"Did he tell you so, Gladia?"
"Toward the end, Elijah. I think he grew impatient. Anyway, he asked me if I didn't think it would be exciting to work in robotics. Naturally, I told him I could think of nothing duller. He was quite angry."
"And he never walked with you again after that."
She said, "You know, I think that may have been it. I suppose his feelings were hurt. Really, though, what could I do?"
"It was before that, though, that you told him about your quarrels with Dr. Delmarre."
Her hands became fists and held so in a tight spasm. Her body
held stiffly to its position, head bent and a little to one side. Her voice was unnaturally high. "What quarrels?"
"Your quarrels with your husband. I understand you hated him." Her face was distorted and blotched as she glared at him. "Who told you that? Jothan?"
"Dr. Leebig mentioned it. I think it's true."
She was shaken. "You're still trying to prove I killed him. I keep thinking you're my friend and you're only - only a detective."
She raised her fists and Baley waited.
He said, "You know you can't touch me."
Her hands dropped and she began crying without a sound. She turned her head away.
Baley bent his own head and closed his eyes, shutting out the disturbing long shadows. He said, "Dr. Delmarre was not a very affectionate man, was he?"
She said in a strangled way, "He was a very busy man."
Baley said, "You are affectionate, on the other hand. You find a man interesting. Do you understand?"
"I c-can't help it. I know it's disgusting, but I can't help it. It's even disgusting t-to talk about it."
"You did talk about it to Dr. Leebig, though?"
"I had to do something and Jothan was handy and he didn't seem to mind and it made me feel better."
"Was this the reason you quarreled with your husband? Was it that he was cold and unaffectionate and you resented it?"
"Sometimes I hated him." She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "He was just a good Solarian and we weren't scheduled for ch - for ch - " She broke down.
Baley waited. His own stomach was cold and open air pressed down heavily upon him. When Gladia's sobs grew quieter, he asked, as gently as he could, "Did you kill him, Gladia?"
"N-no." Then, suddenly, as though all resistance had corroded within her: "I haven't told you everything."
"Well, then, please do so now."
"We were quarreling that time, the time he died. The old quarrel.
I screamed at him but he never shouted back. He hardly ever even
said anything and that just made it worse. I was so angry, so angry.
I don't remember after that."
"Jehoshaphat!" Baley swayed slightly and his eyes sought the
neutral stone of the bench. "What do you mean you don't remember?"
"I mean he was dead and I was screaming and the robots came - "
"Did you kill him?"
"I don't remember it, Elijah, and I would remember it if I did, wouldn't I? Only I don't remember anything else, either, and I've been so frightened, so frightened. Help me, please, Elijah."
"Don't worry, Gladia. I'll help you." Baley's reeling mind fastened on the murder weapon. What happened to it? It must have been removed. If so, only the murderer could have done it. Since Gladia was found immediately after the murder on the scene, she could not have done it. The murderer would have to be someone else. No matter how it looked to everyone on Solaria, it had to be someone else.
Baley thought sickly: I've got to get back to the house.
He said, "Gladia - "
Somehow he was staring at the sun. It was nearly at the horizon. He had to turn his head to look at it and his eyes locked with a morbid fascination. He had never seen it so. Fat, red, and dim somehow, so that one could look at it without blinding, arid see the bleeding clouds above it in thin lines, with one crossing it in a bar of black.
Baley mumbled, "The sun is so red."
He heard Gladia's choked voice say drearily, "It's always red at sunset, red and dying."
Baley had a vision. The sun was moving down to the horizon because the planet's surface was moving away from it, a thousand miles an hour, spinning under that naked sun, spinning with nothing to guard the microbes called men that scurried over its spinning surface, spinning madly forever, spinning - spinning...
It was his head that was spinning and the stone bench that was slanting beneath him and the sky heaving, blue, dark blue, and the sun was gone, with the tops of trees and the ground rushing up and Gladia screaming thinly and another sound...
16. A SOLUTION IS OFFERED
Baley was aware first of enclosure, the absence of the open, and then of a face bending over him.
He stared for a moment without recognition. Then: "Daneel"
The robot's face showed no sign of relief or of any other recognizable emotion at being addressed. He said, "It is well that you have recovered consciousness, Partner Elijah. I do not believe you have suffered physical injury."
"I'm all right," said Baley testily, struggling to his elbows. "Jehoshaphat, am I in bed? What for?"
"You have been exposed to the open a number of times today. The effects upon you have been cumulative and you need rest."
"I need a few answers first." Baley looked about and tried to deny to himself that his head was spinning just a little. He did not recognize the room. The curtains were drawn. Lights were comfortably artificial. He was feeling much better. "For instance, where am I?"
"In a room of Mrs. Delmarre's mansion."