Anda frowned and started skimming the tags. “It appears that most of these crawlers are from Gregos. Listen to this one. The Beta crawler is a bright blue eight-legged crawler that lives in the cushions of chairs. It is attracted to heat and bites anyone who sits on the chair.” She shuddered. “No wonder Jet left Gregos. How does anyone survive in a place so hazardous?”
I didn’t know, but I didn’t think I was going to visit Jet’s home moon anytime soon.
The paperwork on the desk wasn’t providing any clues. None of it had the missing grandfather’s name on it and most of it looked like scholarly texts about crawlers. I started to sit down on the office chair and then thought of the Beta crawler. I instead decided to crouch as I opened the drawers. I hoped there was not a type of poisonous crawler that lived in desk drawers. Three of the drawers held typical desk items, but the fourth was empty except for a single piece of paper. I figured Dr. Othen wouldn’t mind me reading it. Standing again, I glanced at the signature on the paper and frowned. Why would a man who collected poisonous crawlers have a letter from Jem Tun, the head boss of our local Battleboy group? I mean the man was a crawler, but I doubted Dr. Othen would want him in his collection.
Reading the letter I saw that it was an invitation for Dr. Othen to join a scientific collaboration. There was lots of pandering but not a lot of information about what they would be collaborating on, or who with. Still, it made me wonder if Ms. Nun’s grandfather had received a letter as well.
“Travis.” Anda’s voice had me looking up. She was holding one of the glass jars. I raised my eyebrows in question.
“This jar is empty.”
I stood up and went over to her. The tag said it was a Napkin crawler and made its home in boxes of tissue and napkins. I stopped reading. I am not afraid of crawlers, but I didn’t want to be thinking of what was hiding in every object at my home. Instead I took the jar from Anda. It was indeed empty. The breathable stopper was still on it so I wondered if it had escaped or if someone had released it.
“See if there are any other empty ones.” Anda walked along the shelves and started calling out names of missing crawlers. “Jumping crawler. Midnight crawler. Soupbowl crawler. Quickill crawler. Instant Death crawler.”
“Okay you can stop. About how many empty jars do you see?” I shook my head at her non-answer. “Tell me the number of empty jars you see.”
She did a quick count. “Thirteen.”
I looked down at Dr. Othen. “He doesn’t look like he died from a crawler bite, but I have no idea how these crawlers kill. I think it might be time to call the police. Inspector Young can give me the cause of death.”
I dropped the letter back into the drawer since it didn’t tell me anything helpful, and Anda and I walked back down the long room with crawlers looking at us from every shelf. Jet stood when he saw us and then closed the door until it was slightly ajar, the way we had found it. I made a call and told the police dispatch that a dead body needed Inspector Young’s attention. Apparently the good detective was busy because they asked if it was urgent. Not to the dead guy. Fine. Thirty minutes or thereabouts. I hung up and shrugged.
“Since Hector doesn’t think our dead guy is a life or death problem I don’t think we need to hang out and wait for him. Let’s get some lunch and regroup at the office.” I didn’t miss Jet’s sigh of relief but I decided not to mention it.
“You guys head back. I’ll pick up lunch at Nell’s and bring it to you.”
I nodded at Anda’s suggestion. “Fine. Maybe by the time Hector contacts us we’ll have a different plan for finding Ms. Nun’s dear old grandfather.”
●●●
“So they have a lot of poisonous crawlers on Gregos?” I hadn’t planned to discuss crawlers the moment we got back to the office, but Anda wasn’t back with lunch and I figured we should wait for her to discuss the case. Plus, Jet never talked about his home moon and I was curious.
“Venomous.”
“What?”
Jet’s prodigious smile appeared and then disappeared just as rapidly. I wondered if it was Gregos or the crawlers that upset him.
“Gregos has many crawlers and slithers and most of them are venomous, not poisonous.”
I grunted. “What’s the difference?”
Jet shrugged. “Poisonous things harm you when you eat them. Venomous things harm you when they eat you.”
