Demon's Revenge (High Demon Series #5) (8 page)

Carefully, Ry and I went through all of Bel's belongings. I sorted through his shirts, pants and other clothing, feeling certain that if I held the shirts to my nose I still might catch a faint whiff of my old friend. I hoped he was alive somewhere, although my fears in that direction were rising. He would have sent mindspeech if he were able. Now, Ry and I were trailing down a path gone cold, with little hope of finding anything at the end of it.

"There's nothing here." Ry had used his warlock talent to search while I'd done the physical part of it. Bel had slept here and very little else. We had his records—what he'd turned in, anyway. We'd found a reprimand or two in his files that said he wasn't the most prompt person to file reports. I knew that; Bel hated what he termed paperwork. I'd done it for him long ago when I'd first met him on Mandil. Now, Mandil had buckled and joined the Campiaan Alliance.

"It's a little late in the day to show up at those two businesses," I said. "But we can make appointments for tomorrow." One was a legal firm, the other a small electronics manufacturing concern. Hauling out my comp-vid, I called the legal firm first.

"We've already spoken with someone from the ASD," the receptionist was bordering on rudeness.

"And we're still investigating. Do you want answers or not?"

"Yes. But we wanted them a month ago."

"I understand that, and we'll do our best for you now," I said.

"Be here at ten bells tomorrow morning," she tapped the appointment into her scheduling-comp.

"Thank you," I nodded and terminated the communication. "Now, for the electronics plant." I figured this one survived because they made small household appliances—nothing that Dantel Schuul wanted to dirty his fingers with. He'd bought most of the competition long ago. I was more than grateful that I didn't have to deald vhave to with him or any of his employees. It would just be too awkward.

"Pripps Electronics," the face appeared on my comp-vid, mouthing the words at me. I wondered how often the young man said the same words every day.

"Hello, I am Reah Nilvas with the ASD," I held up my badge so the red-haired and freckled youth could examine it. "I need to make an appointment to ask questions about the murders at your business."

"Sure. We were wondering if the ASD had forgotten us. That attack wiped out most of our day crew," he said. "My name is Nirif, and my father was killed on that crew."

"Nirif, I am very sorry for your loss. May I make an appointment to come in and talk with someone about it? We're still trying to determine a cause for this."

"Sure. I wouldn't have pegged Jaske as a murderer, but he was." Nirif sounded angry. I would be, too. "You can come in tomorrow afternoon if you'd like, around third bell, if that's acceptable."

"That's good," I agreed. "We'll see you then." I tapped the comp-vid to end the call.

"How do we hedge around asking them about the information Bel got, without saying he's missing?" Ry asked. We sat inside a restaurant near our hotel, having sandwiches made with shaved ox-roast.

"I think I'll ask if they recorded the questioning," I said. "Just as a review, so we won't go over too much of the same ground."

"Good idea. Let's hope they thought to do it."

"I want to go over the records of the pirating activity for the past six months or so," I said. "Tonight."

"Good luck with that. I thought I'd fold to Le-Ath Veronis and check on a few things." I knew right away that Ry was going to see Tory; he just didn't want to upset me with that news. That didn't bother me; Tory was his brother, after all, and I certainly wouldn't interfere with that. I just nodded at Ry's words and we walked to the hotel in silence. Ry left shortly after we arrived.

I thought about contacting Lendill to see if he had half a click to spend with me, but changed my mind. He was busy with pirates. I was about to do a little research on them. I settled back against the headboard and pulled up the information stored in the ASD's archives.

* * *

"Did you know that between the two mass murders, two of Schuul Enterprises' ships were captured by pirates?" I asked Ry the following day over breakfast. He'd been out late and gotten around six clicks of sleep before we rose. Somehow, it didn't even bother me that Ry paraded around the room half-naked, brushing his teeth or drying his hair with warlock ability, running his fingers through the thick blackness until it was styled just right.

