Burnside's Killer: Extended Version (The Hunter Legacy Book 6)

by Timothy Ellis

  If only finding the answers I needed could have been so easy.

  I arrived at the security HQ, which I was already starting to think of as my home away from home, just before 1800 hours, to find Jane and Janet sitting at a table with a small spread of food and drinks. By that point I was used to the high quality of both on the station, and I briefly thought about what it was going to be like going back to the mediocre fare I usually ate on the Calypso, or back home on Earth Torus. Not to mention paying for it.

  "Ladies," I said.

  Jane brightened when she saw me.

  "Dick! Good to see you in person."

  Janet and I exchanged a civil nod as I took my place at the table, and started dishing up. Once again, the two women didn't bother with the food. I assumed it was how they maintained their knockout figures.

  "Janet brought me up to speed on everything that's happened," said Jane. "Sounds like it's been quite a ride since I left."

  I lifted an eyebrow at Janet.

  "I thought you weren't going to burden her with details?"

  She shrugged.

  "I figured it couldn't hurt anything, and it seemed important to you."

  "So what do you think?" I asked Jane.

  "I think I have no idea what's going on," she said. "But I do believe your killer is here."

  That was a surprise.

  "Okay," I said. "But why do you believe it?"

  She smiled sweetly.

  "Because you believe it, and I trust your instincts."

  My stomach did a little flip-flop at that, and I had to clear my throat.

  "But she also agrees we run through tomorrow as planned," said Janet. "We'll keep an eye on Lindsay Thayer, and if she attacks, we'll be ready. And if it turns out she's not the killer, and your theory didn't pan out, then everything is fine. Either way, there's nothing to worry about."

  "Except whoever killed Speck and not-Fritz," I reminded her.

  "That investigation is ongoing," she said tersely. "Maybe you can help with that case once we're done with tomorrow."

  It all sounded so simple the way she put it, and I have to admit, I wanted to buy into it. Of course, if I did, it meant my killer was still on the loose somewhere along the spine, five steps ahead of me as usual.

  Was that why I didn't want to admit defeat? Because it meant I'd have to admit to myself that I hadn't finally tracked down my killer, and I'd keep on chasing her forever and ever, till death do us part? That I'd never retire, because I knew damn well that I couldn't give it up, knowing she was still loose on the spine? After all, now she was at the top end, there was nothing to stop her working her way back down again.

  Before I could respond, I saw Janet's attention slip into her PC.

  "Excuse me a moment," she said. "Someone's trying to leave the docking bay without proper clearance."

  Jane and I exchanged a glance, as I forked some more food into my mouth. This wasn't my concern, until suddenly it was.

  "Captain Thayer," said Janet. "This is the station commander. You have not been cleared for departure. Please abort your launch procedure, and report to the security office immediately."

  My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.

  "What's going on?" asked Jane.

  "Lindsay Thayer's ship is attempting to leave," said Janet. "Without any notice, and with no flight plan." In a louder voice, she said, "Captain Thayer, please respond."

  Nothing. I felt my pulse quicken, my gut telling me this was it.

  "She's running," I said, standing and heading for the door. "Something's happened."

  "Dick, wait," Jane called. "This could just be a misunderstanding."

  "Thayer isn't answering," said Janet. "Dick is right, there's something going on. Diagnostic shows no malfunction on the station's end, and scanners show her ship's cargo bay is empty."

  "You need to stop Thayer, and bring her in," I said, ignoring the fact I had no authority here.

  "Where are you going?" Jane asked, as the two grabbed stunners, and jogged towards the door.

  "I need to find a victim before he bleeds to death."

  With that, I bolted into the corridor, tossing out a little prayer to whatever gods might be listening, that I wouldn't be too late.

  Thirty Five

  The door to DeLeo's suite was shut tight when I arrived, so I pinged Janet on my PC.

  "Can you override the lock on DeLeo's door?"

