Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn

by Sophia Chester

  My first task of the day was to send a private message to Pallene and give her a quick summary of what happened the day before. As luck would have it, Carol was dragging herself through the door with a cup of coffee in her hand right after I sent the message to Pallene. “Good morning, Carol! I hate to bother you so early in the morning, but could you give me Mr. Hayate’s address please?”

  Carol slowly brought her cup of coffee to her lips. She took two sips and said, “Oh, he stays in house 101 in Greip Gardens. That’s the name of the employee quarters on level B. You’ve got to go all the way to the back of level B to reach it.”

  “Thanks so much, Carol.” I swung my purse over my shoulder and skipped out the door. I still wanted to question Phoebe, but I really wanted to get to Mr. Hayate’s nephew Jo as soon as possible.

  Just like Carol said, Greip Gardens was all the way at the far end of level B just behind the last line of gift shops. Greip Gardens was surrounded by a white gate that had brightly colored flowers peeking out of the bottom of it. I rubbed my fingers across a yellow daisy; the flowers were made out of plastic. I guessed if I worked here and had to look at pools of water, gift shops, blue palm trees, and bars all day, I didn’t think I could stand to look at the color blue once I came home for the day.

  The living quarters were mostly comprised of buildings that looked like apartment complexes. Each had only a little lawn with a few plastic flowers sprinkled here and there. I passed a house with two floors, a tiny garage, and a small lawn. I watched as a man in a white suit riding on a hover bike pulled up into the house’s driveway. Across the street from me, a small group of workers were walking toward one of the apartment complexes. They were dragging their feet and looked like they had been working all night long. These houses had to be for supervisors and people of importance, while everyone else lived in apartment complexes. I quickly flagged the man in the white suit down before he went inside. “Excuse me; I’m looking for house 101.”

  The man in the white suit smiled and said, “Oh, Jinsei’s house is at the end of this street and then to your right.” I guessed Jinsei was Mr. Hayate’s first name.

  “Thank you!” As I walked past the various apartment buildings, which looked like they were up to date with every luxury imaginable, all I could think about were the low-hanging wires, the houses made out of scrap metal, and the dark corners that the Martian workers lived in.

  Just like every other house that I passed along the way, Mr. Hayate’s was a basic two-story, but he had no plastic flowers on his lawn. I knocked on the door twice. The door swung open and, to my surprise, Kari was standing in the doorway in a light gray dress and a white apron. “Kari! It’s so good to see you again!” I said as I reached out to hug her.

  Kari brushed my hands aside. “Ma’am, how can I help you?” she asked in a calm, monotone voice. What was that for? Did I manage to do something to anger her and not know it? Maybe we could talk about it later. For now, I’d just go with the flow.

  “Yes, I’m here to see Jo Hayate. Is he here?”

  Kari pulled the door open for me. “Come right this way please.” I quietly followed behind Kari. She led me to a small living room decorated with green furniture. Sitting calmly with his legs crossed on a green couch and a pipe hanging out of the corner of his mouth was Mr. Hayate. His nephew Jo was sitting on a green armchair; he had on a white shirt tucked into his faded blue jeans. His black boots were propped up on a coffee table in front of him and he was twirling a black cigarette with a gold tip at the end. Jo had the small box of cigarettes tucked away into the sleeve of his white shirt. I instantly recognized the brand of cigarettes that were in his shirtsleeve; those were Stellar Sticks. They were really popular with young kids right now and all of the smokers in my class only bought Stellar Sticks because they looked so stylish. Never mind the fact that the products inside were still the same and just as deadly as any other brand of cigarettes.

  Mr. Hayate let out a puff of white smoke from his pipe. “Ahh yes, Miss Caprica. How good of you to stop by this morning. Please have a seat.” I sat down on the couch next to Mr. Hayate. He was awfully calm, considering that I’d come here unannounced and it was so early in the morning. That didn’t matter; for now, I needed to stick with the task at hand.