"I hadn't heard that," he said, biting into a breakfast roll. "I guess the two mass murder incidents drowned it out on the local news-vids. Plus, I figure everybody thinks Schuul Enterprises is wealthy enough to take dozens of hits before they even feel it."

"Yeah. That's probably true. I wonder what those chips are selling for on the black market," I said. "I'll have to look into that."

"If they're selling them. They could be keeping them for their own use."

"There's that," I agreed. &quoo tagreed.t;I'll check on that later, after we do our interviews."

* * *

The receptionist at the legal firm was falling over herself to be nice to us the moment she saw Ry. "My name's Genita," she gushed, holding her hand out for Ry to take. He gave her a charming smile and squeezed her fingers. He wasn't the best diplomat in either Alliance for no particular reason.

Genita led us to the cubicle belonging to the secretary who'd killed six of her coworkers. All the dead worked in the spaces surrounding hers. After the killings, she'd turned the laser pistol on herself, blasting her head off. According to the records I'd read, an ASD cleanup crew had picked up as much of the tissue and bloody matter as they could, hauling it to one of their labs for examination. They hadn't found anything.

"Maris even killed her own sister," Genita sighed as we examined Maris' cubicle. Bloodstains were still on the carpet and chair upholstery. The ASD hadn't given the firm permission to clean it up, yet. I knew about Maris Krastel's sister, Lethia. I couldn't fathom how Maris, the older sister, had been able to shoot her younger sister in the head and throat, killing her instantly. According to other relatives, the two had been very close.

"Do you have vids of the interviews the other agent did with the employees?" Ry asked.

"Oh, yes. We record everything. We're a legal firm, you know," Genita was smiling and running a finger around the low-cut neckline of her dress.

"Would it be a bother to get a copy of that?" Ry leaned closer to Genita and smiled back.

"No bother. Follow me," Ry walked beside Genita; I trailed behind, happy to do so. Ry was getting everything we wanted with a smile and a leer. We did perfunctory interviews with witnesses inside the office, asking if they'd remembered any other information since Bel had spoken with them. Two had minor information and we dutifully recorded it on comp-vid before thanking them and leaving.

"Do we have time to watch this before going to Pripps Electronics?" Ry held up the tiny case that held the data chip recording.

"Maybe, if we eat lunch while we're watching it," I said. Room service delivered soup and sandwiches while Ry and I settled in to watch the interviews that Bel conducted with Abinger's Legal Firm. The story didn't deviate much—Maris Krastel didn't have a grudge against anyone—at least to her coworkers' knowledge, and she and her sister had teased one another earlier in the day, laughing over some silly thing. After lunch, Maris had gone crazy, shooting her sister and five others with an unregistered weapon before taking her own life.

"Did they pick up Maris' comp-vid when the investigation was done?" Ry asked as we listened to one of Maris' coworkers say that Lethia, Maris' sister, had talked constantly about a vacation to Stellar Winds. In business for fifteen years, Stellar Winds was a social planetoid where singles could meet other singles and young couples could go to party. Mostly that's what it was—one continuous party.

The planetoid held one large city, with every business constantly serving drinks. Nothing ever closed, there, and if you weren't drinking, you could lounge around a pool at your hotel, get massages, book a mate-finding class, sign up to meet others with mutual interests or play any number of popular games, physical or mental. Everybody knew, though, that Stellar Winds was the place to go if you were looking for sex.

Brothels aboppsBrothelunded across Stellar Winds, catering to any whim. Elegant dining was also offered there and many of the best master cooks now worked for restaurants on Stellar Winds. They were paid outrageous amounts for their work, too. Fes had lost two assistants and Radolf one that way.

"Wonder why her sister didn't go to Stellar Winds with her," Ry muttered as we listened to the secretary prattle on about Maris and Lethia.

"Maris' records say that she had a lover," I offered, still listening to the interview. "He was interviewed, too, and he said that he couldn't believe that Maris would do anything like this. He said that Lethia was Maris' best friend and confidant, besides being her sister."

"So, nothing in the records about the laser pistol used?"

