Page 29

I texted Frank. Did you see the news?

I did. Also got the group text from your daughter.

I scrolled back and realized I’d missed that Hazel’s last text had been to Frank and I. Guess I wasn’t as awake as I thought I was. I took a sip of coffee, then set it on the table and went to get my breakfast parfait.

I sat and ate, absently watching the news while thinking about where the Star might be, how Olan had ended up dead, and who might be responsible. For all of it. I had a lot of theories but nothing that held a substantial amount of water.

In general, I was stumped. But we had to get a break soon, right? Frank’s nebulite-sniffing vuums could be that break. They had to be or Hazel and I, and possibly the Federation, were in trouble.

I spooned a spaceberry out of the parfait and gave the news a little more of my attention.

Claire and Kent were talking about Ayronina again. They showed a clip of her concert at the Galaxy Amphitheater the night before. She was in another crazy outfit, this time purple with sequins, beaded fringe and enormous feathered wings that gave her the appearance of a large, strange bird.

Maybe that was the look?

I was certainly no fan of her music. It was all right for her generation, but to me, it had no soul. I supposed I was showing my age.

I gave her credit all the same. Performing a show every night had to be tiring, but I guessed that was what she’d signed up for. Wasn’t like she’d agreed to come on this voyage only to suddenly find out she’d be expected to perform nightly.

On Earth, there were people who did that exact thing in places like Vegas and Nashville. Not to mention all the seagoing cruises. There were performers on the starliner who gave regular shows. Space was no different.

I guessed that kind of job required either the young and energetic or the old and willing. I couldn’t see myself doing it. Unless it was something like talking about books every night. I might be able to do that.

I finished my breakfast and drank the rest of my coffee, then got up to put my parfait glass and spoon in the sterilizer and get another cup of coffee.

While that brewed, I changed out of my robe and into navy drawstring pants, a striped gray T-shirt and a loose navy cardigan. I dried my hair, tied it up with a navy and pink scarf, put on a little makeup, then went back out to get my coffee.

The news was about over. After that, there would be a live feed from outside of the Athos showing what lay ahead of us. I took my coffee into the bedroom and put on my navy knit flats. They were as comfortable as sneakers but not quite as casual.

From there, I went across the small hall to my office area. I didn’t use it a lot, but I wanted to write up all of my ideas on the recent deaths and the missing Star and see if that helped me organize them.

At Frank’s, we had the murder board. I didn’t need another one of those, just a way to arrange my thoughts. See if that helped me make more sense of them or triggered a new idea. If I could come up with some solid leads, I’d have something useful to share with him later.

I set my coffee on the desk and took a seat, then opened my laptop and a blank document. I started typing out bullet points, getting my thoughts down, as well as everything I knew about the incidents and all the people involved.

I had three pages when I was done, but nothing felt any clearer. I sighed and stared at the screen, wishing it would just magically make sense.

My wristband vibrated. I looked at it, hoping it was Hazel with more information about her plan, but it was Frank. No disappointment there.

Are you coming over, or do you want me to come to you?

I lifted the wristband to my mouth. “You have the murder board. I’ll come to you. Okay if I bring Harry?” I tapped Send.

Frank’s response came quickly. Harry is always welcome here. See you soon?

I sent back, We’re on our way . I got up and went to the living area. “Harry, we’re leaving in five minutes for Frank’s.”

“Okay, Mum.”

I brushed my teeth, applied a neutral lip stain, then took a final look in the mirror. Didn’t matter that today was a day off or that I could be casual. I still wanted to look my best when I was going to spend time with Frank.

Harry and I arrived at Frank’s a few minutes later. He greeted Harry with a scratch on the head and me with a kiss. I waved at Gracie. “Hi, pretty girl.”

She chirped back at me.

“How’s your morning going?” I asked Frank.

He sighed. “It’s going. Did you eat? Do you want coffee?”

“I ate, but I’d love another coffee. Just a half-caf, though, or I’ll be wired. By your tone, I take it that you haven’t gotten any results from the vuums yet?”

“Nothing yet.” He went to the Instachef and tapped in my order. “Do you know what your daughter meant by bait? Did she share any more details with you?”

“No. I can only assume she hopes the publicity around this second death will create some pressure on the premier to come clean. I don’t really know.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” The Instachef chimed. He took my cup out and handed it to me. “I hope it works. We need a break.”

