"Henry Kuttner - Private Eye" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

тАЬAs tricky a case as IтАЩve ever seen,тАЭ the sociologist remarked. тАЬIf we
can make a homicide charge stick on Sam Clay, IтАЩll be a little surprised.тАЭ

The tracer engineer twirled a dial and watched the figures on the
screen repeat their actions. OneтАФSam ClayтАФsnatched the letter cutter
from a desk and plunged it into the other manтАЩs heart. The victim fell down
dead. Clay started back in apparent horror. Then he dropped to his knees
beside the twitching body and said wildly that he didnтАЩt mean it. The body
drummed its heels upon the rug and was still.

тАЬThat last touch was nice,тАЭ the engineer said.

тАЬWell, IтАЩve got to make the preliminary survey,тАЭ the sociolo-gist
sighed, settling in his dictachair and placing his fingers on the keyboard. тАЬI
doubt if IтАЩll find any evidence. However, the analysis can come later.
WhereтАЩs Clay now?тАЭ

тАЬHis mouthpiece put in a habeas mens.тАЭ

тАЬI didnтАЩt think weтАЩd be able to hold him. But it was worth trying.
Imagine, just one shot of scop and heтАЩd have told the truth. Ah, well. WeтАЩll
do it the hard way, as usual. Start the tracer, will you? It wonтАЩt make sense
till we run it chronologically, but one must start somewhere. Good old
Blackstone,тАЭ the sociolo-gist said, as, on the screen, Clay stood up,
watching the corpse revive and arise, and then pulled the miraculously
clean paper cutter out of its heart, all in reverse.

тАЬGood old Blackstone,тАЭ he repeated. тАЬOn the other hand, sometimes
I wish IтАЩd lived in JeffreysтАЩ time. In those days, homicide was homicide.тАЭ

****

Telepathy never came to much. Perhaps the developing faculty went
underground in response to a familiar natural law after the new science
appeared omniscience. It wasnтАЩt really that, of course. It was a device for
looking into the past. And it was limited to a fifty-year span; no chance of
seeing the arrows at Agincourt or the homunculi of Bacon. It was sensitive
enough to pick up the тАЬfingerprintsтАЭ of light and sound waves imprinted on
matter, descramble and screen them, and reproduce the image of what had
happened. After all, a manтАЩs shadow can be photo-graphed on concrete, if
heтАЩs unlucky enough to be caught in an atomic blast. Which is something.
The shadowтАЩs about all here is left.

However, opening the past like a book didnтАЩt solve all problems. It
took generations for the maze of complexities to iron itself out, though
finally a tentative check-and-balance was reached. The right to kill has been
sturdily defended by mankind since Cain rose up against Abel. A good
many idealists quoted, тАЬThe voice of thy brotherтАЩs blood crieth unto me
from the ground,тАЭ but that didnтАЩt stop the lobbyists and the pressure groups.
Magna Carta was quoted in reply. The right to privacy was defended