"We got the word a while ago from Delaware by teletype. Clarens has
three good lawyers fighting an appeal from the conviction on every
grounds you can think of, including that the confession was beaten out
of him.
"That's why I hope he wants to fight when I catch up with him, and
that's what Delaware hopes, too.
"But here comes Dr. Thornberry, General Mosby. Let's ask him why
Clarens hides so well when he says he wants to be caught."
Thornberry pursed his lips so tightly that his face became a skull's
head, then he answered.
"In some areas of human behavior...." he began.
"Dalton," Bennington interrupted, "does he make a game out of getting
away when he's caught?"
Thornberry's face became almost human with a big smile. "Oh, yes,
obviously."
"Could that energy he puts into escaping be channeled, led,
educated--in some way--to constructive thinking? Put it this way:
could Dalton be led to thinking about making a jail escape-proof?"
"A most excellent therapy," and Thornberry was actually beaming.
"General Bennington, I am beginning to have great hopes for our work
together as we start to see more and more eye to eye."
"Let's go back to Clarens," Bennington said. "Son of wealthy parents,
a good education, the only child in a family who seemed to have
everything, including parents who loved both each other and the
child--why does he kill, ask to be caught, and then hide so well?
"What therapy does your science have for him, Dr. Thornberry?"
Thornberry's lip-pursing again made his face a skeleton's.
"There are areas of human behavior--"
* * * * *
Bennington observed that Scott and Mosby had turned away from the
conversation to the immediacies of patrol distribution. Scott was
being eloquent on how lighting cut down crime and Mosby was analyzing
the idea in terms of house-to-house combat at night under
slow-dropping flares.
For further insurance of privacy, Bennington pulled Thornberry into
the corner of the room most removed from the others.
"Doctor, let's forget about Clarens for a moment. I want to talk about
Judkins."
"Yes, general."
"How did you hypnotize him? And don't hand me any of that stuff about
him being sensitive because of his job."
Thornberry smiled. "You've seen too many conditioned men, and in a way
I'm surprised that I got past Chief Scott with my ... General Mosby
should have been more alert, too.
"You're right, it was his skin, not his job."
"I'm still puzzled."
"I won't go into the physical structure of the man, his character as
revealed by his choice of profession, and so on. Briefly, he is
hyper-sensitive to the thought of physical pain, that's all. So I gave
him a simple choice. Talk to us in such a way that what he said could
never be used against him, or go for a ride with you, Chief Scott, and
General Mosby.
"This is very odd, a fact I must further check into, that your name
frightened him most."
"_You_ threatened someone with violence!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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