"Martin H. Greenberg & Mark Tier - Visions of Liberty" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

want?"

"I want to hear all about the murder of Douglas Vaisey by Roger Lefory."

"Never heard of either of them," the man with the black beard said. "What's that got to do with us?"

"Walt is a newcomer," the man with the drooping mustache explained to Dantler. "The murder happened
before his time. I thought all that was dead history."

"Murders are never dead history."

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Dantler said. "By the way, who are you?"

"Kit Grumery. I'm the claim owner here. Everything I know about that murder won't take long to tell.
My men work on shares, see. They get fed but nothing fancy. They make their own sleeping
arrangements. Beyond that, whatever the ore smelts down to is divided into shares. It's hard work and
poor pay, but we all hope to hit a mother lode and get rich. Lefory and Vaisey were working for the
Laughingstock, and they came here taking a gamble on sharing in something big. Dougie was a nice kid, a
good worker. Lefory was a loafer. He took so many breaks it sometimes was hard to say whether he
was working or not, and he had a hell of a temper. He and Dougie got in an argument over Lefory not
doing his fair share, and Lefory charged at him and brained him with a hand ax. Killed him instantly.
That's all there was to it."
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"Not quite all," Dantler said. "What did you do then?"

"Did what I always do when a worker is killed. Mining is dangerous work. Death doesn't happen often,
but it does happen, and there's a procedure to follow. We buried Dougie—I can show you his grave if
you like. Regulations don't call for it, but we held a bit of a ceremony for him. Shorty Klein—he's
working further up the mountain today—has an old Bible, and he read a couple of passages and did a
prayer, and I carved a marker for Dougie's grave myself. As I said, he was a nice kid, and I liked him.
That's all, except that I also took care of the paperwork."

"What sort of paperwork?"

"Every death has to be reported to the Llayless Record Section. It insists on knowing who's still on the
planet. I also figured what Dougie had coming from his work share, and I filled out the form the Record
Section requires and sent it down to Pummery along with a voucher for the money due Dougie and the
few trifles of personal effects he owned. The Record Section is supposed to cash in a dead man's return
ticket and put the amount received with the other assets the man had. Everyone arriving here has to place
on file a fully paid return ticket to the world he came from or they won't let him off the ship."

"I know about that," Dantler said. "I suppose it's sort of a guarantee he won't become a public charge."

"Right. Records is supposed to cash the return ticket and send the money along with all of his other