Erik grinned. “We’ll just emphasize his brilliance in our reports and leave you out.”
“Exactly. It’s not that hard.” Emma vanished. “I’ll let him explain what he has for you.”
Malcolm’s face lit up with pride. “First of all, I’ll give you the easy stuff to deal with. Okay, semi-easy. Our stalker? He got a huge payout three days ago from an off-world bank. We can try communicating with them, but given the nature of the account, I’m giving us a one or two percent chance of associating someone real with the account in any sort of timely manner.”
“That can’t be easy,” Erik insisted.
Malcolm shook his head. “Nope. Whoever did this was not only rich, but they knew how to work core-world banking systems to their advantage.”
Jia’s suspicious gaze drifted toward the door. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing a random delivery stalker would know how to do.” She looked at Erik. “But it does sound like something someone associated with a Hexagon-located corporation might know.”
“Yeah.” Erik leaned forward. The central data window hovering over the desk displayed credits and debits in Trevor Fairchild’s primary bank account. His eyes flitted back and forth, trying to review the data backward. “For a man who was obviously living modestly, the sudden influx of money is noticeable.” He looked at Malcolm. “During our interrogation, he said he inherited some money.”
Malcolm scratched his chin. “I’m not going to say that’s impossible, but the way this money came into his account isn’t how those kinds of payments work.” He paused for a second, reviewing the information on the credit to the account. “It’s hard to do probate with semi-anonymous deposits. I’m not an expert on that, but I have gone through that kind of data for other cases.”
“Remember what I thought?” Jia asked. “A hitman.”
Malcolm mouthed the word before speaking louder. “But he didn’t kill anyone. People don’t pay hitmen to stun people, do they? Wouldn’t that just make him a stunman?”
“Publicity stunt,” Erik suggested, rubbing his nose. “They give their wholesome idol a little edge. Make her life dangerous, gives them a bunch of PR leading into their big tour.”
Jia didn’t look convinced. “But her asshole manager seemed obsessed with doing everything he could to keep her from being associated with anything like that. Why hire some random guy if there’s already a police investigation involving two famous cops?”
“Oh!” Malcolm snapped his fingers. “I forgot. My other goodie for you. It’s what I found in Chau Nguyen’s personal files. A hidden, semi-encrypted diary she started earlier this year. I mean,” He scoffed and rolled his eyes, “She used normal commercial encryption. It’d stop some random person from getting into it, but it’s not going to stand a chance against a professional.”
Erik smirked. The unspoken “like me” was hanging at the end of Malcolm’s comment. He let it go.
Jia grinned. “I’m glad you’re on our side, then. Find anything interesting?”
“I skimmed it. It’s mostly just about how lucky she felt to work with Rena Winston and how talented she thought she was. She thought that Leonard guy was a total jerk, though.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Jia muttered.
“I hope he gets into a flitter accident,” Erik admitted.
“But there’s the thing.” Malcolm furrowed his brow. “The entries got really sparse this last month and then stopped. There’s only one recent entry from a few weeks ago.” He tapped in the air on a keyboard only he could see through his smart lenses. Another data window appeared, this time containing text the officers could read.
APRIL 14, 2229
Everything’s different now. I don’t know what to do. What they did was wrong, but she doesn’t deserve to suffer because of what they did. I don’t even think she knows. I have to do something, though. It’s all wrong. Sick. Twisted.
He waved a hand at the post. “And that’s it. No more entries after that.” Malcolm shrugged.
Jia stared at the diary comment. “It doesn’t take much of a logical leap to conclude she might be talking about Leonard or someone else at Euterpe. The ‘she’ referenced must be Rena, but after what we saw earlier, I have a hard time believing she knew anything about Chau getting murdered unless Rena’s the greatest actress in the UTC.”
Erik nodded, thinking through the information. “Leonard might be hiding something, after all. Maybe he paid the stalker, but I don’t get why. The PR angle is the only one that makes sense at the moment.”
