Deadly Lover (11 page)

Sean silenced Newman with a stern look. Newman’s heavy jowls made his frown even more severe. He wore an ill-fitting suit and shiny shoes—classic detective style. Lily looked over her cousin’s plain slacks and synth jacket, grateful that he at least looked like he’d come from the right century.

Lily led the way toward the gate with Sean quickly reaching her side. His jaw flexed as they crossed the line into The Zone and met the Ormney.

“Law Keepers,” Lily greeted.

One of them should’ve extended a hand for a shake, but Newman kept his hands stiffly at his sides and Lily shoved hers in her pockets. She couldn’t afford a panic attack and it was going to be hard enough just being inside The Zone. It landed on Sean to take up the slack and his O’Leary manners seemed to get him through.

Jolaj assessed them then waved an arm up the lane. “Everything is arranged. Please follow me.” With that he strode ahead, leading them deeper into the village that had been built on a more human scale than the city surrounding it.

They walked up several blocks, bypassing the side lane she’d seen them use earlier. She could see no building above three stories, but ladders built into the adobe-like walls provided a direct, if low tech, route to what upper levels there were. The buildings were a uniform off-white color. Foliage topped every roof and trailed down the exterior walls, filling the street with the fresh smell of green growing things and buffering the sounds of life in The Zone. The muffled whoosh of the monorail line overhead was barely audible. There were no auto-carts to disturb the quiet notes of voices, music, and laughter.

Jolaj led them to a one-room neighborhood center. The building sat on a large public square. The entryway consisted of a wide arch. No door or barrier of any kind. The windows were also absent any glass.

She studied the young Ormney standing in one corner of the sunlit room as she walked past the two Law Keepers posted at the door. The young man’s body language broadcast grief and devastation. Hard to say if there was any guilt in the mix.

Jolaj introduced them to Oz. Lily couldn’t keep a sad mile from her face as she noted his white and orange coloring—almost the same shade of orange as Mary’s hair. They would have made quite a colorful pair walking through The Mixer. Unfortunately, his coloring also matched the neighbor’s description of the Ormney she’d seen leaving Mary’s building that morning.

Sean and Oz sat in two large wooden chairs that had been dragged to the center of the room while the rest of them gave them some room. Lily picked a spot along the wall to the side, not far from where Newman stood to provide a secondary recording to go along with the one from the camera on the badge Sean wore around his neck.

Jolaj chose to stand opposite Oz, where the younger Ormney could easily look to him for comfort or approval. It surprised Lily that Sean didn’t voice an objection. She hoped Jolaj had time to prepare Oz for what was about to happen. Sean had explained that he would have to be tough on Oz. Going soft would do the boy no favors if they couldn’t clear him immediately. Lily had passed it along. Despite trying to be objective, her gut told her Oz hadn’t been Mary’s attacker. They didn’t know how long the drugs would have lasted, but she suspected he’d never have made it back to The Zone without incident if he were the one.

Sean sat straight in the chair with the toes of his short boots tucked beneath. “Oz, you know Mary Santini is dead?”

Oz dipped his head in a gesture that moved his shoulders along with it, as if the air had been sucked out of him, causing him to collapse in on himself.

The Law Keepers frowned at Sean’s blunt tone, but they didn’t move.

Sean went on in the same frank way. “How long had you known her?”

Oz straightened and met Sean’s gaze. “In the summer, she moved to day shift at the store where we work. Maybe five months ago. Before that, I’d seen her around, coming into work.”

Sean nodded at the young Ormney’s equally direct answer. “Would you consider her a friend?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lily couldn’t see Oz’s eyes well enough to know if he glanced to Jolaj, but she saw the older man’s slight nod of approval. Approval of what, she couldn’t be certain.

“Do you know,” asked Sean, “if any of the other Ormney ever showed particular interest in her? Held a grudge against her?”

Oz’s hands gripped the chair as if he might slide to the floor if he let go. “No, sir. Everyone likes Mary. She treats everyone with respect.”

