"Stephen Goldin - The Sword Unswayed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

"A shortened form of my name, F'tim, will be quite sufficient."

"Thank you. And the same for me. `De-BOR-ah' will do nicely. I'm trying, just as a friend with no official
position, to find out what happened to P'tar'houn-Hoc. Having known Bian for many years, I honestly
don't believe she's capable of murdering anyone. Do your police have any special reason for believing
she did it?"

"They don't tell their minds to me, but I can guess. She's a stranger, an alien. She was in his private dining
room beside the body."

"But no apparent motive whatsoever. Unless your world is vastly different from mine, mentally balanced
people don't often kill one another for no reason at all. Did P'tar'houn-Hoc have any enemies?"

F'tim considered this. "As a successful business leader he had competitors, but none I believe who would
do such a thing."

"Greed's always a good motive. Who inherits his publishing firm?"

"Since he had no heirs, I do."

"No heirs? Bian told me he had a wife and two children."

"Yes, but the only son is still very young and cannot legally inherit."

"What about the wife and daughter?"

F'tim seemed perplexed. "What about them?"

Rabinowitz paused to absorb that. "Okay, that's the way it slides. I'll bet Bian didn't know about that, or
she'd have been trying to reform more than your eating habits. What happens to the family now that
P'tar'houn-Hoc's dead?"

"I inherit them as well," F'tim said.

"Indeed?"

"It is a heavy responsibility. I already have a wife and child of my own to care for."

"Do you get P'tar'houn-Hoc's entire estate?"

"I inherit everything that was his."

"I see." She paused for a long moment, then decided to change the subject. "What about the room where
P'tar'houn-Hoc was killed? I understand from Bian that it was a combination of dining room and office."

"She would know better than I. I have never been there."

"Would there be any reason for his children to be in there?"

"I don't think so. There is a central room of the house where children are taught to eat, and once they are