Malcolm tilted his head and held up a finger. “One moment, Detective. Your Lady is with you today.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “I was trying to follow up on some records request. I sent some stuff to Remus, but you know, it’ll be a while before it comes back.” Malcolm swiped his hand through the air. A new data window appeared with a message. He spent a few moments reading it. “I double-checked with the Census and Biographic Directorate.”
“Huh?” Erik replied. “What do they have to do with this case?”
“I suggested he do it,” Emma chimed in, a hint of smugness in her voice. “I thought it might be helpful, and the fewer direct fingerprints I had on the investigation, the better, so I pointed him toward some additional resources.”
Jia shrugged. “Fine. What did you find, Malcolm?”
Excitement grew on his face. “So, while it’s a little convoluted, hear me out. I don’t know if it means anything but given the crazy stuff you two end up involved in, I can’t ignore anything out of hand.”
“A good policy.” Jia’s brows lifted.
“So, her parents—the ones who died in the accident? They weren’t her parents. Crazy, right?”
Erik rubbed his forehead. “This is convoluted. So, who were they?”
Malcolm shrugged. “Random people. They weren’t blood-related, though. She has birth records from a hospital on Remus, but her actual parents weren’t recorded. From what the CBD records indicate, they weren’t even adoptive parents who took an orphan or an abandoned kid or anything, just temporary legal guardians.”
Jia thought it through. “Family friends?”
“Maybe, but there’s nothing in the records to indicate that.”
Erik stopped rubbing his forehead and moved to pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why does every murder have to be so convoluted in Neo SoCal?”
Jia ignored his slight about her city of birth. “I’ve never read anything that suggests Rena is aware of any of what Malcolm just said.”
“That would be correct,” Emma offered. “She’s never spoken of her parents as being anything but her normal biological parents in any publicly recorded interviews.”
Erik shrugged. “Family can be difficult, even when you’re not a famous singer. We both know that. It took me a lot to call my brother back, and I knew the score, and why we had trouble between us. If she didn’t know the truth for a long time, maybe she didn’t want to face it and decided to put it behind her.”
“No, there are too many loose threads,” Jia insisted. “There are too many inconsistencies, Erik. The only thing we know for sure is a woman ended up dead on Dragon Tear and a suddenly rich stalker decided to finally go after his target.”
“Well, there is an upside,” Erik suggested.
“What’s that?” Jia asked, incredulity both on her face and in her tone.
“At least we don’t have to go into the Scar this time,” he quipped.
“Yet.” Jia snickered. “We have a lot of evidence, but is it enough?”
“Nope. We have more than evidence.” Erik lifted a finger and took on an evil grin. “We’ve got a suspect. We’ll let him sit in there for a day. He thinks this is all going to work out. He thinks he’s just going to end up transported, spend a few years doing some farm labor, and retire on the frontier a rich man. We’re going to let him get nice and comfortable, and then we’re going to push that arrogance right out of him.”
/> Jia nodded, readiness returning to her face. “Even if he didn’t have anything to do with the murder, he might have a connection to someone who did.”
“Exactly,” Erik agreed.
“I love watching you guys work.” Malcolm leaned back. The squeak his chair gave made Jia flinch, but she grinned as she took in his enthusiastic smile. “Let’s take down some criminals!”
Chapter Eleven
When Erik and Jia stepped into the interrogation room the next day, the suspect had already been sitting at the table for thirty minutes.
It wouldn’t hurt Trevor, and it might help figure out just who was helping to hide a killer.
He’d spent the night in holding after a meeting with a lawyer. He’d been under the impression he would be free until trial, but an expedited ruling ensured he’d rot in jail until then.
It was an easy sell for the judge, given that everyone felt a stalker with few strong connections to the community was a heavy flight risk. Jia was looking forward to applying pressure, with Erik’s help.
They’d already arranged for a fake prisoner in a nearby cell to complain about how he couldn’t go back to prison, and how awful it was compared to jail. To get to the truth, every tactic must be considered. It wasn’t like it was false, either.
