Only 30 days after turning up a severed leg in a Downtown alley, police have unearthed a second leg Downtown. The two legs are from two victims, according to the medical examiner. ‘Each is a woman’s left leg, amputated at the knee,’ he said, ‘possibly with an electric carving knife. Both legs were removed after death.’
The first limb turned up in an alley off Junipero Serra Place. The leg was wrapped in newspaper and dropped in a garbage can at the rear of Danton’s Doggie Dinette. Wendell Danton, the proprietor, said, ‘Someone is out to get us, but it won’t work. All the meat used in our canine cuisine is genuine U.S. Government inspected Choice or Prime cuts. I have the receipts to prove it. My kitchen is always open, and anyone is welcome to look it over, anytime.’ Police agree that it is unlikely the leg came from Danton’s.
Today a second grisly package was found in a litter basket on Xavier Avenue, near the newly-opened cat boutique, Pussbutton.
Former poet A.L. Bright, picked up for questioning in an alley where he was drinking wine, admits being in the vicinity of both legs, but claims he does not remember murdering anyone. Police say Bright fits an exact description of the ‘Lucky Legs’ killer, given by a Danton’s dishwasher.
A door opened and a tall, untidy man blundered in. He was all out of proportion, like a child’s drawing: arms and legs too long for his thin body, head too heavy for his thin neck, face too big for his head, hair a dark 6B scribble.
‘You’re my lawyer?’
‘Don’t you know if I’m your lawyer?’
‘I don’t — sometimes things surprise me. They feed me a lot of uh medication.’
Roderick was a little disappointed. ‘Are you Dan Sonnenschein?’
‘Yes. And you’re my lawyer.’
‘No, I just said that to get in. See it’s very hard to get in to see you. Like you were in prison. I’m not your lawyer I’m your — I’m Roderick.’
‘Well for lunch we had, I remember that okay, we had hot roast beef sandwich, salad with thousand island, banana cream pie.’ He looked at Roderick. ‘Didn’t we?’
‘Maybe you did. Dan, I’m Roderick. You created me, remember?’
‘Look, I’m having a hard enough time remembering what I had for lunch.’
They sat there in silence for some time, staring at the black-and-white tiles of the floor. Now and then the old man could be heard laughing quietly at Mondrian.
Roderick was very disappointed. So this was Dan? This was the genius who first thought of him?
‘So you’re not my lawyer?’
‘For the last time, no. I’m Roderick. I’m the robot you spent four years building, remember? And then finally you sent me to live with Ma and Pa Wood? Your stepfather and stepmother? They raised you, you must remember them!’
‘Yeah, maybe.’
‘And when you sent me to them I was just a little lumpy machine on tank treads. But Pa Wood got all these parts from the artificial limb factory and rebuilt me like this. So when I came to the city I thought I’d look you up.’
‘Why?’
‘Why? Well like just I guess maybe — how do I know? Okay you think I shouldn’t have come. Okay I made a wrong decigeon — decision. I just thought you might want to see how I turned out. I thought we might get to be pals or something. I thought when you got out I could help you with your work.’
‘My work!’ Dan blinked. ‘My work got me in here. You know how I got in here?’
‘No.’
‘I had this idea there were people after me. Very high up conspiracy, see, to prevent anybody ever building a robot. So I was very careful,
‘No.’
Dan held up a finger; Roderick noticed how badly bitten the nail was. ‘Since I was working for a University project, those notes were not my property. I was destroying University of Minnetonka property. And this property might be worth billions and billions — if I really had built a robot. So that was a very antisocial act, so they put me in here.’
‘To cure you?’
‘No, to keep me from building any more robots. And to find out if I really have built one already.’
Roderick said, ‘I don’t understand. They want the robot because it’s worth billions, but they don’t want you to build it?’
‘Look, I know all this is confusing.’ Dan started to chew an already dilapidated fingernail. ‘What I mean is, the University people own any robot built using their money. But somebody a lot higher up wants to put a stop to all robots. Don’t ask me why — a paranoid schizophrenic doesn’t have to give reasons for the plots against him. I’m nuts, see? Or if I’m not, the world is so dangerous that I’d still rather be treated like a harmless nut.’
‘I’ll get you out of here, Dan. You’re not nuts.’
‘Why should I leave here? Here is as good as anywhere, now. And safer.’ He stopped chewing the nail and looked at it. ‘I tried leaving for awhile. I got a nice little crummy job, a nice little crummy apartment. But right away people started following me. A car tried to run me down. My apartment had this fire.’ He folded his hands. ‘Here is safer. Here they can watch me, so they don’t have to destroy me.’
‘Okay then I’ll visit you all the time.’
‘No. It isn’t safe for you, either. If you are Roderick, they must be looking for you. Better stay away.’
‘Can I at least send you something? Books? Food?’
Dan hesitated. ‘Peanut butter. For some reason, they never let you have enough peanut butter around here.’
The door slammed open and a nurse marched in. Her cap was folded left over right. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Wood, but there’s been some kind of mix-up. Mr Sonnenschein isn’t supposed to have any visitors at all. You’d better leave, right now. Come on, Mr Sonnenschein, I’ll get you back to bed.’ Though Dan made no resistance, Roderick noticed how she took a firm grip, one hand on his wrist, one on his elbow.
‘But I’m his lawyer.’
‘No you’re not,’ she shouted back. ‘We’ve phoned his lawyer and he never heard of you. You’d better leave!’
Roderick stood a moment, watching the old man, who was weeping over
‘God damn it,’ said Roderick, and put on his red stocking-cap.
‘God damn it is right,’ said the man seated before the monitor. ‘We lost the whole damn conversation there, all we get is a great shot of a guy in a stocking cap going out the door. You shoulda checked the tape before you went out.’
His partner said, ‘You implying I don’t know how to do my job?’
‘I’m not implying nothing.’
‘Look I always go out to get the coffee at three. Okay, sure, maybe I was a little late back, but only on account you wanted a chocolate doughnut, they was out downstairs. I hadda go all the way over to Thirteenth to that new place,
‘Anyway what the hell’s the difference, we know the guy’s name from the hospital computer, you wanta check him out?’
‘Let’s review this next visitor, this Franklin guy. He talked to Sonnenschein for an hour, can we run
