“Ah,” said Pahlad, with only the slightest hint of bitterness. “He’ll have been getting Omkem money himself, then. At any rate, whatever his objection, he’ll have discovered it when he saw it might be a way to limit the influence of Representative Aughskold. But surely you don’t think I’m acting for Ethiat Budrakim. Besides, I rather suspect he’s got his hands full dealing with more important issues. Like finding some political advantage in the Geck being here.”
Deputy Chief Veret said, “I had a long talk with Representative Aughskold before I came in here.” Ingray looked quickly at Danach, who showed no sign of reacting to that news. The deputy chief continued. “She tells me she and Prolocutor Budrakim had a very acrimonious conversation on the topic just last week. The prolocutor was adamant that he would prevent the disturbance of Eswae Parkland if it was in his power.”
Pahlad smiled again. “Is that a fact.”
“If you please, Pahlad,” said Taucris then, “put your bag on the table.”
“Of course,” said Pahlad, still smiling, and did so.
Taucris held out her hand, and the dark green stripe on her sleeve raised itself up on dozens of legs and swarmed down and across onto the table. It ran onto Pahlad’s black bag, pushed at it here and there until it opened, and then dived inside. Nutrient blocks tumbled out onto the table, and then, “Ah,” said Taucris, frowning, focusing somewhere in the air in front of her, and the mech slid out of the bag, several of its many legs clutching the handle of a knife.
It was the sort of knife the cook in Netano’s house might use to slice meat. In fact, Ingray was quite sure it was one of the cook’s knives.
“I stole it from the kitchen,” Pahlad said in answer to her look. “I went to the kitchen late last night looking for food, and I saw the knives. It just made me feel safer to have it.”
One end of the mech opened, like a mouth. It brought the knife closer to the opening and spat out a plastic blob that it pulled and patted until it enclosed the knife. “It matches,” said Taucris.
“What?” asked Ingray, startled.
“It matches the wound,” said Deputy Chief Veret. “It could have been the knife that stabbed Excellency Zat.”
“But there are three or four more just like it in my mother’s kitchen,” Ingray protested. “And probably lots of other kitchens.”
“Maybe,” said the deputy chief. “We’ll look into that. In the meantime, Pahlad Budrakim, I’m afraid we’re detaining you on suspicion of murder.”
“Really?” Pahlad seemed entirely untroubled by this. “Not for escaping an unescapable prison and coming back alive when I wasn’t supposed to?”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever done that before,” admitted the deputy chief. “Not that I know of. And I don’t think there’s any legal provision for it happening.”
“Well, that’s something, isn’t it. I presume Officer Taucris Ithesta will give me a receipt for my bag, with an inventory of its contents?” Taucris gestured confirmation of this. “Not my first time being detained, you know.” E stood. “Goodbye, Ingray. You really should take the captain’s advice.”
When Taucris had led Pahlad out of the room, and the deputy chief had told the rest of them they could go, so long as they remained available to Planetary Safety for further questions, Danach said, “Who is the captain and what was his advice?”
“No one you know, and none of your business,” said Ingray. “Let’s go home.”
By the time they arrived back at Netano’s house, it was quite late, but lights still shone through the blue and green and red glass blocks. A servant opened the door, and Ingray, Danach, and Hevom entered to find Netano herself, in businesslike formal skirts and jacket and sandals, her unruly black hair braided into neat submission. “Ah, you’re back,” she said, on seeing them enter. “Excellency Hevom, I am so very, very sorry for your loss.”
Hevom managed to pull himself out of his stunned reverie. “Thank you, Representative. I … thank you.”
“Please make yourself at home here, for as long as you need. Ingray, a word in the sitting room.”
Danach smirked. “Good night, Mama,” he said, and headed up the stairs. Hevom followed.
In the sitting room, Netano gestured Ingray to a seat, the armchair where Danach had lounged the day before. “Planetary Safety has asked the news services to hold off on reporting Excellency Zat’s death,” Netano said, having taken her own seat on a bench opposite. “So, I’m sure, has Prolocutor Budrakim. Pahlad’s return isn’t something the news services know about, but of course once they start poking around it probably won’t be long before they discover it. I predict they will restrain themselves for two or three days, at the most. There’s no possible way this can be kept quiet indefinitely. So explain to me.”
Clearly Danach had told Netano something in his messages to her. Just what, though, Ingray couldn’t be certain. “I met em … I met Garal, or I suppose e’s really Pahlad. I met em on Tyr Siilas. E looked so much like Pahlad I said something to em about it, but e said e wasn’t. And I got to talking to em and e said e was stranded and out of money and had no one to help em get home, so I thought I would help.” Netano didn’t visibly react to any of it; her round face held just a pleasant, listening expression. “And we got here, and Danach immediately thought the same thing I’d thought, that this person looked a lot like Pahlad Budrakim, only he decided that e must really be Pahlad, and came to my room to tell us he knew who e really was. And we just kind of played along.”
“Only it turned out the person you were dealing with really was Pahlad Budrakim.” Ingray gestured agreement. “Deputy Chief Veret assumes that Pahlad obtained eir own false identification at Tyr Siilas. Danach, on the other hand, is quite sure that it was you who purchased it. But you didn’t just buy a false identity for a random stranger you met on Tyr Siilas, no matter how forlorn they seemed. You’d already bought it for something else, hadn’t you. Who did you intend it for?”
Ingray took a deep breath. “I’d had a plan. I went to Tyr Siilas to … well, when I got there I discovered the thing I wanted to do wouldn’t work. It wasn’t any good to me anymore, but Garal—I mean, Pahlad—really needed it.”
“The fact that you had a false identity on you to begin with, and that it was so easily transferred to this person you happened to run across, and who you brought here, and the alacrity with which you confirmed Danach’s identification of em—an identification you tell me you believed to be incorrect—suggests to me that your plan wasn’t entirely legal or aboveboard to begin with,” said Netano. “And no doubt your plan was aimed at your brother.” Ingray’s face heated, but she said nothing. “It’s probably better if I don’t know the details. I don’t intend to say any of this to Planetary Safety. But if the deputy chief discovers it for emself, well, this would be a bad time for those details to come out.”
“Yes, Mama.” Ingray didn’t have anything else to say to that.