“But Batra fired a phaser, not a pulse gun,” said Stern. “There was evidence of mitochondrial disruption in the cells of her right hand consonant with phased energy exposure.”
Garrett gave Stern a weary look. “And I take it that Halak didn’t check a phaser out of the weapons locker.”
“Nope, and nothing in the shuttle. Had to be his personal carry and then either he ditched it, or it got left behind. There’s no regulation against that, though.”
“Anything else?” When Stern shook her head, Garrett looked at Burke. “Questions?”
Burke made a pass motion with her hand. Garrett directed her attention back to Stern. “What else about Batra, other than evidence of there being a phaser involved?”
Stern summarized what she’d already told Garrett. “Then there’s the dirt.”
“Dirt?” Tyvan echoed.
“Dirt,” Stern repeated. “Look, I don’t have any doubt that most of what Halak said is true. Really,” she added in response to a skeptical snort from Burke. “I believe that he was attacked; I believe that he defended himself. I believe that a Bolian killed Batra. All that squares with the evidence. But the time course is off. The sequence is wrong. I didn’t start to put it all together until I began comparing what I found on Halak with what I found on Batra. Just like Halak, Batra had Bolian blood on her hands, under her nails, on her clothes, in her hair, and the blood spatter’s consistent with her stabbing the Bolian. Then the Bolian shoots her at point blank range. The impact knocks Batra off her feet onto her back, but she’s dead before she hits the ground. Death was virtually instantaneous. The lieutenant’s heart stopped pumping. No blood flow, no bleeding.
“But here’s the kicker: the dirt. The dirt on her clothes, especially on her back, doesn’t look much like what you’d find in a city. And there’s dirt on her jaw—actually, minute fragments embedded in tissue. But it’s not the samedirt.”
“I’m not following,” said Tyvan.
“Look, we know she was hit because of that bruise on her jaw and those bite marks on her tongue. But I assumed someonehit her, because Halak said they were jumped. Made sense. But that’s wrong. She had abrasions on her jaw, and there was dirt in the wound. Only it wasn’t dirt. It was brick.”
Burke stirred. “But why couldn’t she have been hit by a fist?”
“Because the lieutenant’s skin was torn. Her skin had come into contact with something sharp, jagged, and hard. Someone hits you across the face with his fist your skin’s not going to tear, not unless what he’s wearing, like a ring, catches on skin. And there should be marks that look like fingers, or a fist. There should be prints. Now, I found nothing that smacks of fingers or an imprint from a ring, and there were no prints. There were, however, latent prints on her clothing. The Bolian’s easy to spot; their ridge patterns are species-specific, can’t confuse them. And Halak’s. Hers. But that’s it.”
Tyvan sat up. “No fourth person. Halak said there was another man.”
Stern’s eyebrows arched. “See the problem? Halak says there was another guy when Batra was killed, and I just showed you that in order for Halak to get cut the way he did, there had to be at least two more: one to hold him, the other to take care of Batra. Only where are they? And somehow Batra got the knife only no one noticed? No one tried to grab her? Unless something happened much earlier than he says and then the brick…”
Tyvan finished for her. “Comes from the city. Meaning they were attacked, first, in the city.”
Stern took aim with a forefinger. “Bingo. There’s no mistake. Brick’s very porous. It crumbles. This stuff is cheap, so I’m guessing some slum on Farius Prime. But there’s no brick anywhere on her clothing, just her skin. So Batra got herself cleaned up. Probably changed her clothes. That’s why the dirt on her clothes is different from what’s embedded in her jaw. She didn’t get hit. She slammedinto a brick wall. But the dirt on her clothes was a mixture of quartz and mica, some decomposed organic matter…”
“That would still be consistent with a city,” said Tyvan.
“There was also a fair amount of bentonite. That’s volcanic ash. And there were high levels of triuridium.”
“Farius Prime’s got triuridium mines.”
“That’s right, except those mines have been closed a good long time. It’s why that Asfar-whatsa got so powerful to begin with, because the mines dried up. So if the mines aren’t active, that means there are no workers bringing the stuff back into the city. There’s nothing being released in the air; there’s been no volcanic activity on that planet for centuries. So the only place you’re going to find volcanic ash and triuridium…”
“Is at the mines,” said Garrett. She was past anger now. She’d sat through Stern’s dissertation, knowing where it led but still not wanting to believe it. I may not like him much, but maybe that’s my fault, and he’s still my XO.Now, she felt only a creeping weariness, as if an enormous weight had settled on her shoulders. “So there were two separate events.”
“That’s how I see it, Captain.”
“Me, too.” Garrett scrubbed her face with her hands. Then she rolled her eyes toward Tyvan. “You have anythinggermane? Anything to explain this?”
But it was Burke who answered, flashing Garrett a smile that was infuriating because it was so disingenuous, and just a little too smug. “Captain, there’s nothing a psychiatristcan say. Nothing at all.”
Tyvan stiffened, but Garrett didn’t reply. Instead, she reached for companel before her on the conference room table. “Security, get Halak in here. Now.”
Chapter 18
“Well, Commander?” Garrett asked, not sure that she didn’t want to shake Halak until his teeth rattled. “Can you shed some light here?”
There was a pause, as if it had taken time for Garrett’s question to register. Then Halak moved his head fractionally in a weary negative. “I can’t explain it, Captain. I’ve told you what happened. I loved Ani, and I wouldn’t have done anything to harm her. I simply don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“The truth would be a good start.”
“Captain, I’ve toldyou the truth,” said Halak. His voice was hoarse. “I received a message from an old family friend. I detoured to Farius Prime to see her. I admit I should have reported that change in my itinerary. I didn’t, mainly because I had no intention of staying on Farius Prime for long. Ani followed me. I don’t know how she figured out where I was going; I didn’t tell her. But she ended up on the passenger transport from Starbase 5, and there was nothing for it but have her tag along.”
“Stop.” Garrett hacked the air with the side of her hand. “Stop right there, Halak. I don’t want to hear this again. That’s not what we’re interested in, and you know it.”
“Captain.” Halak ran a hand through black hair that was greasy and matted, like lumps of cooked tar. “Captain, I don’t know how to resolve the discrepancies. I don’t know how the dirt that you say shouldn’t have been there got there. Dirt is dirt, and I don’t know. The simple truth is that we were attacked. She was killed and there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t know what you want from me.”
She heard the genuine undercurrent of pain, and Halak looked awful. His eyes were dull, their whites etched with a tracery of thin, red lines. The lids were swollen and the skin beneath his eyes looked smudged, puffy, and bruised. The olive cast to his skin had turned sallow, and his features were pinched and sharp as if he’d lost weight. When he walked, he favored his right side, and it was obvious he was still in pain. And he was grieving: no faking there.