The girl thought about it for a moment as she righted the chair and sat down. "Jacob Hobb."
I burst out laughing. "That was a trap you dozy girl, and you fell straight in. Either you tell me who told you to say that or you'll be joining me and sob-sob in the slider back to the station."
The girl sat rigid.
"Well?"
She swallowed, but said nothing.
"Well?"
"I think I want a lawyer."
I laughed again. "A lawyer won't do you any good. If you don't tell me who told you to say Jacob Hobb, I will charge you with obstruction of justice, for which you might as well be a vegetable thief holding a fistful of dirty potatoes in someone else's plot."
Unable to make further comment, she ran out crying. A few more and I would win the Annual Police Dinner prize for meanest interviewer.
"Next please."
A dark haired girl who looked a bit worldlier than the other two porcelain ornaments entered. She was not attractive in such an obvious way as the other two, with a slight belly and a nose that went a nail's breadth off center, but there was something undeniably beautiful about her smile which filled her face with personality even before she spoke. A string of piercings and tattoos suggested that intimidation was not the best route to go with this one.
"Mrs. Jason," she said, before I even had a chance to speak.
"Killed Kenrey?" I asked.
"Told us to say it was Jacob Hobb."
"And why are you telling me this?"
She shrugged as if the subject were beneath her. "Doesn't seem right to gang up on him like that. All she's basing it on is that he doesn't like Kenrey. I wasn't aware that anyone did."
"Do you like Jacob Hobb?" I asked. She was the first one who didn't refer to Kenrey as the Archbishon which raised her in my estimations.
"He's not exactly smart," she said.
"What's your name?"
"Becky Malson. I work in the kitchens."
"Chef?"
"You could call it that."
I decided not to pry in to what else you might call it. My mind was heading other places, and few of them had anything to do with the case. Unquestionably, I was attracted to her, but that was not the whole of it. Standing up to Mrs. Jason and her army of supporters took a level of strength not possessed by most individuals. I had to remember my weakness.
"And were you in Kenrey's room the day of the murder?"
"Nah, I was in the kitchens all day; no need for me to be there."
I nodded. This was the first person I felt able to converse with. "And did you see anything suspicious on the day of the murder?"
"Not really. Everything seemed normal." She laughed. "It probably tells you something about the level of normality that the best person they could find to blame was a man who couldn't have conceived of the plan, let alone carried it out."
I smiled. "So you don't think it's because Mrs. Jason is the killer?"
She laughed again, her crooked nose flaring in amusement. "I think everyone is just worried that they're gonna be scapegoated the way Peti was."
That was understandable. The Las Hek PD had not shown themselves to be the reliable defenders of its citizens that the staff might have hoped for.
I asked her more about the people and the compound, and she answered each question with a sincere confidence that normally only belonged to much older people. It was not the same bravado I saw in Rake and Lisbold, whom beneath the surface secretly knew how much everybody loathed them, but an honest indifference that suggested she was immune to embarrassment.
As time passed, I struggled to end the interview, asking more inane questions every time I opened my mouth until I had to stop myself from asking about Mrs. Flias' gardening. My weakness coming upon me, if I wasn't careful I would do something that didn't seem stupid at that moment, but would have me cringing later.
I wanted to ask her to dinner the way normal people did with each other, but my tongue froze in my mouth every time I had the words in the right order. Thoughts of Pyke and rejection weighed on me. Becky would never agree. She was above me in every sense.
Hayson's suggestion that I could hire an assistant flashed across my mind, and amid images of her politely declining my invitation to buy her food, she seemed perfect for it. Outwardly calm, my cowardice was battling my desire to have one relationship that wasn't strictly professional.
I offered her the job.
As much of a joke as the Kaeroshi hiring restrictions were, asking someone to work for me in the middle of an interview for a murder case was unquestionably unconventional. It was probably unethical and possibly illegal. But I'd done it, bewitched by those dark eyes. Foolish, but I had never desired so much to prolong my interaction with another person. There was something about this girl that was different, and while I had no intention of doing anything about my feelings, I knew that I would have regretted not asking.