  A moment later it slid open, and I darted inside, ready for anything, or at least as ready as I could be without a weapon in my hand. The only light was what came in from the corridor, so I hit the controls, and the room was suddenly filled with white. I pressed my back to the wall as my eyes recovered from the glare, and crab-walked through the living room. It was an open space, probably ten by ten meters, but there was nothing in it except furniture, and some empty liquor bottles.

  Not that I expected anything else. I'd encountered this a dozen times before, and the real scene was almost always in the bedroom.

  I crept through the hall that led to the sleeping quarters, and stopped outside the opaque glass door. Through it I could see the dark mass of a body on the bed, so I slapped the control and the door slid aside, revealing exactly what I knew I would see, Antonio DeLeo lying on his back in a pool of blood.

  My heart sank a bit as I realized I was too late to save him. A few steps took me close enough to see the body in detail.

  "Something has overridden my control of the docking bay!" Janet said loudly in my ear. "And the cams there have been hacked. Thayer's ship is about to launch. Jane will follow in her own ship, and stop her. What's your status, Dick?"

  "DeLeo is dead, and his penis is gone. You need to bring that bitch in, Janet. Promise me."

  "We're on it," she said, and that was all.

  I waved to activate the bedroom lights, then knelt beside the bed to examine DeLeo's body. Like all the previous victims, he was on his back, nude, no signs of struggle. As with Patterson, the blood had been left to pool under him, and soak into the bed. Some had spilled onto the floor. Obviously, Thayer had been in a hurry to get off the station before the body was discovered.

  So I was right. Her target had been DeLeo all along, not Hunter. And I had no doubt Jane and Janet would be able to bring Thayer back. I was about to finally put paid to almost two years' worth of work. I could retire again, for real this time.

  So why was I standing there, staring at DeLeo's nude, dickless corpse, instead of jumping in the air and pumping my fist? Because of that goddamn itch in my brain, that's why. A question that had popped up before I'd even left security, and was still there, taunting me in DeLeo's bedroom. Why was Thayer in such a hurry to rabbit?

  It had to have been she who disabled the cams and controls in the docking bay somehow, so she could get to her ship and make her escape. But why draw attention to herself by doing that? Why not just wait until her scheduled departure time?

  Maybe she was worried someone would discover DeLeo before then. But if that was the case, why not just kill him right before she was scheduled to fly out?

  I gave my head a good shake. None of it mattered now, I'd have my answers soon enough. Thayer would be in a cell, and I'd have all the time in the world to interrogate her. Neither of us would be going anywhere, anytime soon.

  It belatedly occurred to me I was the crime scene unit here, and I started recording the entire room. When I was sure I hadn’t missed anything, I was ready for the body to be moved to whatever morgue facilities the station had.

  "Janet, can we get a droid down here to take the body to the medical bay?"

  No answer. Which wasn't like her.

  "Janet?" I said again. "Jane? Anyone there?"

  Janet's voice came on.

  "Stand by," she said tersely.

  That made me nervous, and I headed out of DeLeo's suite and into the station, suddenly much less concerned about securing the crime scene.

  "Talk to me, Janet. What's going on?"

  There wa
s a long pause which gave the screw forming in my guts another turn. My stride turned into a jog as I got closer to the security HQ.

  "Jane! Janet! Come in!"

  Finally, after an eternity which was probably less than thirty seconds, Jane's voice break the silence.

  "Sorry, Dick, we've been dealing with…a situation."

  "What situation, dammit?!" I barked.

  "I'm afraid I've got bad news," Janet's voice said somberly. "We had no choice. Lindsay Thayer is dead."

  Thirty Six

  I should have been happy.

  Sure, it wasn't the ideal outcome, but hey, my killer was dead, Jon Hunter was safe, and to be honest, the universe was better off without Antonio DeLeo in it.

  But when Jane and Janet finally joined me in the security office, I didn't greet them with a congratulating handshake, or even a smile. They didn't exactly look like I felt, but they weren't kicking up their heels either. Whether that had to do with the expression on my face, or their own sensibilities, I couldn't say. All I knew was what should have felt like a party, felt more like a wake.

