Myth 08 – Myth-Nomers by Aspirin, Robert

There was a long silence beyond the lights.

“You’re denying having had any contact with the witness?

I take “it you recognize his voice.”

“That’s a rather transparent catch question. Captain,” I

laughed. “If I admit to recognizing his voice, then at the

same time I’m admitting to having had contact with him.

Right?”

I was starting to actually enjoy myself.

“As a matter of fact, I’m willing to admit I’ve had dealings

with your witness there. Also with the doorman and bellhop,

as well as the other people you’ve dragged in to identify

me. I was just questioning the validity of your procedure.

It seems to me that you’re putting yourself and everyone

else through a lot of trouble that, by itself, won’t yield any

usable results. If you want information about me and my

movements, why don’t you just ask me directly instead of

going through all this foolishness?”

The floodlights went out suddenly, leaving me even more

blinded than when they had been on.

“All right. Mister Skeeve. We’ll try it your way. If you’ll

be so good as to follow me down to one of our ‘interview’

rooms?”

Even “trying it my way” was more hassle than I expected

or liked. True, I was out from in front of the floodlights,

but there were enough people crowded into the small “inter-

view room” to make me feel like I was still on exhibition.

“Really, Captain,” I said, sweeping the small crowd

with my eyes. “Is all this really necessary?”

“As a matter of fact, it is,” he retorted. “I want to have

witnesses to everything you say as well as a transcript of