he is," I said. "Jafe McCann was the money-minded part of the
team. He was the one who signed for all the loans and all the equipment
bought on credit. With this big strike in, Jafe McCann was the one who'd
have to pay all that money."

"You're babbling," he snapped, but the words were hollow.

"You weren't satisfied with half a loaf," I said. "You should have been.
Half a loaf is better than none. But you wanted every penny you could
get your hands on, and you wanted to pay out just as little money as you
possibly could. So when you killed Ab Karpin, you saw a way to kill your
debts as well. You'd _become_ Ab Karpin, and it would be Jafe McCann who
was dead, and the debts dead with him."

"That's a lie," he said, his voice getting shrill. "_I'm_ Ab Karpin, and
I've got papers to prove it."

"Sure. Papers you stole from a dead man. And you might have gotten away
with it, too. But you just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?
Not satisfied with having the whole claim to yourself, you switched
identities with your victim to avoid your debts. And not satisfied with
_that_, you filled out a cash-return form and tried to collect your
money as your own heir. _That's_ why you had to go to Chemisant City,
where nobody would recognize Ab Karpin or Jafe McCann, rather than to
Atronics City where you were well-known."

"You don't want to make too many wild accusations," he shouted, his
voice shaking. "You don't want to go around accusing people of things
you can't prove."

"I can prove it," I told him. "I can prove everything I've said. As to
who you are, there's no problem. All I have to do is bring you back to
Atronics City. There'll be plenty of people there to identify you. And
as to proving you murdered Ab Karpin, I think his body will be proof
enough, don't you?"

McCann watched me as I backed slowly around the room to the mound of
gear. The partners had had no extra equipment, no extra equipment at
all. I looked down at the two atmosphere suits lying side by side on the
metallic rock floor.

_Two_ atmosphere suits. The dead man was supposed to be in one of those,
floating out in space somewhere. He was in the suit, right enough, I was
sure of that, but he wasn't floating anywhere.

A space suit is a perfect place to hide a body, for as long as it has to
be hid. The silvered faceplate keeps you from seeing inside, and the
suit is, naturally, a sealed atmosphere. A body can rot away to ashes
inside a space