Mammoth Book of Best New SF 14

by Gardner Dozois

  “Okay, scan the list in to your terminal and run the names through a search program. Then see if a visual-characteristics recognition program can identify the girls we don’t have full names for. I want to know where all of them live, if they’re married or have longterm partners, parents of the younger ones, that kind of thing. Oh, and check to see if the crystals are there.”

  Mike Wilson walked in past the last of the uniform division. His expression was bleak. “What did I miss?” he inquired.

  “Tyler liked to record himself in bed,” Alison said. “We found the crystals.”

  “Oh, shit. We’d better keep that quiet.”

  Amanda frowned. Not quite the response she expected. “I was planning on it,” she said. “How did the DNA characteristics assembly go?”

  He flipped open a shiny chrome Event Horizon executive cybofax and gave it an instruction. A young man’s face appeared, light brown hair, greenish eyes, a thin nose, broad mouth. There was a small digital readout in the corner of the screen saying: 18 YEARS. It started to wind forward. The man began to change, aging. Wrinkles appeared, the cheeks and neck thickened; the hairline receded, gray streaks appeared. The display finished at eighty years, showing a wizened face with shrunken cheeks plagued by liver spots, and wisps of silver-white hair.

  “Denzil was right,” Amanda said. “That’s impressive. Just how accurate is it?”

  “Perfectly accurate.”

  “You sound unhappy.”

  “There was no positive match.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Oh, we got hundreds of people who share eighty-five to ninety percent similarity. We just captured an image from every five years of his life and the computer ran a standard visual comparison reference program for each of them. In total we have access to pictures of two hundred twenty-five-million Caucasian males. Can you believe it? Nothing over ninety percent.”

  Amanda couldn’t work out if she was disappointed or not. Mike Wilson had sounded so sure this was the solution, and now for all the astonishing technology and corporate data cores they had to revert to humble police work. “Give us the top twenty off your list, and we’ll start to work through them, check if they knew Tyler, alibis, the usual. English residents to start with, please.”

  “Okay,” he acknowledged the request with a subdued nod. “Who the hell did this? The only way this murderer could elude our programs is with major plastic surgery, changing his appearance.”

  “Someone in showbusiness, then,” Alison said brightly.

  “The percentage is a lot higher among celebrities than the rest of the population. They’re always improving their appearance.”

  “Could be.” Uncertainty was a strong presence in his voice.

  “Alison, that can be your priority,” Amanda said. “We’ll turn Tyler’s finances over to a professional accountant. That’ll free us to interview friends and colleagues, see if any of them recognize this picture.” Her finger tapped the cybofax screen. “I’ll start with the Sullivans. You concentrate on his fellow celebrities.”

  Amanda was just going out the station door when she caught sight of a silhouette in the reception area, a man talking to the desk sergeant. “Greg?”

  Greg Mandel turned round. His eyes narrowed for a second, then he grinned. “Amanda Patterson, right? Detective sergeant?”

  She shook the hand he offered. “Detective, now.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. So what are you doing here?”

  “Checking on a vehicle accident. One of Eleanor’s family was hurt.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Any luck?”

  “None at all.”

  “Yeah, well, you know how the police force works. Traffic doesn’t get the highest priority these days. Want me to pull any strings?”

  “No. That’s okay, thanks. I guess CID’s pretty busy with the Tyler case. I saw it on the news.”

  “Yeah. It’s my case, too.” She glanced from Greg back to Mike Wilson who was standing waiting politely. Asking never hurt, she thought, and she’d had a reasonable relationship with Greg during an earlier case when he’d been appointed as a special adviser to Oakham’s CID. “Look, Greg, I realize this probably isn’t the best time to ask you, but the Tyler case is really a ball-breaker for me. We’re hitting a lot of stone walls.”

  “Uh huh.” Greg’s expression became reluctant, trying to work out how to extricate himself.

