“What’s the matter, human? You scared you might catch something if you sit on Kari’s couch?” Oh God, now the awkwardness was getting worse. Wendy’s tired eyes flew open. She turned her head around so quickly in Hati’s direction that I thought it might fall off her neck.
“Excuse me. What did you say?” Wendy snarled. Kari stopped pouring the lemonade into the glasses she set out. I couldn’t let this misunderstanding go on any longer. If I did, Wendy might end up saying something to Hati and it was possible that we could get kicked out. I let go of the couch and I jumped over to the opposite side of the room where the floor was made out of metal, then I slipped my white heel off my foot and I turned my ankle that was still bleeding toward everyone. “I didn’t want to drip blood onto the couch or the rug. That’s why I didn’t sit down.”
“Cosmo!” Wendy shrieked as she ran toward me.
“Hold on; I have a first aid kit somewhere,” Kari stammered.
“How did this happen?” Wendy asked in a frantic tone. She took me by the hand and guided me over to a little orange chair that was in front of Kari’s kitchen table. Kari rushed over with a tiny first aid kit. Wendy pulled out some white gauze and a spray bottle that smelled like alcohol.
“One of the security officers was aiming for your leg as we were running away but she ended hitting me instead,” I told Wendy.
Wendy sprayed my ankle twice with alcohol. I winced a bit, then she wrapped the thin white gauze around my ankle. “Cosmic Callisto Caprica. What in the name of the blessed Goddess have you been doing! Where did you get this crazy getup from?” I sucked my bottom lip in and I let my top lip hang out over top of it. Wendy pinched the side of my leg and I let out a little yelp. “I want answers, Miss Caprica.”
I couldn’t believe that I was eighteen years old and she still pinched me on my leg like I was a six-year-old kid. As Kari passed out the glasses of lemonade along with a glass bowl that was filled with this white candy, I unwrapped one of the pieces of candy and dropped it onto my tongue. It was a delicious creamy white chocolate candy with just a little bit of coconut in the center. I stashed two more of them into my pocket for later. Then I told them about how Wendy was taken away, how I snuck onto the security room floor, viewed the camera footage, found Anthe, and came here to rescue Wendy and talk to both Kari and Hati.
Hati took a sip of her lemonade. “Okay, so basically, all they have is some footage of a Martian woman going into the smoke. You can’t see her face. All you can see is that she’s a Martian. Do you see her stealing or running away with the rings?” I shook my head no. “The most information you can get is that she’s a female, a Martian, she has a long ponytail, and she’s on the slender side. She’s also wearing an orange uniform.”
Hati slapped her hands on her knees. “Then what’s the point in hauling all of us women together if all they need to do is gather up the girls who do janitorial work? I work in the laundry department. What’s the point in harassing me and asking me a bunch of dumb questions?” Hati rubbed the cool glass over her forehead. “To be honest, I could care less about Princess Rhea.”
“Hati, you don’t mean that. We’re her people. The princess loves us!” Kari commented.
Hati jumped up from her seat; her nose was scrunched up and her forehead was covered in wrinkles. “Why should I care about her! What has the royal family ever done for little people like me! She calls herself helping out her fellow Martians by doing what? Showing off some old jewelry? How is that supposed to help me or any of us here on this ship! We can’t even go upstairs and sit down at one of the restaurants to eat! Oh, we can clean up and we can serve the food, but we can’t eat there!” Hati covered her hands with her eyes. Her glass of lemonade fell to the floor and, in that moment, the only sound that could be heard was Hati quietly crying to herself.
A tiny lump jumped up into my throat, but I pushed it back down to where it came from. The corners of my eyes started to burn and I could feel the tears coming, but I didn’t have time for tears right now. I slipped my foot back into my shoes. “You may not like the princess and I understand that, but I need your help so I can clear Mimas’s name.”
Hati dragged her palm across her face. “It makes no sense that Mimas is being set aside as a prime target, even though she wasn’t on the security room floor at the time of the robbery.” All three women had their eyes directly on me. “I can prove that Mimas was at home during the robbery, but I need to get into her house.”
