“I—I—I’m sorry. My supervisor asked me to get these papers and I didn’t know what to do because I heard all that yelling and…” I did my best to stammer and sound confused about what was going on. The little Martian girl looked at me, her soft orange eyes meeting mine; she didn’t have to say it, but I could tell she was scared and she didn’t want me to leave her. I walked to the little girl and picked her up from off of the floor. “Honey, are you okay? You seem upset.” I used the corner of my shirtsleeve to wipe away the tears that were resting under her eyes. The little girl quietly sniffled to herself with her head hung down. I took the young girl by the hand. “What are you doing here? Was that you I heard yelling?”
The young woman snatched the little girl’s hand from out of mine. “Just mind your own business and leave.”
I pulled the little girl back toward me. “You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m concerned about this child and her well-being.”
The woman snorted. “Her ‘well-being’ is none of your business.”
“I’m making it my business since this is the scene of a crime and you’ve brought a child up here by yourself, you’re yelling at her, and you’ve been alone with her in a room by yourself for quite some time. Tell me exactly what you are trying to achieve here,” I fired back.
The woman pressed her lips together and took half a step back. “I’m doing nothing wrong here! I can interview her! She signed the paperwork saying that she knows she’s being interviewed!” The young woman shoved an interview release form in my face. I glanced over the form, which stated that anything said during the interview would be handed over to the police as an official statement that was admissible in court. The form said a lot of things that I was sure this child didn’t really understand. The little girl had signed her name at the bottom of the form. Her shaky scribbled handwriting was hovering over the bottom line on the paper. Next to the excerpt saying that she legally understood everything, she had spelled out the name Anthe. Anthe’s name was the only signature on the sheet of paper and I couldn’t help but to smile at the careless mistake that the officer had made by only having Anthe sign this form.
I handed the form back to the officer. “Where’s the parent’s signature? I mean, you can’t interview a child without the parent’s permission. That’s illegal.” The young officer looked down at the sheet of paper. She knew that I was right and there was nothing she could say to justify her actions. “You and I both know that Hayate is a stickler for the rules. You don’t want to get in trouble, do you? Because if you insist on doing this interview, then I’m definitely going to have to report you to Mr. Hayate.”
The young officer panicked. She grabbed hold of the statement release form and ripped the sheet of paper in two. “That won’t be necessary at all,” she said nervously as she continued to rip the form into even smaller pieces of paper. “I’m going to escort this little lady back to her family and you’re going to go back to your office and neither one of us is going to ever speak about this situation again. Do you understand me?” The young woman closed her eyes and shook her head yes. I watched her as she walked back down the hall and dipped underneath the tape that was in front of the entrance to this hallway.
I bent down and gently placed my hand on the Anthe’s shoulders. “Sweetie, are you okay? Did that lady hurt you?”
The tiny Martian girl placed her right hand directly above her elbow. “My arm hurts because she squeezed it. Then she pushed me and I fell. She said if I didn’t talk to her, both me and my mommy would get in trouble,” she said with a shaky high-pitched voice.
“Well, she can’t hurt you anymore and you’re not going to get in trouble if you don’t talk, okay?” I gave the little girl a hug. “Don’t cry, Anthe. My name is Cosmo and I want to help you. Do you have any family members here on this ship? Can you think of anyone I can take you to?”
Anthe hung her head down and she twisted her fingers around the end of one of her orange pigtails. “No. My mommy is all I have.” She sniffled. Poor kid.
“Well, do you know where your mommy is?” She shook her head no and a few teardrops fell from her eyes. “Well, would you like to stay with me until I find your mommy?” Anthe buried her face into my stomach and she wrapped her tiny arms as far as she could around my waist. I took that as a yes. I guided Anthe down the opposite end of the hallway. The map that I read earlier said there should be an elevator at the end of this hallway. I was correct; the elevator was on the right side of the wall at the end of the hallway, which was next to the scene of the crime. At the end of the hallway was a small office. There was a large, gaping, jagged hole near the edge of the door. I let go of Anthe’s hand. “Just give me two minutes. I need to go in here, then we can leave, okay?” Anthe sat down in the floor next to the elevator.