"Why?" Her single word response was not the fervent acceptance I had hoped for, though her tone suggested curiosity.
"Why would you want to be police, or why am I asking?"
"Both," she said, her dark red lips grinning at me as if I was a baby webble heart. "But either way it can't be any worse than working here."
"You would be my assistant to start off with, and I would train you to be police. You would have to pass some exams, but after that you could enter the force as your own agent. The exams are hard though. Are you smart?"
"Smarter than anyone round here," she said, "except Laurie."
It was a good answer. To suggest you were smarter than everyone was usually delusion, while to admit you weren't smart could be modesty or just simplicity. To identify someone specific who was smarter than yourself was a sign of self-awareness.
"Which one is Laurie?" I recognized that name. "Laurie Colson?" Her DNA was in the room.
"Cleaner, left shortly after Kenrey died. She said the new owner might not want so many staff, so she was getting a head start in the job market. I nearly joined her, but I decided all these fat, rich frackers like their food too much to get rid of me."
"She's here today?" I asked.
"Nah, gone for weeks."
"And do you know if she was here on the day of Kenrey's murder?"
Her burgundy lips angled into a smile. "She was away that day. Mrs. Jason tried to suggest blaming her before Hobb, but no one was buying it because she wasn't even here. She'd have to climb the walls like anyone else."
I needed a list of staff present on the day of the murder.
"She was really sick the day before as well, but she came in for a bit. We were pretty short staffed, and she was just getting on with it, but Mrs. Jason made her go home."
That was the first time that Mrs. Jason had come off well. Dollews said the DNA could be up to two days old, so I could probably cross Colson off the list.
Reluctantly, I stood up. I didn't want to reveal that even with her sitting and me standing she rose slightly above my head. As she followed, she grew a head taller and a head taller again. "If you want the job, go and tell your boss you're leaving, and if you could get a few more to come in that would be helpful. I doubt the previous girls did."
I got up to open the door for her, but the room was too cramped, so I had to retreat back inside to let her out. Ashen faced, I waved goodbye as she visibly tried not to laugh. Before I could recover my senses, a huge mound of person was squeezing by me on its way into the room. The air filled with perfume failing to suffocate the stench of sweat.
Becky's face went pale, emphasizing the shadow in her eyes.
I winked at her as I shut the door. "Mrs. Jason, I assume?"
"You've been bullying two of my girls. I have a good mind to complain about you to your superiors." Her voice was shrill and angry as if my actions had caused her personal insult. She was still standing, clearly under the impression that this was going to be a quick conversation.
I didn't consider squeezing past to sit in the seat I'd been usin
g. The first translocation had been harrowing enough, so I sat down in the other one. "Have a seat."
"If you don't leave right now, I'll report you for police brutality." There were damp rings under her arms and a layer of moisture on her chest that gave her skin an oily appearance.
I laughed, but within an instant she was on top of me. "You think this is funny? People are dropping like flies in your department; you think they'll want another scandal on their hands?"
Her increased proximity reduced my amusement as I was bombarded with the diametric odors. "If you don't sit down Mrs. Jason, I'll bring the guards in to make you sit down."
"They'll throw you out on your tiny little ass."
The air was becoming so pungent in the cramped space that I was struggling not to cough. "Those guards wouldn't touch a hair on my body if I shot you right now in this cupboard. Why did you tell the girls to lie for you?"
"You're a mad man," she said, stepping back toward the door. "Threatening to shoot me in a cupboard!
"Answer the question, Mrs. Jason."
"We all discussed it as a group and agreed that Hobb must have done it." She ran her teeth along her bottom lip. "It's you who's lying, putting words in other people's mouths so you can increase your number of arrests or something."
"And where was Hobb during this group discussion?"