Wendy pushed her lower lip up and shook her head. “I think you’ve played detective enough for one day, Miss Caprica. Your father placed you in my care and I have to put my foot down. You need to stay out of this and let the authorities do their job.”
I snapped my head around in Wendy’s direction. “I’m not playing. I’m serious about solving this mystery. Someone has to.”
Wendy looked me in the eyes and said, “You’re right; this is a serious situation. Just look at your ankle.”
I could feel myself becoming flustered, so I turned my attention toward Hati. “Anthe told me that this morning, at 8 a.m., a package arrived at her house. The mailman placed a stamp on this receipt before giving it to Mimas to sign off on it. Mimas has a copy of that receipt and I have a hunch that the stamp has the date and time on it and that Mimas signed off on the receipt to say that she received the package. If I can find that receipt, that would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mimas was at home and they would have to let her go!”
Kari squealed gleefully with her hands pressed together.
“Okay, you have a hunch that’s based off of the word of a little girl. How old is this child anyway?” Wendy asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Seven or maybe eight. I don’t know. But I do know that no one else is looking out for Mimas and if things keep going the way they are now, she’s going to be arrested and sent to jail for committing a crime against the royal family. Her life and her daughter’s life will be over!”
Wendy looked away from me. “I know and I understand that you want to do this, but I have to look out for you. I can’t let you place yourself in danger. For all we know, Anthe might have missed a detail in her story and your hunch could be wrong.”
I shrugged my shoulder. “It’s true. I could be wrong and Anthe might have left out a detail, but I could be right and I’ll never know if I sit here and argue with you about how dangerous it is for me to go and find out for myself.” I jumped up from my seat so fast that my chair fell over and I hobbled toward the door.
Wendy got up from her seat, but to my surprise, Kari held her back. “Mimas’s house is not far from here. When you step out the door, take a left at the end of this row of metal houses, make a right, and Mimas’s house should be at the far end. Her house is surrounded by fake plastic flowers.”
I grinned at Kari. “Thank you!” I said as I unlocked the door in front of me.
“Cosmo, wait!” Wendy hollered out.
I kept my back to Wendy. “Don’t worry about me, Wendy. I’ll be careful.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond to what I said because as soon as the word “careful” left my mouth, I was out of Kari’s house and I had closed the door behind me. I stood there for two seconds. I let out a short breath of air. There was no turning back now; I made my decision and I had to stand by it.
Chapter 11
It took me a bit longer to reach the end of the row of metal houses because of my ankle. Every time I placed my foot down, a shot of pain burst through my entire ankle. The medicine that Kari gave me was just good enough to help me forget about the pain for about five seconds. Oh well, I’d get a doctor to look at it later. I peeked around the corner and, sure enough, just like Kari said, there was a house surrounded by plastic flowers in the next row of metal houses. So that was Mimas’s house. Unfortunately, a security officer was guarding the entrance. I swore I couldn’t get anything done at all because of those darn security officers. What could I do to get into Mimas’s house without arousing suspicion? I loo
ked down at the officer who was guarding the house; it was a woman, and she had her hair in a stiff, curled updo that she had probably sprayed to death this morning with an entire can of Stick and Stay hairspray. I watched as the woman reached down toward her right knee and rubbed it a little bit; after that, she placed her hands on her hips and tossed her head back. She stretched her back and rubbed her knee. She must have been either really tired or incredibly restless. A small smile crept up on my face. If she was tired or restless, I was sure she would love to be relieved from her post, and the only person who could do that was a fellow co-worker. Oh, this was a much better idea than trying to sneak in or fight my way in, which I really didn’t have the energy for right now. I swung around the corner and headed toward Mimas’s house. “You look like you need a break,” I called out.
The young woman’s face lit up after hearing the word “break.” She started to rub her right leg. “I’ve literally been here all day! I was supposed to get relief hours ago, but no one came.”