  “So you’re the little cutie pie who’s been giving my Uncle Jinsei a hard time.” I looked over at Jo; he seemed so smug and full of himself. I guess I would be too if my uncle could protect me from getting in trouble.

  Jo’s hairstyle was pretty interesting; the majority of his hair was swept up into two giant black spiraling coils that collided with each other in the middle of his forehead. He licked the tip of his index finger, then he twirled it around the four curly strands of hair that were lying on his forehead. “The name’s Josuke, but you can call me Jo. All of my friends do,” he said, then he gave me a not-so-subtle wink.

  I literally had it up to here with people calling me sweetheart, cute, or anything else but my actual name when I talked to them about anything. “Well, Jo, since you know who I am, I’m not going to waste your time. Let me get straight to the point. I want to ask you a few questions. The day before the robbery took place, I noticed that one of your co-workers, Phoebe, had started cleaning the air vents on the security room floor. But you took her place and started cleaning them. I want to know why.”

  Jo slid his Stellar Stick cigarette into his mouth. “Kari, can you light this for me please?” Kari quietly shuffled over with a lighter in her hand and lit the cigarette. How lazy can you get? Jo took in a long draw on his cigarette. “I switched places with Phoebe ’cause I know she works two jobs and she was probably already tired from doing that. The last thing she would want to do is clean the vents all day long.”

  Oh, so he was doing her a favor; that was his story. “Okay, then. Well, the day of the robbery, thick clouds of purple smoke came out from the air vents and that stopped the culprit from being seen on the cameras. While you were cleaning the first vent, a puff of purple smoke appeared over your shoulder. You tried to wipe the smoke away and you looked a little nervous while doing so. Tell me, where did that smoke come from?”

  Jo puckered his lips together, then he blew out two white rings of smoke. He looked over at Kari and said, “Can you bring that canister in here please?” Kari came back into the room with a black canister that had a green nozzle on top of it. “Go ahead, Kari,” Jo said. Kari pressed down on the nozzle; a purple and a light purple mist came from out of it. A strong bleach-like scent started to burn the edge of my nostrils. I rubbed my nose from side to side to help make the burning sensation go away. “That chemical that’s burning your nose right now is what I used to clean the vents. It makes wiping up dust and anything else in the vents easier. It’s a really harsh chemical and that was why I was swatting it away. I accidentally sprayed some near my face.”

  Kari handed the black canister to me; a silver label with the words Dust Be Gone was written on it, along with a tiny warning at the bottom saying that you should keep the spray away from your eyes and face.

  “I had a feeling that maybe you would mistake the purple haze that came from the canister for what came out of the vents during the robbery, so I decided to keep a can here at the house just in case you decided to come here and question my nephew,” Mr. Hayate said.

  I handed the canister back to Kari. She turned to Mr. Hayate. “Excuse me, sir, but I need to get the mail. Do you need anything else?”

  Mr. Hayate waved his hand. “You’re excused, Kari.” Kari left the room with the canister pressed to her stomach. I didn’t like this. This whole setup was way too convenient. I still didn’t think it was an accident that Jo had switched jobs with Phoebe or that the same spray he used to clean the vents was the same color as the smoke that came out of the vents the day of the robbery. Plus, the both of them were so calm, having a little smoke in their living room on their comfy couches…in fact, neither one of them seemed surprised that I came by. They halfway kind of looked
like they were waiting for me to arrive, like they knew that I was coming. Honestly, everything from what Jo had to say to Kari spraying that can of Dust Be Gone seemed really rehearsed to me.

  “Well, tell me this, Jo. Where were you the day of the robbery?”

  Jo gently tapped his cigarette on an ashtray at the edge of the coffee table. “I was off that day and I was hanging out with my friend Kazuma at his place. He lives in house number 55.” I’d have to check out this alibi of his.

