by C. Gockel
But there hadn’t been any concrete evidence, so Creel had continued with his digging. Luckily his track record at Internal Investigations was good enough that his superiors usually allowed him to follow his instincts and go about his activities in his own way. He’d been certain at some point Korr and Rhyse would make the mistake that would finally allow him to bring them down. He just hadn’t thought that it would be such a fatal error.
Why Mia Felaris, though? Her own record was clean as an operating room, as far as he could tell. She’d emigrated to Nova Angeles approximately eight standard years ago and hadn’t made a spot of trouble the entire time she’d been here. In fact, she was just the sort of high-class immigrant the planet wanted.
Maybe Rhyse and Korr had put pressure on her to do security work for whatever criminal was paying them, and she’d refused. Even if that were the case, it didn’t explain who had gotten the drop on the two officers. The Fire Control investigators had informed him that it looked as if the fire had started on the ground floor, possibly in the draperies in one of the rooms there. But so far they hadn’t been able to determine why the curtains would have caught fire in the first place.
Creel had the feeling he was missing an important piece of the puzzle. Mia Felaris seemed about the last person who would be able to take out two highly trained officers, but as he well knew, appearances could be deceiving. Records indicated that she had never owned a gun, but again, that didn’t mean much. Even on a civilized world such as Nova Angeles there was a thriving black market for unregistered weapons.
Technically, his investigation was almost over. Once the officers under suspicion were dead, there wasn’t much point in Internal Investigations continuing its inquiry, although Creel figured he could argue for a few more days with this one. Now it would be Homicide’s turn to try to figure out who had killed Rhyse and Korr—and why.
Creel didn’t like it. Something else was going on here, and he didn’t much relish the idea of turning the investigation over to someone in Homicide. But maybe he could get work it so Jessa Kodd would be assigned this case. She’d been helpful in assisting him with the Thaxton investigation, so maybe she wouldn’t mind him riding along on this one, so to speak.
With that thought to cheer him, he pocketed his tablet and strolled away from the crime scene, deactivating the barrier tape momentarily with the remote device all RilSec officers carried with them. Whatever else might be uncovered here, it would be the work of the evidence mechs who even now were crawling over the still smoking remains of Mia Felaris’ home. They’d catalogue everything down to a square centimeter of rubble and pass their findings along to the officer in charge. If anything turned up, he’d hear about it. He could only hope that whatever might have happened to Mia Felaris and her son, she had a good reason for maintaining her silence...and that her silence wouldn’t prove deadly.
23
They took a standard shuttle to New Chicago—just two ordinary travelers in the nondescript street clothes Thorn had recommended Miala purchase. He sat next to her now, dark face impassive as he regarded the working-day crush around them. Certainly none of the other passengers on the shuttle could have had any idea how dangerous the dark-haired man of no particular height actually was. Somehow Thorn had the gift of blending in when he wasn’t wearing the wrappings that hid his face from everyone around him. Perhaps he had allowed that swath of dark fabric to take on all the mystique of being Eryk Thorn, thus giving him the ability to become completely anonymous when out of it.
For herself, Miala wasn’t sure what the other passengers might see. She’d made sure that her own suit was a bland shade of brown, a color that didn’t do much for her copper-colored hair or fair skin but one which would certainly help her blend with the crowd. Every personal item she’d owned had been destroyed in the fire, and Thorn hadn’t seemed too thrilled with her notion of trying to replace some of her more important cosmetics, so she’d had to content herself with buying a tube of tinted lip balm at the kiosk down in the hotel lobby before they caught a taxi to the spaceport. At the kiosk she’d also bought a pair of photo-reactive eyewear.
At least the glasses will hide the shadows under my eyes, she thought ruefully. I never realized how much I relied on all that stuff until I didn’t have it anymore.
But, her appearance aside, she felt some measure of relief as the shuttle lifted off from Nova Angeles. No one seemed to have noted their departure from the hotel, and Miala had been able to purchase their fare to New Chicago without incident. She’d been starting at shadows, certain that either RilSec officers or agents of whoever had hired the kidnappers were going to swarm around her and Thorn at any second. No doubt the mercenary could have handled the situation with ease, but the whole point was not to attract attention, after all. He had a small holdout gun tucked into the inside pocket of his own suit jacket. One of these days she was going to have to ask him precisely what he had done to gimmick it so it would pass spaceport security.
Technically speaking, Miala could have withdrawn the money from the New Chicago accounts here on Nova Angeles. But if she had done that, it would have sat in escrow for seventy-five standard hours until the funds cleared. Ridiculous, of course, but that was bureaucracy for you. And those were seventy-five hours Jerem didn’t have. This way, she could take out the funds directly with no waiting period. She and Thorn would be back in Rilsport by sunset.
Taking a breath, she leaned her head back against the padded rest and tried to calm herself as best she could. Just thinking about Jerem in the hands of kidnappers was enough to send her heart pounding and the adrenaline racing along her veins. But continually worrying over the situation wouldn’t change it. She was doing everything she could—and so was Eryk Thorn.