I grunted again. “Does that mean I can eat a venomous crawler, but not a poisonous one?” I shuddered. “Not that I would, but in principle.”
Jet’s grin emerged on low wattage. “I guess that is one way of knowing if a crawler was poisonous or venomous. But I am not getting close enough to either to test it out.”
“No, I agree with that. I’d rather have one of Nell’s sandwiches. Speaking of which, where is Anda?”
“From her reaction this morning she might be learning more about crawlers.”
I laughed. “Yeah, who figured that a woman would be fascinated by crawlers? My landlady runs out of her apartment screaming whenever she sees a crawler larger than the pearl on her ring.”
Jet’s grin wobbled. “I would probably have the same reaction.”
“Yeah, I got that.” I refrained from saying how odd I thought that was. “But you saw the room from the door, right? Why would anyone have that many crawlers? And why so many from Gregos?”
“I did not see many of the jars, but I would guess they were all venomous. Gregos has more venomous crawlers than any moon in the system. In fact, some moons have no venomous crawlers.”
I thought for a second. “I wonder if Anda’s moon doesn’t have venomous crawlers. Maybe that explains why she wasn’t afraid. She’d never seen them before.”
“It could be.” Jet opened the newspaper that was on his desk and I figured he didn’t want to talk about crawlers anymore. I didn’t blame him. I didn’t want to think about crawlers either, and I really didn’t want to think about eating crawlers. I wanted to think about eating lunch. Where was Anda?
I was just about to pull out the list of contacts we had for finding the missing grandfather when Anda walked in with two bulging sacks. Not much was said until she had passed out our sandwiches with sides of slaw and chips. I didn’t know about Jet and Anda, but I always thought better after a lunch from Nell’s.
When we had devoured our lunch, Anda gathered up our trash and then sat back down in the client chair. No one ever said anything but I often wondered if we should get Anda her own desk. The problem was we would have to keep it in the hallway. She had never complained about it, so I had not brought it up.
“Inspector Young wasn’t crazy about investigating your body. Apparently he’s not crazy about crawlers either.”
“He goes into some of the grossest places in the city. He must encounter crawlers all the time.” I paused. “When did you talk… No, wait.” I rearranged my question as a statement so Anda would answer. “I didn’t expect you to talk to Hector.”
“I had to walk past the lab on my way back here. I stopped in and met Inspector Young. He was very abrasive, but I got the impression that was normal for him.”
I laughed. “Yeah, sarcasm is his Problem. If he hated the crawlers that much then I’ll bet the crawlers are our murder weapon.”
“I don’t think so. They rolled the body over and found an open wound over his heart. Inspector Young thought it might have been from a knife.”
“Well, I am actually relieved to hear that. Maybe Dr. Othen just hadn’t collected those crawlers yet.” I didn’t want to think of some Sock Drawer crawler or Leather Shoe crawler hitching a ride as we left.
“I was thinking that, too,” Jet said. Lunch seemed to bring back his smile. “It would be very risky for someone to open the jars. They might get bit in the process.”
I nodded. “Good point.” I brought out the list that Ms. Nun had given us. “Well, just because Dr. Othen was a dead end.” Anda winced and I laughed. “No pun intended. Just because we didn’t learn any
thing from him doesn’t mean we don’t have other leads. Our missing grandfather visited a Dr. Justen Gravas every other day for about a half hour.” I wrote down the address and stood up. “Let’s go see what he knows.”
●●●
There are many things going on in the city that I don’t know about and even more that I don’t want to know about. I didn’t want to know that there was a room filled with jars of live venomous crawlers and now I wish I didn’t know there was a room filled with aquariums containing venomous slithers. I am not bothered by crawlers, and before now I would have said that I was not bothered by slithers, but there must have been thirty or more stacked floor to ceiling in their glass homes. I didn’t run screaming, but the desire to leave was hard to ignore. If it wasn’t for another dead body on the floor I would have escaped long ago.
