'Oh, you saw it. The story of the man who invented cinematography.'
'Friese-Greene.'
'You're so right!' the librarian said admiringly.
'But Friese-Green wasn't the inventor of cinematography.'
'Wasn't he?' The smile began to look strained.
'My understanding is that several people in different countries, including yours, made the significant discoveries. Friese-Greene was a minor figure.'
'You're sure of this?'
'Check the facts, if you like. We're in the right place.'
'No need, Mr. Diamond, I'll take your word for it, of course.'
'The film was a flag-waving exercise,' Diamond went on without much tact. 'Britain needed cheering up at the time. As a nation we're unequaled at making heroes out of nobodies.'
After a pause, the librarian said staunchly, 'This doesn't affect what I was about to say about the movie. The acting was superb. Do you recall the scene?' Without pausing for response, he added, 'Just a cameo performance by Laurence Olivier as the bobby invited in to look at the images being projected, but one of his greatest, in my opinion. If he'd done nothing else, you'd have known from that scene that the man was a genius. Hardly a word spoken.'
Diamond nodded. 'Pity it wasn't true.'
'Ah, but remember the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn': 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.''
'Not in my job,' said Diamond. He'd never believed in mixing poetry and police work.
They entered the computer suite, a place, he reflected, that a more cultured policeman might have observed had a hum like a hedge of lavender on an August morning. Ranks of display units stretched far back. The librarian showed Diamond to a vacant position and demonstrated how to access information. 'It was a directory of scientific research you required?'
'The International Directory of Research Projects in Biochemistry. I'd like to know what a certain Japanese graduate was working on a few years ago.'
'We should be able to locate it' He tapped something into the controls. 'Maybe I should leave you to find your own way to the information. It's straightforward now. You just follow the instructions when they come up in highlighted text'
'I'd rather you stayed,' Diamond admitted without shame. 'My brain goes dead when I sit in front of one of these things.'
'That's reassuring to hear. From some of the things you've been saying, I thought you were information- oriented, and nothing else. Do we have the researcher's name?'
'YukoMasuda.'
The librarian keyed in an instruction. 'I hope you weren't serious-about not being able to appreciate the film because it wasn't strictly true.'
'Don't let it depress you,' Diamond told him. 'It's the way I was trained.'
'Too much left hemisphere.'
'Too much what?'
'Of the brain. The left side of the brain marshals facts. I've always thought the police would do well to recognize that they have a right hemisphere as well, with a capacity for intuition.'
'How, exactly?'
'Not 'exacdy' at all, Mr. Diamond. I'm suggesting you clear your mind of all those facts you collect and allow it to be receptive to psychic forces.'
'You mean tea leaves and Tarot cards?'
'No, no, I'm being serious. I think you detectives might benefit by tapping into your sixth sense occasionally.'
'Don't give me that That's how the wrong people get stitched up,' said Diamond. 'A detective who thinks he knows the truth in advance of the evidence is a dangerous man. I've met a few in my time.'
'Isn't this a hunch-4ooking up a research student?'
'No, this is desperation. I know damn all about this woman. I've got to start somewhere.'
'And I think we've found her,' said the librarian, who had been scrolling the text as they talked.
Diamond stared at the screen and saw, midway down:
Masuda, Yuko, Ph.D., Yokohama Univ. 'An insult to the brain: coma and its characteristics.' 1979381. S. Manflex. 'Narcosis and coma states.'
'Talk about an insult to the brain,' he said. 'My brain cells turn their back and walk away when I'm faced with stuff like this. S. Manflex. Narcosis. Can you understand any of it?'
'That phrase, an insult to the brain, is faintly familiar,' the librarian said. 'Where have I heard it? Give me a moment.' Given a moment, he said suddenly, 'I've got it. That wonderful poet from your country, Dylan Thomas.'
'Not my country,' Diamond interjected. 'From Wales.'
'Isn't that the same thing? Anyway, they wrote 'an insult to the brain' on Dylan Thomas's death certificate. Seemed appropriate-a kind of irony, considering he imbibed so much alcohol. I thought the doctor must have had poetic leanings himself. I didn't know it was a medical term.'
'I was talking about these other words,' Diamond said, becoming impatient with the frequent digressions.
'Hold on.' The librarian tapped some keys on the console and an insert appeared above the text explaining the abbreviations. 'S stands for sponsor, right? The research was sponsored by Manflex. I figure that must be the pharmaceuticals giant. You've heard of Manflex?'
'Vaguely.'
'If you buy something for a headache in this country, it's a fair bet it's made by Manflex.'
'And what's the other thing?'
'I have no idea. Science isn't my area at all.'
'Nor mine. Tell me about Manflex. Is it a Japanese company, by any chance?'
'You mean Japanese-owned? I doubt it'
'It sponsors Japanese research.'
'That doesn't make it a Japanese company.'
He accepted the correction. He'd been thinking aloud, trying to make connections that didn't exist, but should.
'You could be right,' the librarian conceded. 'They have their base in America, certainly, but, who knows who owns it? The Japanese have taken over large slices of Manhattan. Even Rockefeller Plaza. Would you like the address?'
This time it wasn't displayed on a screen. Diamond was handed the Manhattan telephone directory. In a few minutes he was phoning the Manflex Corporation on West Broadway, or trying to, because the number was busy. After ten minutes of dialing and swearing, he got through to a telephonist who, if anything, was in a more irritated state man he: 'Who is this?'
'Am I through to the Manflex Corporation?'
'Uh huh.'
'My name is Diamond and I'd like to speak to the managing director.'
'Sorry. No chance. Are you press?'
'No I am not'
'Mr. Flexner is unavailable.'
'When do you expect him to be available?'
'No comment'
'Listen, I don't know who you think I am. I'd simply like to speak to somebody in authority. Is there anyone