I reached my hand through the hole that was in the door. I made sure to avoid the sharp pieces of metal that were inside and gently pushed the door open. I knelt down and took a good look at the jagged hole. So the thief used an explosive to blow the handle and lock from off of the door.
“That lady says my mommy did this. But I know she didn’t.” Anthe brought her tiny knees up to her face and she started to cry.
I rushed over to Anthe’s side. “It’s okay, Anthe. We’ll prove your mother’s innocence together.” Anthe pulled her face up from her knees. “Just give me some time to gather the evidence I need.”
Anthe rubbed her fingers across the edge of her eyes. “Okay,” she whispered. I left Anthe and returned my attention to the crime scene.
I kicked the door open. The entire room was empty except for a tiny pile of black shiny ashes near the entrance. They probably came from the door. I placed my hands on the walls of the empty room and I slowly walked around it. I reached into my purse and took out my camera. I had no idea how much longer I’d be able to fool people with my disguise and I might not have the chance to come up here again, so I took a few snapshots. I hadn’t gotten a chance to use my camera this morning when I went to see Princess Rhea’s ship coming in, but I was glad that it was going to be of some use to me now. After I took a picture of the inside of the room, I pointed my camera directly in front of the hole on the door where the doorknob used to be. As I was taking the picture of the hole in the door, the flash to my camera exposed what was inside of it. A faint streak of red light caught my attention after the flash on my camera disappeared. What in the world could be casting off a red light in there?
Once again, I took a picture of the inside of the door, but this time, I didn’t keep my eye behind the camera’s pinhole but on the inside of the door. I pressed down on the shutter button of my camera; just like before a flash of red light shone through the darkness. The flash was coming from inside of the hole, on the right side behind a spiky piece of metal. I dove into my purse and pulled out a pen. I carefully reached over the pointy pieces of metal and toward the area that the red flash came from. I felt the point of my pen hit something and, surprisingly, whatever I had tapped onto rolled over to the right and back onto the bottom of my pen. I painstakingly pushed what was behind the broken piece of metal forward and out into the open. It was a red glass bead. I picked the red bead up and rolled it around in the palm of my hand. Just where did this bead come from and why was it in this door? Perhaps it was a part of Princess Rhea’s jewelry exhibit. I glanced down at the red bead; resting in the center was an oval-shaped bubble. Some writing was scribbled across the bubble inside of the bead. I held the bead toward the light. Written across the bubble in black was the word “Nimen-Seki.” There was something about that name that I halfway recognized. I rolled the red bead in between my forefinger and thumb while I searched through every crevice in my brain, trying to figure out why that name was so familiar to me.
“Can we go now?” Anthe asked in a weak voice. Poor kid; she looked so tired and stressed out. We should probably have gotten going anyway before someone caught us. I opened up my purse and dropped the bead next to the map I had of the ship. Lo
oking at the map jogged my memory and I remembered why the name Nimen-Seki sounded so familiar. There was an advertisement for it on the map next to the list of shops on level B. I unfolded the map. I was right; this shop called Orthus had placed an ad for the Nimen-Seki bracelet inside of the map. I stuffed the map back into my purse. I thought this was worth looking into; finding a lonesome bead like this at the scene of a jewelry heist was quite peculiar. This obviously didn’t belong to the princess’s jewelry showcase and whoever owned it bought it from off the ship. It could mean nothing at all, but the least I could do was stop into the shop on my way back to my hotel.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s go.” Anthe and I got onto the elevator together. “Anthe, what floor do you live on?” I asked.
“Uhmmm, I live under the garage. We have to get off at level B and then we have to take the stairs.” She lived under the garage? The map had said there was a small amount of space underneath the parking garage, but that couldn’t be right. Why would she be living underneath the garage?
