Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

STRANGE often, he was well aware, but if he solved this case com- pletely it might happen to him. State willing. The two men he had brought with him were reasonably intelligent officers, but they were also tall, of stern appearance and of mas- sive build. The strength be- hind the smile; the fist within the glove; the latent force of the State, ever ready to swing. into action should politeness and consideration fail. He himself, of course, was politeness and ‘consideration. ““Mrs. Jaksn,”’ he said sofily, dropping his gaze. “I quite realise what a shock this must be for you. I expect you’re quite well aware that there hasn’t been a suicide, as I said, for more than fifty years. Nor a murder for that matter. A Class One anti-State felony, we thought, had become a _thing of the past.’’ He looked up suddenly, smiling to re- assure her. “We want to try to keep it a thing of the past.”’ A person well-acquainted with Over-Inspector Kristoff might easily have been amazed—had they heard him 31 _ voice, SUICIDE speaking now—at the mellow- ness and resonance of his for it had a tonal quality normally quite lacking from his speech. And this was part of Kristofr’s plan. An hour before he had found Mrs. Jaksn’s personal ManUl —a woman gamed Grlmz—_ and had had her psycho probed in order to find out as much as possible about the late doctor’s widow. He had discovered more about her than—he was certain—would have. been possible had he interviewed Jaksn himself. He knew the colours she liked, the scents, the activities, the type of people, the type of conversation. He learned which actors in the Sensory Houses stirred her most and which books she most fre- quently viewed on the auto- scanner while resting from her painting. Twenty minutes after the completion of the psycho- probing and the final installa- tion of a psychoblok in the GrImz woman’s mind, Kris- tofr stepped out of the Scot- yard surgery—but it was a different Kristofr. It was a fuller-faced, darker-haired comicloooks.conn