The Three-Body Problem (17 page)

Mr Bexheath:
(
addressing himself to the members of the jury
) Let me make my intentions clear. In interrogating the prisoner, my goal is to clarify details of how the murders actually took place.

Mr Haversham:
My Lord, I object to my learned colleague’s statement! It implies a presumption of guilt.

Mr Justice Penrose:
No, it does not. Counsel’s sentence is perfectly clear: he wishes to clarify details of how the murders took place.

Mr Bexheath:
Thank you, my Lord. Now, sir, let us begin with the first murder, that of Mr Geoffrey Akers. You dined with Mr Akers on the evening of February 14th?

Arthur:
Yes, I d-did.

Mr Bexheath:
Before discussing the actual events
of that dinner, I would like to deal with two points: your relations with Mr Akers, and the question of how you came to be dining with him at all. How would you describe your relations with Mr Akers?

Arthur:
I would describe us as being friends.

Mr Bexheath:
You are twenty-six years old, and Mr Akers was thirty-seven. The difference in age, and consequently in outlook upon life, is considerable. What interests did you share with Mr Akers which would make such a friendship possible?

Arthur:
I enjoyed his sarcastic humour. As for him, I suppose that like every human being, he needed to talk, to express himself, at least sometimes, and had very few opportunities of doing so.

Mr Bexheath:
Why so?

Arthur:
Because his sarcastic and contemptuous nature drove many people away from him.

Mr Bexheath:
Why should that be? All of us enjoy a little witty sarcasm.

Arthur:
Yes, b-but Mr Akers often aimed his barbed shafts at those around him.

Mr Bexheath:
Quite so. And people might feel diminished, humiliated or insulted by such remarks being aimed at them.

Arthur:
People felt that in order to protect themselves from having to undergo such unpleasant feelings, they would act safely in keeping their distance from Mr Akers.

Mr Bexheath:
Please explain, sir, how it comes about, that in your particular case, you were exempt either from such treatment, or from such feelings?

Arthur:
I never felt Mr Akers’ remarks about myself to be in the least bit offensive; I found them amusing.

Mr Bexheath:
Ah, so his habit of making snide remarks was not suspended for your sole benefit?

Arthur:
Oh, no.

Mr Bexheath:
And you remained almost the only one among all of his colleagues whose pride was not affected by this.

Arthur:
My pride was not affected.

Mr Bexheath:
Perhaps that is because you have very little.

Arthur:
(
silence
)

Mr Bexheath:
Or perhaps you smothered the natural reaction of pride, in order to cultivate his acquaintance to your own advantage.

Arthur:
(
silence
)

Mr Bexheath:
You do not appear to disagree.

Arthur:
‘
The silence often of pure innocence Persuades when speaking fails
.’

Mr Bexheath:
My dear man, if you have nothing to say, do not fill the gap with Shakespeare.

Arthur:
(
shrugging
) As you say.

Mr Bexheath:
Let us now turn to your dinner with Mr Akers. Can you recount how you came to be dining together?

Arthur:
I met him in the mathematics library in the afternoon, and he seemed very p-p-p – very pleased about some mathematical result, and wanted an opportunity to talk about it, so he suggested we dine.

Mr Bexheath:
The suggestion came entirely from him, you say.

Arthur:
Yes.

Mr Bexheath:
Were there any witnesses to your conversation?

Arthur:
I suppose not. P-people whisper in libraries.

Mr Bexheath:
So that there is no one who can actually testify that the idea really originated with Mr Akers and not with yourself.

Arthur:
Except for myself.

Mr Bexheath:
Quite so. And so you met at the Irish pub.

Arthur:
Yes.

Mr Bexheath:
Now let us consider the question of Mr Akers’ medicine bottle. How did you become aware of its existence? Please describe very exactly every single thing that Mr Akers did with his medicine.

Arthur:
We had whiskies to start with, and then ordered a bottle of red wine and Irish stew. The wine was brought at once, and Mr Akers turned to the waiter and asked for a p-p-pitcher of water as well. The waiter brought it, and he poured out a glass and said, ‘Have to take my medicine.’ He then took out a little square flask made of thick glass, and removed the stopper. The opening was in dropper form. He turned the flask upside down and measured out a drop or so into his water, and shook the flask a little. Then he said something like ‘Dash it, what am I doing?’ and stopped it up and put it away into his pocket. I never laid eyes on that medicine bottle at any time after that.

Mr Bexheath:
Did he drink the water?

Arthur:
Yes, complaining. He did not like water.

Mr Bexheath:
You say that he put only one drop into the water?

Arthur:
One or two.

Mr Bexheath:
You are aware that his regular dose was of ten drops?

Arthur:
No, I was not aware of that.

Mr Bexheath:
Can you explain why he would have taken less?

Arthur:
Perhaps he remembered that he had already taken his dose earlier.

Mr Bexheath:
Then why would he have drunk the water?

Arthur:
I really d-don’t know. Perhaps he didn’t want to waste the drop.

Mr Bexheath:
And were you not surprised to see a medicine given in a standard dose of one drop?

Arthur:
I d-didn’t think about it at all.

Mr Bexheath:
You did not ask him about it?

Arthur:
No.

Mr Bexheath:
You felt no interest?

Arthur:
No.

Mr Bexheath:
A man is struggling with his dropper bottle in front of you, and complaining about having to drink water, and you do not even ask him about it?

