"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?"
Edith's beautiful electric eyes flashed and her clicks pulsed twice as rapidly as before. There was such a roaring and wrenching within her I was afraid for her—she was being torn apart in her struggle not to answer. I couldn't stand listening to her desperate efforts any longer.
"Yes!" I leapt to my feet. "Yes, I did it. Leave her alone. Can't you see what you're doing to her? That swine was always mistreating her. He didn't understand her—no one understands her as I do!"