They should have kept better control of themselves. Even if Shannon hadn’t seen them, if she decided to review her house security records prior to auto-erase at the end of the week, she’d be able to see in explicit detail how they’d made love to each other while she’d showered. What would she do then? File a complaint? Or confront them with the recording?
A steady stream of mourners trickled through the chapel’s doorway behind them. Tanny stomped the snow from her boots onto the rubber mats placed in the lobby. Droid cleaners whizzed back and forth, sucking up the melted slush. She ran a quick scan of the faces in the lobby and matched them to the list of names on her wrist computer. All family, friends, and co-workers so far; any one of them could be Merry’s killer.
They moved into the next room. The funeral director, a gaunt-looking man with his dark hair slicked back and tied at the nape of his neck in a sedate ponytail, greeted Shannon with a relieved smile and hurriedly brought them down the aisle to the front pew. Instead of a coffin, a two-foot-high cenotaph, engraved with Meredith’s image and dates of birth and death, had been placed in the front of the room. But there would be no release of Meredith’s body until after the murders had been solved. No burial, no cremation, and no closure until then.
The heavy aromas of the floral arrangements piled around the bronze cenotaph permeated the air. Tanny took shallow breaths through her mouth instead of her nose. Going into a sneezing fit would not be appropriate behavior at a memorial service.
A man and woman, both thin and worried-looking with their blond hair liberally streaked with gray, stood beside the cenotaph. Per the discreet ID badges clipped to their dark business tunics, they were Meredith’s parents. They’d chosen to play a series of holovid images of their child from babyhood, childhood, and teenaged years all the way through more recent images of her dancing and laughing her way through life.
A simple yet poignant piano piece played in the background. It sounded familiar. Where had she heard that song before? Tanny accessed her link and requested more information. A few seconds later, the answer appeared on her wrist screen. It was Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Waltz. She shook her head at the parents’ choice of requiem music. No prince would ever arrive to awaken their child from her dark slumber.
Her wrist screen changed to code red. A private message from Fergus, via the security band, scrolled across it. “Last pew, second man on right. He’s not listed under friends, family, or co-worker. Still searching for possible cross-references for him under security protocols.”
Oh, shit! Tanny checked her stun gun and shifted sideways in the pew so she could view the suspect.
* * * * *
The service itself was mercifully brief. Meredith’s parents lit candles in front of the bronze plaque. Her mom stood and thanked everyone for coming here today to celebrate and remember the happy and courageous moments of her child’s life. Then the mourners filed up the center aisle to hug the parents and whisper a few words of comfort.
Fergus shifted sideways in the pew and kept the suspect in sight. Dammit! Whoever was in charge of Herm Foundation Security had screwed up royally letting him inside the chapel. According to the data dump he’d received from police records, the suspect’s name was Günter Snell. He was a member of the Anti-Herm League and one of the more prominent protestors picketing Shannon’s corporation. His arrest record for disorderly conduct, assault, and weapons charges was long enough to stretch from Earth to the moon.
It didn’t matter if Shannon’s security ran a basic scan for conventional weapons on every person who came in through the main entrance of their gated community. With the kind of rap sheet this guy had, he probably knew how to turn common, everyday items like shoelaces into weapons.
Cool down. One thing at a time.
Rolf Danner, Shannon’s security chief, stood beside the lobby doorway, his face schooled to a blank mask while he surveyed the room. The rest of the security team had been positioned as five ushers keeping the crowd moving smoothly past the victim’s parents.
Fergus buzzed Tanny via their wrist computer link while he tapped the comlink clipped to his earlobe and murmured, “Code nine. Pew six. Right two.”
Rolf Danner’s frigid gaze flickered toward Fergus in silent acknowledgement of the warning. Then the security chief turned his gaze to the suspect and reached inside his jacket for his stun gun. The ushers spun around, reached inside their jackets, and started moving in on the suspect from five different directions.
A muffled series of booms echoed in the air. The ground rippled and tilted under Fergus’s feet. The lights flickered and went out. The only light in the room came from the two memorial service candles.
