by Sam Sea
“Yes?”
“That did not last forever. After about almost a year, Mr. Quill just kicked me out."
“What? Why?”
“Yes, he kicked me out…just like that...In an instant he turned from a loving, I-give-you everything to mean bastard that told me to get lost since I was not worth for anything.
“As I was ready to leave, one of the older boys came to me and told me that if they catch me, the police will
“I asked what I did wrong.
“He just said that Mr. Q. is really mad because this man stole from him and that had upset him a great deal.”
“What man?”
“That's what I asked too...It turned out that if I go back and reclaim what this man stole from him, maybe then Mr. Quill would learn to appreciate me and let me back in. I was not a stupid kid, but I was sort of scared to tell you the truth..of space, of police that would lock me up like I was a dog.
“So I went out and try to get for Mr. Q. what was asked of me. It was not that hard. And, in a way, that is what my father did to me as well.”
“He also asked you to go and steal things from others?”
“Worse...but you are smart, you see it right away what they were trying to do?”
“Yes of course, they emotionally blackmailed you for you to go and steal for them.”
“You are so smart...how can you be so smart?”
“Sorry...” Silent said feeling sorry she commented anything at all. “Can you just continue, so what happened next?”
“Well, I grew up hunting in the forest, so it was very easy for me to sneak to a house of a man, brake through the window, and without making any noise pick up all the gold coins he had, all his gold jewelry he hid in his study...I didn't wake anyone up, even walked into his children bedroom, watched them sleep...went where his wife was sleeping...I picked everything of value I could find, to tell you the truth... I also went to his bedroom, and chopped his head off... and brought it back to MR. Q. I thought he would have been pleased.”
“Was he?”
“No, he just stood there in the porch looking at me holding a bag of golden trinkets I picked from the man's house and the man's head in my other hand. I think the exact word I used were 'He is not going to steal from you again, Mr. Q.’ I think he was scared then… I feel so stupid now thinking about what I have done, but, hey, that is the truth... there are people like me out there...they may look normal just like I do, but..."
"I don't care what you did...I like you..." Silent said and rushed to hug him. "You are nice. You just didn't know any better."
"Yeah, as you grow older you learn that ignorance is not an excuse...I should have known-"
"What happened then?" Silent asked not ready to finish with the story or see Irkoniss return to his self-pity state.
"Mr. Q let me move back in...I even got a bigger room, except...Mr. Q. never again slept until securing the lock on his door."
“Did police ever find out you did it?”
“No, nobody ever came to see us about that…Ever…might be that Mr. Q was paying off local police…things are very corrupt there.”
“How long did you stay there?”
“For a few years, until I was seventeen…”
“Did you ever kill for them again, during that time?”
“No, never did…I did a lot of burglaries. I was good at sneaking up to the homes and braking in. We even did one kidnapping…but I never killed again. Somehow, it felt very wrong, to tell you the truth. Plus, everyone seemed to be very much afraid of me. Now that I think back about it, even I should have been afraid of me…I was so stupid.”
“A kidnapping? What was that about?”
“Well, we had kidnapped a daughter of some merchant that came to our planet to trade, I think. I do not know how Mr. Q got hold of all that info, but he found out that he came with all his family, wife and everything. Mr. Q reasoned that as long as he was with his wife, she would pressure him into paying a good amount of credits to have her young daughter back.
“So, I and two other guys, sneaked into their hotel room, injected all of them with a sleeping pill, and took a girl away. We took her to a farm, kept her in the basement. But…there were problems. It seems somebody did not lock the doors once they took food down to her, so we ended up, eating our supper, all together around the big table, the way we normally did, and the girl just tried to walk past us. What a shocker that was.”
“We caught her of course.”
“Did Mr. Q ever found out who left the door open?”
“I do not know, I was too drunk at the time…But I think Little Lo got punished for it. He swore that he locked the door after taking the food down for her, but then, how was the door open?”
“Maybe you let her go…”
“I don’t remember clearly what happened then… I drank way too much then… In the end, Mr. Q got his 500,000 credits ransom that was dropped off in the East Forest. We were supposed to let her go then… except…”
Silent waited patiently for Irkoniss to continue, not rushing, not judging, just looking at him with her big blue eyes.
“I knew Mr. Q was not going to let her go. The way he insinuated how we can never be safe since she saw us, could identify us…I knew he was going to have one of us kill her. The only question was who. So, before that happened, I broke into Mr. Q’s safe, took all his money, took the girl and went to the town. The girl went to her parents, and up to the spaceport where I boarded the first freighter destined for the Capital.”
“Why didn’t you use normal transporter?”
“You forget, I was never chipped. I was persona-unknown. If any of police stopped me, they would have pulled me over and send me for processing. With my DNA, they would probably connect me to a dozen of crimes. I could not risk that.
“Is that how you get sent to Pluk?”
“No, not really…But that is a whole another story-”
“So what did you do when you came to the Capital?”
