"Okay, I guess you wouldn't--in 2839. The language would change plenty in 886 years." Once more her laugh rang out. "I'll say you keep it up fine--that funny half-foreign way you pronounce your words. But I'll play along, and pretend this is all on the up-and-up. Even so, it's haywire--crazy. Because the dumbest cop in the world wouldn't suspect you of the murder. Anybody'd know the murderer just got rid of the knife the quickest way he could. Gosh, you were behind your window, weren't you, and she was in front of it? Where was her stab wound?" "Wait--it's hard for me to understand. 'Cop'--is that slang for police? And the blood"--he shuddered--"came from her side. Either someone in front or someone behind her could have done it." "But they'll find out right away, won't they, that you didn't know the girl? They'll find out who she was, and they'll grill everybody she knew, to see who had a reason for wanting her out of the way.... Listen to me! I'm as big a nut as you are. I'm talking just as if the whole thing really happened." "It did happen," Mikel assured her earnestly. "No, I didn't know her. I don't know any girls at all. I'm--I'm not attractive to women." "Why, you're not so bad," said the girl kindly. "I think you're kind of cute--or would be, if you weren't rigged up in those outlandish clothes," she paused, then continued, "Well, if you can prove you didn't know her, what have you got to worry about?" "The knife. And that I lost my head and ran." * * * * * The girl nodded. "Leave the knife here, then. Or would that change the course of history?" She smiled. "Of course, what you ought to have done was hand it right over. Then if it was such a great antique they'd not only have the guy's fingerprints but they'd also find out who knew her that worked in a museum or had a chance to steal it from one. That's elementary homicide procedure." "You see," said Mikel, "this also you won't believe. But our police are not conditioned to take care of killings. This is the first time in my whole life that I have ever even heard of one, except by accident. The psychologists wouldn't allow anyone to grow up who had murderous tendencies that couldn't be sublimated." "They let that one slip by them, didn't they? And do you mean that in the great scientific future they tell us about, the police won't know as much about handling a homicide case as any hick constable knows today? Who're you trying to kid?" "We do not have crime. The police are to guard traffic and to take up for reconditioning anybody who doesn't obey the civil rules. I don't know much history, but I know there once were wars, and then there were experts in war. Now--in my time--we have no wars, so there are no experts. In the same way we have no experts in crime." "Then what would they do to you, if they did convict you of this murder you didn't commit?"