Chapter 2: A Fine Mess
It was lunch time and Valerie Mitchum was waiting tables in the small diner where she had found some work. She met the owner a few days after she had left the shelter. Lottie had given her a free meal and allowed her to hang out during the day. Eventually she began waiting tables and helping out. Lottie had been watching her over the last week or so, and had finally hired her last week. Mitch was thrilled. It was the very first job she had ever had. Between what Lottie was paying her and the tips she was making they were enough to pay for a room in an apartment on the top floor of South Mall. It wasn’t much but it did beat sleeping on the streets like she had been doing since she had left the shelter. So far Lottie had been pleased with her. She was easy to work for and didn’t mind showing her things. Lottie had taken Mitch along when she purchased fresh produce for her coffee shop.
Lottie was a gamma bioperson. Although there had been bios on the Adventure, she had never gotten to know them as well as she did Lottie and her husband, Gaylord. Until she had met Lottie and Gaylord she had never been around bios. Over the last few weeks, she had come to know both bios as much was possible to in a short time. They had escaped from the empire, why they hadn’t shared with her yet. She suspected it was something very dark. Something she suspected they seldom talked about even among themselves.
Mitch, with her tables all caught up, was taking a breather watched in horror as a hulk of a woman that Lottie had just put a glass of water and a menu before her, reached up and grabbed Lottie by the biowoman’s hair.
L’eam and F’rena, members of the Companions, were stopping by Lemay’s. A thonian in the Mounted Patrol had recommended the restaurant. When it was time for their morning break, they had made a point of stopping by. The food was good. The owners had made them feel welcomed earlier, especially a young girl on the verge of womanhood who had been their server earlier in the day. When the lifemated pair found out that they cooked Thonian foods they had to come back for lunch. More so since the owners were a couple of biopeople; not Thonians and it was a widely held belief that only Thonians could cook Thonian foods correctly. They were just stepping into the small coffee house when they noticed that a hulk of a woman had grabbed Lottie, the owner, by the hair and was pulling her out into the middle of the restaurant.
“You dirty filthy half-witted cunt!” the woman was yelling, “The company has come to collect you. You are going back to the vat!” She lifted the woman up and threw her against the floor. As the two MP pulled their side arms the woman took a knife out of her cloak. She grabbed the biowoman again by the hair and slashed the woman across the face a couple of times.
Not understanding why, Mitch jumped onto the back of the woman assaulting Lottie, trying to rescue her friend. But the hulk threw Mitch off her with back with her free hand, throwing Mitch into a wall knocking the breath out of her. As she struggled to get her breath and stand up to try again, she saw the Thonians.
“That will be enough!” The male of the two MPs said in near perfect Terrish. He held his service weapon in both hands squarely at the clone’s attacker.
“Screw you!” the woman said. She was one of a squad of closers led by Captain Martha Hozenbur. They had been dispatched by the Security Coordinator at EBio’s Headquarters on Earth to finish some unfinished business on Trena. This bio had been on the escape list for more than a decade. They had suspected that she was on Trena, but this was the first indication that the bio was on Trena. She had stumbled upon the biowoman by accident. She had been taking a walk through the flea market, just walking not working at all when she saw her. The bioperson was accompanied by a teenager as they bought some nick knacks from a vendor. She was certain that this was the biowoman that had escaped from the company ten years settingbefore, setting a fire in a security barracks. The closer thought about killing the biowoman right then and there. She thought better of it. In the Empire she could kill the halfwit and no one would charge her with nothing more serious than disturbing the peace. On Trena, she would be charged with murder. Captain Hozenbur had made sure each and every one of her closers knew what the risks were coming to Trena. They were all committed to closing the clone CD 1984 AOSP’s file, otherwise known as Lady Wilson. She was a special project they had been brought in for; but they were supposed to close as many files of any biopeople they found. They wanted to make sure that every escaped bioperson on Trena knew that they still belonged to the EBio.
“You piece of filthy scum.” She shifted her hold on the biowoman so she could slit Lottie’s throat. “I am going to close your file!”
“I said that will be quite enough,” The companion repeated, “Do that again and I will take you down.”
For an answer the closer slit the biowoman’s throat. The MP fired one time into the closer’s heart, killing her instantly. He put the weapon on the counter as his lifemate called it in. The Thonian bent down checked for a pulse on both women. He shook his head. Both women were dead.
Valerie Mitchum watched in horror; as the Thonian put a table cloth over Lottie. She did not want to believe that Lottie had been killed right in front of her. Lottie was the gentlest woman she had ever known. She had befriended the teenager for the last couple of weeks. She had given Mitch a free meal a couple of nights. She was becoming a good friend. Now she was dead.
“Are you okay Miss,” The tall thonian woman knelt down in front of her.
“No,” felling suddenly sick Mitch got to her feet and ran the restroom. When she was through getting sick into the sink she went out into the restaurant and saw the arrival of an ambulance.
When the Trena Mounted Patrol Homicide Unit arrived, the lead detective looked first at the biowoman and then at the dead closer then turned to the MP, “You couldn’t have just wounded the closer?”
