“Colin MacIver murdered a man. If I had found evidence at the time, I would have arrested him. I’m not a law enforcement officer now, but the license I have was issued on the condition that I would turn over evidence of crime. It was explained to Norma. She understood it.”

Roberts stood up. “There’s no arguing with that. The law is a century behind society. If you can close your eyes to that, I can’t open them. Joe, under that belligerence of yours, that swaggering attitudinizing that seems so attractive socially, is a very immature personality. You broke the law when you came here and now you want to cite it in defense of the course you hope you can take—you want to take it because you’re faced with a genuine decision here, and you want to fall back where it’s really safe, to what you can understand.”

“You’ve said enough.” Leland got up.

“You will understand if I go to Norma and explain my part in this,” Roberts said.