  “Just sit in on one interview, Greg, that’s all I need. I’ve got a suspect I’m not sure about. How about it? You can cut straight through all the usual crap and tell me if she’s on the level. We can even pay you a fee. Mike here is from Crescent Insurance, they’re picking up the tab for Tyler.”

  Greg and Mike eyed each other suspiciously.

  “What exactly is your field?” Mike asked.

  “I have a gland,” Greg said mildly.

  Amanda enjoyed the discomfort leaking over Mike Wilson’s face. She’d endured the same feeling the first time she met Greg; every guilty memory rushing to the front of her mind.

  “I thought we’d cleared Claire?” Mike Wilson protested.

  “She was at the apartment very close to the time,” Amanda said. “And I know she’s holding something back. That’s why I need a psychic, to see where I’m going wrong. If I knew the right questions to ask her I bet we could take some big steps forward.”

  Mike Wilson clearly wanted to object; just didn’t have the nerve.

  “Detective’s intuition, huh?” Greg asked.

  “Must be catching,” she told him spryly.

  He consulted his watch. “Okay. I can give you an hour. But I’ll have to call Eleanor first, let her know where I am.”

  She couldn’t resist it. “Under the thumb, Greg—you?”

  His smile was bright and proud. “Certainly am, I have two women in my life now. Christine is six months old.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.”

  Amanda and Mike Wilson took it in turns to brief Greg on the case as they drove out to Uppingham. Just before they got to the roundabout with the A47 at Uppingham, Greg said: “I’d like to take a look at the apartment first.”

  “Why is that necessary?” Wilson asked.

  “It’s best if I can get a feel for the event,” Greg said. “Sometimes my intuition can be quite strong. It might help with the interview.”

  They pulled up in Church Vista’s courtyard. Greg got out and looked round, head tilted back slightly as if he was sniffing at the air. Wilson watched him, but didn’t comment. There was a police seal on the door to apartment three, which Amanda’s card opened.

  Greg went over to the red outline at the foot of the stairs. “What was the result from the security ’ware?”

  “As far as we can tell it’s clean,” Mike Wilson said. “If it was tampered with, then whoever did it covered their tracks perfectly.”

  “Hmm.” Greg nodded and started to walk round, glancing at the coffee table with its spread of glossy art books.

  “We’ve collected statements from all the neighbors now,” Amanda said. “None of them heard or saw any other car arriving or departing that night. It was only Claire and the Ingalo. And we’ve received the enhanced images from the security camera by the gates. She was the only person in it coming in and out.”

  “Well, I can appreciate your problem,” Greg said. He was walking along the wall, examining the pictures one at a time. “Circumstances make it look like a professional hit, but pushing Tyler down the stairs is strictly a chance killing.”

  “Tell me,” Amanda muttered. “We know there was someone else here, we even know what they look like. But everything else we’ve got says it’s Claire.”

  “Can I see the image you assembled from the genome data?”

  Mike Wilson flipped open his cybofax and showed Greg the image while it ran through its eighteen-to-eighty lifecycle.

  “Doesn’t ring any psychic bells,” Greg said. He sto
pped beside the smallest painting on the wall, a picture of a hill with a strange object in the air above it. “This is a bit out of place, isn’t it?” The pictures on either side were colored chalk sketches of ballerinas clad only in tutus.

  “Is that relevant?” Wilson asked as he slipped the cybofax back in his jacket pocket. He was beginning to sound more positive, overcoming his apprehension of the gland and its reputation.

  “Probably not,” Greg admitted. He led them up the stairs into the bedroom. The crime scene team had tagged the three cameras that were discreetly hidden within elaborate picture frames, the units no bigger than a coat button. Slender fiber-optic threads buried in the plaster linked them to an AV recorder deck in a chest of drawers.

  “And you say there’s no sign of a struggle?” Greg asked.

  “No. The only thing messed up was the bed.”

  “Right.” He stood in the door, looking at the top of the stairs. “If it was a professional hit, then the murderer could have waited until just after Claire had left, then thrown Tyler down the stairs. That would disguise the fact it was a hit, which would stop us looking for anyone else with a motive. Was Tyler alive when he fell?”