“Well, the very first thing I did is get me a plaster, very much like you and I have right now, the one that serve as faked chip, so police cannot detect us.”
“And then? …What did you do then?”
“Well, I had myself a lot of fun… I drank too much, whored too much, and gambled everything I had…the money I thought should have lasted me a lifetime, I spend in less than two years. Smart, hah?”
Silent found that funny.
“Then when the money was gone, I went to doing the only thing I knew how. I got myself a crew of five, six people who were as desperately as I, and we worked the Capital…”
“The man that transported us back from Pluk to the Capital, was he one of your crew?
“Vhilly?”
“Yeah, even more so…Actually he was the reason I was sent to Pluk. I took a rap for him, and he owed me a favor.”
“Where is he now?”
“He said of going to FKeila, and doing some smuggling there.”
“He didn’t ask you to come?”
“Of course he did.”
“With that money, the money you took from Mr. Q, you could have went back home.”
“Yes, I actually thought about it, but…”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You know why…”
Silent could not understand.
“I was just too ashamed of who I became. I was not a warrior, a protector of my people, a hero that would make my family proud. I was just a petty thief…How could I go and see them?”
“But none of that was your fault…you were…”
“You know, to me it does not matter really whose fault it was. I was who I was, and I am who I am. Just think, we both lived on Pluk, you, your whole life, I just a year. But if it was not for Mikka, you and I would still be living there, probably never even knowing each other…And even if I saw you…”
“Don’t say that…”
“Well, it is the truth…even if I saw you, I would not stop to
think of helping you.”
“That is not true. I do not believe that. If you saw them chasing me, trying to put their teeth in me, I bet you would come and help me… I know you would. You are a good guy. That’s why you helped that girl.”
Irkoniss didn’t have anything to say to that. He just smiled. And he didn’t know why and how but felt so much better about himself.
Chapter 13 - The Grieving Sister
Val might have enjoyed walking over a few city blocks to where Teri DiAmon’s sister, Mimona, resided. Except he had not more than a day left to solve the murder, and the pressure was making him do things he normally wouldn’t.
And if I don’t solve this case on time? I won’t be able to leave…– The thought made him angry, and he pushed it aside right away.
Trying to save every minute he could, he ordered an air taxi to take him up Mimona’s Avenue and up the twenty floors, all the way to her private air dock.
He thought little of the two men he executed less than an hour ago. More, he was concerned with his state of mind and his emotions.
Why am I so upset? Why do I feel all this pressure? Just think, what is the worst thing that can happen? He questioned himself as a herbal candy offered by a cab driver slowly released a sharp test in his mouth and down his throat. Well, if I am to miss the launch window, it would prolong my trip to outer planets for another fifty days…I do not think that if Senator Sulivaro is still alive, he would still be alive for too long… his rescue pod might not had food and water for more than three months. Useless to think about it now… Now the only thing I can do is what is in front of me…. And means, I have a murder to solve.
Val announcing himself beforehand allowed the cab to be able to dock right next to the apartment, and the butler, dressed in a long, white silky rope, was there on the air dock to open the door of the cab’s door and to show Val the way in.
He led him to the study where a blond woman of undetectable age was talking on the communicator. She could have been forty, or thirty or twenty, and by looking how tight her shirt was wrapped around her breasts, he cared not to waste any more time questing her age.
From photos he knew that was Mimona, and as she stood up and walked her long legs toward him, he had to remind himself that she might be a suspect.
She wore a welcoming smile, and extended one of her hands for a greeting, the other one still holding on to her communicator which she didn’t take off from her ear.
"Yes.. Oh, did he...aha...really? He did what?" She was continuing to talk while her glowing eyes swooped over Val’s entire body.
“He killed them just like that? And what are her father and uncle going to say about that?”
She signaled him to take a seat with her glare caressing his eyes. He declined and turned aside, walking slowly to the bookshelves where a large collection of diamond necklaces was displayed in the open view.
Exactly what I need - another woman with an attitude. She looks too immature but regardless of how old her last body appears to be, who knows when she was originally born? Maybe even a millennium ago… She might be older than me… With her affluent family, that would not surprise me at all. She is definitely a collector, he thought as he examined the jewelry whose value he could not guess, probably even collect men, and wouldn’t you just add something to her collection.
“Well, how would I to know what he is going to do next?” Val turned around to as Mimona raised her voice, her eyes still fixated on his. “I tell you what, since he is here right in front of me, I will ask him what exactly he is going to do next, so you have nothing to worry about…”
Mimona giggled. ”Yes, he is…,” but Val gave her a look that said ‘Enough!’
“I guess I better leave you and attend him. He seems to have waited enough… Don’t want him now to shoot me either.” More giggles followed.
"I guess news spreads fast?"
"Gossips spread really fast. But if you say it's the news… Hum, should I ask what then-?"