Arthur:
No, I did not. I hardly noticed. We were talking of other things.

Mr Bexheath:
What things?

Arthur:
Mathematics.

Mr Bexheath:
Ah, mathematics. What about them?

Arthur:
About the n-body problem. Suddenly, Akers began to tell me about his new idea for a complete solution. He seemed agitated and excited, as though he could not restrain his desire to talk about it.

Mr Bexheath:
Restrain his desire? Why should he restrain his desire?

Arthur:
At the same time, he wanted to keep his solution secret.

Mr Bexheath:
Why so?

Arthur:
I g-guessed that perhaps it was not completely written yet, and he wanted to keep it a secret until he should have a manuscript submitted.

Mr Bexheath:
Why was such secrecy necessary?

Arthur:
Akers felt that he had rivals in the subject.

Mr Bexheath:
Are you implying that he feared his interesting result risked being stolen by someone else, and made use of for their own advantage?

Arthur:
It is p-possible.

Mr Bexheath:
But surely then he would keep the secret only from those rivals. Why should he keep it from a trusted friend?

Arthur:
He probably thought that word would get around if he talked about it at all.

Mr Bexheath:
There you were, across from each other, in a leather booth in a noisy restaurant, in complete privacy, where no one could possibly overhear you, and he desired to talk about it. Could he not simply have bound you to silence?

Arthur:
He could have asked me to keep quiet, of course.

Mr Bexheath:
But he did not do so. Perhaps he did not trust you.

Arthur:
He did not trust anybody, I think.

Mr Bexheath:
I submit that he must have trusted you to start with, since he began to communicate his results with you. What transpired to make him suddenly change his mind?

Arthur:
Nothing transpired at all. He suddenly felt he was saying too much.

Mr Bexheath:
Suddenly, for no reason at all?

Arthur:
Because of his natural discretion.

Mr Bexheath:
Or because you, sir, showed him by some sign that your interest in his work was more than purely friendly – in other words, that
the thief he feared was no other than yourself.
What did you say to him, sir, which caused him to suddenly change his mind and cut short his explanations? Did you show excessive interest? Did he see by your expression that his discovery had awakened your covetousness?

Arthur:
I can’t – no. Surely not.

Mr Bexheath:
Well, well. Now, did you and Mr Akers remain together all the time after that?

Arthur:
Yes, we finished dinner together and walked back to his rooms.

Mr Bexheath:
You never separated for a moment?

Arthur:
I d-don’t remember that we did.

Mr Bexheath:
This proves that the digitalin bottle was still in his pocket at the time of his death, does it not?

Arthur:
I suppose so.

Mr Bexheath:
You suppose so. Do you not
know
so?

Arthur:
Not of my own knowledge.

Mr Bexheath:
Logical reasoning is not sufficient to convince you, a mathematician?

Arthur:
Hum.

Mr Bexheath:
Well, well, now, perhaps mathematicians are not so rigorous as we might have supposed, when it is a matter of personal advantage!

Tittering in the public gallery.

Arthur:
What advantage? That of being hanged for something I didn’t do?

Mr Bexheath:
That is a matter for the jury to decide.

Arthur:
That may be difficult for them, given the complete lack of evidence.

Mr Bexheath:
Oh, I think there is plenty of evidence.

Arthur:
I fail to perceive it. It is like using a conjecture to prove another conjecture.

Mr Justice Penrose:
Your perceptions are not the issue here, sir. Please confine yourself to answering counsel’s questions.

Mr Bexheath:
You are aware that the medicine bottle was not found in his pocket by the doctor who examined the corpse?

Arthur:
Yes, I have heard that.

Mr Bexheath:
So the bottle must have been taken by the murderer.

Arthur:
It seems likely.

Mr Bexheath:
Now, sir, you are on oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
DID YOU TAKE THE FLASK OF DIGITALIN FROM MR AKERS
?

Arthur:
N-N-No. N-No. No. I did not.

Mr Bexheath:
Are you certain?

Arthur:
Yes!

Mr Bexheath:
DID YOU KILL MR. AKERS
?

Arthur:
No!

Mr Bexheath:
Hmph. Very well. Now, sir, I would like to recall and interrogate you about a point raised in previous testimonies. We have heard that you allowed yourself to visit Miss Duncan alone in her rooms, late at night. I suppose you consider destroying the reputation of a young and defenceless girl as natural as smiling when you are insulted in public?

Arthur:
(
silence
)

Mr Bexheath:
Well? May I take it that this behaviour is perfectly acceptable to you?

Arthur:
I c-c-cannot think that my v-visit could have any effect on Miss Duncan’s reputation. What c-could have an effect is your way of insinuating things which d-d-did not occur.

Mr Bexheath:
I take your statement to mean that as long as no one knows about such nocturnal visits, no one’s reputation is destroyed.

Arthur:
N-no, that is not what I mean. I mean that on a rainy night, I took a cup of t-tea in Miss Duncan’s rooms which she very k-k-kindly offered me, and then returned to my rooms upstairs. You p-pretend to be concerned about her reputation, and instead you insinuate falsehoods with ‘
the shrug, the hum or ha, these petty brands that calumny doth use
’.

Mr Bexheath:
I see. So according to Shakespeare, I myself am responsible for the harm done to Miss Duncan’s reputation.

Tittering in the public.

Mr Bexheath:
I imagine that point of view is extremely serviceable, when applied to one’s own conduct.