  "It was the only option," Jane said finally, placing a hand on my arm. "She forced our hand."

  "I have footage from the bay," said Jane, pulsing to the vid screen.

  Instantly, I was looking at a small freighter pulling away from its berth, and the airlock. There was a terrible grinding noise as it happened.

  "Thayer broke her ship's docking clamps in the process," said Janet. "Anyone who tries to leave dock without proper clearance from the station administration will severely damage their ship, which is why no one ever does it. The system is in place to curtail theft from the cargo bays. I never expected to use it to catch a killer."

  "So what did happen?" I asked. "She made it to space, and her ship was still functioning."

  "I followed her in one of the station's few fighters," said Jane. "She ignored all our attempts to communicate. I warned her several times she'd be destroyed if she didn't comply."

  "So you blasted her."

  "Not right then," said Janet. "Thayer essentially killed herself. Watch."

  The footage switched to an external cam, and followed Jane's fighter as she maneuvered it to intercept her quarry. Thayer banked hard to the right, and accelerated, straight for the station.

  "What the hell?" I breathed.

  "That was my thought exactly," said Janet. "I couldn't believe she was willing to kill herself, and blow a hole in the side of Hunter's Redoubt, just to avoid being captured. Jane had no choice but to fire on the ship before impact. Even if she hadn't, the station's defenses wouldn't have allowed the impact. She was going to be destroyed no matter what."

  "It was easy enough to do," said Jane. "Her shields weren't even up. There was no way she could have survived the impact even if she'd somehow managed to avoid my missiles, and the station defenses."

  I nodded.

  "Suicide by cop."

  "So it would seem," said Janet. "As odd as it all sounds, it appears DeLeo was the actual target. Your theory was correct, Dick. Congratulations."

  "Yay me," I said without enthusiasm. "I still have no idea what happened to Speck and the other victim, or who's been masquerading as Fritz. Or what Thayer used as a murder weapon, or how she got it on board, of course."

  "What did you find in DeLeo's suite?" asked Jane.

  "Same as James Patterson's place, dead on his back in bed, no signs of struggle, missing his middle appendage. The blood hadn't been cleaned, obviously."

  Jane took my hand, which sent a little electric thrill through me, despite the circumstances.

  "I can tell you're still bothered by all this," she said softly.

  "I'll tell you what I'm bothered by," Janet barked. "It should have been almost impossible for anyone to have done what Lindsay Thayer did. She managed to shut down the cams between the hotel and the docking bay, and block my control signals for the bay itself."

  "It had to have been a hack," I said.

  "An incredibly sophisticated hack," she replied. "I'm scanning right now."

  Scanning what? I wondered before Jane interrupted my thoughts.

  "Why don't we go back to DeLeo's, and see if we can find any more clues which might help us figure things out?"

  I looked over at Janet, who nodded.

  "I have everything else under control. A salvage droid is on its way to retrieve the debris from Thayer's ship, for whatever good it might do. And all systems are back online. I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

  "All right," I said. "Keep me posted if you find anything?"

  "Of course. Good luck with your search."

  "And you with yours. Here's hoping we can finally make some sense out of this whole stupid mess."

  Thirty Seven

  "DeLeo and Thayer certainly seemed to enjoy their liquor," Jane observed, as we combed through the suite.

  "There were empty alcohol containers at a number of Thayer's murder scenes," I said. "I always wondered if she used booze to convey a drug that could immobilize the victims, so she could kill them in peace, but nothing ever showed up on the screens."

  Jane leaned over the corpse from her waist, hands clasped behind her back. Something about the juxtaposition of her formality, and the naked body, made me chuckle. I think part of my attraction to her was that she didn't know how attractive she was.

  Suddenly she leaned even farther forward, until her face was almost to the floor. I didn't even realize that was physically possible until that moment.

  "Hello," she said from the floor. "What's this?"

  She straightened back up from the waist, my own lower back shuddered at the thought of attempting that myself, and held out her hand. In it was a thin braided chain, made of silver.