“Well, if you want, I can take over for you.”
The young woman pressed her hands to her chest. “Oh God bless you, sweetie.” She quickly looked me over. “I’d say ‘thank you,’ but I don’t even know your name. I’m sorry; I’m just really bad at remembering names.” She nervously chuckled.
“Oh, it’s okay. I just started working here not too long ago.” I extended my hand to her. “My name’s Callisto Marine.”
The young woman shook my hand. “Thank you, Callisto. You’re an absolute doll.” I kept my eyes on the young woman until she disappeared down the alleyway and around the corner.
I climbed over the blue barriers and carefully pushed the metal door open. For a minute, I thought that the door was going to fall backward and land on top of me. The door had been kicked off of its weak hinges and was leaning against the side of the house. Anthe had said that some security officers had entered her house to do a search, but I didn’t think their home would be in such disarray. The couches were flipped over on their sides, the refrigerator was lying on its back with the door wide open, a few pictures that were tacked onto the wall were lying on the floor, and the carpet was torn apart from the right side to the left side of the room. They hadn’t performed a search in here; they had simply wrecked the place with no regard whatsoever for the people who had to come back here and deal with this mess. This was wrong. Everything about this whole situation was wrong and I didn’t like it. Why would they tear this woman’s house apart if she was clearly not the suspect? I shook my head. That didn’t matter; right now, I had to find this receipt, which wouldn’t be an easy task since this place had been turned upside down. I pressed my fingers against my temple while I slowly scanned Mimas’s home, trying my best to figure out where I should start my search.
On the other side of the room was the kitchen. I spotted a small trash can that had been tipped over just like everything else in this house. That was probably a great place to start to find a useless receipt that you really didn’t want or need to keep anyway. I carefully tiptoed over the pieces of furniture and made sure the heel to my shoe didn’t get caught up in the ripped-up pieces of carpet as I made my way over to the trash can. I couldn’t smell it when I was on the other side of the room near the entrance, but once I knelt down in front of the trash can, a pungent, sour aroma filled my nostrils. God, what could possibly be in here! I really wished I had a pair of gloves or something; anything would be better than having to stick my bare hands into this garbage. There was no getting around it. I had to do this, even though I really didn’t want to. I unclenched my fingers, counted to three, and threw my hands into the nasty pile of garbage.
A few cold shivers ran up my arms, but after a minute of digging around, I got over having my hands in the trash. First, I checked the biggest pieces that were in the pile; lying on top were three empty boxes of Comet Crunchy Cornflakes. After I checked those boxes and I set them aside to my right, the sour smell became even stronger. I pulled the collar of my uniform over the edge of my nose and I dug even deeper into the pile of garbage. I pushed through a pile of wet tissues and a potato chip bag. That was when I found the source behind the foul, rank stench that had been bothering me since I started digging in the trash. It was the discarded remains of a purple squid. The poor thing’s guts and half of its head were sitting on some coffee grounds. I had to look away because its lifeless eyes were looking directly at my own. Plus, the stench was overpowering me. When I returned my attention to the garbage pile, I noticed something was poking through the middle of the squid’s guts. I ignored it at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I noticed its smooth texture, how thin it was, and that it was most likely a piece of paper. It could very well be the receipt that I was looking for, but it could also be another soggy wet tissue.
I’d already set aside several clumps of them. I wouldn’t know what it was until I pulled it out. I bent down and I slowly reached toward the mushy pile of squid guts. I pinched at the small piece of paper with my thumb and index finger. Sadly, some of the slimy juices from the squid’s guts fell onto my fingers as I was pulling it out from the pile. I continued to tug on the piece of paper. I just wanted to pull it out with one good tug, but I was afraid that I might rip it apart since it was so soggy from lying in this pile of squid guts. Just as I was making good progress with getting this wet piece of paper out, I heard two voices outside of the door to Mimas’s house. I immediately froze and stopped what I was doing.
