During the trial, I had grown out my hair and let my natural warm-brown color return. When that happened, I could dial back the makeup and feel comfortable in my own skin even as the world crumbled around me.
She turned to look me in the eyes, and all the hatred I had expected from James, I found in her. If looks could kill, she would have shot me into a black hole to be torn apart at the atomic level.
She raised her upper lip in a snarl before turning back to James, her expression falling into full adoration. My stomach twisted as I realized how much the scene looked like a picture I had of James and me together. I had left my photos on Earth along with most of my physical possessions, but the image was etched into my brain. She didn’t look exactly like me, but there was a strong resemblance.
I could practically feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Why on earth would she make herself look like that? I watched them, the space between them, the angle of her body, the tip of her chin, and the way a smile sneaked up on her lips. She was in love with him.
I thought things were already at the worst possible stage, but I was wrong. Watching my ex-fiancé with my replacement was a great way to take the situation up a notch.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to say something. “Hello, James.”
Officer Girlfriend narrowed her eyes at me, shifting her brown contacts to show the blue underneath, but she didn’t spew whatever venom was on the tip of her tongue.
James’s expression was neutral. He set his feet wide in a power stance. “Please refer to me as Senior Officer Markswell. Captain Elizabeth Laika, your crew was ordered to stay in their quarters.”
Next to me, Raph bristled, so I twisted my hand and touched his forearm. It was a slight movement that I hoped James didn’t notice. Raph had opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut.
I stepped forward. “Navigator Raphael Johnson was present when the fatality was discovered and wanted to offer his perspective.”
“It is not his job to determine when he will be interviewed. I’ll be noting this deliberate disregard in my report, and—”
I interrupted. “Oh, James. You know—”
“I said to refer to me as Senior Officer Markswell.” Anger was slipping out from behind his calm, formal façade.
Something in that set off the bubble of unease in me, and it burst into white-hot rage. “Senior Officer Markswell, I request and require you to return to your shuttle until your remaining support staff arrive, an event which must occur within the next fourteen hours from our first point of contact. When your team boards, I will be filing for an executive lawyer to be present.”
James didn’t react, but I could see the muscle in his jaw working. He must have forgotten the fact that I was the one who had spent weeks quizzing him for his final exam on fleet investigations. I didn’t have a photographic memory, but it was pretty darn good, especially when the case law could potentially affect me. Not that I ever thought I would be on the wrong end of one of his investigations.
I clenched my right fist down at my side. “Based on our history, I should be requesting a new lead law enforcement officer.”
“Fine! You made your point, Liz. But I want it understood that if you do anything to tamper with the investigation, I will call your bluff.”
I looked him square in the eyes. “And I will call yours. Someone died on my ship. I want justice served as much as you do. James.”
He sighed. “Where is the communications room? Officer Halston and I will collect the records. This ship is under quarantine until we’ve finished that section of the investigation. That means that you and your navigator will both need to stay in your rooms.”
The tension shattered, leaving Raph and Officer Girlfriend to size up the opposition. If they were dogs, they would have been straining at their leashes and growling.
Officer Halston spoke up. “James, should I escort them? Make sure they don’t try anything?” She probably intended to sound menacing, but she didn’t.
His eyes cut to her, and she flinched. He hated either having his instructions questioned or her using his first name, probably both. Whatever the reason, it gave me a spark of satisfaction.
I turned to leave, Raph falling neatly into place at my side. Our footsteps echoed on the industrial metal flooring. When the ship had been new, it was slick. But time changed everything, and the loose panels magnified the sounds of us treading across them.
Once we were out of hearing range, I nodded. “Thank you for joining me. It was nice to present a united front.” I hoped that said enough.
“Permission to speak freely, Cap?”
I was so surprised by his formal request that I faltered before recovering my pace. “Of course.”
“I don’t trust him. Or her. Them. The whole danged fleet. It feels even more like a setup now that I’ve seen him. He has secrets.”
“We all have secrets. He’ll do a good job.”
“The man you were engaged to might have, but people change.”
I knew the truth of that more than anyone else. “I see your point. I’ll be cautious.”
CHAPTER FIVE
By the time quarantine was lifted, my stomach was ready to head out on its own to find food. It shouldn’t have taken so long to download the records and seal off the crime scene.
I entered the mess hall on autopilot. To my right was the ordering station piled high with prepared food and a section for custom orders normally programmed in ahead of time, though I imagined most of the crew was going to have last-minute comfort-food requests from the food producer.
Despite my stomach’s desires, it was my heart that needed to be fed, so I veered left to the large bank of windows that encompassed the entire wall. The ship was old and decrepit, but sometime in the past, it had been a leader in its field. Though the rest of the ship had aged, the full wall of windows was the reason the ship had been such a good home to me.
I stared out, and it was like my heart started beating again. The richness of space was a welcome friend, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. My shoulders lowered, and as I cranked my neck left and right, my spine cracked.
