Demon's Revenge (High Demon 5)

"Mrs. Trispe," I said, once she'd gotten herself back in hand, "I know this has no bearing on the case, but I heard that two of Schuul Enterprises' ships were hijacked by pirates shortly after your son died. I imagine that was a terrible blow to the company you work for."

"Yes. An entire month's work, stolen," she nodded. "We were all upset over it, and many of us had to work double shifts afterward to replace the orders. Thankfully, the second shipment wasn't intercepted."

"They asked you to work overtime, after such a grievous tragedy in your life?" Ry asked.

"I know. Maybe it was better that I didn't have much time to dwell on my sorrow," she said, wiping her cheeks again. "And we earned a small bonus for getting replacement chips manufactured so quickly."

"You're a strong woman, Mrs. Trispe," Ry said. "If you would, think back to the questioning by the other agent. Did he ask any unusual questions? That you recall?"

"He did ask one strange question," Shedrith Trispe replied, her brown eyes red from weeping, and a bit of gray showing in dark hair that I imagined hadn't been there before the death of her son.

"And what was that?" Ry asked.

"He asked if Jaske had ever gone to Stellar Winds."

"That is so strange," Ry agreed, as we discussed Bel's question to Mrs. Trispe. Why would he want to know if Jaske had ever gone to Stellar Winds? Mrs. Trispe said that Jaske hadn't.

"The local ASD office has Maris' and Lethia's comp-vids. Maybe we should ask to look at them, too," I said. I was going through Jaske's, trying to determine if he'd gotten any calls or messages that might have set him off. So far, I hadn't found anything, but personal communication was password protected. I'd need the comp at the local ASD office to get past that.

"And we can ask if they confiscated a second comp-vid off his body," Ry said. I nodded—I'd been thinking the same thing. Nobody went anywhere without a comp-vid. It was foolish to do so.

After a quick lunch, we took the transit train to the western edge of Quezlos where Faldin Bierla had an apartment. It struck me as strange that Maris hadn't moved in with him and that they lived so far apart. I shrugged it off for the moment—Ry could have folded us or I could have skipped us over, but for some reason he was content to ride public transportation. Sometimes it's interesting and informative to do so.

I'd once killed a half-crazed Ra'Ak who'd gotten onto a bus, intent on killing all on board. He hadn't counted on a High Demon being there, who'd beaten him to the punch. He'd dusted after I'd taken his head in my smaller Thifilatha, blowing out the windows in the hoverbus and injuring many of the passengers. At least nobody died; Lendill and Norian had confiscated the vid-recording and explained it away as an accident.

This time, there were no homicidal Ra'Ak to deal with on our bus trip, just mothers with small children on their way home after finishing a day in early-school, or those with physician's appointments or some such. A young unmarried couple was on their way to the space station terminal. They were traveling to Stellar Winds and discussing their trip excitedly. Somehow, they'd gotten a discounted trip to the popular party planetoid.

Ry and I glanced briefly at one anomesy at onther as the couple talked. Some people (and I wasn't one of them) looked forward to drinking until they were sick, having sex until they passed out, or both. Stellar Winds was an all-inclusive resort planet, but if one wanted to visit the better nightclubs and restaurants, one had to purchase an upgrade, which included a chip that granted access to the exclusive spots. It was a point of pride and an indication of wealth if the visitor could afford the upgrades.

Our stop came up long before the one for the space station, so we didn't get to see the couple off on their vacation. Instead, we walked toward Faldin Bierla's high-rise apartment to question him about his deceased lover.

"I told the other agent everything I know," Faldin was rude from the start. I could tell when someone was lying, and Faldin Bierla was concealing something. I just didn't know what it was. He lived well for someone of his station, but he was nearing sixty. Plenty of time to put together enough wealth to afford such a nice apartment.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," I said. "And I hope you'll forgive us if we ask a few of the same questions," I added, disliking him quickly.

"I will protest this treatment," he snapped. "I'll go straight to the Director myself."

"Go ahead. Would you like to speak to him now?" Ry called Faldin's bluff by hauling out his comp-vid and tapping in Norian's code.

"What do you want to know?" Faldin grumbled angrily.

Neither Ry nor I asked any questions about Stellar Winds; we asked instead about the relationship he had with Maris, when he'd seen her last, that sort of thing. To Faldin, his and Maris' association didn't seem to be anything other than casual, although Maris' coworkers had made it sound quite serious. Maris may have presented it as more than it was; therefore, the employees at Abinger's Legal Firm thought it to be a significant relationship.

Faldin pointed out that he'd only seen Maris twice during the month leading up to the murders, and repeated what the others had said about how close she'd been with her sister. It made me wish I could have questioned Lethia, but she was dead. Maris and Lethia's parents were also deceased—killed in an accident, years earlier. Faldin didn't volunteer anything and didn't answer anything, other than what he was forced to. We left him behind roughly a click later, feeling unsatisfied.

"I want to get into the information supplied by the legal firm—you know, the cases that Maris researched. And Lethia, too," I said.

"I'll help," Ry said. "I sent a request to the local ASD office; they've got the comp-vids they took from Maris, Lethia and the one they found on Jaske."

"So, he did have a second one," I said.

"Looks like it. Come on, Sherlock, let's do a little sleuthing." Ry gave me a brilliant smile and led me toward the public transportation kiosk.

"Sherlock?" I lifted an eyebrow.

"A fictional character. Reah, you really need to brush up on your English reading skills."

"Uh-huh." That colloquialism had Ry grinning at me. "You could brush up on your cooking skills at the same time."

"Point taken," he nodded and ushered me onto the next transport.

"You're welc Fi;You'reome to look through that box of tangled mess that Bel left behind." The supervisor at the local ASD office led us to one of the locked cubicles inside the facility. "There's a desk comp in there as well, to get into the other files you want. Just enter your codes and you'll get it."