“I really don’t wanna go home,” Anthe whispered.
“Oh, honey, why don’t you wanna go home?” I asked.
“Because my momma isn’t home. Those mean people took her away.” Right when Anthe finished her sentence, the doors to the elevator swung open and a series of bright flashing lights filled the insides of the elevator. The lights were so bright that I couldn’t see in front of me.
Chapter 8
Anthe grabbed hold of my pants legs and slipped behind me so she could protect her eyes from the flashing lights. I brought my hands up over my glasses and I tried to block the flashing lights from my eyes. In the middle of the bright flashing lights were two security officers who were standing a few feet away from the elevator’s opening. The doors to the elevator were about to close, so I quickly stuck my foot out so that the door would reopen, and then I pulled Anthe forward. A man with a silver camera draped around his neck emerged from the crowd.
“Excuse me, miss. What can you tell me about the source behind that loud explosion this morning?” he asked. I slowly backed away from the man. I nearly tripped over Anthe’s little feet. “Come on, lady. I’m not blind. I see your security uniform. I know you know something.” The man picked up his camera. He was about to take my picture when one of the security guards grabbed him by the arm and shoved him back.
“Get back! This area is off limits to the press!” the security officer yelled. After I put some distance between myself and the flashing bright lights, I was able to see the crowd of journalists around the entrance of the elevator.
“Hey! Don’t put your hands on him. We have cameras, you know. We can document every move you make!” a young lady who had her hands wrapped around a camera called out.
One of the security officers pulled his hand up to his lips. There was some sort of small box connected to a strap wrapped around his wrist. He then said, “We need backup down here.”
I could feel Anthe digging her fingernails into the back of my leg. “Cosmo, I’m scared,” she whispered.
“It’s okay. Just stay next to me,” I said.
“Miss, can you tell us what’s going on up there? And what’s the reason behind the ship’s lockdown?”
I kept one hand on Anthe as we slowly backed away from the crowd. Several journalists with their fingers hovering over the shutter buttons to their cameras crept toward me and Anthe.
“Please leave us alone. I can’t release any information to the public at this time,” I said. The door to the elevator swung open, and several security officers with shiny black batons tightly clasped in their hands plowed through the crowd of journalists, pushing them as far away from the elevator as they could. I scooped Anthe up into my arms and ran from the hostile crowd. I finally stopped running and put Anthe down when I could no longer hear the security officers yelling at the journalists to get back from the elevator. I dragged the back of my hand across my forehead until all of the sweat on it was gone. I looked down at Anthe, who had her hand on top of her belly.
“Miss Cosmo, I’m hungry and I want my mommy.”
I gently patted Anthe on the head. “I know, kiddo, and I promise you I will get you something to eat soon.” I really didn’t want to sit with Anthe at one of the restaurants that were on the ship. I was certain that a young woman in a security uniform siting down at a lunch table with a little Martian girl would raise a lot of red flags. What if a reporter or a bystander came over to us and started harassing me for information on what was happening on this ship? Plus, I had a lot of questions that I had to ask Anthe, like how long had she been held hostage by that security officer and why did the officer make those accusatory comments about her mom? Most of all, if Anthe’s mom was a suspect, then why go through the trouble of gathering other Martian women and asking them questions about what happened that morning? I needed a nice, quiet, distraction-free place to ask her these questions and my hotel room was probably the best place. But I just couldn’t walk through the front lobby with a little Martian girl by my side while wearing this security uniform. Oh, how I wished I still had my dress that I was wearing earlier. That would make my life so much easier. I’d just have to pick up an outfit at one of the surrounding shops near Orthus. I pulled my wallet from my purse and counted what little bit of space credits I had left. I was certain that I probably had just enough to buy a nice little dress and maybe some matching accessories. I could change my clothes in the store if they had a changing room and then I’d be able to walk to my hotel room without anyone bothering me or Anthe.