The Night Horse galaxy looked back at me, the same and yet a living constellation that was always slightly different: rotating, galaxying, and shifting around for all eternity. It had been dancing long before I was born and would continue long after I was no more.
There was no place that I felt as small and insignificant and yet perfectly at peace and close to God. Space had been my one constant friend since childhood, and I cherished every opportunity to stare out into it. The only other place that had a window near this size was the navigation room. But that was all business, and this was all pleasure.
I could stand in the center, and my entire field of view would be filled with stars and planets. It was almost as though the ship ceased to exist and it was just me and the universe. If I didn’t need my own room to metaphorically lick my wounds, I would have spent every minute in the mess hall, staring off into the distance.
I spun around to face someone who was approaching quickly from my right. My body moved on instinct before my brain fully noticed what was happening. I had years of military training, but I was clearly out of practice since Chloe was practically on top of me.
“Easy. No need to get your knickers in a knot.” She handed me a cookie the size of my face then bit into her own half-eaten one.
I took a bit of the peanut butter delight while casting a look over my shoulder. It was chewy and sweet with a bit of crunch on the outside. It was just what I needed. “Thank you, but make sure the investigating team doesn’t see these.”
“Raph told me the guy is a real jerk and you dated him.” She finished off her cookie and wiped her hands on her pants. There were deep orange smudges under her eyes, and her gills twitched.
“Don’t worry. He’s good at what he does. You can’t even get into advanced officer training unless you have a sterling record. He can be a real p
ain in the neck, but he will find out who killed the Cerulean and why.”
“But Raph says that Officer Markswell was really mad at you.” Chloe twisted her hands.
“Raph’s being cautious, and I already promised I would be careful. I will call in legal counsel if necessary, but don’t worry. It won’t be necessary.”
“It’s not just that. It’s the Ceruleans. They are hiding things as well. I think… I don’t trust them.”
I let out a little sigh. “Chloe, you are getting all worked up for no reason. I’m going to talk to Raph as well. There is no reason for anyone to be jumping to conclusions.”
She shook her head. “I’m not jumping to anything. I talked to the Ceruleans myself. Something is off.”
“Chloe,” I said in a warning tone.
“A member of their party was murdered, and they had been under quarantine. It was appropriate that I made sure they were comfortable and provide any provisions they needed. That’s my job, after all.”
“Of course, you’re correct. Since you already spoke to them for official reasons, did you discover anything?” I bit into the cookie.
Sugar wasn’t allowed on ship because it was too addictive and without any nutritional content, but I had long looked the other way when Chloe used it for baking. Life was more than nutritional value. Sometimes you needed a bit of harmless joy to make life worth living, especially given the drudgery of transporting cargo.
“They’re hiding something, and I think I know what.” She leaned in, dramatically smiling. “I think the future princess is traveling incognita to her wedding.”
“Princess? On this ship?” I snorted. “Must not be a very rich planet.”
Cerulea was one of the planets roughly along the path we traveled, and I had a vague sense it was a smaller planet. With hundreds of inhabited planets in the current sector, I was not versed in all of them as that was a specialized area of study. But something wasn’t lining up.
Chloe confirmed my hunch. “They are very rich and snobby. They seldom leave the planet, which was what got me suspicious. I knew the royal wedding was coming up, and the princess had been off-planet for some time. They currently have a king, and when he marries, the bride will be a princess. I noticed the way everyone was deferring to the tall female in the pink dress, and I am almost positive I recognize her. I used some of my data credits to search for a picture and found one from when she left the planet. I’m pretty sure it’s her.” Chloe held up her work unit and pressed a few buttons then turned the screen to show me.
I looked across the room at where the four Ceruleans were at a table. Their blue skin varied slightly in tone. There was a tall dark-blue female sitting next to a small man with Earth-sky-blue skin. In the middle shades were a smaller female and a tall man. I observed the interactions between them to try to see what I could discern.
The smaller female busied herself with arranging items on the table, constantly looking to the other female for feedback. The taller female occasionally acknowledged the smaller one but mostly seemed to be listening to the males, who were arguing, or at least discussing, a topic with great enthusiasm. Their gestures were abrupt, and they talked over each other.
If they were fleet members, I would have guessed the tallest female and male were roughly peers and the two shorter ones were lower ranked. But it was dangerous to make assumptions about cultures from other societies, especially those from isolated planets without a significant fleet presence. They could often have standards that were quite literally alien to our understanding.
I looked at the picture and back at the tall female. Her hair was styled slightly differently, but it had the same bluish-black color that reminded me of an Earth raven’s wings. It was pulled back severely, and picturesque little locks framed her face.
The eyes in the picture had thick and slightly even black surrounding them. I guessed it to be eye makeup, which wasn’t present on the female at the table, but the general shape of the eyes, face, and lips seemed to be the same. Given how different the smaller female appeared and the variation of the males, the match between the picture and the female seemed even more conclusive.