A split-second of total silence reigned.
The soft classical music playing in the background had stopped in mid-note as if someone had pulled a plug on it.
Fergus jumped to his feet and turned around. The suspect had already vacated his seat.
A man shouted, “What the hell was that?”
A running shadow darted up the aisle.
A woman screamed, “He cut me! He has a knife!”
More figures jumped to their feet. Confused shouts and panicked cries filled the air.
Time went into slow motion for Fergus. Despite all the confusion and action going on around him, he felt like he had all the time in the world to react. Judging by the explosion, this was a two-pronged attack. A bomb timed to disable the power grid gave the attacker the element of surprise.
He pulled out his stun gun, shoved a shouting man aside, and maintained his position. Günter Snell would have to go through him before he’d get to Shannon.
There! A raised arm with a transparent knife shining within the fisted hand.
Fergus fired his stun gun.
Twin arcs of crackling blue light spilled from the tip of his gun and stabbed into the attacker’s chest. The knife glowed red.
More screams filled the air. Panicked figures jammed the exits.
The attacker stumbled.
Fergus fired a second time. Again, twin arcs of blue stabbed into the man’s chest and he crumpled to the floor.
The knife shattered into fragments.
Plas-glass!
That explained how Günter had managed to sneak his weapon past the scan at the gate. A plas-glass knife wouldn’t trigger a security alarm. Shannon’s solid weight leaned into him from the rear. Fergus braced himself. No way was he going to let her move past him into danger. She whispered in his ear. “Is it safe to move now?”
Chapter Nine
When the lights went out, Shannon jumped up, wrapped her arms around Fergus’s waist, and clung to him as her anchor against terror. Leaning against him, feeling his warm solidity under her arms, felt wonderful. She felt safe and secure, like a child in her father’s embrace. He didn’t push her away. He braced himself in front of her and handled the attacker. When she whispered in his ear, “Is it safe to move now?” her cock rose of its own accord against his hard-muscled ass. Instead of jerking away from that contact, he patted her arm, turned his head to the side, and brushed her cheek with his lips. “It’s over now, querida. You’re safe.”
Now that Fergus had unwound her arms from his waist so he could cuff his prisoner, the entire incident felt unreal and anticlimactic, like a second-rate crime vid. All the aggravation of having Fergus and Tanny staying with her for two days straight and sleeping in her bedroom for what? A distant explosion, a temporary power failure, and a silly, knife-waving man who Fergus handled with two shots from his stun gun. End of story.
On the one hand, she was relieved to know Merry’s murderer was caught and would now have to pay for his crimes. Unfortunately, it also meant Fergus and Tanny would no longer be staying with her. She’d be alone again for the holidays. Tears flooded her eyes. Shannon sat with a sudden thump in the pew and wiped away the treacherous tears with the back of her hand.
Finally, the generator kicked in and restored electricity to the chapel. Pale yellow
emergency lights glowed in the ceiling above the windows and doors.
Shannon turned to Tanny and curved her mouth into a sardonic smile. “It’s over. You have a murderer to book. Don’t worry about your clothes. You can stop by tomorrow morning and get them if you want.”
Tanny’s eyes went black. A flush darkened her cheeks. She shook her head. “It’s not over. Not yet. We still need to interrogate him and see if we can link him to all the murder sites. After that, there are a few things Fergus and I want to discuss with you. Okay?”
Shannon’s heart flipped over in her chest. Did that mean they wanted to continue to see her afterwards as a friend? Or, maybe even as their lover?
“Everyone, please return to your seats,” Fergus shouted from the front of the room. He waved his arms in the air and pointed at the unconscious man, his hands and feet cuffed, lying at Fergus’s feet. “The attacker has been subdued. We’ve contacted a team of investigators to gather evidence, and they will need to question all witnesses before we can release you to go home.”
A man shouted from the rear of the room. “What about the power failure? How long will it take to correct?”
