Page 15 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Justice in Limbo

technical information than I could convincingly deploy, and
wouldn’t want to if I could, because it would throw a monkey
wrench into the narrative flow at a crucial point. But thanks. Is that
about it?”
A short silence was broken by Izzy Azimuth.
“Excuse me. Is it all right for me to participate now? Yes? Okay,
thanks. The Amelia Earhart angle is a good mystery to exploit, but I
thought you were referring to Ruth Bader Ginsburg as recent
history. She died just before an election and was replaced, over the
objections of her supporters.”
“Well, of course,” snapped Hydrargyrum. “That’s obvious”
“Yet the ideas presented by both you and this gentleman—Mr.
Schlager, I believe? Thank you—focus on the drama of the search
against a deadline, and how that is manifest in the behavior or
personalities of the searchers. Fine, but that omits the justice herself
as an actor in the play—if not the director and playwright, as well.
Let us suppose, like RBG, your judge had an incurable disease.
However, in this case, she has kept it hidden. Medical records are
protected from prying eyes these days, and doctors are equally
bound to privacy regarding their patients. So she knows she won’t
last until the next president would be able to fill the vacancy she
would leave, either by resigning or dying. But she doesn’t want the
current president to be able to have that privilege: that starts a chain
of events which might—or might not—be uncovered by your
intrepid investigators.”
“So what does she do? Being involved in the law and having a
good grasp of Washington politics, she knows that a declaration of
death cannot be made unless convincing evidence of that demise
has been produced. In most cases, some identifiable remains of a
decedent will trigger issuance of a death certificate. In a few others,
perhaps, very strong circumstantial evidence might do the trick—
but not if it is contested. And the period of time that must elapse
before death is declared without good evidence is seven years. She
knows she is going to die in a matter of weeks, so she swears her
sympathetic doctor to secrecy, packs some innocuous gear in her
plane, and sets off to lay a trail of red herrings.”

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