  “Well, Miss Caprica, do you have any more questions?” I really didn’t have any more questions for Jo, plus I knew that his uncle was sitting here like a guard dog trying to protect him. I needed to find more evidence that linked Jo to the crime. That way, I could bring him in for questioning and maybe if I got him alone by myself without his uncle to protect him, he would crack under pressure and tell me what I wanted to know.

  “No, that will be all.”

  Kari walked back into the living room with a few envelopes in her hands.

  “Kari will show you out, Miss Caprica.” Kari handed a small stack of envelopes to Mr. Hayate before she led me out of the living room. As Kari was opening the door for me, she reached into the pocket of her apron and pushed a folded envelope into the palm of my hand.

  “Please go; hurry,” she whispered so softly that I barely heard it. I stuffed the folded envelope into my purse. I waited until I was a safe enough distance to look at the envelope. Kari had written a message for me on the back of the envelope. “Just know that everything you do, say, or ask for is being reported back to Hayate. Check inside this envelope. It should help you with your investigation.” I flipped the envelope over; it was addressed to Jo, and the letter came from Omron Collection Agency. I ripped the envelope open. Instantly, the words “late payment due immediately” and “please respond as soon as possible” came into focus. I flipped the paper over; on the back was an invoice listing all of Jo’s debts from past due payments on a flying saucer, overdue rent, and past due payments on several charge cards. The total amount for his debt came to sixty thousand space credits! On top of all of that, he was coming up on a deadline; the total amount was due by next week or else he was going to have to go to court! If I were in that much debt, I would do whatever I could to get it off of me as soon as possible. Maybe even steal some jewelry that would pay off my own debt and maybe give me some left over for myself. I thought that Kari suspected Jo just as much as I did and, on top of that, she knew why he would steal the rings. I had to do whatever I could to find a connection between Jo and the robbery!

  Chapter 20

  Apartment building number 55 was not that far from Mr. Hayate’s house. I actually passed it on the way there. Next to the entrance was a list of the apartment’s tenants along with their apartment number and a little button you could press to let the tenant know that you wanted to come inside. The list was split down the middle and in the center of that list was a little speaker. I pressed the button next to Kazuma’s name.

  “Hello. Who is it?”

  “My name is Cosmic Callisto.”

  “Oh, you’re that girl that Jo told me about. Just wait a minute. I’ll be right down!” Kazuma slipped through the apartment’s entrance and closed the door behind him. Kazuma had on a checkered tie and a white button-down shirt that was perfectly tucked into his black slacks. His shiny black hair was parted down the side. “My place is a bit of a mess and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to have a lady in there at the moment. Is it okay if we just talk out here?” Kazuma reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a checkered handkerchief; he dabbed at the corners of his forehead. He was in such a rush to get down here and Jo had already told him about me; yeah, he was probably going to give me some rehearsed story that would help give Jo the most perfect alibi.

  “That’s no problem. Josuke told me that he was staying with you on the day of the robbery. Is that true?”

  Kazuma rubbed the side of his face with his handkerchief. “Yeah, me and Jo were out drinking and Jo got a little drunk, so he decided to sleep his hangover off here at my place. His uncle is so uptight and he hates it when he comes home drunk.”

  “Where did you guys go out to drink at?”

  Kazuma blinked his eyes and he took in a small breath. “Well, when I say we were out, I really mean we were out here at this apartment complex.” He couldn’t even keep his story straight. I was done with this guy.

  “Okay, Kazuma. Thank you so much for clearing that up.” Kazuma tucked his handkerchief back into his shirt pocket.

  “No problem at all, ma’am.”

  Kazuma reached into his back pocket and pulled out a thin card. He swiped the thin card over a gray box above the door handle. The box let out a little beeping noise and then Kazuma pushed the door open. So you needed an access card to get into the building. I’d have to remember that if I decided to come back and question Kazuma.

