"No reason, I suppose. Especially if you found something."

"I'll show you!"

Miranda tugged open the heavy door; the two entered the stately precincts of Bureau A. Miranda led the way to a counter, filled out a slip and dropped it into a slot; a moment later she was tendered a small black box.

The two went into a viewing chamber. Miranda dimmed the light

and started the projection.

"The first time I did this I could hardly bear to look at Sessily. Now I just don't think about it anymore. I guess I've become hard-hearted, or something of the son." There was a break in her voice.

"I

guess not altogether. Still, don't worry. I won't start crying or fling myself on the floor."

Glawen patted her head and ruffled her hair.

"In my opinion, Squeaker, you're uncommonly wise for your age."

"You are too, for that matter. Also, if you don't mind--" "It was a mistake. I'll be more careful."

Miranda gave a curt nod.

"I've looked at all the spools a dozen times. Often they show the same area from different angles, so that you see everyone present. The archivists haven't completely finished yet, but almost everyone has been identified. For instance--" Miranda worked buttons to bring a tracer-spark down the screen. She stopped it on one of the faces and touched another button. A name appeared at the bottom of the screen:

GLAWEN CLATTUC.

"Of course, I wasn't looking for you. I wanted to find someone skulking around to the back of the Orpheum. But whoever did it was careful to keep away from the cameras and I found nothing.

After a bit, I started using the zoom, looking here and there, with nothing particular in mind. And I happened, by sheer chance, to notice this."

Bodwyn Wook and his captains met in the high-ceilinged office on the second floor of the New Agency. After the customary small talk Bodwyn Wook leaned back into the depths of his massive black chair.

"I'll now hear reports. Captain Laverty?" Ysel Laverty said: "I've been working with fibers taken from the floor of the truck. They turn out to be synthetic stuff, produced off-world, probably on Soum. I have secured samples from what I shall call 'hairy' costumes, including Latuun's legs, the Bold Lion pelts, and a number of others. I have had ambiguous results. The fiber exactly matches only the fur from Latuun's legs, although I discovered a number of close similarities among the Bold Lion costumes. How did these folk account for their time? Two of the Bold Lions, Aries Clattuc and Kirdy Wook, were occupied patrolling the Yip compound; . the other six Bold Lions were here and there, but often enough in the , purview of reputable witnesses during the critical time as to eliminate j them from suspicion. Latuun, or, I should say, Namour, states that | for a time he stepped the pavane with Spanchetta Clattuc, then strolled ?

around, but never left the environs of the Quadrangle.

Spanchetta corroborates the statement, as do other witnesses; despite the evidence of the fur, we must also dismiss Namour. So then--" Ysel Laverty flung out his hands in a gesture of frustration.

"What remains? In connection with the fur, very little, if anything. According to Namour, his costume came from the Mummers' wardrobe. Floreste got the material off-world specially for 'primordial' costumes;

and a swatch or two was left over. I won't say the mystery is deeper than before, but it certainly hasn't been clarified."

"This bears thinking about," said Bodwyn Wook.

"Who's next?

Scharde?"

"I learned a great deal at Yipton," said Scharde.

"In fact, considerably more than I wanted to know. But not much seems to bear on our case. I did not see Titus Pompo; he takes obsessive precautions to hide himself; he is a mystery in himself that we should take steps to solve. I talked with him, and after a fashion heard his voice."

Bodwyn Wook looked at him with eyebrows raised high.

"After a fashion? Either you heard him or you did not hear him.

Please elucidate."

"I heard what I think to be a re-creation of his voice.

Analogues of his words, if you like. I suspect that when he spoke, his words were piped into a trans vocalizing machine, broken into digits, then re-formed into new sounds, with dials set to eliminate lilt, adjust the pacing, then alter timbre, pitch and overtones. In the end the voice had no more character than a video-cell reading a printed page. And still it made a connection in my head. I'm convinced that I've heard that voice before."

"Very well," said Bodwyn Wook.

"So much for the voice. Now, then: tell us what happened."

Scharde described his experiences.

"Somebody made a mistake and Zamian managed to transmit a few words of information.

He said, quite clearly: "When he came back I saw his fur.

But no head."" "Ha!" Bodwyn Wook struck the table with his hand.

"So we can't simply disregard Ysel Laverty's work, after all!"

"True. We can also deduce that the man was not Namour, whom Zamian naturally knew well and had no reason to protect, so far as I know. Zamian was dying and in shock. Nothing he said can be trusted completely. As for the phrase 'but no head'--I would guess that the murderer took off the head to his costume, if only to drive the truck more easily. There's room for speculation here, but personally, I don't feel it's worth the effort."

Bodwyn Wook looked around the table.

"Captain Rune Offaw,

what is your news? You are suspiciously serene, and I detect in you that rather tiresome suggestion of omniscience which over the years has vitiated the popularity of the Offaws."

"It is comparison with the Wooks which makes the Offaws seem so effortlessly able. Still, in the case at hand, I believe that I can at least provide an iota of progress, and at best nip up our criminal by the heels."

"That is cheerful stuff indeed! Well, then; what do the cameras tell us? Did Namour 'tread measure after measure of dreamy delight' with Dame Spanchetta as he claims, or did he pursue 'pleasures more ghastsome and dire'? In short: is he guilty of this one crime? Or, as is more likely, "half guilty of twenty others?"

"In this case, at least, Namour seems safely in the clear," said Rune Offaw.

"Without shame he treads the measures and twirls Spanchetta this way and that with reckless aplomb.

Not for the whole three hours, of course, but well past the critical time. Strike Namour from the list, fibers or no fibers. The same tiresome pattern applies across the board.

Everyone even remotely under suspicion is shown doing what he claims he was doing.

"Except in one case. Yesterday, a mixture of diligence and luck yielded a significant fact." (The "luck" was Glawen's insistence that Miranda report her findings to Rune Offaw.