"Next, let's get something straight. What are you doing here? How did you get away from the robots I set over you?"
Daneel said, "It had seemed to me that you would be displeased at this development and yet in the interests of your safety and of my orders, I felt that I had no choice but - "
"What did you do? Jehoshaphat!"
"It seems Mrs. Delmarre attempted to view you some hours ago."
"Yes." Baley remembered Gladia saying as much earlier in the day. "I know that."
"Your order to the robots that held me prisoner was, in your words: 'Do not allow him' (meaning myself) 'to establish contact with other humans or other robots, either by seeing or by viewing.' However, Partner Elijah, you said nothing about forbidding other humans or robots to contact me. You see the distinction?"
Baley groaned.
Daneel said, "No need for distress, Partner Elijah. The flaw in your orders was instrumental in saving your life, since it brought me to the scene. You see, when Mrs. Delmarre viewed me, being allowed to do so by my robot guardians, she asked after you and I answered, quite truthfully, that I did not know of your whereabouts, but that I could attempt to find out. She seemed anxious that I do so. I said I thought it possible you might have left the house temporarily and that I would check that matter and would she, in the meanwhile, order the robots in the room with me, to search the mansion for your presence."
"Wasn't she surprised that you didn't deliver the orders to the robots yourself?"
"I gave her the impression, I believe, that as an Auroran I was not as accustomed to robots as she was; that she might deliver the orders with greater authority and effect a more speedy consummation. Solarians, it is quite clear, are vain of their skill with robots and contemptuous of the ability of natives of other planets to handle them. Is that not your opinion as well, Partner Elijah?"
"And she ordered them away, then?"
"With difficulty. They protested previous orders but, of course, could not state the nature thereof since you had ordered them to tell no one of my own true identity. She overrode them, although the final orders had to be thrilled out in fury."
"And then you left."
"I did, Partner Elijah."
A pity, thought Baley, that Gladia did not consider that episode important enough to relay to him when he viewed her. He said, "It took you long enough to find me, Daneel."
"The robots on Solaria have a network of information through subetheric contact. A skilled Solarian could obtain information readily, but, mediated as it is through millions of individual machines, one such as myself, without experience in the matter, must take time to unearth a single datum. It was better than an hour before the information as to your whereabouts reached me. I lost further
time by visiting Dr. Delmarre's place of business after you had departed."
"What were you doing there?"
"Pursuing researches of my own. I regret that this had to be done in your absence, but the exigencies of the investigation left me no choice."
Baley said, "Did you view Kiorissa Cantoro, or see her?"
"I viewed her, but from another part of her building, not from our own estate. There were records at the farm I had to see. Ordinarily viewing would have been sufficient, but it might have been inconvenient to remain on our own estate since three robots knew my real nature and might easily have imprisoned me once more."
Baley felt almost well. He swung his legs out of bed and found himself in a kind of nightgown. He stared at it with distaste. "Get me my clothes."
Daneel did so.
As Baley dressed, he said, "Where's Mrs. Delmarre?"
"Under house arrest, Partner Elijah."
"What? By whose order?"
"By my order. She is confined to her bedroom under robotic guard and her right to give orders other than to meet personal needs has been neutralized."
"By yourself?"
"The robots on this estate are not aware of my identity."
Baley finished dressing. "I know the case against Gladia," he said. "She had the opportunity; more of it, in fact, than we thought at first. She did not rush to the scene at the sound of her husband's cry, as she first said. She was there all along."
"Does she claim to have witnessed the murder and seen the murderer?"
"No. She remembers nothing of the crucial moments. That happens sometimes. It turns out, also, that she has a motive."
"What was it, Partner Elijah?"
"One that I had suspected as a possibility from the first. I said to myself, if this were Earth, and Dr. Delmarre were as he was described to be and Gladia Delmarre as she seemed to be, I would say that she was in love with him, or had been, and that he was in love only with himself. The difficulty was to tell whether Solarians felt love or reacted to love in any Earthly sense. My judgment as to their
emotions and reactions wasn't to be trusted. It was why I had to see a few. Not view them, but see them."
"I do not follow you, Partner Elijah."
"I don't know if I can explain it to you. These people have their gene possibilities carefully plotted before birth and the actual gene distribution tested after birth."
"I know that."
"But genes aren't everything. Environment counts too, and environment can bend into actual psychosis where genes indicate only a potentiality for a particular psychosis. Did you notice Gladia's interest in Earth?"
"I remarked upon it, Partner Elijah, and considered it an assumed interest designed to influence your opinions."