“Yes,” she said at once and he waited with interest for who she would say. “Our competitors.”
“No one specific?”
She hesitated again before she said, “No.”
They finished the interview, which had been about as unhelpful as possible and paused in the hall, watched from a few feet away by Beja.
“Why don’t we visit Mung Li Mung’s home and see if his son will speak to us?” Nick suggested.
Reese nodded and Poppy said, “All right. I was there a few days ago but I only spoke to the staff. It’s more than a half hour’s walk, though, through the town and over to the far side.”
“Then why don’t we stop and get something hot to eat and drink on the way?” he suggested.
They looked cheered by the idea and immediately agreed to it.
Chapter Thirty-Five
JUST OVER an hour later, full and warmed up, they approached another building which was every bit as big as the du Lissin castle, although this sprawled outwards rather than upwards. Reese had seen palaces of similar designs in China and Japan on earth while he was working for Jolly’s department. In fact, such travels had got him interested in taking on jobs on other planets so he could get to know some of the different civilisations in the galaxy. He was known throughout the department as someone who would go anywhere, just as long as it took him away from the life he’d been born into.
A man bowed to them and showed them to a conference room that overlooked a pond outside. The building, Reese noted, was built in a square around the courtyard, which also contained several trees and a bridge over the water. Two men came in, the younger one recognisable as the son who was friendly with Bop du Lissin, and they all bowed to each other and exchanged their names. Mung Li Mung was a strikingly handsome man in his forties and his son had inherited his good looks, both slender with sleek black hair, strongly defined cheekbones and wide mouths that were quick to smile. They were both dressed in loose silky suits. Mung Li Mung asked them to sit down and Mung Sen Zhan poured them each a cup of herbal tea.
They made themselves comfortable and, when Poppy explained that they had been hired by the planet’s government to solve Ember du Lissin’s murder, Mung Li Mung said, “I was appalled to learn that it was Ember and not Kass who died and that the family had told us all numerous lies about it. It’s entirely disrespectful, both to us and to Ember du Lissin herself. She was a worthy business opponent.”
“You liked her?” Poppy asked.
“I respected her. The company will certainly fall apart with those children in charge.”
“You don’t think Kass du Lissin will help them?” Reese asked, watching the way they glanced at each other when her name was mentioned and the flash of anger on Mung Sen Zhan’s face. “She has plenty of experience with her own company.”
“It’s not much of a company,” Mung Li Mung said indifferently, “and she intends to leave Ocean. There is no one to stop her now, so let her be on her way.”
“You believe Ember du Lissin was preventing her from going?”
“Of course. It was a rash decision that would have wounded the main company and cost them greatly. Kass du Lissin is too emotional.”
“She does seem to have a volatile side,” Reese agreed, eyeing them. “We saw her arguing with Bop this morning and they both seemed quite angry. Would that have been something to do with Bop’s relationship with you, Mr Mung?”
The son glanced at his father, who gave a nod. “I have asked Bop to marry me and he has agreed.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you. It should be happy news but Kass has been against us from the start.”
“You were never worried about your son getting close to a member of a rival company?” Reese asked the older man.
“I wasn’t thrilled at first but Sen Zhan was set on the relationship and, when I got to know Bop, I found him to be an intelligent, admirable boy.”
“Will Bop continue to work for his family when he and your son are married?”
“No. He will come and work for me.”
“What did Ember du Lissin think of that idea?” Poppy asked.
The two men glanced at each other once more, a warning in the older man’s eyes before he turned back to his guests and said, “I wouldn’t know.”
Reese had seldom heard a less convincing lie.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“SO WHO do you think the killer is?” Poppy asked, having followed Nick back to his room on the ship before dinner. She could be obsessive about work and, as much as he wanted the case solved, he was tired, his socks were damp from snow getting inside them and he just wanted to relax.
“Can this wait until tomorrow?” Nick took off his boots and soggy socks and decided to take a quick shower. “I realised that Reese hasn’t had an official tour of the ship yet so I was going to offer to show him where everything is.” He should know where the medical supplies and emergency equipment were in case he needed them at some point.
“I expect the captain’s keeping him busy.”
Nick didn’t want to think about that, something Poppy certainly knew. “He’s probably still in the canteen.”
“How much of a hint do you need to prove he has no interest whatsoever in you? He’s involved with Prince. Narcissistic jerks are apparently his idea of the perfect man.”
“That’s just casual.” Reese had told him this and he had no reason to doubt him. “Anyway, it has nothing to do with that – he’s my friend and a new member of the crew.”
“For now.” She headed to the door.
“What does that mean?” he demanded.
“Either Prince will lose interest in having sex with him or Reese will decide he can have more fun somewhere else, so just stop making a complete fool of yourself over him.”
She left him smarting from her words, wondering if his behaviour really had been that embarrassing. He thought he’d hidden his feelings for Reese but apparently not. He knew that, in her own way, Poppy was just trying to spare him pain but sometimes it felt as if she was the person who made him doubt his own worth. She was the only family he had out here in the black but all she ever did was put him down.