“Before we go any farther please tell me we’re not missing any slithers,” I said. Anda did a quick search as she was inspecting the occupants of the glass apartments.
“Nope. All the cages are full.”
“Okay.” I wished I could roll this guy over. It would be interesting to know if he had a wound through his heart like this morning’s victim. It would give them something in common besides an abnormal interest in animals that would kill you as soon as look at you.
Like this morning’s crime scene, the door to this lab had been left ajar. I wondered if that was on purpose. I couldn’t see what anyone would gain from having the bodies discovered. Battleboys tended to make their victims disappear. That reminded me of the letter. “Jet, why don’t you see if there is anything useful on the desk? Especially any letters. Anda, when you’re done inspecting the slithers, look and see if you can find a date book. If he met with our MP often maybe he met with other people, too.”
Anda turned away from the slithers. “Isn’t it fascinating?”
“Oh sure, it’s fascinating to be surrounded by things that want me to be their dinner.” I was picking up Hector’s sarcasm and I hadn’t even talked to him recently.
“They are just animals.”
I shuddered. “Right. Just really deadly animals.”
Anda came over to me and peered at my face. “Are you okay, Travis? You look a little pale.”
“I’m fine. Go see what you can find. I’m going to call Hector again.” I stepped out of the room to make the call. I’d leave the slithers for Anda to coo over.
Of course he wasn’t happy I called, and of course he was sarcastic to me. The first was because I was one of his many problems and the second was because sarcasm was his only Problem. One that I enjoyed sparring with, which was probably why he never seemed happy to hear from me.
I thought of going back into the room but I figured Anda and Jet had it covered. Instead I wandered up and down the hall and peered into other doors. All the rooms seemed to be unused. I wondered if that was on purpose or just coincidence. I don’t think I would want to work near a room full of venomous slithers. I didn’t think they could get out of their cage and open the door or anything like that but why take a chance.
Inspector Hector Young arrived with his team and grunted at me as he barged into the room. I hoped Anda and Jet had finished looking around since we weren’t going to get another chance now that the law was here. I followed the last technician in and saw Jet and Anda standing together by a long aquarium that held a ten-foot slither. I didn’t want to know what it did.
“Did he die the same way as the guy this morning?” I asked. I would wait to ask if Jet or Anda found anything when Hector couldn’t hear us.
“Let me get my x-ray goggles on and I’ll tell you,” Hector said. I took that to mean he couldn’t tell me until they had rolled the body. As I waited I kept an eye on the slithers in case one of them wanted to show me how they could open their lids.
“Listen to this,” Anda said. “The Southampton slither can inject venom into its prey even after the slither has died.”
I sighed. More things to worry about. I looked back at Hector and saw that they had rolled the body. A large hole was centered over the heart. I thought that was odd since there didn’t appear to be a blood pool near the body. Was the wound not the cause of death? Or was the body moved? I asked Hector.
“Maybe the guy died and then walked in here to be near his pet slithers,” Hector drawled.
“And maybe whoever killed him wanted him to be found near his slithers. They could be a clue.” It seemed obvious to me.
“And maybe you seem as suspicious as they do. You do know I don’t need to you to bring me more DBs.” Hector’s accent seemed to thicken the more sarcastic he got. I doubted he’d be any more help so I decided it was past time we got out of there.
“Since both these guys might have led me to my missing person I promise you I’d rather talk to them than you. Do me a favor and call me once you know their cause of death.”
“Sure.” Hector motioned to the techs that the body could be removed. “I have nothing better to do than help you solve your cases. No cases or anything of my own.”
“If I learn who killed these guys I’ll let you know.” I thought about mentioning the Battleboys, but I didn’t have enough evidence to make Hector happy and I was really ready to leave. I motioned for Anda and Jet and we left the crime scene to the techs. Once we were outside in the sweltering air, I breathed easier.
“What’s the next step?” Anda asked.
If it was my decision I would say let’s go home and start again tomorrow but instead I looked at Jet. “Did you find a letter?”
