Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
The suspects against whom nothing could be proved were released and
kept under surveillance. Pol Akkra, and all the proved Naturists, were
sentenced to prefrontal lobotomies. Margret Akkra, in return for her
help in solving the mystery, secured permission to take her father home
with her. A purged and docile man, he was quite capable of the routine
duties of housekeeping.
The killing of Madolin Akkra was solved. But one question remained: how
and why had she been in Central Park at all?
The answer, when it came, was surprising and embarrassingly simple. And
this is the part that has never been told before.
Pol Akkra, a mere simulacrum of the man he had been, no longer knew
his living daughter or remembered his dead one. But in the recesses
of his invaded brain some faint vestiges of the past lingered, and
occasionally and unexpectedly swam up to his dreamlike consciousness.
One day he said suddenly: "Didn't I once know a girl named Madolin?"
"Yes, father," Margret answered gently, tears in her eyes.
"Funny about her." He laughed his ghastly Zombie chuckle. "I _told_ her
that was a foolish idea, even if it was good Nat--Nat-something theory."
"What idea was that?"
"I--I've forgotten," he said vaguely. Then he brightened. "Oh, yes, I
remember. Stand barefoot in fresh soil for an hour in the light of the
full moon and you'll never catch cold again.
"She was subject to colds, I think." (About the only disease left we
have as yet no cure for.) He sighed. "I wonder if she ever tried it."
THE END
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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