by Kay Bigelow
“Okay. So if I understand you, you want the planet shrouded in secrecy for both security reasons and to make it more desirable. Very clever of you.”
“Thank you.”
Leah’s computer spoke again.
“Cots spoke with Xing’s Law Enforcement Commissioner, and he’s agreed to add you to the list of off-planet protectees.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
Leah typed Dani’s question into her computer. “He says it means whenever you need a police presence, they will provide it. In fact, the Chief will be sending four officers on the shuttle. And before you get your beautiful ass in an uproar, they’re all women.”
“Cots thinks my ass is beautiful?”
“I added that for him. And I think your ass is beautiful. Me and every woman on this planet. Cots probably thinks your ass is beautiful, too. Shall I ask him?”
“Good to know. No, don’t ask.”
“We need to focus for another hour or so. And get some of the things I need before my team arrives.”
“What is that old saying? All work and no play?”
“First work, then play.”
“All right, all right,” Dani said, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Camryn, I need…”
Dani turned away from Leah and wandered into the kitchen. Leah could hear her making more lemon squashes for them. She could hear Dani talking but couldn’t make out the words.
Leah stepped out the front door and into a wave of heat. She glanced at her watch and saw it was two in the afternoon. Damn, it’s hot!
A few minutes later, Dani joined her on the front porch and handed her a lemon squash.
“You may like it better on the lanai. It’s much cooler there.”
“The heat feels good. I don’t want to get too comfortable because I might be tempted to take a nap.”
“Leah? Thanks for not insisting Cots come onto the planet. It means a lot to me to preserve the women-only image of Wild.”
“It’s the least I can do for my second Bensington client,” Leah said with a smile.
Dani’s computer dinged at her. She returned to the living room. Leah followed her inside and out of the summer heat.
“Camryn’s sent the information you asked for,” Dani said.
“Can you send it to me?” Leah asked as she gave Dani the address to use.
When the information arrived at her computer, Leah dropped it into the murder board Cots had created for this case. Within seconds, the information was added to the various categories they used to track what they had. She noticed that Camryn had only sent her a list of the guests. The other information she’d requested had not been included.
Leah knew Dani was reading the board over her shoulder. As the board finished entering each guest to the murder board, Dani kissed the back of Leah’s neck.
“Let me say again, you’ve got the neatest toys. Is this another of Cots’s many talents?”
“He and Peony created this for the company.”
“I wonder if I can hire them away from you,” Dani murmured as she returned to nuzzling Leah’s neck.
“God I hope not. But you can continue what you’re doing to my neck for the foreseeable future.”
Chapter Eight
To both Leah’s disappointment and relief, Dani got distracted from her nuzzling responsibilities as the murder board continued sorting the information being input to it. “So this program allows you to track your progress in solving your cases?” Dani asked.
“Yes. And it’s how we know what we don’t know, who we need to interview, who we can eliminate as a suspect. As the case progresses, information is added and the board sorts it into the relevant categories. By the time we solve the case, there’s a ton of information, not all of it relevant, but we leave no stone unturned. Before Cots refined the old murder boards, the computer was merely a storage space for bits of miscellaneous information and all the sorting was done by hand. Now, the computer has become another set of ‘eyes’ and can sort the incoming information into the right categories.”
“I’ll say it again, you do have the most righteous toys. I’m envious.”
“Thanks. If you’re nice, I’ll let you play with some of them,” Leah said, smiling.
“I only want to play with you. Can we go play now?”
Leah laughed. “Sorry to disappoint, but I still have work to do. Want to come along?”
“Of course. If I can’t play with your body, I’d like to play detective with you. What are we doing next?”
“I need to speak to your security chief first and foremost. I’m also starving, so I’d like for us to eat something. Are you ready to go?”
“I’m hungry, too. And yes, I’m ready to go.”
As they walked back to the main building, Dani took Leah’s hand. Leah said, “You might want to get us a cart to get around on for the duration. And I get to drive it.”
“Why do you get to drive? I should be your driver. I do own it, after all.”
“Well, I’m in charge of the investigation so I should drive.”
“We’ll flip a coin to decide.”
“Good. Do you have a coin?”
“No. Do you?” Dani asked.
“No.”
“I guess that means I get to drive because it’s my planet and my car,” Dani said, grinning.
“Not so fast there. I think we’ll have to take turns, then,” Leah said. “Did you see what we just did? We negotiated a mutually satisfactory solution to a thorny problem.”
“Is that what we did? It felt more like neither of us got what we wanted,” Dani said.
“Ah, but we both got what we wanted—to drive the car. I would have thought that as a psychiatrist, you would approve of negotiation and compromise.”
“I do. For other people.”
Leah laughed. I don’t remember laughing this much during any other investigation I’ve been involved in. I must be losing my touch or my intensity. That’s a bad thing, right? Or a good thing?
As they approached the main building, an older woman came storming down the steps and headed straight for them. Leah recognized her as being the disheveled woman she noted in the dining room earlier.