  "Apparently Thayer left in such a hurry that she forgot her jewelry," she said.

  "Huh."

  I took it from her hand. As soon as I touched it, my mind suddenly recalled my dream about Fritz, and I shuddered again.

  "Are you all right?" asked Jane.

  "Yeah," I said. "Just something stupid. You weren't here when Janet talked to Thayer and DeLeo, but Thayer actually mentioned this necklace."

  I told her the story about the faux Fritz and his so-called magic trick. Telling it again didn't make it any less nonsensical, but Jane's expression told me it had sparked something in her mind.

  "What are you thinking?" I asked.

  She took the necklace back, and laid it in her palm. I watched as she raised and lowered her hand, frowning in thought.

  "The weight of this is off," she said.

  My eyebrows went up.

  "What do you mean, the weight is off? How do you know how much it should weigh? And how can you tell how heavy it is with your hand?"

  She ignored my questions.

  "This much solid braided silver, plus the solid orbs at either end for the clasp, should weigh approximately eleven grams. This weighs nine."

  All I could do was blink stupidly.

  "And?"

  She took the chain in her fingers, and fiddled with the orbs, each of which was about a centimeter around.

  "That means it's actually hollow. There must be something inside."

  "Something like what?"

  As I said it, I saw her twist one orb loose from the chain, and watched as a section of the chain puddled below it. For a moment, it seemed to be suspended in midair below the orb itself, and I stupidly thought again of Fritz's magic.

  Then it hit both of us.

  Jane's eyes widened, but I almost fell over as I finally twigged onto what I was seeing.

  "Goddamn," I whispered.

  Jane quickly took the other end of the chain and pulled it taut, revealing a section in the middle of the length that wasn't there. Each end had about six inches of braided silver next to its orb, but the empty space in the middle was defying gravity.

  "It's a wire," she said. "So thin it can't be detected by the human eye."

  "Or your station's se
nsors," I said. "Pull on it. How strong is it?"

  "Tensile strength is exponentially disproportionate to diameter."

  I must have looked as dumb as I felt, because she followed it quickly.

  "That means it's a lot stronger than it looks."

  "And how much are you willing to bet if we scan it in the medical bay, we'll find traces of DeLeo's blood on it? And Thayer's DNA on the outside?"

  Her grin was wide, and it lit me up inside.

  Thirty Eight

  Forty minutes later, the three of us were back together at security HQ, and I was pissed off.

  "I don't see how me staying in the shadows is going to accomplish anything," I griped. "This whole thing is over. Why can't I go out in the open?"

  "I'm sorry," Janet said, with mock confusion. "When, exactly, did we agree it was over?"

  "The killer is dead, and we have the murder weapon. What could go wrong if someone here finds out who I am now?"

  "I know how you're feeling, Dick," said Jane. "But Janet's right. We still don't know where the fake Fritz is, or how he's getting around the station without being detected. He knows who you are, and even if he didn't kill Speck and the other victim himself, there's no doubt he's caught up in it somehow. I'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to your life."

  I had to admit, it felt good to hear her say that. If it hadn't, I probably wouldn't have rolled over and given in the way I did.

  "All right, fine," I said. "I'll keep hanging out here for now. But I want to find Fritz, and put paid to this whole escapade as soon as possible."

  "That's not your jurisdiction," said Janet. "And now we know he's not connected with Thayer, we have to assume he's here for another purpose. We've already prepared for an assassination attempt on Jon's life, so we might as well follow through with the exercise just as a precaution. Who knows? Maybe we'll end up trapping Fritz instead." She looked at me sternly. "And as eager as you are, Dick, you need to remember you're bound by your ethics as a professional law enforcement officer. We aren't. If I see Fritz anywhere near Jon, I won't hesitate to kill him."

  That sent a tiny chill up my spine. Every once in a while I was reminded I wasn't in Earth Sector anymore. This was essentially an untamed frontier, in the no-mans-land between sectors, and so new, nothing was actually organized yet.