Fergus shrugged. “Another team of investigators is going to the site of the explosion to assess and repair the damages. I will keep you informed of their progress in restoring power to this section of the city.”
“Ms. MacNal?”
Shannon twisted her head around and stared at Rolf Danner, her security chief. He had his long blond hair tied back into a loose ponytail. A hard black vest protected his broad chest. He smiled. “It’s over now. You’re safe.”
She nodded.
“It’s Christmas Eve.”
She nodded a second time. Why the hell was he standing there telling her things she already knew? Yes, it was over, and yes, it was Christmas Eve. Why wasn’t he busy doing his job and taking care of crowd control like the rest of the security personnel here?
“I know this is very short notice.” He stared at her as if she was the only person in the room. “But I was wondering if you would allow me to stop over at your house tonight with a Christmas gift and ... if maybe you’d accept an invitation to go out for dinner with me.”
Shannon blinked. A date! He was asking her out on date!
“I have to go now,” Tanny murmured behind her. “Talk to you later.” Then she squeezed past Shannon and joined Fergus at the front of the room.
Rolf winked at her. “What do you say? Is it a yes or a no?”
What the hell? It was Christmas Eve. He was only asking her out on a dinner date. Why should she have to be alone tonight of all nights? Even though she felt nothing when she looked at him, maybe that would change after she spent a few hours getting to know him.
She gestured at the people settling down in the pews and managed a belated smile. “This may take a while, but I think I’ll be free tonight.”
Rolf grabbed her hand and raised it to his mouth, brushing his lips across her skin. “Great! I’ll be at your front door at six o’clock tonight.”
* * * * *
Fergus swore his eyes were going to be permanently crossed. He grimaced at the taste of the stale, vending-machine coffee in his mouth, completed the last section of a detailed incident report, and sent it to the main database.
They’d revived Günter under the care of a physician. When they read him his rights and the charges against him, they did a full holographic/audio recording of their actions in the presence of his appointed attorney. The crime scene technicians had gathered, labeled, and collated the evidence and done onsite full holographic recordings of witness testimony.
You’d think that would be enough. Oh, no. Now, he and Tanny had to complete five separate detailed reports for each stage of the arrest and evidence-gathering procedure. Plus, it was Christmas Eve. The station was deserted, with only a skeleton staff on duty and ninety percent of the staff using either vacation or sick leave days.
He slouched on his tailbone and tilted his chair back until it was balanced on two legs. He raked his hands through his hair. The cheap plastic chair creaked under his weight. You’d think he’d learn not to do it after he tipped back too far last month and split the back of his scalp open on a desk corner. That cut required six stitches and three weeks’ worth of teasing from the rest of the station about him trying to get workman’s compensation for on-the-job injury.
On the other side of the cubicle, Tanny slapped the send button on her deskcomp and flashed him a sympathetic smile. “I finished my reports. Now I’ve asked the system to pull up the data on Günter’s so-called alibis for the rest of the murders.”
He pursed his lips. “Send me a copy, too. I don’t like the way he kept insisting he didn’t know a damn thing about the other murders.”
She glanced at her screen. “It’s coming in now.” She keyed in a command to reroute the information to his screen.
He cleared his screen and waited for the new data. It showed up in a double-column format meticulously listing dates and times for each murder, with mini-holographic vids of Günter zealously waving anti-hermaphrodite signs on picket lines.
“Oh, shit!” Fergus jumped to his feet and slammed his hands down on the desk. His chair flew sideways and crashed into the cubicle wall. “Fuck!”
Tanny jumped to her feet, pulled out her stun gun, and checked the settings. “Fucking right. Günter’s not the killer. The killer’s still out there and we’ve left Shannon unprotected.”
The look she shot Fergus wasn’t good. “You know what happened right after the attack at the memorial service.”
“What happened?”
“Rolf Danner asked Shannon out for a dinner date tonight and she accepted.”
“Danner! That dickhead!”
“Yes.”
“Fuck!”
