Justice (17 page)

She leant over
the letters and let her eyes slide down the paragraph. It was
short; Tanguin was always straight to the point.

“
There’s been a change of structure at Geron’s company,” Nova
read small pieces of the paragraph out loud.

“
Geron removed Piero from a place of power. Piero would have
lost everything. He owned half the company and now he’s got next to
nothing.”

Her eyes
widened. If Geron had somehow bumped Piero aside, then Piero would
definitely feel the need for some revenge. Was this murder over
money after all?

Nova re-read
Tanguin’s short note twice more.

“
Why is Dustin friendly with a man who no doubt hated his
father?” Nova asked.

“
It would appear that Dustin doesn’t much care for his father
either,” Cal responded.

“
I suppose that’s true.”

“
There have been reports of threats to this particular
terraforming project. There are many who feel this planet should
have been left undisturbed.”

“
You think this could have been a simple attack by
activists?”

“
It’s possible. There is a strong resentment towards the
terraforming industry and this planet in particular was hotly
contested.”

“
Why?”

“
Mostly the plant life. The activists argue that the life here
is sentient and therefore shouldn’t be disturbed.”

“
If it was a terrorist or activist it should be easy enough to
find them. Go through the histories of every person in this dome
and see if anyone has known connections with activist
groups.”

“
The request is being processed now.”

“
What about other options? This doesn’t feel like a terrorist
attack to me.”

“
Meaghan seemed agitated.”

“
She definitely did. She didn’t seem so much upset at her
husband’s death as… annoyed?”

“
There were indications of anger and frustration in her
voice,” Cal agreed.

“
But she has no motive. Why would she kill her
husband?”

“
Maybe she found him being unfaithful?”

“
He was on stage giving a speech, she couldn’t have walked in
on anything like that; there wasn’t time, unless it was planned
well in advance.”

“
Agreed. The timelines wouldn’t match.”

“
Which brings us back to Dustin,” Nova said with a
sigh.

“
He did have motive and opportunity,” Cal said.

“
But how would he have done it? He would have had to have a
deadly--”

She was cut
short by the door sliding open and a short, overweight man bursting
into the small room. A large bald spot amongst his black hair
dominated the top of his head. Faded tattoos, that looked decades
old, peeked out from the arms of his shirt.

The man’s face
glowed bright red and he tugged the neck of his shirt as if it sat
uncomfortably on his shoulders.

Nova’s mouth
hung open from the sentence she hadn’t finished and Cal’s eye
swivelled around to look at the man.

“
I refuse to be used as a scapegoat!” The man yelled at Nova
as she sat at her desk.

Nova’s eyes
flicked to Cal, the robot’s hatches were open and ready for
defensive action.

“
No one is being used as a scapegoat… Mr?” Nova let the
question hang in the air.

The red-faced
man glared at her.

“
June, Piero June. And don’t pretend to me that that pathetic
personal assistant didn’t come running in here to rat me
out.”

“
Piero, of course,” Nova said. She pondered the coincidence of
him coming in just after her and Cal had been talking about him as
a potential suspect.

“
Whatever that
man
said I had nothing to do with it.”

“
I assure you that Leon Statin,” Nova said, recalling the
assistant’s name just in time, “has not been to see me.”

“
I can’t believe that,” Piero said, a tremor of uncertainty
ran through his voice.

“
I haven’t spoken to him. Although rest assured I will in good
time,” Nova said. “However, I would like to talk to
you.”

“
Oh here it is! I knew you would suspect me straight away. All
because Geron ruined my name.”

“
Piero, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down. I’ve been
conducting interviews with everyone connected to Geron and that
includes you. We can either do this calmly here or you will be
subjected to a brain retrieval procedure.”

Piero bit his
lip. The invasive procedure was used to sift through a person’s
thoughts and memories.

“
Fine,” Piero said. He thumped down into the chair opposite
Nova.

“
Why would people think you did it?” Nova asked, leaning
forward on her desk.

“
I’ve got every reason to kill that bastard and the whole
world knows it. Of course, you’d suspect me first.”

“
Why would you want to kill Geron Feders?”

“
You know exactly why,” Piero said, his face
flushing.

“
I want to hear your point of view,” Nova said.

“
I helped Geron build this blasted business from the ground
up. When he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, guess who did the
work for him? When he was getting trouble from certain people, who
fixed the problem? But as soon as he was big enough he got rid of
me. Just like that, cut me out of this blasted terraforming deal
just before it went big. Hell, he even took away my position in the
company!”

Piero’s face
grew redder through his tirade. The muscles in his neck strained as
he recounted his rocky past with Geron.

“
But you’re still part of the terraforming company?” Nova
asked.

“
Yes, yes, he moved me to an honorary position, without any
rights or any pay; it’s an insult plain as that.”

“
Why? Why would he cut you out if you had been so
loyal?”

“
So he could keep the profits for himself? Damned if I know.”
Piero swore under his breath. His large arms crossed over his
chest.

Nova studied
the man in silence. She’d read his file of course, as soon as Cal
had mentioned there may be animosity between him and Geron. There
wasn’t much on him, unlike Geron whose entire life was mapped out
for the world to see. Piero had started life as a labourer but
somehow had climbed his way up the ladder to co-owner of the
terraforming business. The official report said Piero attacked
Geron and had been evicted from the company.

“
Why did you attack Geron some time ago?” Nova
asked.

