Finale
- Höfundur:
- Bea Kristinsdóttir
“… is really good. Everyone enters their information and the system correlates and
compares, always finds all the false information, and then print a list of all the suspects,”
says the Captain to the principal when you enter the office. They both look up
at you.
“Aha, here is our technician,” says the chief. “Well, which one of the suspects is
it? I have them all in custody, in a classroom in the building with a guard outside and
I would like to release those innocent as soon as possible. So …?”
“You can release all of them,” you say in a clear voice. “None of them is guilty.
They all have an alibi for the time of death.”
“Excuse me? How is that possible? You must have made a mistake as usual …”
the Captains starts, but you interrupt him and say:
“The guilty party is sitting right there,” you say, pointing at the principal who
seems to shrink.” The principal helped organize all the interviews, right? That gave
him the opportunity to avoid giving any information that could be correlated to the
other interviews. The principal could, so to speak, fly under the radar. I’m guessing
that the motive is the school’s economy, since all schools have less financing
these days. And mathematics teachers have the highest salaries because they are
better educated.” You look at the principal. “Did you try to improve the school’s
finances?”
“Substitutes are so much cheaper …,” the principal snivels, while police officers
cuff him and take him away.
Later, back at the station, the Captain has a chat with you. Again, it is not the first
time this conversation unfolds.
“I re‐did the calculations when I found that the temperature had fallen …,” you try
to explain, but the chief is just smiling ironically.
“I knew you were wrong as usual,” says the chief.
“To make an error does not mean that you cannot yet be right,” you answer him as
you spot some donuts on the desk. “The big error would be to give up. I did not give
up, and in the end I was right.”
…as usual, you think privately, and take a donut.