Fergus grabbed his phone and dialed Shannon’s number. The phone rang and an automated recording said, “Due to the high volume of calls at this time, all lines are currently busy. Please try again later to place your call.”
He tossed the phone aside. “Fuck! Everyone and his uncle is trying to contact each other on account of the snow emergency, and they’re jamming up the cell phone broadcasts. And with the power failure, her computer’s down and we can’t contact her via email.”
He cleared his screen and requested the police transport grid. “Snowmobile! The SWAT team has snowmobiles and battering rams. We’ll never make it through this storm in a groundcar or aircar.”
The grid for the parking garage popped up on his screen. One snowmobile remained. He keyed in a requisition and tapped his fingers while the request went through.
Green light!
He glanced at the time. 5:30 p.m. “What time did Rolf say he was going to pick Shannon up for this so-called dinner date?”
“I don't know. I didn't stay around long enough to hear what time they set for the date. All I know is that she accepted.”
“Let’s go!”
Shannon might get pissed off at them for going along as chaperones, but it was better to be safe than sorry. And if Rolf was the killer, they damn well better get there before he did.
Chapter Ten
Fergus ran to the equipment locker, inserted his hand in the ID panel, and pulled out a double set of gear for himself and Tanny. Gloves, computerized helmets linked to the snowmobile’s sensors and guidance modules, full body armor, boots, and stun rifles. Images of Merry’s mutilated body flashed into his mind.
He swallowed the taste of bile in his mouth, shook his head, and focused on fastening each section of his armor shut. Don’t think about the hours you wasted booking Günter. Don’t think about Shannon getting killed. They would make it in time. Shannon wasn’t Merry. Even though Rolf was her security chief, she still wouldn’t trust him enough to get close to her right away. Shannon kept herself distant from everyone because she didn’t want to get hurt.
Tanny donned her body armor with short, angry jerks and slaps. She yanked her boots on and jam
med her hands into her gloves. Her mouth and jaw were tight with frustrated anger. “Damn! Damn! Damn! I should have figured it out sooner. What the fuck was I thinking? Merry trusted her killer. No way in hell would she have let a certified nutcase like Günter Snell into her apartment, let alone posed nude for him.”
Fergus handed Tanny a stun rifle.
He saw Shannon, broadsword in hand, step sideways and avoid her android partner’s blow during her practice bout. Her kilt flipped up and revealed a tantalizing glimpse of her buttocks. He saw Shannon’s laughing eyes when she lifted her wine glass to drink a toast during their dinner the night before. “It’s all right, querida. I made the same mistake. Let’s go.”
He turned and led the way out to the elevator and the underground parking garage. Tanny’s steps echoed his in the empty, white-walled corridor. Fully armored, with the helmet under one arm and heavy-duty stun rifle swinging in his other hand, he felt like he was running in slow motion to the elevator while every second ticked mercilessly away to oblivion.
The lift doors opened in front of him. He charged inside, waited for Tanny to brace herself beside him, and yelled his voice commands at the computerized control panel. “Parking garage, second sub-level.”
The floor jerked under them in swift and sudden descent. When the elevator finally stopped and the doors flew open, Tanny charged out beside him and matched him stride for stride into the shadowed bowels of the garage. They raced past a line of armored groundcars and turned the corner.
A service droid hovered beside the two-man snowmobile. Tanny climbed into the rear seat. Fergus inserted his hand into the glowing red hole of the droid’s access panel. Five seconds later the aperture changed from red to green, confirming his ID as an authorized user of the vehicle, and spat the keycard into his hand.
He climbed into the driver’s seat and inserted the keycard. The electric engine started up immediately and the dashboard lit up in a brilliant blue backlight with white print and a GPS map of the city. He flipped the seatbelt switch. Safety webbing extruded and fastened him to his seat. The little figure on the dashboard indicating Tanny in the passenger seat showed safety webbing deployed around her, as well. As an extra safety precaution, both seats turned into auto-eject capsules during an accident.
Rated: X-mas Page 20