  “The autopsy says yes. The impact snapped his neck, he was killed instantly.”

  “What about bruising or marks? If he was alive when he was forced to the stairs he would have put up some kind of struggle.”

  “No bruising,” Amanda said.

  “That doesn’t necessarily follow,” Mike Wilson said. “He’d only struggle if he realized what was happening. If the murderer made out he was a burglar and made him walk to the stairs with a gun to his head he wouldn’t have fought back.”

  Greg pulled a face, looking from the bed to the stairs. “Yeah, this is all possible, but very tenuous. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.” He went over to the chest of drawers, and bent down to study the AV recorder, fingertips tracing the slender optical threads back into the skirting board. “How old is this place?”

  “The apartment was finished two and a half years ago,” Amanda said. “Tyler moved in just over two years ago.”

  “So he probably had it wired up then,” Greg said. “How much did the apartment cost him?”

  “Five hundred and fifty thousand New Sterling. There’s over four hundred thousand outstanding on the mortgage. He was late with several payments.”

  “So he doesn’t own it. I thought he was rich.”

  “By our standards he’s loaded. But he had one hell of a lifestyle, and he didn’t star in that many action interactives. Strictly C-list when it comes to the celebrity stakes. He’s definitely short of hard cash.”

  Greg went over to the bed, running a hand along the edge of the mattress. “Did he make any recordings of himself with Claire?”

  “I’m not sure,” Amanda said. “Let me check if Alison’s loaded the list in yet.” She opened her cybofax and linked in to the station ’ware. “We’re in luck, she’s just finished it. Let’s see…Yes, there’s three crystals of Claire.”

  “When was the last one dated?”

  “Three weeks ago.”

  “Why the interest?” Mike Wilson asked.

  “That’s a lot of recording time for one girl,” Greg said. “And Claire doesn’t come over here that often, or stay long when she does. That suggests he records every time. So why didn’t he record last Wednesday night?”

  “He did,” Amanda said instinctively. She could see where he was going with this. “And the murderer took the memox crystal because he was caught by the cameras in here. Which implies that whoever the murderer is, he struck very quickly after Claire left. So close the recorder was still on.”

  “No messing,” Greg said.

  Tamzin Sullivan had returned home. When Amanda, Greg and Mike Wilson were shown into the bungalow, the bereaved girl was sitting in the lounge. To show her grief at the loss of her future husband she was wearing traditional black in the form of a less traditional micro dress with a deep scoop-top. Colin, from Hothouse, was fussing around with her mother while a seamstress made last minute adjustments to the shoulder straps, a makeup artist was finishing off the girl’s face.

  It was Claire who had answered the door and ushered them in. As soon as the sisters glanced at each other the atmosphere chilled to a level below that Tyler’s apartment had ever reached. Daniel, who was lurking behind the sofa, shrank away from the visitors.

  “This is not an appropriate time for you to be here,” Margina said imperiously. “The Starlight crew will be here any minute.”

  “I apologize for interrupting you at what is undoubtedly a difficult time,” Amanda said; it was her best official sympathy voice. She marveled she could manage to keep it irony-free. “But I’m afraid we do have some questions for Tamzin, and Claire again. We’ll be brief.”

  Tamzin glanced at Colin, who gave a small nod.

  “I’ll help in whatever way I can,” Tamzin said. “I want Byrne’s murderer caught. Have you found the piece of scum yet?” Her gaze flicked pointedly to her sister.

  “We have a possible suspect.”

  Mike Wilson showed her his cybofax, running the image. “Do you recognize this man? We think Byrne knew him.”

  Tamzin leaned forward with considerable interest, fabric straining. Amanda saw Wilson’s glance slither helplessly down to her cleavage, and prayed hard no one else had seen.

  “No. I don’t.”

  He went onto show the image to Margina, Claire, and even Colin. They all said they had never seen the man before.

