Ensnared

by Clare Solomon

  Before Reese could do the same, Nick asked, “Is everything okay?”

  “Of course.” Reese’s usually friendly face was shuttered.

  “You can talk to me about whatever’s going on. I know you’re worried about whatever your buddy told Tanya.”

  “Iain was never my friend,” Reese said and turned and walked off without another word, presumably to question people.

  At least Reese wasn’t denying that he knew the man any longer, even if he was determined to keep the rest of his secrets to himself. As much as the subject was niggling at him, Nick forced himself to remember that Larsha needed them to find her as quickly as possible, if it wasn’t already too late. He refused to accept that last thought, not unless he was confronted with a corpse and he hoped with all his heart that that wouldn’t happen.

  He reached in his jacket for his computer but paused at the sound of rapid footfalls. A man in a kilt raced round the corner of the corridor, came to an abrupt halt when he saw Nick – eyes wide and mouth open – then turned and ran away again.

  That was weird. Nick jogged after him to find out what was going on but the man had vanished. He mentally shrugged and got back to work. The current set of people he was speaking to were involved in illegal gambling and so, not surprisingly, they tended to deny everything, including knowing Larsha, no matter how many times he said that he didn’t care about the games.

  He left one room as a woman raced past. She too was wearing one of the Scottish kilts and she was carrying some kind of flag, but she headed down a different corridor than the man – yellow instead of blue – before Nick could ask what was happening. Perhaps it was just part of the Scottish games event or a rivalry between teams: now that he thought about it, the woman’s kilt had been different colours from the man’s.

  His stomach told him that he was late getting dinner and he reluctantly gave up for the day and took a lift down to the floor where The Prince was docked. Frustrated over his own lack of progress, he walked slowly to the ship and boarded it. There was no sign of Reese or Poppy, but Dee approached him as soon as Nick entered the canteen. “There is problem for Reese,” the alien said in its own strange, warbling language.

  Nick had had plenty of time to learn it and, since the ship’s translator’s had always refused to make sense of it, he used the same language to respond. “What’s happened?”

  “Siglinde was on station buying goods and told was that Reese isn’t really Reese and is a crook. We do not believe.” He gestured towards his three fellow aliens, who were seated together at one of the tables, eating. “We like Reese.”

  “So do I.”

  “You do what?” his sister’s voice asked and he looked round to find her standing behind him. She glanced from him to Dee and back again.

  “Nothing. Any luck?”

  She grimaced. “None of our work is about luck.”

  “I’ll take that as a no.” He nodded to Dee and followed Poppy into the kitchen, where the cook handed them each a plate of orange mush that had white lumps in it. “Thanks,” he said, his appetite fading.

  They walked back into the main area at the same time as Reese came in. The room got noticeably quieter and Nick saw Reese’s smile of greeting grow strained. He waved to Reese and was pleased to see his expression brighten.

  He hoped Reese would talk to him soon about whatever was going on. Nick didn’t want to hear a load of rumours that might or might not be true and, if he knew the truth, there might be something Nick could do to help him. It was up to Reese, though, so Nick would just have to be patient.

  Chapter Nineteen

  REESE DIDN’T need to be particularly perceptive to see that the rumours about his past were already beginning to circulate. He silently cursed Iain and decided to try and bluff it out. It was one more reason to attempt to solve the case quickly, so they could leave the space station while he still had a job on The Prince.

  He sat eating a truly disgusting dinner – one of the ship’s cooks prepared meals – with Nick and Poppy and paused to say, “I’ve found out where a card game is being held tonight. Why don’t I go along and see if the threat of being arrested improves people’s memories?”

  “Okay,” Poppy agreed.

  “I’ll go with you,” Nick said and Reese nodded to him. Nick had an open face and, after one glance, it was clear that he had started to hear rumours. Reese wanted to say something to him to improve Nick’s opinion of him but the rumours were almost certainly true. There was nothing Reese could say or do to make any of this better; he couldn’t even admit defeat and leave the crew – not with a missing girl depending on their help – and not that he wanted to go. He had a distinct sensation of the walls closing in around him and, although he knew Jolly wouldn’t allow it to happen, the spectre of a prison cell kept coming into his mind.

  “Have either of you seen people in kilts running about today?” Nick asked and Reese was grateful for the change of subject, even if it was one more thing that reminded him of his past in Scotland.

  “Yes,” he said. “I heard that one of the Highland Games teams stole the flag of the other, so the second team retaliated by stealing someone’s underwear.”

  Nick stared at him and Poppy showed interest in the conversation for the first time. “Underwear? Where did they steal it from?”

  “The man was wearing it at the time.”

  They all laughed and Reese’s tension melted away. He didn’t know how much longer he’d have on The Prince to spend time with Nick, so he should make the most of it.

  They finished their meal, none of them showing any enthusiasm for it but all too hungry to throw it away. “I’m eating on the space station from now on,” Poppy announced as she pushed her empty plate away. “I’ll go and see if Keith has found any more recordings that might help us.”