I handed the work unit back to Chloe. “I’m not convinced, but I can’t deny that the taller female does look like the picture. Did you spend all your data credits to get it?”
I heard that there was a time when all of Earth’s knowledge was available with the pressing of a few keys. How little they must have known, and how little they had explored space. The ship carried a large amount of information, but I doubted that Cerulean royalty nuptials had made the cut. Transferring information off of and onto the cargo ship was severely limited, and most crew waited to be docked on the planet where they could receive more information in a few hours, depending on how many lightyears away the data was stored. Transferring data through intraspace was often slower than flying it there via a ship.
“I had to use all my credits and borrow some of Raph’s, but I’m pretty sure this was worth it. The future princess is apparently a wild child, and they feared she wouldn’t return at all. They’ve been worrying for the past year.”
I tipped my head to the side. “How do you know all this?”
“I’ve watched every season of True House Mavens of Cerulea. Raph gets me the episodes through a guy he knows.”
“Please tell me that is an educational documentary.”
“No.” She jutted her chin up in the air. “It’s a reality show and a lot of fun.”
I leaned in. “You know that isn’t allowed.”
She blew out a breath. “Nothing is allowed. Sugar, good shows, fiction books that aren’t deemed educational. And don’t tell me that you don’t know what I am talking about because I know—”
“Fine!” I threw up my hands.
“I know you don’t care, or I wouldn’t do it,” Chloe said seriously. “But we both know the fleet is getting out of control. Anyways, I’ve been watching the show for years, and the future princess returning to marry the king has been a big storyline this season. I can’t believe she’s here. I’m surprised they don’t have cameras.”
“Or a bigger security detail? Why are they here? Why not someplace fancier?” I chewed on my lower lip.
“Are you going to finish that cookie?” Chloe bounced on her toes, her gills flapping in anticipation.
I broke the cookie in half and handed her one side. “Tell me everything you know.”
She smiled and bit into the cookie. After swallowing, she took a deep breath for what promised to be some epic info. “The king is mostly a figurehead that dictates styles, customs, and entertainment. You know that entertainment is one of their chief exports.”
“An entire planet can survive on reality shows?”
“Maybe, but it’s more than that. They also export these items made of this gorgeous material, but I think it is mostly reality shows, books, and all that awesome stuff.”
“Are their immigration treaties strict? Why don’t more people live there?”
“It isn’t weird to see a foreigner but not super common either. I’ve heard it’s a hot destination for most planet hoppers. This marriage has been set up for about a decade, but five years ago, the princess went off-planet to be educated—fashion design, I believe, since she will be responsible for setting all the future styles. She was supposed to return last year, but the excuses started piling up. She had a cold. There was a sandstorm on whatever dusty planet she was on. The holidays were making it impossible to leave.”
I bit into my cookie and rolled my hand in the universal “go on” gesture.
“Rumors were starting to fly that something was wrong, and a date was set for the wedding with an only-so-slightly veiled threat that if she didn’t arrive, then someone else would step up. Let me tell you that was all anyone talked about for weeks! All the House Mavens on the show were planning their outfits and gifts. I’m not sure about the date because they use a different calendar, but if she is traveling to Cerulea, then
the wedding must be within the week.” Chloe squealed.
I frowned. “None of that explains why she would be on this ship.”
“I was getting to that. Her whole journey to the castle, and yes, he has a legit castle like someone out of a fairy tale with a moat and everything. I mean it is—”
“Chloe, focus.”
She shook her head. “Sorry, I’ll tell you about that later. You should come over and see it. Maybe there’s a clue. So the whole journey to her wedding is steeped in tradition. She has to take the most humble means of travel to her parents’ house. Everywhere else on the continent, there are parties and festivals, but she has to fast and do some cleansing ritual. Then she takes this rickety old train to the castle. It’s all symbolic about her shedding her old life and embracing the new life. So romantic.” Chloe clutched her hands to her chest and sighed.
I looked around the room. The paint was faded from the rich blue it had been decades earlier into an anemic pale blue. An overhead light in the corner flickered constantly, and there was even rust around the sink where the crew were supposed to wash their hands before eating. Rust! Travel on this freighter certainly qualified as humble means. “I’m not sure how romantic it is especially with a murder. Who was he?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know any of them, besides the future princess.”
I squinted a little, trying to make my view of her fuzzy and mentally overlaying the picture that Chloe had shown me. “If that’s her at all.”
“Why don’t you go over there and find out?”
I bit the corner of my lip. James would figure it out, and if not him then the forensic team that he would surely call in. But it was my ship, dumpy, broken, and old but still mine. “Do you have any more cookies?”
She nodded, and I followed her to the kitchen while I put together a plan of what to say when I approached them. Before exiting the kitchen, I took a few slow, deep breaths and yawned. It was a trick I had learned from James, of all people. It fooled your body into thinking you were relaxed even when you weren’t.
Space Murder Page 3