“Hey, isn’t this Fran’s post?” a man asked. His voice sounded deep.
“Yeah, she said a girl named Callisto was filling in for her,” another man stated.
“Callisto? Who’s that?” the man with the deep voice asked.
Oh God, I could hear the overwhelming amount of skepticism in his voice. He was not buying this story about a girl named Callisto working on the ship as a security guard. For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. I prayed they would go away and that maybe the other officer would convince the skeptical-sounding one there was nothing to worry about, that he was overthinking things and that they should just move along.
“Stay here. I’m going inside to check things out.” Oh, how I wished the front door wasn’t a broken-up mess. I could have locked the door behind me, but what was done was done. I had to get my act together before this guy set foot inside of the house. I pushed the mushy wet pile of guts back, carefully peeled the wet piece of paper off the pile of guts, and stuffed the damp receipt into my purse. Right as the officer was stepping through the opening in front of the house, I rose to my feet, wiped my wet hands on my pants, and put on my most convincing smile. A tall man with a scruffy-looking brown beard walked toward me.
“Hi there. How can I help you?” I asked in a sweet tone.
The man said nothing at first. He scanned my body from top to bottom before he opened his mouth and said, “Sorry to intrude. It’s just that no one was outside and I wanted to check to see if someone might be in here.”
My fingers were still sticky from touching those squid guts. I nervously rubbed my fingers together. “Oh, no worries. I just needed to use the bathroom real quick, so that’s why I came inside.”
The tall security guard shook his head. “Oh, okay then.” Yes! It sounded like he bought what I said; maybe he would go away now.
I took three steps forward. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my post.”
The tall, scruffy-looking guard held his right hand up. I came to a stop. My stomach started to tighten just a bit around the edges, but I quickly dismissed this feeling because I knew that if I gave into it, I might lose my cool. I needed to stay confident.
“Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?”
I literally didn’t have time for any questions right now. “Look, I really need to get back to my post, so if you will excuse me.”
For the second time, the scruffy-looking guard stopped me from leaving, but this time, he keep his hands at his side and stepped directly
in front me. I tried to move around him, but he mimicked my movements. “Excuse me, but what’s the problem here? I have a job to do and you’re getting in my way,” I spat out.
The man shook his head. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to excuse me, but I’m a little concerned, because I don’t know who’s guarding this house.”
I pushed the extra-large lump that had climbed up the back of my throat down into my stomach.
“I don’t know you and you don’t know me, which makes no sense whatsoever,” he added.
“Look, don’t worry. I just started working here. Do you think I would have this uniform if I wasn’t an employee here on this ship—”
The tall guard cut me off midsentence. “It makes no sense because I’m in charge of training all of the new recruits who work in the security department and I don’t recognize you.” His tone of voice was very sharp; every single word cut me deep down to my bones. The jig was up. I was actually in some serious trouble and I needed to think fast. I backed up into the kitchen and my hands clasped onto the kitchen counter that was behind me. All of my anxious feelings traveled up through my stomach and into my mouth, causing it to feel as dry as sand. My eyes left his. I didn’t really care if this made me look guilty, but I needed to survey the area and come up with my next move.
The tall guard continued, “You know what else raises a red flag for me? Your uniform.” Good; keep yapping. Give me more time to think about my escape. I looked out the window near the front door. The second guard was still standing outside. I was sure it was only a matter of time before he came inside out of curiosity. This guy looked pretty strong; the chances of me running past him, not tripping over a piece of furniture, making it through the front door and past his little friend were slim to none.
“Earlier today, I heard a report about a security officer who was attacked by a lady during a fake fire alarm. She took his uniform from him too.” Now things were really starting to get serious. I tried to swallow, but I couldn’t. Over to my right was a door. I had no idea where it led to, but if things were going the way I thought they were going to go, I might need to slip in there for a bit. “So basically, someone has been masquerading as a security officer for the past couple of hours, and I think that person is you. I really do,” he said with a tiny smirk.
Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn Page 12