  She got up and walked out and Reese caught sight of Siglinde, who sat at a nearby table watching him. He smiled at her and she looked away. His good mood vanished as he accepted that everyone on the ship had heard about his past and probably wanted nothing more to do with him. He focused on Nick and that wasn’t any better as the man looked disappointed in him.

  Reese lurched to his feet and grabbed the plates, stacking them on top of each other with a pile of cutlery added last. “I’ll get ready to go out.”

  It wasn’t much of an escape since he and Nick shared the same bedroom and he was leaving the bathroom after a sand shower – which was one of the worst inventions ever and was just as useless as it sounded for getting anyone clean – when Nick joined him again.

  “I hope she’s all right,” Nick said, sitting down on his bed and looking up at Reese with pale eyes that saw too much.

  Sure that Nick had been going to say something about the rumours, it took Reese a few seconds to work out who ‘she’ was and then he was filled with guilt. At least, however difficult things got, he was alive and safe and even if the first part was true for Larsha then the second one certainly wasn’t. “I wish I could think of some way to speed this investigation up so we could find her right now. Her family must be frantic.”

  “Yeah. I can’t imagine being in their situation, although... I haven’t seen my family in a while. I hope they’re okay. I can’t contact them – it’s complicated.”

  Reese wanted to ask what this meant but he had no right, not when he was keeping so many secrets from Nick. He also wanted to beg Nick not to give up on him but he couldn’t do that without offering some kind of explanation. Being on this ship should be a temporary job but Reese had this sensation of banked down panic that had appeared when he first saw Iain and had remained ever since then, gnawing at the pit of his stomach. It felt like his entire life was falling apart, which was ridiculous. Nick’s opinion of him didn’t matter. It shouldn’t ... It did.

  “We should get moving,” he said.

  They left the ship side by side but it felt as if there was a vast space between them. Reese did his best to fill it with meaningless chatter, afraid
of what might be said if he fell quiet, and led his companion down to the maintenance area of the ship to see what they could find out to help Larsha.

  Chapter Twenty

  THERE WERE more people in the room than Nick had expected, humans and a dozen or more alien races. Three tables had been set up for card games, with between eight and ten people per table and at least twenty more were standing about watching, talking or placing bets over who would win the various games. He and Reese slipped in unnoticed, except by people they had interviewed who caught sight of them and sidled out of the door, one by one.

  From the size of it, he guessed that the room was some kind of recreation area for the station’s staff, but it had a dingy appearance utterly unlike the shiny brightness of the guest areas and the lights were dimmed, providing pockets of darkness and making difficult to see clearly. Conversations were conducted in hushed voices while heavy silences clung to the three tables, punctuated only by the players taking turns at competing or bowing out of the games. Nick’s eyes widened at the stacks of one hundred galactic credit notes already on the tables. These people were serious card sharps.

  Beside him, Reese grabbed the furry arm of an alien who was accepting bets and said, “We’re investigating the kidnapping of Larsha. You can assist us or we can take you and your friends to station security under arrest for illegal gambling.”

  The alien was a whiskery creature that had more width than height, coming up only to their shoulders and its dark green fur had a velvety gloss. “I’d be happy to help,” it said in English and Nick doubted it would have said this without Reese’s threat. “What do you want to know?”

  “This girl came to various card games.” He turned towards Nick who held out the image of Larsha and the alien peered at it with numerous tiny eyes. “What do you know about her?”

  “I think I saw her once. I’ll check with my colleagues.”

  They kept a careful eye on the alien as it moved away, in case it tried to escape or cause trouble, but it instead spoke into the ears of a few more people and dragged one of them back to the detectives. “Stickler knows her.”

  Stickler looked half human, with the usual number of limbs and facial features but her skin was pure white and scaly, her eyes were a solid grey without white edges and her teeth were sharp and narrow, like needles. She looked at the photo Nick held out, slowly perused the men and finally said in English, “Larsha came to the games from her first night here – she must have found out about them before she ever arrived or bribed someone generously as no one would tell a stranger about them right away without a big incentive. She threw about a lot of money and lost big her first night but, when I last saw her four days ago, she had won most of it back again, so I guess she knew what she was doing.”

  “Did you see anyone take a particular interest in her?” Reese asked.

  “Sure. Most people around here don’t see that kind of money unless they win a fortune so a lot of them tried to get friendly with her. She chatted a bit with Dennis Viewfield and Zic-Zic, and Lors was pretty persistent.”

  Nick checked his list and found two of the names on it – Lors was an alias but he drew a star beside Zic-Zic’s name and added Viewfield to the list.

  “Did she argue with anyone?” Reese was asking.

  “Whenever someone wins a lot of money there are people who’ll suddenly insist that that person cheated or the whole game was rigged. It normally means they don’t have the funds to pay the sum they promised.”

  Nick put away his computer as Reese spoke again. “Did anyone seem as if they might hold a grudge against her over it or did anyone make any kind of comment about getting a share of her family’s money?”

  “I’m not sure.” She looked as if she was getting impatient to return to taking bets, her unusual eyes flicking to the gambling tables and back again.

  “Please think carefully. Larsha’s life might be at stake.”

