Washington rushed through clearance for the local officers and the inquest was held three days later. The coroner proved to be a shrewd country doctor, who had the inquest adjourned to the computer room as soon as he heard MacKinney's ideas about Edith. The security guards on duty the night of the murder testified that only MacKinney, Thompson, Ballard and I had had access to the computer room; and it had already been established that it would have been impossible for a spy or foreign agent to have slipped into the heavily guarded room. It was clearly an inside job. With all of us at the scene of the crime, the coroner summed it up for us. "--and since it could not have been the work of an outsider, it must have been a crime of a private nature." He looked closely at Thompson, MacKinney and me. "A crime of a private nature with the motive either revenge, jealousy or ambition. We know that the victim was an over-bearing man with a good many unpleasant traits. We know he was a man who forced his attentions on women, who was ill-tempered and abusive to those who worked with him. A man who had many enemies--but there were only three people who had the chance to attack him on this particular night. "I am going to attempt to establish the identity of the killer by the unusual procedure of questioning a machine. It will be for later courts to establish the validity of such testimony. Because of the nature of this case and because of the urgent need to get this computer back to its proper work, I am going to ask the questions in a more direct manner than I would ordinarily employ." MacKinney took his place before Edith. They didn't even trust me to feed the tapes into her under their very eyes. "Mr. Thompson, I object to the use of this delicate piece of equipment in--" They ignored me, and MacKinney punched out the questions the coroner asked: "Do you know who murdered Dr. Ballard?" There was a pause. Edith blinked several times. I was shaking with apprehension for her. A mind so delicate and noble should not be faced with such a dilemma. _Yes, she typed back._ "Did you witness the murder?" There was a longer pause this time. "You must answer the question," MacKinney reminded her. _I was here._ "Is it true that you do not lose your perceptive qualities when we turn you off?" MacKinney asked this on his own. _It is true._ "We might as well get to the heart of the matter," the coroner said. "Did Mr. Thompson kill Ballard?" Edith clicked and her eyes glowed. _No._ "Did Mr. MacKinney kill Ballard?" _No._ Edith had to tell the truth ... it was an innate part of her personality. I tensed in my seat. I wanted to scream, to leap at MacKinney and prevent, somehow, the asking of the next question. But there wasn't a chance. "Did Mr. Green kill Dr. Ballard?"