"I see. Well then, would you mind giving me some ... you know, just an idea of how you plan to proceed?"
Beardsley said bluntly: "Yes, I would mind."
"Oh." Mandleco frowned and persisted. "Psychologic deduction. Wasn't that your forte? I seem to recall—"
Beardsley grunted. "I'll tell you this much, there are implications about this case that fascinate me!"
"Oh?" Mandleco found himself a chair, sat upon it and edged forward. "I don't just quite—"
"Look. To begin with, the case is unique; so much so that your entire structure of approach is wrong. I mean top-heavy! Top-heavy with gadgetry and assumption."
"Assumption?" Mandleco bristled a little. "You of all people should know better. Not once in the past dozen years has ECAIAC failed to arrive at a conclusive and pin-point solution based on correlative factors!"
Beardsley smiled thinly. "Ah, yes. But we were speaking of the Carmack case. I repeat, it's not only unique but untenable; it became untenable the moment you assigned ECAIAC the task of solving the murder of its own creator! That," he said grimly, "is a mistake we wouldn't have made even in '60...."
Mandleco thought that over, shook his head and frowned. It was obvious he missed the connotation. "So?" he urged.