“Bensington, you can’t hold me here. I demand you release my ship from your dock immediately or I will sue you for every ill-gotten coin you own.”
“Excuse me, who are you?” Leah asked.
“Who am I? Better yet, who the phuc are you?”
“My name is Leah Samuels. I am the police officer in charge of this investigation,” she lied.
That made the woman pause. Leah noted the woman was no longer able to look at her or Dani.
“What investigation?” the woman said a minute too late.
“What is your name?”
“Her name is Anabel Cooper,” Dani said when Cooper didn’t respond immediately. “She’s one of the guests who has a private dock here on Wild.”
“Ms. Cooper, you’ll not be able to leave the planet until I release you and your ship,” Leah said, emphasizing the word “I.”
“You have no right.”
“I have absolute authority here until my investigation is completed. If you manage to leave the planet before I give you permission, I will charge you with obstruction of justice, which is punishable with ten to fifteen years in prison. Do you understand?”
Cooper stared hard at Leah. Leah knew Cooper wanted to continue to try to bully her, but perhaps she could sense Leah was not someone who could be bullied. It was also clear she wanted to punch Leah in the nose. Leah didn’t like the woman already, so she hoped Cooper would take a swing at her and allow Leah to charge her with attacking a police officer or, since she wasn’t really a police officer, Leah could punch her lights out and call it self-defense.
“Do you understand?” Leah asked again.
“Yes. Can we go somewhere more private so you can ask your questions so I can get off this godforsaken planet. You can be assured, Bensington, that I wo
n’t be returning.”
“It’s just as well,” Dani said, and walked up the steps and into the main building.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Ms. Cooper, but I’m not ready to speak with you. You’ll have to wait your turn.”
Leah stepped around the woman and moved to follow Dani into the building. She heard Cooper mutter, “Stupid bitch” under her breath.
Camryn and Dani were waiting for her just inside the door. There were dozens of women in the big lobby. Word must be circulating there’s been an accident and one of the guests is dead.
“Let’s go to my office,” Camryn said.
Once they were settled around Camryn’s small conference table, Camryn asked, “What can I do next?”
“The first thing I need to do is to speak with the head of security.”
“That would be Stanhope. She’s waiting for you.”
Leah took a moment to send a note to Cots asking him to check out the head of security.
“Good. Next, I need to know that the list of guests’ names is complete, and no one is missing from the list. I also want a copy of each guest’s registration information. I’ll also want a list of the people with docking privileges and their last three docking dates.”
Leah saw Dani’s head snap around to look at Camryn. She’d bet her best cello Camryn had “forgotten” to send anything other than the list of guests she’d sent to Dani. She wondered why Camryn hadn’t complied with Dani’s request for multiple lists.
“I’ve got all that right here,” Camryn said, standing and retrieving her computer from her desk. “I would have sent it to you earlier, but I didn’t know where to send it.”
“You can always send stuff to me,” Dani said.
Leah noted the strain in Dani’s voice and knew she knew Camryn hadn’t sent the information on purpose. But why?
Camryn didn’t respond. Leah sent Camryn a message with her address in it. A few seconds later, Leah had the list.
“I need a half dozen hard copies. Do you have a printer?” Leah asked. She intended to have the murder board compare the list of guests Camryn had just sent her to the list she’d sent Dani earlier. Then she’d cross-reference each list with the master list of guests to see if anyone was missing from any of the lists she’d requested.
“Of course,” Camryn said.
Leah heard the whirring sound of a printer. Camryn retrieved the copies and sent them sliding across the conference table to end up in front of Leah.
“Thanks. That’s all I need for the moment. I’ve got a team of six people arriving as soon as your shuttle lands in Victoria,” Leah said, naming the capital city of Xing. “If you have something near Jardain’s bungalow, that would be a huge help.”
“I do have a cottage nearby. The guests aren’t due to arrive for two weeks.”
“Good. Now, I’d like to speak with Stanhope,” Leah said.
“She’s probably right outside. You can use my office if you’d like.”
“I’d like that. Thanks. Tell her to sit tight for five minutes.”
Camryn rose and left the room.
“You’ll have to tell me about your relationship with Camryn,” Leah said to Dani.
“What makes you think…” Dani started to say. “Oh, never mind. I’ll tell you later. Can I stay?”
“Yes, as long as you say nothing. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” Dani said, not sounding positive.
“Do you have any idea why Camryn didn’t send you the lists you requested? Particularly the one with the departure dates and times of the guests?”
“Not a clue. Why? You suspect some nefarious motive?”
“Not nefarious. However, I suspect you were specific about the information you needed and she just happened not to send any but the basic guest list to you.”
“Okay,” Dani said obviously thinking hard about why the lists hadn’t been sent.
Leah heard the soft ping of Cots’s account on her computer. He’d done a quick search on Stanhope.
There was a knock on the door.
“Enter,” Leah called as she read Cots’s notes.