As if his name in her thoughts were some sort of signal, he casually reached across the armrest and took her hand in his. His own fingers were callused and very strong, and she found their touch to be intensely comforting. Miala let her fingers entwine with his and shut her eyes, allowing herself to take this small space of time to shore up her strength. And although she didn’t know whether she would ever admit it to Thorn, their lovemaking of the night before had done much to restore her equilibrium.
Good thing, too, considering that Miala’s first task of the morning had been to call Risa and let her know that she and Jerem had survived the fire.
“But where are you?” Risa had demanded. “All hell is breaking loose around here—I’ve been dodging insurance agents all morning—RilSec was here asking questions—”
“I’d better not say right now,” Miala had hedged. “I know it’s really awkward, but just stonewall them the best you can. You really don’t know anything, so they can’t say you’re hiding something.”
Risa had raised an eyebrow at that. “Sounds like circular logic to me. How am I supposed to be your assistant if you won’t let me assist you, for God’s sake?”
“You are helping, Risa,” Miala said. “You’re my first line of defense. But I really can’t tell you where I am. Just know that I’m safe.”
Her assistant frowned. “Are you in some kind of trouble, Miala? Quin Lassiter said something about some strange man being at your house—”
Miala had to stifle a groan. And here she had thought Quin could be trusted to keep his mouth shut— “What did Quin say, Risa?” she asked, in tones that didn’t bode well for the good doctor if she happened to see him any time soon.
“I’m the only person he said anything to,” Risa said quickly. “He knew you had had him over in confidence, but he figured it would be safe enough if he told me. Come on, Mia—your house burned down!”
“I’m aware of that,” Miala snapped. “And this person Quin mentioned had nothing to do with it.” Well, mostly, she thought. After all, she wasn’t completely certain whose pulse bolt had caught the curtains on fire in the first place.
“If you say so,” Risa replied, but her dubious tone indicated that she didn’t believe a word Miala was saying.
>
Which was fine, as long as Risa continued to play human shield and kept the bureaucrats and police away from Miala long enough for her to recover Jerem. After that, she would try to deal with all the inevitable legal messes that the destruction of her house had initiated.
“Look, I know this must be awful for you,” Miala said. “And I’ll try to get in to handle it as soon as I can. But until then, I’m going to have to stay out of contact. Just do the best you can, and I’ll come into the office whenever it’s feasible.”
Risa remained silent for the space of a few seconds, watching Miala out of narrowed blue eyes. Her pretty face was uncharacteristically grim. Then she sighed and said, “I’ll do what I can, Mia. But I have a feeling this is going to get ugly.”
Oh, it’s gone well past ugly, Miala thought. But unfortunately there’s not much I can do about it right now. All she said, however, was, “Dodge as much as you can, and if it gets too bad, call Lenner.” Jakim Lenner was Miala’s personal attorney, and as far as she could tell, he ate insurance representatives and RilSec personnel for breakfast.
Her assistant had brightened a bit at that suggestion. “Of course. Thanks, Mia—and take care.”
Miala made a noncommittal sound and switched off the comm. Not much had been resolved, but at least she had given Risa the one vital piece of information she needed—that Miala and Jerem were alive.
For now, she thought, and tightened her fingers around the mercenary’s for a second.
He gave her a quick sideways glance, although his expression never changed. But in response she’d felt the pressure of his hand on hers increase ever so slightly. And that was enough.
Whatever happened next, at least she’d go through it with Eryk Thorn at her side.
Most of the male personnel in RilSec would admit, if pressed, that sometimes it was damn hard to concentrate on a case when Jessa Kodd was assigned to it. Tall, blonde, and icily beautiful, she was the type of woman who immediately called attention to herself just by her mere presence. She was also, in Rafe Creel’s estimation, the best detective Homicide possessed.
She sat at her battered charcoal-colored steel desk and leaned forward now, elbows resting on a thick pile of pale blue paper. Despite the fact that all their files and records were stored in electronic format, somehow most of RilSec’s officers seemed to take an obscure pleasure in printing out those files and keeping them in random stacks of blue flimsies. Maybe they thought a desk that was clean of all paperwork gave the appearance of a desk of someone who wasn’t working very hard. Whatever the reason, Jessa Kodd’s workspace didn’t look much different from that of any of the other Homicide officers, even if the person occupying the battered synth-hide chair behind it sure did.
A frown creasing her elegant brows, she gave Creel a dubious look. “This is a little irregular—” she began.
That was the understatement of the millennium. “I know,” he said. “But the deaths of Rhyse and Korr did start out in my jurisdiction. I’d just like to be able to follow this through to the end.”
“I don’t know—” Then she broke off and gave a small laugh. “You’re just going to keep after me on this until I say yes, aren’t you?”
“Something like that,” Creel admitted.
She tapped the stylus of her tablet against the desk. Her nails were unpolished, cut short. Creel liked that. “All right,” she said at length. “We’ll go after this one together. Besides, if I tell Lonegar that you’re working on it with me, I won’t get saddled with Janson.” Jessa threw a significant look past Creel’s shoulder in the direction of one of the other Homicide officers’ desks.