  “I doubt it. Her dad’s loaded from what I heard. He’ll pay the ransom and she’ll get back to him soon, I should think.”

  “He isn’t convinced that paying a ransom will keep her alive, so he’s refused to do it.”

  She whistled. “I guess gambling runs in their blood.” She paused and rubbed her nose. “Well, Sipifi lost a big game to her and made various threats, but she always gets like that if she loses. Lors lost to her too, if that helps, although he didn’t act as if he was bothered over it.”

  Nick got out his computer again and, after running his eye down the names, he told it to add Sipifi to the list and added a comment about finding Lors, whoever he was.

  “Thanks for...” Reese began, breaking off when there was a crashing sound behind them.

  Someone had pushed over a card table, cards and money flying everywhere, and all the players surged to their feet almost simultaneously.

  “Damn bad losers,” Stickler said with feeling, lifting up a tiny computer with a spreadsheet full of numbers. “That messes up all the bets.”

  She had barely finished speaking when people began approaching her, demanding to get back their money.

  Pushed out of the way, Reese turned to Nick. “Let’s see if we can find...” Once again his words were cut off, this time by someone’s fist connecting with his face.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  NICK HADN’T even seen the fight begin. He and Reese were calmly talking with Stickler a minute ago and now the room was in chaos: people were yelling at each other and fighting, or shrieking and running away, and, somehow, Reese had ended up hurt, caught by a punch meant for someone else.

  He put an arm round Reese, who had blood streaming down from his nose and was looking about in bewilderment, his usual calm self-confidence gone. Nick passed him a hankie and Reese took it with a faint smile and pressed it under his nose.

  “We need to get outta here,” Nick said, shouting to be heard above the din.

  “Yes.” Reese wrapped an arm around his shoulders and, together, they made their way through the crowd.

  A chair skidded into their path and toppled over, pushed by one of a nearby group of people who were pointing fingers in each other’s faces and talking angrily, looking ready to turn violent any time. Nick steered Reese away from them, trying to get to the exit, which hadn’t seemed all that far away a little while ago. A couple of dozen others seemed to have the same idea, already ahead of them, but someone or something must be blocking their path and no one was moving forward.

  He glanced behind him as the noise got louder. He saw several punch-ups and, catching sight of Stickler gesturing to one of them, he had a feeling that the gamblers had found something new to bet on.

  “Come on,” Reese said in his ear and Nick turned to see that the group in front was leaving now. They hurried towards the door, only to run into two members of the station’s security team, who looked as if they had started making arrests.

  Nick flashed his detective badge at them – it didn’t give him any proper authority but they obviously knew why his crew were on the space station as they nodded, letting him and Reese go by.

  They reached the lift and headed back to The Prince with no further problems and Nick touched the identification pad with one finger to unlock the docking bay door.

  The ship was in semi-darkness, its inhabitants out or asleep, as they walked through the canteen to the kitchen. Nick wrapped some ice in a towel and moved to where Reese was standing, leaning in the doorway. Nick carefully pressed the towel to Reese’s swollen cheek, the smooth dark skin already discoloured, and dampened a tissue to wipe the blood away. Reese’s nosebleed had stopped but he winced when Nick touched his nose, so Nick got out the first aid kit and gave him an injection of painkillers.

  “It doesn’t look broken but, if it still hurts tomorrow, you’d better see a doctor.”

  “Thank you,” Reese said softly and Nick looked into his eyes, their faces only inches apart.

  “No problem.”

  The ship was silent and Nick was reminded of t
he time they’d spent alone together on Ocean, cuddled up against each other in a homemade shelter propped against a mountain. He had already been attracted to Reese by that point but nothing had come of it then or later because of Reese’s relationship with Prince.

  If the rumours about Reese got back to Tanya, Nick might be running out of time to spend alone with him and what did he have to lose if he made a pass at him now?

  He swallowed, heartbeat increasing. “You know that I really...”

  Footsteps sounded and it was his turn to be interrupted mid-sentence as Poppy’s silhouette appeared in the doorway of the canteen. She must have seen them as she headed past tables towards them and he could have cursed at her terrible timing.

  “There you are,” she said, taking in Reese’s sore cheek and how close he and Reese were standing. She scowled.

  Since any chance of a romantic interlude was over, Nick took a step away from Reese, leaving him to hold the ice in place on his cheek. Nick began to tell his sister what had happened and Reese excused himself. Nick faltered and turned to say something to him but Reese was already on his way out. Heart sinking at the loss of the closeness between them, he finished telling Poppy about the latest findings and the fight.

  She listened without comment and then said, “Keep your distance from Reese.”

  “What the hell?” he said, taken aback.

  “There are a lot of rumours going round about his past. Apparently someone on the station knows of him and is saying that Reese was mixed up in some illegal shit.”

  “And since when are we so squeaky clean?”

  “That’s my point,” she snapped. “Things are complicated enough with having a new captain. We can’t afford to look as if we’re taking Reese’s side in case the rumours turn out to be true.”

  “Well, maybe I’m on his side whether they’re true or not.”