A woman who reminded Leah of a monolith, one of those huge upright blocks of stone used as monuments, entered the room. I would not like to run into this woman in a dark alley if she was pissed off at me. She was wearing black shorts and a lavender T-shirt that had a patch over her left breast and the words “Wild Security” around the logo. I wonder if I can get a shirt like hers. She liked the thought of being a part of Wild Security, as opposed to tame security.
“Caitlyn Stanhope, I presume,” Leah said, unable to help herself. A quick glance at Dani caught her rolling her eyes.
“Yes, ma’am, I am.”
“I’m Leah Samuels, in charge of the investigation, and she’s Jardain Bensington,” Leah said, holding out her hand.
Stanhope’s hand enveloped Leah’s with a firm, but not crushing, handshake. She nodded at Dani.
“Have a seat,” Leah said.
“I’m comfortable standing, ma’am.”
“Let me cut to the chase, then. The facts are we have a dead girl, aged between ten and twelve, killed by an unknown assailant or assailants. The cause of death has yet to be determined, but the girl’s face was destroyed, perhaps to keep her identity hidden from us. I’ve ordered a lockdown of the entire planet and all guests. Everyone here, including the staff, needs to be interviewed and their alibis checked. I need your help in doing that. We have a few reinforcements arriving late today. Are your people capable of helping to do the interviews?”
“I have twelve members on my team. Ten of them can be of help, the other two are as green as the summer grass on the front lawn, but they can help by being runners.”
“Good. Tell me about your background.”
“I spent nearly fifteen years on a police force and took a medical retirement when I was wounded at a bust gone bad.”
“Stanhope, that’s the first and only time I want to hear a lie come out of your mouth. You were wounded, but not seriously. Shortly after returning to active duty, in a bust that didn’t go wrong for you, you broke a suspect’s arm. As a consequence of your actions in that bust, you were dismissed from the force when one of the perps brought suit against the department for unnecessary use of excessive force. The Internal Affairs investigation agreed with the suspect you injured and recommended settlement of the lawsuit and your dismissal. Have I got my facts straight?”
“Yes, ma’am, you do.”
“Who was the man whose arm you broke?” Leah asked.
“He was the one who shot me.”
“Let me guess, he taunted you with that fact so you broke his arm?”
“Yes.”
Leah looked at Dani. Dani shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “It’s your call.”
“Lucky for you, Stanhope, I believe in second chances due to my many encounters with IA,” Leah said with a smile. “So I want you to be a member of this investigative team. I know you probably don’t like working with civilians much, but you need to make damn sure you remember who the boss is here. Got it?”
“Yes, Boss,” Stanhope said with a straight face.
Leah mentally shook her head at Stanhope’s use of the word “boss.”
“We’ll start with the people on this list this afternoon. These are the people scheduled to leave Wild soon. I’d like to eliminate them as suspects so they can go home,” Leah said, sliding the piece of paper with the names of the guests who were scheduled to leave first toward Stanhope. “Please have your people make a note where the interviewees said they were during the window in which our victim was murdered. In addition, I want no strong-arm tactics, no intimidation, and I want you to be discreet—as in I don’t want you dragging people away from dinner to interview them. We’re merely eliminating the people on our list as suspects. If someone seems suspicious to you, let them go and alert me. I’ll run a background check to see what we can see. You organize your people as you see fit. I
don’t want you working past nine o’clock this evening. And make sure your people get fed.”
“Yes, ma’am. Where will we conduct these interviews?”
Leah glanced at her notes. “Camryn has reserved the private dining room for the interviews.”
“Is that all, ma’am?”
“Yes.”
Stanhope nodded at Leah and Dani, took her list of interviewees, and left the room.
“How did you know all that about Stanhope?” Dani asked.
“Cots. I’m assuming you knew nothing of her dismissal?”
“No. The security firm I hired to do the background checks came up empty on her.”
“Fire that firm now. I’ll give you a discount on our services and we’ll do a better job for you.”
“Consider it done.”
“Did you find anything strange in that interview?” Leah asked.
Dani was silent for a few moments.
“Why wasn’t Stanhope surprised you had the information?”
“Good question. It’s as if she already knew we had the information, so it came as no surprise when I let her know I knew. But how could she have known since I only got the info a minute before she stepped into the room?”
“I know I may have been reading too many mysteries of late, but what if someone in my security firm found the information, kept it out of the official file, and then has been blackmailing Stanhope? Is that even possible?”
“Entirely possible. I’ll get Cots on the possibility. Who else did that firm vet for you?”
“Reagan Dominier and Camryn.”
“I’ll add them to Cots’s list of people to check out,” Leah said.
“Is it my imagination, or is this case getting even weirder than it already was and we’ve just begun?”
“It’s not your imagination. I need to get back to the bungalow.”
Dani looked at her with at least one question in her eyes. Leah shook her head.
“Your chariot awaits,” Dani said with a sigh.
