“Gets chilly in this part of the world,” he said. He moved to help me off with my jacket, collected Alex’s coat, hung them in a closet, and threw another log on the fire.
I could smell the coffee. We heard water running, and a refrigerator door opened and closed.
The interior was unadorned, except for two pictures, and a framed certificate acknowledging Conover’s services to the National Historical Association. One picture was of himself and Lyra, taken in younger days. And the second was of an attractive young woman who might have been Lyra at about twenty. It caught Alex’s eye also. “She’s beautiful,” he said.
Conover nodded. “My daughter.” Brown hair, brown eyes, a good smile. I had a teacher once who said that the right sort of smile was all you needed to carry you successfully through life. If there were any truth to it, Conover’s daughter was loaded for bear.
She lived on Toxicon, he explained. Had met a banker, and the next thing he knew, she was gone. He was clearly not pleased with the match, and I thought it seemed out of place to share that kind of intimate information with strangers. Then I remembered where he was living.
“That can be painful,” Alex said. “But you didn’t expect her to stay here, did you?”
“No,” he said. “Of course not. And I know I’d have lost her anyway. When we told her we were coming here, she let us know how she felt. She was just out of school at the time, and it was a price we had to pay. Didn’t we, love?”
Lyra was back in the room, with coffee and some warm cinnamon buns. She nodded yes. And her eyes told me it wasn’t her favorite subject.
“She has a big family now,” said Conover. He crossed his arms and waited for the next question.
“We were dubious at first about coming here,” she said. “But Banshee has really been a remarkable experience. Hasn’t it, Hugh?”
“It was her idea,” he said. “But you don’t care about that.” He sat back. Tried his coffee. “So tell me again why you’re here. What did you want to know?”
“You were a friend of Sunset Tuttle’s?”
“Ahhh.” He nodded. “Yes. Poor Sunset. Spent his life chasing a dream. Which isn’t that bad if—” He hesitated.
“You succeed,” Alex said.
“Yes. What a pity.”
“Tell me about him.”
“He was a driven man.”
“So we’ve heard.”
“What you heard was the aliens, right?”
“Yes. Is there something else?”
“Oh, yes. He was convinced that the human race was going to hell.” He pressed his index finger to his lips, reluctant, perhaps, to say more. “You know about that, too?”
“It’s on the record,” Alex said.
“Yeah. I guess it is. And I’m not sure he wasn’t right.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The general decadence. Or maybe that’s not really correct. The truth is that we’ve always been greedy and stupid. We have no imagination, and the only reason we’ve survived this long is that we produce just enough smart people to keep us going.”
Alex nodded. “Let’s get back to the aliens. Is there any indication that you know of that he might actually have found an alien world?”
Conover took a long pull at the coffee. “No,” he said.
“He would have told you if he’d found something?”
“Alex, he’d have told the world.”
“What about—?”
“Yes?”
“What about if he found something that might have been a threat? That would have been better left undiscovered?”
“Like what?”
“Maybe highly advanced aliens who wanted to be left alone?”
“That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think?”
“Would he have told you about them?”
Conover’s lips parted in a grin that suggested he’d never considered the possibility. “Let me say this: If he’d confided in anyone, I think it would have been me. But to answer your question, I suspect he would have felt compelled to remain silent.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
“Please call me Hugh.” He cleared his throat. “Are you suggesting such a thing happened?”
“No,” said Alex. “It’s only a hypothetical.”
“Yet it’s a hypothetical that brought you all the way out here.”
“After Tuttle’s death, Hugh, his logbook became your property.”
“That’s correct.”
“May I ask why?”
“Because he and I were essentially dedicated to the same cause. Although he took it far more seriously than I did. I never expected success. He did. It’s why he got into trouble.”
“Would you be willing to show us the logs?”
“I’d be happy to, Alex. Unfortunately, I don’t have them any longer. Our house was hit by burglars two or three days after I obtained them. They tried to disguise the purpose for the burglary by stealing a few items, some jewelry, and a few dishes. But I’ve always thought they were after the logs.”
“You never loaded them into the system?”
“Part of the deal was that I would not do that. He didn’t trust the security measures. He was afraid someone would get access.”
“What difference does it make if there’s nothing in the logs except reports of sterile worlds?”
Conover leaned forward and pushed his unruly hair back out of his eyes. “I don’t know. I wrote it off as an aberration.”
“Was Tuttle a guy who might have made unreasonable demands?”
“Not usually, no.”
“Okay, Hugh, one last thing: Did you get a chance to read through them yourself?”
“No. A few of them. But I was just beginning when they disappeared.”
“And you saw nothing out of the ordinary?”
He sank back into his chair. “Not a thing. It was just a record of failure. Like what I was going through.”
“Who else knew you had the logs?”
“I don’t know. Could have been anybody, I guess. I didn’t make an effort to keep it secret.”
Lyra smiled. Said nothing.
We sat listening to the fire.
“He’s been dead a long time now,” Conover said. “Maybe it doesn’t make any difference anymore.”
“Hugh, did you know Rachel Bannister?”
“Sure. Nice woman.” He smiled at Lyra. “Not at your level, love. But she was pretty good.”
Lyra smiled and rolled her eyes.
“What can you tell me about her?” Alex asked.
“Well, Sunset was in love with her.”
“Was she in love with him?”
“I thought so. Yes.”
“They never married.”
“He’d been married several times when they met. I think she just recognized he wasn’t a good bet for a marriage. She was conflicted about it. I saw her in tears a couple of times, but she was a tough woman, and I think she just realized that marrying him would ultimately turn into a disaster. Still, though, I suspect, had he lived, they would eventually have done it.”
“One more question, Hugh.”
“Sure.”
Alex fished the photos of the tablet out of his pocket and handed them over. “Have you ever seen this?”
Conover examined them. Shook his head no. Passed them to Lyra. “What is it?”
“It was found in the garden at Tuttle’s house. Basil told us he had seen it originally in a cabinet in his office. Tuttle’s office.”
“No, I can’t say I’ve ever seen it before.”
“We can’t match the symbols with any known human system.”