Paul Levinson The Copyright Notice Case

[Novelette, lead story in ANALOG, April 1996] All rights reserved THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE CASE by Paul Levinson The gust caught my umbrella the second I got out of my car, before I'd even had a chance to fully open the thing. I struggled for a bit, then gave in to the inevitable. Another insideout dripping mess to deposit in the trashcan. The wild force of nature wins again. I turned my collar to the cold rain and hustled up the brownstone stairs. I pulled out my ID and showed it to the "Down the hall, one flight up, second door on the right. They're waiting for you, Dr. D'Amato." "Right," I said. I hated these long brownstone stairs -- rushing up them always made me breathless these days. I guess I could've walked up slowly, but that wasn't my way. "Phil," that was Dave Spencer, even less hair and more belly than I, bent over a body, male, looked to be in his late 20s. "Come take a look at

[Novelette, lead story in ANALOG, April 1996] Copyright (c) 1996 by Paul Levinson All rights reserved THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE CASE by Paul Levinson The gust caught my umbrella the second I got out of my car, before I'd even had a chance to fully open the thing. I struggled for a bit, then gave in to the inevitable. Another insideout dripping mess to deposit in the trashcan. The wild force of nature wins again. I turned my collar to the cold rain and hustled up the brownstone stairs. I pulled out my ID and showed it to the uniform. "Down the hall, one flight up, second door on the right. They're waiting for you, Dr. D'Amato." "Right," I said. I hated these long brownstone stairs -- rushing up them always made me breathless these days. I guess I could've walked up slowly, but that wasn't my way. "Phil," that was Dave Spencer, even less hair and more belly than I, bent over a body, male, looked to be in his late 20s. "Come take a look at this." Dave was the coroner. He often called me in for special consultations -- came with my forensic territory. I looked. The corpse had his eyes wide open, like he'd been shocked to death. But there were no electricity burns on the body that I could…