Thankfully, the walk to Orthus jewelry shop was shorter than what I thought it would be. The first thing that caught my attention about the Orthus jewelry shop was its very peculiar-looking logo. Sitting on top of the word “Orthus” was a two-headed black Great Dane; long sparkly necklaces covered in rubies and diamonds were draped across both of their necks. While one dog had his head held up high with a smile, the other had his head crouched down with a very mischievous grin on his face. I wondered why the owner had picked such a strange-looking logo.
When we reached the steps to the gift shop, Anthe let go of my hand and she took a few steps back. “Anthe, what’s wrong?”
Anthe dug the heel of her shoe into the ground. “Momma says that I’m not supposed to go into the stores on the ship. She says that I could get in trouble.”
I was about to say something when I remembered the young man who took my bags and how he casually said to Wendy they didn’t serve Martians at the Bestla Resort. I wondered if that was the rule for all of the shops and hotels on this ship. I decided not to argue with her. “Okay, Anthe, I understand. Just stay right here. I’ll be done in five seconds.”
The doors to the shop burst open and an older woman with soft gray hair that was tightly curled at the end stepped through. Her arms were tightly crossed over her chest. “Is she with you?” the woman quickly spit out, all while keeping her eyes on Anthe.
“Yes, she is. Is that a problem?” I asked.
The woman uncrossed her arms and she held the door to her shop open. “Well, hurry up and get in here if you’re going buy something. I’m getting ready to close.” I wanted to tell this nasty old woman that I didn’t want to buy her probably overpriced junk, but if I did that, I doubted she would answer any of the questions about the bead I found. So I’d just have to deal with her nasty attitude until I could get the answers that I wanted from her. The shop owner immediately locked the door behind us after we crossed over the store’s threshold. She pulled down the blinds in front of the store windows and briefly peeked through one of the blinds in front of the entrance to the shop. Just what was this woman doing? She let out a quick sigh of relief before she turned to face us. “I’m so sorry about everything I said before. Honey, did I hurt your feelings? If I did, I’m so sorry.” The shop owner knelt down in front of Anthe, picked up two peppermint candies from out of a glass dish that was next to her cash register, and placed the mints in Anthe’s hand.
Anthe smiled, then she dropped both of the mints into her mouth. The shop owner walked back to the entrance of her store. Once again, she pressed her face up to the window and she carefully peeked through the blinds. “You’ll have to excuse me. I could get in trouble by allowing your little friend into my store. We’re not supposed to serve Martians at all, period!” The shop owner turned toward Anthe and me. “Of course, I don’t make the rules! If it were up to me, Martians could come into my shop and give me their hard-earned space credits! When I think of all of the space credits I’m missing out on because of that stupid ‘Divided, Yet One’ law, I could scream!”
The shop owner turned her attention back to the little opening in between the blinds. “I don’t trust any of the other shop keeps here. One minute they’re asking you how your shop’s doing and if you’re making ends meet and the next they’re snooping around trying to find ways to sabotage you. And finding out that I sold some of my goods to a Martian would be enough for me to not only get a hefty fine, but I could lose my shop as well. There are plenty of people who would love to have this building since it’s so close to the hotels.”
The shop owner quickly gazed through the opening in the blinds one last time, then locked the doors, flipped the sign on the door from opened to closed, and took a seat behind the counter. “Now that the coast is clear, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mrs. Kyon and welcome to my shop, Orthus. What can I do for you today, ladies?”
I dipped my hand into my purse and I pulled out the little red bead that I had found at the scene of the crime. I rolled the little bead toward Mrs. Kyon. She placed one of her fingers onto the bead before it fell off of the counter. “I’m currently investigating a robbery and I found this bead at the scene of the crime. I noticed the bubble inside of the bead says Nimen-Seki and I saw an advertisement for your shop inside of the ship’s map. Tell me, are you still selling these beads?”
Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn Page 8