  I decided to go back to the security floor and check on Phoebe. She’d been in that room all by herself overnight with nothing to do. I hoped this was enough to put her over the edge and to get her to start talking. When I walked into the room, Phoebe was slumped over on the desk she was sitting at. Her fluffy orange ponytail had lost all of its fluff and it was now sticking to the back of her neck with little curly coils at the end of it. Before I sat down, I placed a hot cup of coffee in front of Phoebe. After glancing at the cup for a minute, she picked it up and brought the cup to her lips. I let her take a few sips before I dropped the pearl I found in her suitcase along with the pearl that I found at the scene of the crime onto the table. I rolled both pearls from my right hand and then to my left.

  Phoebe banged her fist on the table. “Stop it!” she growled.

  I leaned in close towards Phoebe. “Well, the evidence says otherwise, Phoebe. The footage from the tape, the pearl I found at your residence, and the letter from Cole all tell me that you’re guilty!” Phoebe collapsed onto the table with her hands over her face. “I wasn’t even there that day. That’s not me. I was gone. I was planning what was going to be the best day of my life. I had all my bags packed and everything was going so well. Now it’s over.” She must have been referring to the suitcase I found in her room and the best day of her life she was talking about was the life she was going to have after she stole the rings and collected the money. She was still not ready to talk and she seemed to be in an even greater sense of denial than before! I was not going to waste my time. If she didn’t want to talk, then she could stay there.

  Before I left the room, I slipped the data disc I’d recorded earlier into one of the monitors near the entrance of the room. I set the recording on repeat, so it would start over again after it ended. “You can look at this while I take care of a few things. Maybe I’ll go talk to Cole and see what he has to say about all of this.”

  As I closed the door behind me, Phoebe let out a loud sob. I slowly started to massage my temples. Should I even waste my time with Cole? The only bit of evidence I had for him was that letter and his obvious hatred for Martians. But I really, really wanted to look into what part Jo played in all of this. I seriously didn’t like the fact that his uncle was obviously covering things up for him. I thought I’d put Cole on the back burner for now and make Jo my priority. But what could I do? What could I look into that would give me some sort of hint? I’d looked at the footage from the day of the robbery a million times: the gas is released from the vents, the explosion occurs, and the culprit, Phoebe, flees the scene, mostly likely taking the employee elevator that was next to the scene of the crime. If Phoebe took the employee elevator down to the ground floor, then that meant that someone had to have seen her! On top of that, I couldn’t imagine her trying to make it safely all the way to wherever she decided to stash The Rings of Saturn without a little bit of help. She would need someone to help transport her from point A to point B. I bet if I saw something suspicious like that, I would definitely call security and report it in!

  Since Kari warned me that
everything that I was doing was being reported back to Mr. Hayate, I decided to look through all of the reports and call-ins the day of the robbery. I locked myself into one of the call center rooms on the security floor. Each and every call that was received was entered into a database with the date, time, locations, and other pertinent information. I figured the best place for me to start would be between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. This was easier said than done because so many calls were sent in during this time. There was everything from complaints about the actual anti-Martian gathering to people complaining that their right to gather and to have an anti-Martian gathering was being interrupted by some “hecklers,” aka people telling them the truth about their outdated opinion. Then there was the huge onslaught of calls that came after the explosion occurred. So many calls from people asking if this ship was getting ready to explode, people wanting to know what they were supposed to do during this state of emergency, people demanding to speak with both the captain of the ship and Mr. Hayate. Then there were my personal favorites: the endless sea of prank calls made by a bunch of bored teenagers. My eyes were getting tired, so I decided to take a small break. As I was rubbing my eyes, the phone next to the entrance started to ring. It was specifically for employees. I wasn’t going to pick it up, but after the seventh ring, I finally did.

  “Hi, Cosmo this is Hati!” This was weird. Why would Hati be calling me? It was a little hard for me to hear her; all I could hear was this continuous loud thumping noise. “Kari wanted me to call you and let you know that she wasn’t trying to be rude. She was worried about what her boss would think if he knew that you knew her.”