die. That heâhe wasnât any longer valuable. To himself. That for somebody to kill him would beâwhatâs the long word?â
âEuthanasia. No, I doubt it, Pam. Andâit would have been a dirty trick. Jamey didnât play dirty tricks.â
âOh,â Pam said, âheâd leave a record of some sort, exonerating whoever did it. Becauseâthat would be the point, wouldnât it? Of the final experiment? To prove that, under certain circumstancesâvery special circumstancesâa person who had been hypnotized could be told to kill?â
Jerry doubted several thingsâone, that any explanation Jamey might leave behind would, legally, exonerate the person who killed him. Twoâthat anyone, most of all Jameson Elwell, would think the point important enough for so drastic a proof. Threeâthat it would have worked anyway.
ââHold then my sword and turn away thy face,
  âWhile I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?â
and Strato did, as I remember it.â
âBut before that somebodyâI forget whoâhad said, âNot on your life.â Saidâwait a minuteââThatâs not an office for a friend, my lord.ââ Jerry spoke with some triumph.
âIt could be,â Pam said, âthat Strato was the better friend, my lord. My GodâIâm beginning to talk like Shakespeare.â
Blank verse, Jerry told her, is infectious. It happens even to writers of proseâunwary writers of prose.
âAll right, Pam said. âWhat I said can still be true. Andâthe more somebody loved Jamey, the more likely he would be toâto do what Jamey wanted. Save him fromâfrom long pain. Pain without hope.â
âI doubtââ Jerry said, and stopped. âAll right,â he said. âI still donât believe it. Iâll admitââ He stopped again. âDamn,â Jerry said, in a tone aggrieved. âHe would have left a statement,â he said.
âOf course. In his files. Orâ Jerry. Perhaps he made it orallyâon the tape recorder andâand somebody wiped it off! Or whatever you do to a tape.â
âYou can,â Jerry said, âthink of the damnedest things.â He said if not without admiration. He ground out his cigarette and at once lighted a fresh one, having, it occurred to him, thought of a damnedest thing himself.
âSuppose this,â he said. âSuppose somebodyâanybody you like; this man Hunter for exampleâkilled Elwell, just in the ordinary course of events. Andââ
â Jerry! â Pam said. âThe ordinary courseââ
âSsh,â Jerry said. âYouâve had your supposes. This man doesnât want to be caught. Butâsuppose he is. With overpowering evidence against him. He says it certainly looks bad but he doesnât remember anything about it. And thenââIf I did it, it was because heâd hypnotized me and made me do it, and I can prove that he did hypnotize me often and once made me break a clock.â I donât know whether it would get him off entirely, but if he could make it stick it would beâwell, an extenuating circumstance, at the least.â
He looked at Pam, who nodded, who said, âThatâs a very good suppose, dear,â but seemed to be thinking of something elseâsomething that smudged the clarity of her mobile face. He waited.
âFaith Oldham loved him,â Pam said, slowly. âWe both felt thatâas a girl might love a father. A very good fatherâa wise father. I think she might have done almost anything he asked, feeling he knew best. AndâI wonder if he ever hypnotized her, Jerry? And ifââ
Her clear voice faltered a little.
âI hope it isnât that way,â Pam North said. âWill you get me a phenobarbital, Jerry?â
Bill Weigand got to his office at a little before nine
Nina Lane
Neil Jordan
Plum Johnson
Eve Langlais
Natalie Palmer
Lillian Beckwith
Lizzie Hart Stevens
Gretchen Galway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
S.K. Logsdon