“But it had to be drugs,” Solara said. “The door was locked from the inside.”
“And there’s no sign of a struggle,” Doran pointed out. “He’s not bruised or stabbed or shot. Probably he died in his sleep.” Doran sounded confident, but he looked away from the body and began chewing his thumbnail.
“Check his pockets,” Cassia told Renny.
“Already did. They’re empty.”
“Then look under the mattress.” She pulled her hand free from Kane’s and crossed both arms across her chest. “No matter how he died, addicts always hide their stash. If he found any information, maybe he put it there.”
While Renny knelt on the floor to lift a mattress corner, Kane glanced around the room for a place to hide money or drugs. There was no furniture other than the bed, and anyone smart enough to reset the keypad after killing a man was also smart enough to check for loose floorboards or removable heat registers. If there was anything to find, the killer had probably beaten them to it. On a whim, he reached up and skimmed his fingers along the ledge over the door. At first he felt only dust, but then his hand brushed something, and a folded piece of paper fell to the floor.
He unfolded the scrap and recognized Cassia’s meticulous handwriting. It was the paper she’d given the ferret, the one with Marius’s transmission code on it. Kane turned the slip over and squinted at the messy scrawl on the back. In letters so jumbled he could barely make them out, it read, adelvice.
He handed the paper to Renny, who spoke the word aloud. “It sounds like ‘edelweiss,’ the little white flower that grows on Earth.”
“Maybe he misspelled it,” Kane said.
“Could be. Whatever it means, if someone killed this kid for finding it, there’s a good chance he gave up our names before he died. We should go. Preferably out the back door.”
“But what about Gill?” Solara asked, casting a sideways glance at the mattress. “Shouldn’t we tell someone what happened?”
Renny placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s best if they don’t find him until we’re gone.”
She nodded, and together they all made their way out of the room as silently as they’d come, but using the emergency exit at the other end of the building instead of the main stairs. Minutes later, they were back at the marketplace, which was beginning to bustle with morning activity.
Steam rose from food carts, heating the air and sending up the scents of bread and sausage. Ordinarily, the combination would make Kane’s mouth water, but here it mingled with the stench of unwashed bodies and turned his stomach. He kept pace with Renny, eager to return to the docking station and put some distance between himself and this hellhole.
They were nearly out of the market when a woman called, “Popovers! Hot popovers!” Renny stopped so quickly that Kane collided into him from behind. The pileup continued as Cassia stumbled into him, and then Doran and Solara into her.
The crew righted themselves while grumbling complaints, but Renny didn’t seem to notice. He stood there, stiff as titanium, staring at the woman selling breakfast from a food cart five yards away. Kane glanced at the vendor. She was about thirty years old with owlish blue eyes and a round, freckled face framed by scarlet curls. She was cute in a motherly sort of way, but he didn’t see what the big deal was.
Until Renny opened his mouth and said, “Arabelle?”
Kane almost sprained his neck craning for a better look. He stared at the woman through the fresh eyes of someone who’d heard stories about her—plenty of stories, none of them ending well. Arabelle was the love of Renny’s life, the girl he’d left behind years ago when he’d made an enemy of the mob. But what was she doing in the outer realm? She was supposed to be on Earth, leading a safe, normal life.
When the captain didn’t budge, Solara moved up from behind. “Who’s that?”
Kane was almost afraid to say. Losing Arabelle had wrecked Renny. He still talked about her in his sleep. The whole crew knew better than to mention her name unless he broached the subject, which only happened when he overindulged in Crystalline.
“It’s her,” Kane whispered. “Arabelle.”
Solara clutched Kane’s left arm while Cassia grabbed the right. At the same time, they hissed, “Are you sure?”
Kane watched the woman’s gaze meet Renny’s and hold there. The whites of her eyes grew while her lips parted. She went every bit as still and pale as the captain. Soon her fingers slackened, and she dropped a pastry to the ground.
“Yeah,” Kane said. “I’m sure.”
“What’s she doing here?”