She blinked suddenly, the first sign of retreat. "He wasn't in that day."
I took a guess to keep harrowing at her. "The other girls said the discussion was today. Is he here today?"
"You mean that lying little sloven, Rebecca Malson? That girl would say anything to get me into trouble."
"All three of them told on you Mrs. Jason."
"They never." She swallowed, her ire melting like ice on a hot day.
"They did," I said, "and I could put you away for obstruction of justice, maybe even fraud if I had a mind to."
I couldn't.
I could put her and the two girls in a cell for a night, which I was going to do anyway, and not a single charge would stick in the morning even if I were the Commissioner. "You tell me something true that helps my investigation, and I'll consider dropping the charges."
She glanced back toward the door. "The Archbishon, he likes little girls. He had one the night he was killed."
"I know this, Mrs. Jason."
"I'm the one who makes the arrangements for him. None of the other staff know about it except Hobb maybe. I never told him. He does the Archbishon's laundry and occasionally a sock or some other item belonging to one of the girls shows up. Eventually, even a lack wit like him would figure it out."
She was talking faster. The first bit was always the hardest. After that, the more they said, the more they felt they might as well say everything. "So why do you think he knows?"
"He just does that's all. He doesn't have the sense to conceal it. He almost told one of the girls the other day. She was just saying something nice about the Archbishon, and he started ranting about how terrible he was. He stopped himself in time, but I could see what he was about to say. Then he kicked over Alesha's mop bucket full of dirty water and walked off."
"Is Hobb here today?"
She tapped her tablet. "I'll message him to come over."
"Thank you." I stood up to show her the meeting was at an end and walked out into the waiting room. It was empty. The girls must have thought that there was no point asking the next members to come as I was about to be chased away.
"What are you going to do about the..." She stopped, unable to vocalize the word lie.
"That depends. You know Welker is dead?"
She nodded.
"Could you get in contact with whoever has replaced him if I ask you to?"
She nodded again.
"And tell me where the..." I coughed, unable to think of an acceptable word for the enterprise, "girls have been moved to." I didn't need to check whether they'd been moved. There was no chance Clazran would leave a government protected child whore house at the site of a high profile murder scene to be discovered by the press.
"I think so," she said.
"Then I don't think we need to take this matter any further. I'm still going to take the two girls in for questioning overnight, but if you come through for me with that location, then we're ok."
We didn't shake hands, and she left. I went back into the room to consider what I knew, but I was seated for less than half a minute before Hobb appeared in the doorway. A large man with a classically attractive face and cinnamon hair, he looked like a robust version of Clazran. Even despite the dry skin flaking off his lips, he could have modeled for Amran, though not if he dressed himself. His rib vest somehow managed to poke out the top and bottom of his dry-top, rising up one side of his neck as if hiding something unsightly, and one trouser leg tucked into his boot while the other hung loosely over the top.
"Jacob Hobb," he said, offering me his hand. "I heard you was wantin' me."
"Have a seat, Jacob. I'm detective Nidess. I just want to ask you a few questions."
"OK," he said, his grin drawn on by an infant.
Unless the whole thing was an act, this man was no more capable of planning Kenrey's murder than the fauna in the gardens.
"You know Kenrey is dead?" I said, lining the way.
His answer was jovial, making fun of me. "The whole Kaerosh knows he's dead, detective Nidess."
"And do you know why?"
The handsome giant looked suddenly serious. "He was a bad man."
I nodded. "Why is that?"
"Not supposed to say."
"And who told you not to say?"
He started fidgeting. "No one."
"Mrs. Jason?"
"No."
It was unfair to bully him like this, but he was hiding something. "Do you like Mrs. Jason?"
"She's mean." His eyes fixed on the ceiling following the little patterns of dots around. "She made me clear up the plates, but I didn't drop ʽem."
"Did you like Archbishon Kenrey?"
"He was a bad man."