“
Don’t you read the papers?” Piero asked. “I’m sure they gave
plenty of reasons.”

“
Yes, but I want your reason.”

“
I found out he cheated me out of profits for a big deal, the
bastard. He deserved to die, and don’t get me wrong, I’m happy as a
sexbot that he’s dead, but I didn’t kill him!”

“
If there were such bad feelings between you, why are you
here?”

“
If I didn’t show up to this ceremony it would be like
admitting defeat,” Piero said. “Damned if I was going to let that
happen. I deserved to be on that stage just as much as
President
Feders.”

“
Was anyone else involved in Geron’s plan?”

“
Damned if I know. I’ve spent months trying to find out. I bet
that PA had something to do with it; it reeks of his
filth.”

Nova filed the
information away, she would speak to Leon soon enough.

“
Tell me what you did the day of the ceremony; from when you
woke up.”

“
Fine, but I didn’t do it,” Piero said.

“
Humour me,” Nova responded.

“
I slept terribly, same as always. Started my day with a hard
drink, same as always.” Piero stared at Nova as if daring her to
comment on his habits. She remained silent.

“
I had some business to attend to that morning, so off I went.
That took most of the morning and then I swung by to pick up the
ingrate, Dustin.”

“
What do you think of Dustin?”

“
Spoiled.”

“
Is that all?”

“
Mostly, he’s a useless business person. The number of times I
would have smacked him around the head if I didn’t need him……”
Piero shook his head at the thought.

“
Need him for what?” Nova asked.

Piero cocked
his head to one side. His eyes stared at her as if measuring her
worth, in the end he shrugged and replied.

“
One day he’s going to inherit the company. When he does, I’ll
be right there to take the reins, you’ll see.”

Nova nodded.
“So Geron’s untimely death will help you with that?”

“
Of course it would!” Piero yelled. “Which is why I was
surprised you hadn’t knocked on my door with pitchforks already. I
wanted the bastard dead, but damned if I was going to dirty my
hands doing it.”

“
Do you know anyone who might?”

“
Anyone who knew him? He’s screwed over everyone who’s ever
worked for him and he’s got more enemies than brain cells. That’s
the truth.”

“
Okay,” Nova said. “What happened after you picked up
Dustin?”

“
We came here. Dustin went straight to the bar of course. Mind
you, I would have done the same, except that I couldn’t stand
another second of the boys prattling!”

“
What did you do instead?”

“
I took a walk to my room, had a look around the facility.
I’ve been here before of course, I still have an honorary role.
Geron can’t take that away. I have to admit the team did a good job
on this one. The perfect mix of original and terraforming. It kind
of reminds me-”

“
What did you do then?” Nova asked, cutting short Piero’s
train of thought.

“
It’s hard to say. I guess I wandered around to the different
viewing pods. I was fuming you see, being here reminded me of that
bastard’s treachery. It should have been me up on that stage.
Damned if he’d scare me away from the ceremony.”

“
And what about when you were at the ceremony?”

“
I was standing right at the front. I wanted to be sure that
that bastard, Geron, could see me plain and clear. I stared at his
eyes through his entire speech and they didn’t flicker once! It’s
like he didn’t even recognise me, or if he did, he didn’t care. I
was hoping for a glare at least. It kind of made the whole trip not
worth my while. I don’t know, maybe he did care, but was really
good at hiding it.”

Nova held up
her hand to stop Piero’s outpouring. “What about when the lights
went out?”

“
Yeah, so the lights started to flicker and then everything
went dark. I can tell you it got pretty ugly down with the plebs.
Although, I suppose you probably know that.” Piero chuckled,
cracking his knuckles.

Nova
nodded.

“
There was lots of pushing, but let’s just say I know how to
handle myself in a crowd.” Piero flexed his tattooed arm and winked
at Nova. She ignored his gesture and waved her hand for him to
continue. “I knew that the
upper-class
would be looked after,
so I just followed Meaghan’s screaming.”

“
That was easy in the dark and confusion? There was a lot of
yelling.”

“
Are you kidding? The woman was shrieking like a banshee. I
could have followed her through a hurricane.”

Nova raised
her eyebrows, but said nothing.

“
So, I followed her. She carried on right until the lights
came on. When the lights came back I was only one corner behind her
and that brute of a security guard. He was trying to calm the
hysterical woman down, and let me tell you, that took some time.
Next thing I know they’re hurrying off, I followed them, just to
see if I could learn anything about Geron; you know business never
sleeps.”

“
Did they seem to know where they were going?” Nova
asked.

“
You bet. They were moving so fast I lost track of them in the
corridors. Then there was the announcement for everyone to return
to their own rooms and so off I went.”

“
You think Meaghan had something to do with Geron’s
death?”

“
I can see the bitch doing it. She always seems like she’s got
a lot to prove. Mind you, she would have had to act pretty damn
fast; I was right behind them for most of the time.”

“
Did anyone see you behind Meaghan? Did Dustin notice you?”
Nova asked.

“
No one saw me. I don’t have an alibi if that’s what you want
to know.”

“
And after the announcement?”

“
I went back to my room and stayed there, just like the
announcement said.”

“
Thank you for your time, Piero. Don’t go too far,” Nova
cautioned.

“
Yeah, right,” Piero said, rolling his eyes as he stood and
walked from the room.

Nova watched
him go.