“Three what?” Nick asked Reese helplessly.
Reese grinned at him. “Ij saw Larsha three times.”
Chapter Fifteen
THEY WERE making progress at last but they needed more time and, with less than twenty minutes left, Reese went to make a final plea to Uxor to pay the ransom and give them a chance to find his daughter.
“You are not know of my son, Uxomem, are you?” Uxor said when Reese had explained why he was there. There was no sign of Yalfi or Kedos. Perhaps they were searching for Larsha.
“No.” Reese had no idea what he was supposed to know about the man’s son or why Uxomem had anything to do with helping Larsha. He didn’t have time for a family story, particularly not from a man who seemed so callous towards his children.
“I am too rich and people want to steal what I have. Multi-zibs ago Uxomen was kidnapped. My family are not know of this – I am not wanting them worried. They think there is accident.”
His full attention was caught by the seriousness of the words. “What happened?”
“I pay ransom and Uxomem die.” The plain words couldn’t hide Uxor’s grief and Reese was struck by how wrong he had been to assume that Uxor wasn’t devastated over losing Larsha.
“I am so sorry.”
“If I pay ransom, Larsha might return or she might die. If I do not pay, she might die or criminal might try to change my mind, which gives you more time to find Larsha. I hate guessing but I must make guess.”
Reese nodded. “You’re right. There’s nothing any of us can do to be sure of Larsha’s safety.” He wanted to say that paying the ransom would give her a better chance but he didn’t actually know that. He’d never worked on a kidnapping case and he had no idea what the statistics showed for the best chance of getting the victim back alive. Uxor had thought the matter through and was doing what he hoped would help Larsha. “I’m sorry I misjudged you.”
“Larsha is always cause trouble but she is daughter. I want her back.”
“We’ll do everything we possibly can to achieve that. We’re finding out who Larsha spent time with and what she did while she was here – we’re going to track down who took her.”
“Yes.”
Reese left the man alone in the empty room. Out in the corridor he could hear the faint sound of footsteps and voices – people going on with their lives without fear. He checked his watch and saw that they were down to thirteen remaining minutes. He really hoped that Uxor’s guess turned out to be the right one.
Ij hadn’t talked to Larsha himself but, between the other name Aigan had given them and the half a dozen names Ij had provided, they had plenty of people to speak to, who might know Larsha. Nick had said he would start tracking down the people while Reese spoke to Uxor.
He got out his hy-phone and spoke to his colleague, finding out where Nick was, and then he went to get into a lift to join him. They met in the corridor of the fourth level, where he tried to ignore the distant sound of bagpipes that brought back too many memories and made him worry what his old acquaintance, Iain, was up to right now.
“Did you have any luck convincing Uxor to change his mind?”
“No. He didn’t tell anyone about this but he had a son who was kidnapped and, even though he paid the ransom, the son was still killed. He thinks that by not paying the ransom this time he might by us extra time to find Larsha.”
“Poor man.”
“Yes. So much for the pleasures of being wealthy.” Reese had grown up thinking that money offered security, that it kept people safe, but it had done the opposite in Uxor’s case. Reese had taken a lot of risks and done things he regretted to chase after that dream of wealth and safety. He didn’t want to believe he might have been wrong in all his beliefs. “How have your interviews gone?”
“I have a list of about three dozen people who attended the illegal games. I just spoke to Poppy and said I’d meet her to check if any of her list of people – who had the opportunity to kidnap Larsha – match mine. Do you want to come with me?”
“Yes.” Reese checked his watch again. “We have less than ten minutes left before the ransom deadline is up so, for Larsha’s sake, let’s hurry.”
Chapter Sixteen
NICK SET his computer up to check through the two lists for common suspects while Poppy and Reese sat opposite him in the control room and compared what they had both discovered.
“No one saw anything, of course,” he heard Poppy say. “With thousands of people here, you’d have thought at least one would have seen someone hanging round Larsha’s room or dragging her away, but no. She was seen getting on badly with her family in public any number of times and quite often with her friend. She was also seen in parts of the station where she shouldn’t have been.”
“She was gambling,” Reese explained, this being the first chance to tell her what Larsha was involved in. “There are illegal games going on in the lower decks and she borrowed money and gambled for high stakes. The kidnapper, if he didn’t already know of her father’s wealth, might well have realised from her behaviour that he could get rich through taking her prisoner. He might have even lost money to her and had a grudge. The gamblers are the people Nick was searching for while I spoke to Uxor.”
Poppy turned expectantly to him, hands on hips. “What have you found?”
He gestured to the computer. “There are some correlations – eight people on both lists.” He grimaced. “It’s also clear that an additional six people used aliases when they were gambling as the names they gave aren’t on the list of guests or personnel at the station.”
She sighed. “So it’s going to take us a lot more time to work out who they are.”
Nick saw Reese glance at his watch and he did the same. They were down to the final minute. The kidnapper would know by now that he wasn’t going to get any money. He imagined Larsha, her hope fading and fear increasing as she reached the same conclusion.