Was he kidding himself in thinking that Reese cared about him? He didn’t have any expectations of them getting involved, not with the way things were with Reese and the captain, but Reese had always seemed to listen to Nick’s ideas and had treated him as if he mattered. They were good friends at least. Weren’t they?
He was going round in circles and told himself to stop dwelling on the subject. He yanked off his clothes and walked into the adjoining bathroom for a sand shower, which left his skin stinging and smelling of disinfectant. It was too early to go to bed and, after what Poppy had said, he didn’t want to look for Reese and risk seeming desperate for his company, so he decided to head to engineering to chat with Dee.
He left his quarters just as the canteen door opened and Reese came out, looking so handsome and self-assured that Nick could easily understand why his sister thought Reese was completely out of his league.
Reese approached him with a grin. “Are you busy?”
“Yes. I, er... There’s something I need to do.”
“Okay.” Reese came to a halt, looking a bit lost and Nick could have kicked himself. Of course Reese looked lonely: he didn’t know a soul here except for Nick, the captain, who he apparently didn’t want to hang out with (Nick tried unsuccessfully not to feel good about that), and Poppy who was... Poppy.
“Wait. I’m sorry – ignore that. It’s just that Poppy said... You don’t want to know what Poppy said. She just made me feel as if I shouldn’t rely on you, which is stupid.”
Reese walked up to him and Nick smelt the exotic cologne he wore and was caught in the intensity of his gaze. “Nick, I don’t know how long I’ll be aboard The Prince but, as long as I’m here, I’m your friend and if you ever need anything, I’ll do my best to help you with it. I don’t know what I did to make Poppy distrust me but I ge
nuinely do like you a lot.”
Nick’s worries vanished and he smiled. “Me too. I’m really glad you’re here. So what do you want us to do?” He only realised after he said it how suggestive that sounded and Reese immediately picked up on it, his grin widening and his black eyes dancing. “For fun, I mean – No, that doesn’t sound any better.”
They both laughed and Reese put an arm round his shoulders, turning him round. “Let’s watch a holo-movie.”
So they ended up sitting in his cabin, eating an instant meal while making fun of a crime film and teasing each other over anything that came into their heads. Nick was laughing so hard that tears ran down his face at one point and he realised he hadn’t felt so happy and unburdened since he was a teenager, with his parents, at his childhood home. With everything that had happened after that, he had lost the ability to take pleasure in his life, but Reese had helped him re-learn it.
He turned his head, about to speak to Reese when his door opened and Keith burst in, taking in the sight of them sitting leaning against each other, before speaking quickly. “There’s been a second murder.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
THEY FOLLOWED Keith to Poppy’s room, so he could talk to them all at the same time. She was wearing a bathrobe and looking at holographic images of murder suspects.
They all turned to Keith, who said, “The captain just called me from town after hearing about it. Kass was found dead at her workplace earlier this afternoon.”
Nick looked at his sister and Reese as he tried to take in the implications of this development. Kass had always made sense as a murder victim, given how damaging her decision to sell her company was to the family, but he didn’t see how it tied in with the death of Ember du Lissin. “Why didn’t the family contact us right away?”
“How would I know?” Keith said, with a look of annoyance. “The captain just called to say that he’s gone to look at the crime scene.”
Poppy swore. “We’d better get after him before he treads on any evidence.”
“I’m sure he knows what he’s doing,” Keith said loyally.
“Then you’re the only one,” Poppy retorted and said to Nick, “I’ll get dressed and join you. Could you grab a couple of forensic scanners from the control room?”
“Sure.”
He and Reese got their coats and put on boots before collecting the scanners and some evidence bags. Poppy met them on the way to the docking bay exit and they headed out into the snow. It was still early evening but it was already dark outside, lit by the glow of the satellite ring.
“If the timeframe is right, this eliminates two more suspects,” Reese said as they hurried through the field towards the town. “We were with Mung Li Mung and his son when the murder must’ve been committed, so we know they’re innocent, assuming that the murders were done by the same person.”
“And your main suspect, Kass, is cleared of having killed her sister,” Poppy said.
Nick tried to sum up what this death might mean. “Swall and Mer were never very likely suspects.” Swall had been too grief-stricken and too uninvolved in the company and Mer had failed at even keeping her lover a secret. She could never have got away with plotting murder. “That leaves Norla, Bop and Arwyl. We know why Bop was at odds with Kass – and probably Ember too – and Arwyl might have wanted her mother dead, to avoid been forced to leave Ocean. Pos might have had a motive for the same reason, although neither of them had any motive we’ve discovered for wanting Ember du Lissin dead. Norla gained power from her mother’s death but what would be her motive for killing Kass?”
“Money,” Reese said. “There was always a good reason for Kass to die, because she wanted to sell her company. If Norla killed her mother to gain ownership of the company, she wouldn’t have wanted to see its profits reduced because of Kass’s actions.”
“I don’t know,” Nick said, thinking of Norla, the youngest daughter, with her cold eyes, who had taken control of the main company from everyone else.
Poppy rounded on him. “What don’t you know?”
