guilty ofmissing, - and I answered the same as you: I don’t have any money or papers
took. My uncle has known me for several years. And he believes.
- In that case, how did you manage to pay off your creditors?
- I was very lucky, and again at the races. This happens sometimes
happens. And this happened shortly before it was discovered
for loss from the safe. I paid off all the bookmakers.
- So you still had no motives? - said Gonzalo.
- This cannot be confirmed. The theft could have happened within two more weeks.
until the day she was discovered. No one looked in
division of the safe during this time. Except for the thief himself, of course. to me
may object, they say, after I took the money and
gations, I was lucky on the races and theft lost its meaning, but it was
It's already too late.
“They might also tell you,” Halstead observed, “that you took advantage of
were called stolen money in order to make a big
bet.
- By the way, the stakes weren’t that big at all, but I
there were other sources of money. But you are right: your argument is also not
Can't be excluded.
Trumbell intervened:
- But if you still work there - and I assume so
it is, - and since your uncle has not brought a case against you,
- I also believe that he did not arouse, - then did he at least put
notify the police?
- No. He is able to compensate for the missing amount, and the police.
He feels like the policewill connect the incident only with me. At that
At the same time, he is convinced that I am not lying to him.
- Lord, but what is the problem then?
“There’s just no one else who could do it.” Uncle yes-
he can’t imagine how else to explain the loss. Me too
I can't imagine. Until he sees some alternative,
the feeling of anxiety and suspicion will not leave him, even if he
and will not express them openly. He will involuntarily begin to follow
will not trust me. I won't lose my job, but I won't get a promotion.
I'll get it. In the end I will have to leave on my own. And then I have nothing to say
Go count on a friendly recommendation. And get from
uncle's recommendation document with a different content will be
It's too big of a blow for me.
“So you came here, Mr. Sand,” Rubin frowned, “
for the reason that we solve puzzles. That's what Gonsa told you -
lo. And now you want to hear from us who really is
did you take this money?
Sand shrugged:
- Not necessarily. I don't even know if I can provide your
disposal of as much information as may be needed.
After all, you are not detectives, and you cannot, say, go to the place
crimes, who needs to be interrogated, and so on. But if you
told me how this could happen - I would be extremely grateful to you
grateful. Then I would go to my uncle and tell him: <>. Even if it's your version
will not correspond to reality; suppose my words-
they won’t convince my uncle; Let's say money and bonds are right for us.
Well, it won’t work out that way. But this version at least dispelled
would be his suspicions. Perhaps he would stop being tormented by thoughts of
that I am the only likely culprit.
“Well,” said Avalom, “I suppose we could try.”
think logically. What kind of people surround you and your uncle on
service? Could any of them be in dire need of money?
Sand shook his head.
- So much so as to risk your own reputation? Don't know. Perhaps someone owes a large sum of money. Or someone
intended to pay off the blackmailers. Or just someone's greed
then she overcame. An opportunity arose to take money, and the person did not
had the strength to resist temptation. If I were a detective I would
began to question them in detail, checked every single document
cops and... What else do detectives do in such cases? But I don't...
“Of course,” Avalon said. - And we can't take advantage
such techniques. So you say you had both the means and
possibilities. Is it just you?
- At least three of our employees have access to the safe,
and even simpler than me. But none of them know
cipher, but there were no signs of hacking on the safe. Except me and
my uncletwo more people own the code, but one of them has been
I was in the hospital, and the other one was so elderly and reliable
member of the company, which cannot arouse the slightest suspicion.
- Yeah! - exclaimed Mario Gonzalo. - This one is most likely for us
needed!
“You, Mario, have been reading a lot of Agatha Christie,” Rubin stopped him. -
The fact is that when prosecuting almost every crime
it is the one who is suspected more than others who turns out to be
a criminal.
“This has nothing to do with our case,” Halstead said. - And
then... It's simply not interesting. The task before us is to exclude
of purely logical property. So let Mr. Sand tell
tells us everything he knows about the company’s employees, about each of them. A
we will try to imagine possible motives and methods of committing
crimes by one person.
“Damn,” Trumbell interrupted. - Did someone say that
was the crime committed by one person? So you say that
one of the employees was in the hospital. So what? After all, there is
telephones. This person could easily communicate the code to an accomplice.
“Okay, okay,” Halstead said hastily. - We have to pro-
work through all possible options, some of which will turn out to be
more plausible than others. After we carefully
Let us discuss and think through these remaining hypotheses as closely as possible,
Mr. Sand will choose one of them, the most probable, and recounthe gives it to his uncle.
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