Prison wasn’t pleasant.
Heavy bags occupied the space under Trevor’s eyes. He eyed the two detectives as he rubbed his wrists as well as he could, considering the binding ties he had on.
“Enjoy your first night in jail?” Erik gave him a cold smile. “This is a damned hotel compared to what you’re going to experience in prison.” He stopped for a moment, pursed his lips, and scratched his cheek. “The hard part, though, is not even being on Earth. Knowing you’re sitting in a pile of metal with fake light. Even a frontier dome is paradise compared to that.”
Trevor’s eyes darted back and forth, taking in Erik and Jia. “I’m not going to prison. I told you the other day, it’s going to be transportation. That’s the most reasonable sentence for my crimes.”
“You really believe that, don’t you, Trevor?” Jia settled in at the table and let out a quiet laugh. ”Maybe, just maybe, if you’d shot someone with a stun pistol by mistake, we might be talking about that, but you trespassed in a building, shot a security guard, and admitted in front of several witnesses that you were there to harass Rena Winston.” She pointed toward her PNIU. “We were there on official police business, so we recorded all that. Euterpe Security has already sent over their recordings.” She shook her head. “Nope. Everyone knows you’re a dangerous stalker. No one believes for a second that you just wanted to talk to Rena.”
Trevor narrowed his eyes on Jia. “You can’t send me to prison for something I didn’t do. That’s not fair.”
“Sure, we can. We do it all the time. Why do you think they call it ‘attempted murder?’” Jia shrugged. “Just because you’re an incompetent criminal doesn’t mean you get to go free. Do you think a terrorist who is stopped from shooting citizens gets to argue, ‘Not fair. I didn’t kill them?’” She rolled her eyes. “You’ve been watching too many legal dramas, Trevor. This is the real world.”
Erik shrugged, a sympathetic look on his face. “We’ve checked your background. We know you’re not a hardened criminal. It’d be a stretch to even call you antisocial before this little incident.”
“Exactly!” Trevor shouted. He took a deep breath, then leaned toward them and lowered his voice. “They have to take that into account, right?” He looked eager. “It was my first offense. Not antisocial. I’ve worked my entire life. I’m a good candidate for transportation, not prison. That kind of thing is for garbage. Murderers and gangsters. Terrorists and insurrectionists.”
“I see where you’re coming from,” Erik replied. He tapped his cheek. “I served with more than a few soldiers during my Army days who’d had a rough start before the military straightened them out.”
Jia was surprised Erik would bring that up as part of their strategy. It described him in a way, and he was normally more private, even indirectly. She didn’t have time to worry about him baring his soul.
They hadn’t been sure the day before if their strategy would work, given how calm Trevor was, but after only one night and a little creative performance near him, his hitman persona had vanished, replaced by a scared suspect in over his head.
“That’s why I should get transportation,” Trevor insisted. He took a few quick breaths to steady himself. “I studied it before I decided to do what I did. I read all about the law. Recommendations can help with that. You guys could talk to the prosecutor. I cooperated. I didn’t sit here and deny it. I could have made things really annoying.”
Jia scoffed. “What were you going to deny? It’s not like we don’t have enough evidence to drown a syndicate boss.”
Erik nodded at his partner. “She’s got a point, Trevor. If you want the prosecutor to make any recommendations for sentencing, you’ve got to do more. You’ve got to give us something we don’t have already. Then it’ll look like you’re cooperating.”
“But I don’t…” Trevor looked down. “I was never going to hurt her. I swear. You have to believe me.”
“But that still leaves Chau Nguyen.” Erik shrugged. “She’s dead. Someone killed her.”
Not having direct physical proof of the murder beyond a reasonable doubt wouldn’t matter if they could score a confession and supporting evidence.
The only thing Jia had argued with Erik was that Trevor didn’t seem the type to kill. However, the detectives had agreed the night before he was their best lead.
Trevor lifted his head, his eyes widening as he looked at the two of them. “I didn’t kill that woman. I do not confess or accept that. I’m not a murderer. All I did was stun a guy!”