“Agreed. I’d take the premier having an attack of conscience or your nebulite sensor hitting pay dirt. At this point, either one would work for me.” I sipped the coffee. So good.

“Same here. I feel like we’re letting your daughter down.”

“I don’t think Hazel feels that way. Although I did try to organize my thoughts this morning. Wrote down everything I could think of concerning the case. The people involved, the details we know, all of it.” I shook my head as I let out a dejected sigh. “Didn’t do any good.”

“You want to look at the murder board again? I need to add Olan’s murder to it. And we could look through the photos I took.”

I nodded. “Okay.” As this was my third cup of coffee, I was about as prepared as I could be for some dead body pictures.

“To the office then.”

I followed him and took my seat while he took his. He brought up the murder board and changed Olan’s status to deceased.

Sad that. Even if he had been involved in the theft of the Star, which we didn’t know for sure yet, he was so young. Couldn’t have been more than twenty-six or twenty-seven.

“Okay,” Frank said. “Pulling up the pictures now.”

I braced myself, but I was feeling pretty ready.

One by one, Frank scrolled through them, stopping on each one until we’d both studied it. I wasn’t getting much from the pictures. Olan had been positioned a lot like Navun, sort of crammed into the space.

His head was tilted back with visible bruising around his throat—again, much like Navun.

I shook my head as we reached the last photo. “It feels very similar to Navun’s death. Or at least the way his body was found. To me, that makes it seem like the same person is responsible.”

“I think so, too. Especially because the details of Navun’s death were kept quiet. I don’t think anyone, outside of us, your daughter, and the ASF officers involved, knew how he was positioned or exactly where in the cargo bay he was found.”

“If we assume the same killer, that raises a new question. Who would be able to access both the cargo bay and that mechanical space? I don’t think your average Loessaian would know about that access panel and how to get in there.”

“Agreed. I wonder if the Loessaian security team was given a detailed layout of the starliner before bringing the premier on board. My guess is they were given some kind of schematic, but I don’t know if it would have included something like that mechanical space.”

“Easy enough to find out.” I lifted my wrist and tapped the screen to open a text box to send to Hazel. “Were the Loessaians given specs of the Athos before boarding? Specifically, the premier’s security team?” Then I tapped Send.

It didn’t take long for her response. I read it out loud to Frank. “Hazel says, ‘The Loessaians asked for and received a copy of the starliner’s schematics showing all access points, including those that might potentially be used to safely move VIPs in the case of emergency.’”

I looked at him. “I don’t think that answers the mechanical panel question.”

My wristband vibrated with a new notification. I checked it. “Hang on, second message.” I tapped on it and read out loud, “I’ve uploaded the same schematics to the shared bubble so you can look at it for yourselves.”

“Perfect,” Frank said. He was already accessing the bubble, and a few seconds later, we had the drawings in front of us. They were basically blueprints but a much more simplified version. All the building specs had been removed.

He flipped through the many pages until he came to Deck 39. “There you go.”

I nodded at the screen. The mechanical panel by the elevators was fully visible. “So they would have known. I was really thinking we were about to eliminate a whole group of possible suspects.”

“So was I.” He ran his hand through his hair as he sat back.

As I pondered our next step, a new thought came to me. Might not be the best idea I’d ever had, but it was at least something. “Do we know how many guards were assigned to the Star? Including the four we know about and the new pair added the night of the gala?”

“Not sure,” Frank answered. “But I can look it up. There was a roster sheet included in the information your daughter sent us.” He tapped away, looking through a few files until he came to it. “Here it is. Looks like just those six. So they planned to rotate in three shifts.”

“You think we should search the room of the guards added the night of gala? Because they seem unlikely to be involved. To me, anyway.”

“No, I agree with that.”

“You think it would be worthwhile talking to them? And the other two set of guards? They had to know each other, don’t you think? It’s possible one of them might have overheard something. Or got the sense that something wasn’t quite right?”

He nodded. “Considering we have nothing else to go on, it can’t hurt. I don’t know how willing they’ll be to talk to us, though. We’re outsiders to them. They might have been given orders not to speak to us. Especially since Loessa has yet to officially join the Federation.”

I frowned. I hadn’t thought about that. Still, I was determined to make some progress toward solving this case today. “Well, then … maybe we don’t talk to them in an official capacity. In fact, with a little of your technology, it could be a very quick conversation.”

“Okay.” His eyes narrowed. “You want to elaborate on that?”

I smiled at him. “Here’s what we’re going to need…”