As he watched, the time changed and they were out of time. The kidnapper would make a decision now and Larsha might be the one paying with her life for Uxor’s refusal to give the ransom.
Nick felt a jolt of fear for the girl. He wanted to rush off to save her but they had barely begun their work and she could be anywhere. All any of them could do was assume she was still alive and keep trying to find her, but the thought of them later discovering her corpse came unbidden to his mind and he couldn’t entirely shake it.
Keith walked into the control room and looked at them all with raised eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” He clearly hadn’t bothered keeping track of the time, which was typical. There was a reason he had been drawn to someone as narcissistic as Prince.
“The deadline set by the kidnapper has just passed,” Nick said tersely.
“Perhaps the man who insisted on talking to the captain has new information,” Keith said as he sat down at his computer. He gestured towards the door and, a moment later, a red-haired man walked past on his way out. Amid all the people Nick had spoken to today, it took him a few seconds to place who he was. That was the man who had recognised Reese and called him by a different name.
He looked back at Reese, who was staring out into the corridor, his body tense and his expression strained.
The stranger could only have come to say something about Reese to the captain, something which – from the expression on Reese’s face – could be really bad. Nick couldn’t begin to guess what any of this was about. They had been through difficulties together and Reese had saved Nick’s life, making it feel as if Nick knew all he needed to about him, as if they had a close bond, but he realised now that there were enormous gaps in what he knew of Reese.
“Let’s go and speak to the captain and find out.” Poppy headed out without waiting to see if they would follow and Reese hung back.
Nick walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
Reese smiled in response but his eyes remained troubled.
Tanya was in her quarters and in
vited them in to talk. Nick had never seen her room before but it was little better than his own – just a couple of comfies, with the robot cat sitting on one, holo-pictures on the walls, clothes in invisibags and a chest of drawers with a small computer on top. It was certainly not remotely as lavish as Prince’s had been. He wondered why she hadn’t moved into the more luxurious room. Perhaps she didn’t want to be reminded of her dead husband or maybe her conscience was bothering her, since she was responsible for the fact that Prince was gone.
“How is the investigation going?” she asked.
They told her of their progress and Poppy said, “Keith told us you had a visitor. Did he say anything that could help us?”
“No.” She didn’t look at Reese but the answer was flat.
“Then we’ll get on,” Poppy said, glancing over at Nick with a puzzled frown.
“All right. Thank you for updating me.”
They walked out but Nick realised a moment later Reese wasn’t with them. His heart lurched at the thought that Reese might have to leave the ship over his secrets, whatever they were. Would Reese even say goodbye? All Nick could do was wait to find out.
Chapter Seventeen
REESE WAITED for the captain to sack him. Whatever Iain had said would have been incriminating, so she had no reason to let him stay. She knew by now that he had been a criminal and he could tell her about his real job – to prove that he was on the right side of the law these days – but he would be signing his own death warrant if she was Baltid Athens’ killer. He couldn’t risk it.
He tried to think of something else he could say or do to change her mind but there was nothing. The detective team had managed perfectly well without him and he had no vital role on the ship. His life here was over, just as he was getting closer to Nick and beginning to like the rest of the crew. He had never spent enough time with people in the past to build up ongoing friendships and now he had lost the chance to do that here and to have something even better with Nick. He wondered how he could explain any of this to him.
Tanya looked up from the computer and noticed him hovering by the door. He tensed, dreading what she would say.
She raised an eyebrow. “Was there something else?”
He stared at her, unable to take in the words and then fear changed to relief. Iain must have been bluffing, trying to scare Reese by coming here. “Er, no. Thank you.” He turned away, letting out a long breath, then he changed his mind and looked back at her. He may as well try to achieve something useful while he was here. “I just wanted to say that I was sorry to hear about the trauma you suffered recently. It must have been a terrible shock for you finding the dead body of a crew member.”
“Yes.” She gave him a piercing look he couldn’t interpret. “Baltid was a good man: loyal, principled and hard-working. His death was a tragedy.”
“You sound as if you knew him well.” Perhaps she had been the lover Nick thought Athens had. She didn’t show a lot of emotion when she spoke of him but recent events had proved how good she was at keeping things hidden. “I think someone mentioned that you recommended him for a job here?”
She sat down. “That’s right. He knew my family so we were slightly acquainted and he was on the ship for four years so, of course, we got to know each other. His death was completely unexpected.”
He glanced away, unsure of what to say. If she had found his body, she certainly knew Athens had been murdered, but she hadn’t revealed this to anyone, going along with the story of a heart-attack. He didn’t want to make it sound as if he knew the truth in case she was the killer. “I suppose he must have had some kind of heart problem. I mean, he was quite young to have suffered a heart-attack.” His file had said he was in his forties.
“Yes. He was young. It seemed a strange diagnosis.”
He seized on the opening. “Was it Keith who examined Athens and made that diagnosis or was the ship somewhere with a doctor, who was able to do an autopsy?”