“It’s just too simple. If Ember – a woman everyone said was smart – trained Norla to run the company, she must have thought Norla was intelligent too. A smart woman wouldn’t commit a second crime that pointed at her.”
“Good point,” Poppy agreed in a gentler tone.
“You could be right,” Reese said. “Bop makes as much sense as the killer or it could be that Norla thinks she’s so powerful now that she’s untouchable and, unless we can get direct evidence against Bop or her, they probably are.”
Poppy increased her pace and the others did the same. They reached the edge of the town, its cobbled streets covered in melting snow and ice as well as the last of the debris of broken tiles and a fallen tree from the sea monster’s day out.
They got to the round, multi-level building just as the captain was leaving, his colourful outfit standing out against the pale landscape around him.
“What did you discover?” Poppy asked him.
Prince spoke in a melodramatic tone, as if he was making a great announcement. “Kass is dead!”
Poppy just nodded. “Perhaps you should get back to the ship now, sir.”
“I believe I’ll stay and uncover the murderer.” He winked at Reese.
Nick gritted his teeth as Poppy said, in the same emotionless tone, “Yes, sir. Do you know when the body was found?”
“They contacted me a couple of hours ago and I said no one should leave and came straight away, after finishing my dinner.”
Nick caught Reese staring in disbelief at the captain while Poppy said, “Would you show us where the corpse is?”
“Oh, I don’t want to see that terrible scene again. It makes one feel quite nauseous. She’s out there.” He pointed vaguely towards the back of the building. “Reese, you can stay and keep me company.”
Nick and his sister left the two men to find the body, Nick wondering as they did so how Reese could possibly put up with someone as obnoxious and self-centred as Prince.
He saw Prince’s bodyguard, Tem, ahead of them, stopping anyone using the back door. Tem had to be doing that on his own initiative. There was no way the captain had had the sense to protect the crime scene from contamination.
“Where is it?” Poppy asked the man and he gestured outside.
They found Lyro standing guard in a yard that had a door set in the wall, which presumably led to one of the town streets, and there was also a path visible that curved round both sides of the building, meaning that anyone could have accessed the area and committed the murder, then easily escaped.
“Did anyone see anything?” Poppy asked Lyro, who nodded towards the woman lying on the ground with blood around her.
“Body,” the man said.
“Thanks,” Poppy answered in a dry tone. “That’s real helpful.”
She walked round, studying Kass’s corpse while Nick crouched down to use his forensic scanner. He removed his outdoor gloves and put on some latex ones before switching on the device. This wasn’t the first time he had seen someone dead who had been alive at the beginning of an investigation but it always gave him a feeling of regret and unease.
They had seen Kass alive just yesterday, when she had mocked them as bad detectives. Perhaps she had been right or they could have found a way to prevent her death.
“She was shot from behind from close range,” Poppy said, standing with her hands on her hips. “There’s no way to know if she even saw her attacker. Any DNA?”
“Nothing so far on her corpse but a shooter wouldn’t need to touch her. I’ll scan the whole area, get rid of our crew’s DNA and see what’s left.”
It only took him a few minutes to do this while Poppy searched for any visible evidence of the culprit.
“Nothing,” she said in a clipped tone. “You?”
“Too much. I have skin, hair and clothing traces from twelve different people from today. The yard was probably used as a shortcut by some of the peo
ple working here. Running them through Ocean’s criminal database now.” The result came through as he was speaking. “None of them have a criminal record.”
“So this hasn’t helped us at all,” she said in disgust.
“It’s worse for Kass.”
Poppy glared at him. “Get forensic samples from everyone working here and the family, so we can get an idea of who was out here.”
He got to his feet. It would be a time-consuming job but it could give them the evidence they needed to arrest the killer. They left Kass’s body on the frozen ground and headed back inside.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“THIS WOMAN found the corpse,” Prince announced with the self-satisfied air of someone who had made a major breakthrough. He wore a cloak over his laced shirt and breeches and Nick could see some of the workers throwing doubtful sideways glances at him, as if wondering what such an idiot was doing here. They were all in the main warehouse building which was filled with crates and a group of around thirty people were standing about, sipping drinks and looking cold.
“I came through the yard from a nearby cafe about two and a half hours ago,” the employee said. “I saw all the blood and recognised Mrs du Lissin, so I ran in to tell my supervisor.”
While the supervisor spoke, Nick got the woman’s permission to take a forensic sample and found it a match for one of the samples from the yard. He made a note of her name, a dictation microphone on his coat sending the information directly to his computer on The Prince. He did the same for the supervisor, who also matched one of the outdoor samples.
“So you didn’t touch anything?” Prince asked him and Nick rolled his eyes, since he’d already established with his scanner that nothing vital had been handled.
“No, sir.”
Nick looked around and saw familiar faces in the crowd. He identified Arwyl and Mer, Kass’s daughters who both worked here, along with Pos – Arwyl’s husband – and Groa, who worked for him at his marketing company.
While the captain was still spouting nonsense, Nick walked over to Pos. “May I ask why you’re here?”
No One Likes Humans Page 13