"Not much. No identifying numbers or anything. It looked to be contraband from the old Campiaan Alliance." That's how everybody referred to it, now. There was the Campiaan Alliance, the one Teeg formed twenty-five years earlier, and the old Campiaan Alliance, referring to the scattering of nearly lawless worlds where strength and power ruled by force.

Plenty of older weapons found their way into both the Campiaan and Reth Alliances from many of those worlds. The ASD and CSD both worked toward eliminating them, but there was still plenty to be had if you had the right connections and the proper amount of non-identifying credits. The trouble was, Maris had neither of those things. Not that anyone knew of, anyway.

"And Maris' lover worked for?" Ry was prompting me.

"He's in lower-level management at one of Schuul Enterprises' many small electronics plants. I think they make sensors for home security alarms. He's so clean he squeaks when he walks, Mr. Faldin Bierla is."

The truth was, nearly half of Quezlos' population worked for some subsidiary of Schuul Enterprises or other. Quezlos, as the capital city of Surnath, boasted a teeming population of fifteen million. High rises rose far into the sky, filled with living quarters or multitudes of businesses. The largest and tallest, of course, belonged exclusively to Schuul Enterprises and all their business operations were located there.

On the recorded vid, Bel's questioning was thorough, and he didn't look much different from the last time I'd seen him. Mandil's population lived around two hundred twenty years, but their wizards lived around five times that long. Something about the power they held did that for them. Bel, according to the records, was barely three hundred. He had many turns left, if he still lived. I found myself sighing and worrying for my old friend again as I watched him on the vid.

I rushed to brush my teeth before we went out the door to visit Pripps Electronics. Nirif greeted us, and this time it was my turn to exude charm as much as I could, although I didn't have Ry's talent for it. Nirif didn't seem to mind, he wanted to fawn anyway. He was such a sweet young man, I didn't mind. And now he was fatherless and that got him an extra bit of sympathy. He also had a vid copy of the interviews Bel had done. I wanted to hug him for that.

Nirif produced vid-images of Jaske, too, something the legal firm hadn’t done for us. Jaske worked as a supervisor on the assembly line. Mostly he supervised the employees who monitored assembly robots, and those employees were the ones he'd killed. Nirif was correct; Jaske had nearly wiped out the entire day shift that Pripps employed. Ry and I questioned the employees again, asking for any additional information. We got a bit more, just as we'd done at Abinger's Legal Firmours Legal.

"Here, the owner wanted to give these to you, they're prototypes of something we're developing," Nirif smiled and handed two packages to Ry and me.

"What's this?" I smiled at Nirif. I hadn't expected a gift.

"We're trying our hand at comp-vids," he said. "We're not ready to compete with Schuul, don’t worry about that," he smiled. He'd seen Ry's and my comp-vids already. He knew who'd made them. "These are geared toward the ones who like to play games. The software helps with puzzles and such." He tapped the box I held in my hand. Schuul comp-vids were capable of loading any game imaginable, but none of them helped with the puzzles and such. You had to figure that out for yourself or buy additional programming that helped a little.

"Thanks," I said, waving at Nirif as we walked out the door. Ry and I slipped the information chip into our reader as soon as we made it back to our hotel, and settled in to watch as Bel interviewed Pripps employees. Turns out Jaske's mother worked for Schuul Enterprises. Still not a surprise. I was surprised that more of the employees didn't have a spouse or sibling working for Dantel Schuul in some capacity.

"Want to interview Maris' lover and Jaske's mother tomorrow?" Ry sighed as we shut off the comp-vid-images later. It was long past dinner and we'd have to find something to eat somewhere. Neither of us wanted sandwiches again.

"Sure. Bel talked to both of them, I know," I nodded. "Feel like that meal I promised to cook for you? I haven't gotten good fish in a long time."

"Where are you cooking?" Ry asked.

"How about going to Dee's? We can eat in the kitchen. If Radolf complains, I think I can take him." Ry grinned at me and folded us to Dee's.