He grinned. Janson did all right, but he could see why Jessa wouldn’t want to get stuck with him on a case—the man seemed to have serious difficulty in focusing his attention on something other than Inspector Kodd’s chest. Creel had to admit that certain portions of her anatomy were somewhat distracting, but he had more self-control than Janson.
At least, he hoped he did.
“So,” he said, forcing his mind off Jessa Kodd’s more spectacular assets, “what have we got so far?”
The “we” elicited an amused glance in his direction. “The coroner’s report seems to indicate that both officers were killed by pulse bolts to the upper torso, and not smoke inhalation or other fire-induced trauma.” Jessa shuffled through the stacks of paper on her desk, then drew out a multi-page document that had been perma-sealed together along the top edges. She flipped past the top two pages and then looked down at the document for a few seconds, frowning slightly. “The evidence mechs haven’t been able to turn up much beyond what we already knew. The fire was started in the larger of the two downstairs salons, and spectrographic analysis seems to bear out the theory that it was started by a stray pulse bolt. Obviously Rhyse and Korr got into something they hadn’t quite expected. But as to who was shooting at them, and why—?” A lift of her shoulders under the plain synth-silk shirt. “I haven’t a clue. Care to contribute anything to my useless theorizing?”
“I’ve got a little more.” Creel drew out his tablet and scrolled to the file he’d been compiling on the case. “I just got authorization to tap into both Rhyse’s and Korr’s computers. The guys in C.S. were able to crack their access codes for me.”
“Nice.”
Occasionally the Computing Services people could be helpful. On the other hand, if you needed a password reset or your files shifted to a new server, you could be left cooling your heels for days. Ah, bureaucracy. He went on, “According to some files I found on Korr’s tablet, he’s had Mia Felaris’ residence under surveillance for a little more than a standard month. And it was about the same time that he set up the bank account I found on Gaia’s moon. He opened it with 75,000 units, then added another seventy-five about two standard weeks later.”
Jessa Kodd’s full lips pursed as she gave a small whistle. “Not bad for someone who has to work almost a full year to earn even half that.”
“Exactly.”
“Any indication as to where the funds came from?”
Creel shook his head. “Not yet. The deposits were made in Gaian units—hard cash, untraceable. Same with Rhyse—although he was stupid enough to open his account just over on New Chicago, and he couldn’t resist buying some fancy toys with it.”
She settled back in her chair, frowning slightly. “So someone was throwing money at them to at least surveil Mia Felaris, and probably more. Why her?”
Why her, precisely, Creel thought. He had a feeling that Mia Felaris formed the crux of the whole matter, even if he didn’t yet know the reason. “Hard to say. I’ve been doing some digging. Had to sweet-talk the records clerk at the University, but eventually she let slip that Mia Felaris had come here from Iradia—and that her birth name was actually Miala Fels.”
“Iradia, huh?” Jessa tapped her fingers on the battered synth-hide arm of her chair. “Not exactly a garden spot, right?”
“Hardly.” Oh, sure, Iradia was famous for producing the moth silk used the galaxy over for all sorts of luxury goods, but that didn’t prevent it from being one of the more spectacular armpits in the Consortium, a hangout for crime lords, slavers, smugglers, and a whole bunch of other types you probably wouldn’t want to invite to a cocktail party. “You can see why she’d want to keep that part of her background quiet. Not that anyone should discriminate against her because of where she came from,” he added quickly.
“Of course not,” Jessa replied, the wryness of her tone indicating she didn’t buy that for one second.
Neither did he. Oh, he was sure Mia Felaris was an upstanding citizen, but Nova Angeles had been populated too long and was too hidebound not to turn up its collective nose at refugees from scrubby worlds such as Iradia. Quite possibly that was the only reason Ms. Fels/Felaris had changed her name and her identity. Or had she been running from something...or someone?
Apparently Jessa had made the same leap of logic. “Do you think it could be someone from Iradia who’
s after her, who hired Rhyse and Korr?”
“Possibly.” Creel rubbed his forefinger against his chin, considering. “Makes more sense than anyone here wanting to do her harm. She’s got no record, no civil actions filed against her—and for someone running her own security firm, that says a lot right there. Usually someone who’s been in business as long as she has would have gotten sued at least once by now.”
“Such faith in our judicial system,” Jessa mocked, and he flashed her a quick grin.
“Are you calling me jaded?” he asked.
“You?” The laughing gleam in her eyes faded. “So…Iradia. Any suspects?”
“Are you kidding? They barely keep records over there—I was able to find one notation that showed a Miala Fels had attended some sort of secondary school for a few years, but that’s about it. No birth record. No known residence.” The frustration at dealing with such a backward planet resurfaced easily; he’d been fighting with balky information relays and incomplete databases all morning. “The place really went to hell for a few years following an insurrection about eight years ago. I’m guessing a lot of data was deliberately destroyed to piss off what they saw as their Gaian overlords. Never mind that almost all their ancestors had come from Gaia in the first place. Anyway, there isn’t much left to find.”
“Dead end, then?”
“You think I’d let them beat me that easily?”
Jessa looked at him for a long moment, giving him a cool, appraising stare out of those lush green eyes. Then she smiled. “No,” she said. “They’re not going to know what hit them.”