Jet removed a folded page from his pocket and handed it to me. It was the same form letter that Dr. Othen had received with Jem Tun’s signature at the bottom. Was that supposed to be encouraging or intimidating? If Jem invited me to join anything I would turn and run. Perhaps that is what the two doctors did and perhaps that is why they died. I began to wonder if our missing grandfather was still living. Had he received the same letter?
“Perhaps we need to talk to Ms. Nun again,” Jet said.
“Yeah, it seems like there is information she has not given us,” I said.
“Well she is not the most sincere woman I have ever met.”
I stopped and looked at Jet. I had never seen him look chagrined but that was how I would describe his face now. Unlike Ausdinians who were only given one Problem by Them, Gregosons could have lots of Problems. I won’t even get into the fact that Jet calls these Problems ‘Gifts’. He comes from a moon covered in venomous crawlers. It’s bound to make anyone a little crazy. Along with monthly Giantism, Jet could detect sincerity in women. I thought it was a very handy Problem, but not if he didn’t mention it. “She wasn’t sincere and you didn’t tell me?”
“Travis, most of our clients are not sincere. If we chose not take their case because of my sense of them, we would never work.”
I sighed. “Okay, I agree with that, but from now on just let me know if you sense insincerity. It might be important in the long run. Like now. So how insincere did she seem?”
Jet’s grin split his face and I knew we were in trouble. “Really insincere. But not about her grandfather. He really is missing. It just seemed like her reason for finding him was deceptive.”
“Great. Do you think she killed our witnesses?”
Jet shrugged. “Why would she list them as possible leads to finding her grandfather if she wanted to kill them? They were not much help once they were dead.
“Good point.” I was about to suggest that we call it day when I looked over at Anda.
She was looking at the list of contacts that she had swiped from my desk and then at the street signs. She pointed at an address on the sheet. “Are we on Gothton Street?”
I looked around. “Yeah, Gothton runs that way to uptown and Shipton runs that way to the river.”
“Well according to your list our missing grandfather worked at 4444 Gothton.”
“I’m not going to be happy if we find another dead body,” I said.
“I am not
going to be happy if we find more crawlers,” Jet said.
I turned to him. “I thought you said those empty jars listed crawlers that Dr. Othen hadn’t collected yet.”
He shrugged. “Dr. Othen may not have collected those missing species yet. But the more I think about it the more I wonder why the jars had tags. Is it possible that someone took those crawlers with them after they killed Dr. Othen?”
“What a horrible thought,” I said.
“I think we should check out the grandfather’s address before anyone else gets there,” Anda said.
I agreed, but figured we wouldn’t be the first ones there. We’d been one step behind all day.
●●●
The address ended up being a bust. We had no problem finding the building but every entrance was guarded by a Battleboy. I have no problem picking them out from a crowd since they tend to be big, muscular, and dimwitted. We were across the street when I spotted the first one lounging by the entrance to the building. They rarely traveled alone so I had Anda take a walk around the block. She reported that every entrance had a thug standing by it. Since no good would come from the Battleboys knowing what we were up to we walked away, hopefully prepared to fight another day.
We were silent for a few blocks when Anda said what I had been wondering. “Do you think Ms. Nun’s grandfather is still alive?”
“Yes,” came Jet’s immediate reply.
I glanced down at Jet, surprised by his confidence. “Why do you think that?”
“Pattern. Two doors ajar, two dead bodies. If he was dead we would find him behind an open door.” I nodded and he continued. “I think the Battleboys were there to catch him should he return.”
“Well, they’re doing it the wrong way. He would see them like we did and go into hiding again,” Anda said.
I agreed, but I had more experience with Battleboys. I chuckled as Grant’s—my previous partner— description of them came to me: ‘They were often unencumbered by the thought process.’ Anda gave me a curious look and I shook my head. Too hard to explain.
In Stone Vol. 1-6: The First Six Travis Eldritch Problems (A Travis Eldritch Problem) Page 8