“I’m betting you have an idea who did kill her.” Erik stood and leaned over the table, causing Trevor to lean back. “Come on, Trevor. A guy like you doesn’t get a big splash of cash for no reason. Someone gave that to you to help them out. It’s enough to see why you might take a fall for them.”
“T-that was an inheritance,” Trevor sputtered.
“Transferred from a semi-anonymous off-world account?” Jia asked. She slapped her hand on the table. “Give us a break, Trevor! Yes, we can trace the owner, but we don’t have time. If you’re not the murderer, you might have evidence that will lead us to the murderer. Right now, we have a stalker, a dead woman, and a mysterious payment. How can we be sure you weren’t paid to kill Chau Nguyen? How do we know she didn’t catch onto your plan to kidnap Rena?”
“I wasn’t going to kidnap her.” Trevor groaned as he slumped in his chair, pinching his eyes shut. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
Erik returned his chair, nodding in sympathy.
Jia agreed the Good Cop, Bad Cop-routine might be a centuries-old practice, but it still worked. Next time, though, she wanted to be the good cop.
“You didn’t want to do any of this, did you, Trevor?” Erik suggested. “You want transportation instead of prison? Then it’s like I said before—you have to give us something to work with. If you weren’t paid to kill Chau Nguyen, why did you get all that money?”
They allowed him some quiet to either decide he was still fighting or…
“I couldn’t turn it down.” A tear escaped down Trevor’s cheek. “My life was going nowhere. All I had to do was scare her and stun a guy. I checked on the net. It said stunning didn’t hurt permanently. Punching a guy risks more permanent damage.”
“You’re saying someone paid you to go after Rena Winston?” Jia asked, dropping the hostility from her voice.
“I don’t even know how they knew I needed money. Things had been getting tight lately. I made some bad choices, not criminal stuff, just spending money I didn’t have. Borrowing. They called me, hidden number somehow. They must have overheard me. They had seen me at Euterpe before.” Trevor stared into his lap. “I make a lot of deliveries there. They said th
at would be helpful. It’d be easier for me to get past Security. They supplied the stun pistol. Mailed it to me. They told me the time I needed to be there, and that I just had to say I was delivering the flowers. They said they would ensure Security would let me in without checking me.”
Erik furrowed his brow. “Did you recognize the voice?”
“It was all distorted on the call,” Trevor whispered, peering at the two of them, the fight gone from his eyes. “You have to believe me.”
“Wait.” Jia put up a finger. “You’re saying they contacted you and made the offer. Then you weren’t stalking Rena Winston to begin with?”
Trevor nodded. “To be honest, she’s not my type. She’s a little too ‘perfect angel’ for me.”
Jia rolled her eyes. “Duly noted.” Why was it that guys wanted girls who were a bit crazy? She eyed Erik, who wasn’t paying attention to her. Or girls might want guys who were rough?
There was a ring of truth to his confession.
Malcolm’s initial dive into Trevor’s PNIU hadn’t revealed anything to suggest he’d cared about Rena Winston before a few days prior. There were no messages sent to her, no files featuring her. Her heart rate kicked up. If Trevor wasn’t a stalker, that pointed to a disturbing possibility.
Jia stood. “We need to follow up on what you’ve told us. You might stay out of prison yet, but I’d get ready for a few years working for the UTC on a colony world.” She headed toward the door, ignoring the hope in the suspect’s eyes. After exiting the room, she waited for Erik to emerge.
His easy-going, sympathetic persona vanished as he slapped the access panel to close the door. “If Trevor’s not a stalker, why did Leonard tell us there was one?”
Jia had to play the other side of this argument. “There could be another stalker, and it’s just a coincidence that Trevor showed up.”
Erik eyed her. “On the exact day and time of the interview? And getting that deep into Euterpe? If that was all it took, half their people would have been kidnapped years ago.” He looked up and down the hallway. “He had help from the inside.”
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