"No, I prefer you don't. I prefer I ask… questions."
“Okay… Fine. But before you ask your questions, would you care to have a drink?” She asked moving her body closer to him, her tiny smile never leaving her face.
“Your brother, the Chief Commissioner, has asked me for a favor and look into the murder of your younger brother… He said that you were very close to him… You don’t seem particularly shaken by his death.”
“I am shaken… very much shaken. You just can’t see it. Actually, the news of my brother’s death has impacted me very deeply. And my whole family as well… Very badly, I am surprised to say. That’s why I had to take double dosage of my happy pills… You see, I hate depressed people… So I am grieving in my own way.” Words soft and smooth as silk were leaving her mouth, and Val let her talk. She tilted her head just a bit as she turned around. Instead of a communicator, she had a half empty bottle of a golden liquid in her hand.
“Whiskey? Says here it’s over hundred years old… care to join me and try it?”
“I am not sure that will go good for you, with your pills.”
“Well, I think it is going to be much better for me that thinking about my poor brother.”
Val in the end took the drink and set on a red-leathered two-seater sofa, opposite Mimona.
“Just to let you know before you ask me anything, I always considered her a mega bitch and could never see a reason why my brother was interested in her. I mean I understand that, since our father had limited his generous entitlements to him, he would be interested in her money, but her?
Anyway, I am glad you did what you did...she had it coming. I hope she rots on Pluk for a very long time.”
“Were you close to your brother?”
“I guess I was - the closest from anyone else in the family. He was always a rebel, the least favorite of my father. We all knew that. I guess that made him even more rebellious. Instead of becoming a minister or some high leveled government employee, he became a scientist, a history teacher… My father never forgave him for that.”
“The problem was with my brother that… How can I put it? He talked a talk, but didn’t even try to walk a walk. He, just like all of us in a family, enjoys… enjoyed…” She took a big sip from her glass. “Luxury very much. It is something that we grew up with, something that we are so used to. And once you get accustomed to it, you expect to have it all the time, and giving it up is not as easily as you may think.”
“So he overspent?”
“Yes… Certainly didn’t live like a history teacher, don’t you think?”
“Did he ever ask you for a loan?”
“Certainly… All the time. I do not even know how much I borrowed him to tell you the truth. But, let me tell you this…I would have continued to borrow him more, I have no problem with that… he is my little brother, so what? But then my father found out, and… Well, basically, he threatened to cut me off if I continue to help him… Something about ‘tough love’, about teaching him right. I guess it really did teach him right, didn’t it?”
Val decided to continue being silent. He looked at the face of a woman who suddenly lost all her seductive power. The tiny, playful smile was gone, the glare that caressed Val’s inner soul was dulled, and Val could see nothing but pain, disbelief and raising anger.
“If his death had anything to do with his debt, his lack of money, I wish you would judge my father just like you judged Madam Vilksy….” She breathed deeply, eyes fixed on the floor beside her red shoes.
“This thing that happened to your brother, you know, it is not your fault. And I can say it with some confidence, it is most likely not a fault of your father… If he owned money to loan sharks, they would not kill him. They would scare him, shoot him in a leg, throw him out of the vehicle, chopped his fingers off, but they would not kill him… Do you understand?”
She nodded her head.
“Has any of those things been happening to him, do you know, has he been receiving any thre
ats”
“No…”
“Has there been any violence directed against him?”
“No, not that I know off. But if there was, he would have told me. So… “
“So, this is probably not related to his debt, and you have no blame in this… None.” He sipped from his crystal glass, waited for the whisky to fully hit his empty stomach and his words to fully sink into her consciousness…
“Thank you,” she said as a long moment has passed. “Thank you for saying that… That was very kind of you.” He saw her eyes filling with tears.
Where is that coming from? Is that real? When do you ever see one person crying for another these days? When was the last time you saw it?
Val took a deep breath and steadied his mind again. “Do you think Madam Vilksy could have ordered someone to do it?”
“She is a stupid, spoiled bitch… But I don’t think she could have done that… “
“Jealousy might be a powerful motivator to do craziest of things, no?”
“You are right, yet… she wanted to dominate him, always… to have him eat from her hand, but to kill him? I don’t know about that.”
“Do you know anyone who would want to cause your brother any harm?“ What good is that asking her now? Her mind is completely gone now.
“I want you to think about that tomorrow when you wake up, and as soon as you wake up. Give me a call with any information you seem important.”
“Okay… I will do that”
Val could have asked her million more questions then, could have spend a whole lifeline asking her questions, but as he felt the sadness strangely sip from her into him, he decided to stand up.
"Would you stay and dine with me?" She asked, almost begged.
Her understood her smile, long legs and the perfect featured face, were all just a mask, and underneath it all, he felt sadness of a millennium ruling inside a woman who was still looking for the answers, unable to find peace and purpose.
“I have a very good chef working here… He can cook anything you want, and I would like if you stay with me…”