“We were in space at the time, so there was never an autopsy. I was in a state after finding Baltid’s body – I ran and told my husband and then went back to my room. It was only later that he told me about the heart-attack – I presume it was either Keith or Nick who pronounced that as the cause of death; they’re the only ones onboard with any medical knowledge, but neither of them are doctors.”
That didn’t really tell him anything. Since Athens was stabbed, the lie about a heart-attack could have been made up by Tanya, Prince or someone else – no one needed to have examined the body. Tanya was lying about the cause of death, so she had either been forced to cover up the truth or she was the killer and had somehow convinced her husband to lie about it.
Reese couldn’t afford to be too obvious about his interest, so he dropped the subject. “It’s good to know that there are medics onboard in case I ever get hurt. I’d better get back to work.”
“Of course.”
He hurried out, no closer to finding Athens’ killer. All he could be sure of was that Tanya was a suspect who may have also had an affair with him. It could have been a crime of passion – a knife was an odd thing to casually carry about, but nothing violent Tanya did would surprise him at this point. She had described Athens in complimentary terms but that could just be a smoke-screen. No one else aboard the ship had seemed to know Athens very well, other than Prince, and it was too late to ask him anything now.
He paused in the corridor, remembering his fear of being fired. He had somehow escaped from having everything that was currently good in his life taken away from him but Iain could come back here at any time. They were past the deadline and either Larsha would be all right or she wouldn’t, but the kidnapper’s decision was out of their hands. He needed to try and sort things out with Iain before the implied threat was carried out. He was no use to Larsha or anyone on The Prince if he was thrown off the crew.
He made an excuse to Nick and Poppy, saying he wouldn’t be away long, and checked his computer to find out where Iain’s room was. It was on the next floor up and he hurried to get there but then hesitated outside Iain’s room, determination changing to wariness. Iain had had a cruel streak even as a child but he had also been greedy and hopefully that would outweigh any wish to hurt Reese.
Iain answered his knock at the door and smirked when he saw Reese, giving an expansive gesture for him to enter the room. He really hadn’t changed in looks or, apparently, personality in all these years away from each other.
“What did you say to Captain Tanya Prince?” Reese asked without bothering with small talk.
“Enough to make your stay aboard her ship a short one,” Iain said with a nasty smile that Reese remembered vividly. But it wasn’t true – Tanya hadn’t fired him so why would Iain possibly lie about it?
“I can give you a thousand galactic credits to keep quiet about knowing me.”
“No.” Iain didn’t even hesitate.
“Why not? You never suffered because of anything I did.” They had both been hurt for plenty of other reasons but Reese had kept out of Iain’s way.
“You ignored me when you could have helped me.” Iain spat the words at him, his fury coming as a shock.
“I couldn’t even help myself.”
“You had all these schemes and you kept them to yourself.”
“I had to leave Narhorn and change my fingerprints to avoid getting thrown into prison, or worse. You know what those bastards in charge did to kids who didn’t obey their rules. It was better for everyone if I only risked my own skin.”
“Maybe some of us would’ve considered the risk worthwhile to escape from that hell-hole. Did you remember any of us when you got away?”
Reese had wanted to share his plan with his friends but he’d been terrified of leading them to their deaths, so he’d stayed quiet and left on his own. It was the worst thing he’d ever done and he’d regretted it every day, the fates of kids he cared for haunting his nightmares. He should have found a better solution, one that helped all of th
em. Guilt that he hadn’t kept him from speaking.
“That’s what I thought,” Iain said with a sneer, misunderstanding his silence. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Reese stared at him, trying to think of a way to convince him, but if money didn’t work nothing else would. There had certainly never been any moments of friendship or kindness between them and Iain had no compassionate side to his personality.
He left, trudging out with a sense of failure. He hadn’t saved any of the children he had grown up with, so perhaps this was what he deserved.
Larsha, if she was even still alive, was on borrowed time at this point and now Reese had a ticking time bomb over him too. He could only do what he could to find her and wait to find out what devastation Iain would cause.
Chapter Eighteen
NICK WENT with Poppy to tell Uxor of their progress. She mentioned in an unemotional tone that the failure to pay the ransom might affect the situation but Uxor didn’t flinch. After what Reese had told him about Uxor’s son, Nick suspected that Uxor wasn’t nearly as indifferent as he seemed, but either his species was particularly difficult to read or he was.
When they left, Reese was waiting to join them in the corridor. Nick looked questioningly at him but Reese just said, “What’s our next move?”
He was still counting himself as one of the team, at least, so he hadn’t been fired, which was the main thing, but Nick badly wanted to know what was going on and how he knew the mystery man they had encountered. Until just recently, Nick had found Reese easy to talk to and had thought that they knew each other’s characters but now Reese’s attitude had changed.
“I don’t see any need for us to work together,” Poppy said. “We’ll make better progress if we each take a set of names and interview the people over the abduction.” She got a small computer out of her jacket and told it to divide up the names equally and send Reese and Nick a third each of them. “Phone me if either of you learn something useful,” she added and strode away before they could respond.
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