“No sir,” The MP said, “A wounded closer is much more dangerous than a dead one. She had killed one person and I wasn’t sure she was not going to kill another.”
“Okay.” The Mounted Patrol officer replied, he had worked with Thonian MPs before and knew they wouldn’t fire unless they had too. The cop searched the woman and found her company ID and saw that she was part of an Ebio Containment and Alignment team. It amazed him how the company worked. If he had been on a world that made it a habit of making life difficult for Ebio Containment and Alignment teams, he sure wouldn’t have carried an ID tying him to the Ebio. The Mounted officer looked at the Thonian MP and said, “She was a closer all right. She would have done you next if she could.”
“I thought you guys stopped closers at the port.” The MP replied.
“We register them, read them the riot act and let them go. We can’t legally touch them until they break our laws. We have some closers on world who have retired, or defected. We have to give them the benefit of the doubt or we become just as bad as them. Good shot.” he said “Who are the witnesses?”
“That young lady,” the Thonian said pointing to Valerie Mitchum.
The cop walked to where Valerie was standing. He knew her immediately. He had arrested her for shop lifting a couple of weeks ago, he had been in a grocery when she tried to shop lift some food. To his knowledge the kid hadn’t been in trouble since, “Mitch, how you been doing?”
“I don’t know,” the teenager answered. She had never seen anything like that ever. Her stomach was still queasy. She still couldn’t believe she had jumped on that woman’s back.
“Why you here,” the detective asked.
“I am working here for Lottie or was.” She pointed to the now covered body of her friend.
“What did you see,” the cop asked. He turned on his pad and recorded the girl’s statement. “It backs up what the companions said. Where are you staying?”
“I’ve a room in an apartment at the mall,” Mitch replied. “But not for long. If Lottie’s husband closes this place I’ll be out of a job.”
“Here,” the cop gave her a ten credit note that he was going to use for lunch the next
couple of days. He shouldn’t do it. She was a witness in the murder he was investigating. If someone saw what he did they might question Valerie’s statement.
“Thank you,” Mitch took the note. She answered a few more questions and was told to stick around for a while. She was standing outside a few minutes later when a large car with the royal crest on it pulled up. She recognized one of the people who got out of the car as Marshal Wilson. She wasn’t certain who the thonian woman was, who accompanied him enter Lottie’s. The Marshal looked around a bit and left the restaurant to stand next to the car that brought them. Mitch was still sitting on a bench waiting to be allowed to leave when she overheard Officer Caruthers making his report to the Marshal.
“It’s a righteous shooting. The MP did it by the numbers, and was backed up by the others in the restaurant. Victim number one is Lottie the owner of the restaurant. She was DOA when Trenaport Fire and Rescue arrived. She was killed by victim number two. Victim number two was killed by Warrior L’eam Re’Ta of the 83rd MP Battalion when the woman killed victim number one and wouldn’t stand down. Victim number Two or the killer, we’re tentatively identifying at Roberta Foster. This is based on the EBio identification she was carrying identifies her as Roberta Foster. Ironically it puts her as an EBio Containment and Alignment officer. What the company calls a closer. She didn’t come through the space port. So she must have been smuggled in. We may be able to track her movements. Forensics will run everything there is to find on her. We may get lucky.”
“Okay,” Wilson said, “I want a full review. I want it to go through the entire system. I want those two officers on desk duty while this is settled. It sounds like a righteous action; but I want it to be proved.”
“Yes sir,” The man had sat in on Wilson’s principles of internal affairs course and knew what the Marshal was after. All police involved shootings had to be proved one way or the other, and they have to be one hundred percent open to public scrutiny. “Just the way you taught us sir.”
The thonian with the Marshal waited for the inspector to finish his report and then came up to Wilson, “Typical closer operation. Grab the clone and brutalize the poor victim, and then kill her. She had cut the girl’s face a couple of times and then knowing that she was going to be killed slit the woman’s throat.”
“Mac,” Wilson turned to a tall huskily built, sandy haired man, “You’ll have this in writing before the end of the day; but as of now any closer seen around the palace, the Queen, my family, or that of Mylea’s; you have permission to close their file! You’ll have your hunting license soon.”
“Aye sir,” the huskily built man replied. Mitch wondered what the Marshal had meant by a hunting license.
“Boss,” Mitch watched one of the men in suits poked the husky sandy haired man in the ribs. Mitch thought the man was distracted. She wondered what he was distracted over.
Mac had been deep in thought when his subordinate had elbowed him in his ribs. Unlike his troops, he had been distracted by his charge’s statement. He followed his subordinates pointing finger.
“Shit,” Mac cursed, turned to Wilson, “Sir Mike, it’s time to leave.”
“I see them,” Wilson replied, and got into the limo. Mitch watched the limo pull away wondering what would become of her now that Lottie was dead.
She saw Gaylord his face ashen as he walked with the body of his wife to a vehicle with the words Trenaport Coroner on it. As the body was packed into the vehicle Mitch went to Gaylord and held him. They both walked into the restaurant and soon were crying each other’s arm.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 48