  “What about threats?” Amanda asked. “Do you know if anyone was being abusive to him recently?”

  “No,” Tamzin said. “There was nothing like that. He did have a few crank callers, everyone as famous as us has them; but the agency screened them for him.”

  “I’d like a record of them, please,” she told Colin.

  “I’ll get it squirted over to you,” he promised.

  “Thank you. Greg, anything you need to know?”

  “The pictures in your fiancé’s apartment are interesting,” Greg said. “How long’s he been buying them?”

  Tamzin blinked, slightly baffled. “Since he moved in, I suppose. Byrne appreciated fine art, music, culture; he wasn’t just an action hero, you know. He was friends with a lot of people in the media and arts. Inspiring people. He was even writing a script for a drama that we would star in together. Now that’s talent.”

  “Yes, I’m sure. The pictures are all original, aren’t they?”

  “They’re Byrne’s collection,” Tamzin said in pique. “Of course they’re original.”

  “I see. Thanks.”

  Amanda had somehow expected more; she had seen Greg interview suspects before. When he didn’t ask anything else, she said: “I’d like to talk to Claire alone for a moment, please.”

  Margina’s face tightened in fury; she gave her youngest daughter a warning glare as she stalked out. Tamzin didn’t even bother with that; she ignored everyone as she left. It was Colin who was left to take Daniel’s hand and lead the lad away.

  Claire slumped down petulantly into the sofa. She was wearing an oversize rouge T-shirt and baggy black jeans; cloaking while Tamzin exhibited. Always opposites. “Now what?”

  “I really will be brief,” Amanda said. “This is going to be personal, I’m sorry. Did you know about Tyler’s obsession with recording events in his bedroom?”

  “You’ve found the memox crystals?” Claire asked in a small voice.

  “Yes, we did.”

  “I knew you would. Byrne liked me to watch them with him. He enjoyed the ones of him with famous people. There were a lot; actresses and singers, socialites, people like that. I know it was all wrong, but one more bad thing on top of all the rest didn’t seem to matter much, not by then.”

  “Do you know if he was recording the pair of you that night?”

  “I don’t know. I knew he did sometimes. I didn’t ask. I never wanted to think about stuff li
ke that.”

  Amanda took a quick look at Greg, who was watching impassively. There was no clue as to what he saw with his sixth sense. “Thank you, Claire. I know that wasn’t easy. I’d just like to go back to that night one more time. Did you see or hear anything unusual there?”

  “No. I told you already, there was nothing different.”

  “Not even with Byrne—he wasn’t acting oddly?”

  “No.”

  “He didn’t do anything that made you angry, or upset?”

  “No! Why are you asking this? You think I did it, don’t you? I didn’t! I didn’t! Tamzin thinks I did. Mum hates me. I didn’t want any of this. You think I did?” Tears were starting to slide down her cheeks. She wiped at them with the back of a hand, sniffling loudly.

  “Okay, Claire, I’m sorry. And you’re sure you didn’t recognize the man Mike showed you on the cybofax?”

  “Yeah, I’ve never seen him. Who is he?”

  “I wish we knew.”

  As soon as they all got back into Amanda’s car, she turned to Greg. “Well?”

  “Claire’s telling the truth. She didn’t kill him.”

  “God damn it! I’m sure she knows something about this.”

  “Not that I could sense. She certainly didn’t recognize the killer’s face, there was nothing odd about the apartment that night, and Byrne was behaving normally. You’re going to have to come at it from a different angle.”

  “Shit.” She faced forward and gripped the steering wheel. “It has to be someone with a big vicious grudge eating at them.”

  “The murderer knew all about the cameras,” Greg said. “Not that Tyler exactly kept it a secret. That makes it more likely to be a jealous boyfriend or husband of some girl that Tyler’s had up there.”

  “Then why the hell can’t we find a match for his face?”

  “We’ll get him,” Mike Wilson said. “It’s just a question of time now.”