"Because he liked little girls?"
Hobb said nothing, still staring at the ceiling,
"I agree, Jacob. He was a very bad man, and whoever killed him did everyone a favor. I would like to reward them."
"People like Kenrey are the ones gettin' rewards."
"Not by me."
He shook his head. "You want to put Kenrey's killer away. That means you're on Kenrey's side. You're a bad man too."
I smiled at him sadly, wondering how many people shared his simple philosophy. He was regurgitating someone else's opinion just like the little girl Kathryn. "Do you know who killed Kenrey, Jacob?"
"I don't know."
"Was it someone who worked here?"
"I don't know." His knees knocked together as if he'd lost control of them. "I know these people though," he said, his voice hoarse, "None of ʽem killers."
I felt dull nausea hearing him defend all the people ready to throw him in front of a slider. "But you said Kenrey was a bad man, so wouldn't killing him be a good thing?"
"Two wrongs don't make a right."
I nodded. I thought that way once. Life was a lot simpler when ethics arbitrarily precluded certain behaviors under any circumstance, but it was that philosophy that allowed people like Clazran into power. He murdered all the peaceful protesters and softer rivals unwilling to go to the same lengths. People like Clazran and Kenrey not only deserved to die but needed to, and that meant someone had to kill them. Though that did not mean I approved of Welker's or Kenrey's murder. These acts were not committed with the intent of making The Kaerosh a better place but through hate, and they did little good to anyone.
I was not getting as far as I wanted, but still I hesitated before I went further. Hobb might snap if I pushed too hard. For all his strength and beauty, he had a child's mind, and his discomfort was already apparent.
Motivated by the release of Sariah, I said, "Most of those people think you did it, or
at least that's what they told me."
Hobb was silent, pushing the hair out of his eyes. "You're a bad man."
"I'm not, Jacob, I promise. I just want to know who killed Kenrey. I don't want to hurt them."
"You're a liar. I want to leave now."
"That's alright, we're nearly done. I just need you to give me a name. I know you know who the killer is."
"No!" He screamed the word at me, throwing himself out of the chair as he dissolved into floods of tears.
I was pinned to my seat by the force of his outburst, shocked even though I knew it was a possibility. I'd gone too far. "OK thank you, Jacob, you can go now." Suddenly I was worried what he might do to me if he felt trapped.
Hobb ran out as if I were chasing him. He knew who the killer was, which meant more than likely it was someone who worked in the compound. They had to be thin enough to climb through the window, which sadly ruled out Mrs. Jason, and strong enough to put Kenrey on the chair, which ruled out most of the girls Kenrey liked to employ.
The girl, Kathryn, had to be present the whole time and then lie to me about the sequence of events, but possibly she just did that out of gratitude to the murderer of her rapist. She sat quietly while he killed the guard, put Kenrey on a chair, and blew a hole in the wall. Notably, the explosion came from outside blowing the wall inward, but the bomb could have been dropped through the window to look like it was done to get in. Then the killer probably escaped through the hole. They could go back through the window, but they needed the hole in order to frame Peti, whose means of entrance as a three met long snake as thick as a tree trunk might otherwise be questioned. The beauty of the killer being a member of staff was that they could just return to their duties and wouldn't need to get back over the wall.
How did they hide their clothes? After all the stabbing and slicing they would be covered in blood, yet thirty to forty sweepers going over the entire compound found nothing.
There was no one else waiting to be interviewed, so I walked back to the guard station and found the new Guard Captain talking to a group of guards. He took one glance round as I entered and returned to his conversation. They sounded like kids discussing the latest craze, and from the few words I glimpsed, the topic was clearly Liegon's mech rights protest. Something bad must have happened to trigger such excited babble, sparking my own curiosity, but I didn't have time for that now. I thought for a moment Lesgech might ignore me, but as I approached he cut another man off mid-sentence, excusing himself as he walked over.
The Iron Swamp Page 14