“Was it a nice party?” asked Ingray.
Taucris gestured Ingray to the other seat in the small office. “Not really. I didn’t want to have any sort of party, or maybe just a very small one, but Nana insisted. I didn’t think e would, I was sure e would be too embarrassed that I took so long. And embarrassed at this.” She gestured around herself, the narrow plastic desk, the two chairs, the walls, one set to show notices and announcements, one a view of the black-paved court outside, people strolling across it, or standing to talk, the occasional groundcar sliding along the court’s perimeter. “I couldn’t help but feel like everyone was snickering at me behind their hands. I actually caught Danach at it, but I pretended I didn’t notice.”
“I’m really impressed,” said Ingray, sitting, though she had to admit to herself she’d been taken aback. “Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Serious Crimes on your first day! And you already seem like you’re so good at it.”
“It’s not really my first day,” said Taucris. “You know I did all those tours with the Young Citizen Volunteers.” Taucris had always been fascinated by policing and crime. Her nother had indulged it, and everyone had assumed she’d grow out of it, or that it would stay a hobby. “And I’ve been doing internships for a couple of years. In fact …” She hesitated. “I wouldn’t have chosen yet, except I’d been doing a lot of this job for a while and the deputy chief really wanted me to actually officially have it. But as long as I wasn’t legally an adult I couldn’t. And of course Nana really wanted me to finally choose. E tried to be patient, but e really didn’t understand.” Ingray didn’t know quite what to say to that. “And I’m mostly glad I did. I wanted this job so much, and I’m glad to finally have it for certain, officially. But … you won’t laugh at me, will you?”
“No, of course not.” Ingray couldn’t imagine what there was to laugh at. Though she could think of quite a few acquaintances who would sneer at Taucris’s actually going to work for Planetary Safety like this.
“Danach would laugh at me.” Taucris hesitated a moment more, on the verge of saying something, and then finally said, “Ingray, how did you know? How did you know you were ready?”
“I don’t know,” replied Ingray, baffled at the question. “I guess it just seemed like everyone expected me to choose.”
“But I never felt like … like a grown-up,” Taucris said. “I still don’t, not really. Nana said I should just listen to myself and I would know what was right. But it never seemed right.” She sighed. “Thank you for not laughing.” And then, “I’ve always been kind of jealous of you. You just always seem to have everything so together. Danach keeps trying to knock you over, but you always just brush it off. I just wish I could … I don’t know; I wish I could be that sure of myself.”
“I wouldn’t laugh at you,” said Ingray. And meant it, but also found herself astonished at the rest of Taucris’s confidence. “And I don’t … I’m not sure I really have everything together.” Did she? She didn’t really think so. “And I don’t think I’ve ever been able to just brush Danach off.” She thought of Pahlad’s story about having met her when she was small and intervened in Danach’s trying to hurt her. Thought about how she’d gone to such lengths just to get back at Danach. “But I’m glad it seems like it. That makes me feel a little better about it.”
“You’ve always been so kind to me,” said Taucris, very seriously. “But I’m taking up your time—I assume you’re here to talk about the case.”
“Sort of,” admitted Ingray. “I have some information from our cook. E said e’d searched the kitchen and found two knives missing, not just one.”
“And there was nothing on the knife in Pahlad’s bag except eir own fingerprints,” said Taucris. “I don’t think that’s much better, though. And we’re still looking for the mech.”
Ingray thought of little Uto, bobbing up and down among the glass blocks that spilled into the river, bright pink against the blue and green. “Did you look in the river?”
“They’re looking there right now,” said Taucris. “I suppose the other knife won’t be far off, if it was the one the murderer used. And I can’t see how Pahlad could have piloted the mech—e wouldn’t have had the access and from all I can find e was never much of a mech-pilot to begin with.”
“Excellency Hevom might have access,” Ingray suggested, “and I think he and Zat had some disagreements. Though there was some kind of Omkem family thing keeping them from talking to each other directly. And he seems completely devastated by her death.”
“Omkem.” Taucris waved away the eccentricity of foreigners. “It’s the Omkem consul the deputy chief is meeting with right now. Hevom apparently contacted the ambassador sometime last night, and he sent the consul here. The consul wants us to let Hevom go home immediately. The deputy chief, of course, considers Hevom a suspect and wants him to stay until this is resolved.”
“So the deputy chief hasn’t settled on Pahlad, then?” asked Ingray.
“Oh, no, e hasn’t settled on anyone. Everyone’s still a suspect. Well, you aren’t, not really. Danach might be, if it turns out that the murderer used a Hwaean mech. But that marker spike was Zat’s, and had to have come from Uto. I doubt Danach even knew what a marker spike was, to be honest, let alone how to use it. Besides, Danach has no motive. Everyone knows he’s going to be the next Netano, so he’d only be hurting himself if he did this. So I don’t think he’s really a suspect.”
“If Excellency Zat’s Uto was involved,” Ingray pointed out, “there’s no way Pahlad could have done it, either. You know how different outsystem mechs can be—I don’t think mechs from Omkem work quite like ours. I can’t imagine many Hwaeans have the right implants.”
“No, you’re right,” Taucris admitted. “It matters whether the murderer used Uto or a Hwaean mech. If it was Uto then you and Danach and nearly every other Hwaean are cleared. But, you know, Pahlad’s situation is … complicated. E was supposed to be in Compassionate Removal, but e’s not, and we don’t know how long e hasn’t been there, or where e went in the meantime. E could have gotten any sort of modifications or implants. We’ll check for that, of course, but even if e’s cleared of Zat’s murder …”