Sean fired off his next question like he didn’t want to give Oz time to think. “You’ve been walking Mary to work for several weeks?”

“Yes, sir,” said Oz. “Some of the boys on her block were harassing her. Shouting. Being crude when she walked past.” His jaw tightened as he bit off the words.

“And it was your employer’s idea for you to make sure she got to work safely?” Sean pressed.

Oz nodded again, a short, jerky motion, but he didn’t meet Sean’s eyes.

“Did anyone else ever walk her to or from work?”

“No.” Oz’s answer was almost a bark, fast and sharp.

Lily saw Sean take note. His posture changed, sitting taller, alert, and watchful. “Tell us what happened today.”

“I arrived at her building at the usual time. I took the stairs...” Oz looked to Jolaj and some silent communication passed between them.

“And,” Sean prompted.

“I stopped on the first turn. I smelled...death.” He studied his feet. “I knew it was her.”

Sean leaned forward, crowding into Oz’s space “You knew?”

One of the youngest of the three Law Keeper’s fists clenched at his sides, but Jolaj and the remaining man remained stoic.

Oz shrugged, his shoulders burned with grief. “Her apartment was close to the stairs, it had to be her place.”

“You didn’t go up into the apartment?”

The young man shook his head. “Not today.”

“But you’ve been there before.”

If he’d been there, ever, forensics would find some trace of it.

“Yes.”

“So, you smelled her blood and you ran?”

Oz heaved a big breath and let it out slowly. The sigh caught in his throat, sounding broken and painful, then he nodded again. “I guess you could put it that way. I did. Yes.

“You didn’t check to see if she was alive?”

The question garnered another simple shake of his head.

“The attack didn’t stop her heart,” Sean continued, “didn’t stop her brain function. The ME said she bled out.”

All three of the Law Keepers scowled at Sean. If looks could kill, her cousin would have been obliterated. Oz wrapped his arms around himself and rocked in his seat. Lily looked away from the distraught young man to find Jolaj’s gaze boring into her. He didn’t understand this was an approved interrogation technique for Metro investigations. Lie to the victim, scare him into saying more than he planned. She was surprised to see Sean use the tactic, but she’d tried to warn them it could be rough.

Lily he mouthed an “it’ll be okay” in his direction, but doubted that would be good enough for Jolaj.

Sean hadn’t let up—adding a dose of outrage he said, “You couldn’t go to her? What, ten meters too far?” He leaned forward into Oz’s space again. “You couldn’t call for help? You left her there to bleed to death, Oz. Maybe you wanted her dead. Maybe you ran because you killed her?”

Oz surged up out of his chair, scraping it back across the floor behind him with a clatter. He made a terrible, mournful growling noise as he scrambled toward Jolaj and threw himself against the Law Keeper’s chest. Oz clutched at Jolaj’s biceps as the garbled growls died into whimpers.

“She was dead.” He wept, his chest heaving. “I swear. I know the smell of dead. I wouldn’t have left her there, if there was any chance.”

Lily studied him as his sorrow poured out. He pressed against the larger man for comfort and his fingers dug into Jolaj’s tunic.

His fingers dug into Jolaj’s tunic.

The significance of that thought crashed over her like a wave, stiffening her spine.

“He didn’t do it,” she said. “Couldn’t have.”

Sean scowled. “Lily, I—”

“He couldn’t have ripped her up like that, because he doesn’t have claws.” She reached for Newman’s arm and tugged. “His hands, zoom in on his hands for the record.”

Sean said nothing, his expression went blank.

Jolaj cleared his throat as he moved closer. “After our people arrived here, we banned further use of genetic engineering. Some of our engineered traits will recede naturally through the generations. A few in this generation were born without claws.”

Sean leaned forward in his seat to study their hands, then sighed back into his chair. “I’ll be damned.”

Lily took in Jolaj’s face, back to his stoic façade, and kept her questions for him until later.

Oz turned back to face the room. “Please believe, I would never have abandoned Mary.”

His eyes were wide and earnest against the bright orange band that crossed the bridge of his nose, stretching from temple to temple.

“I believe you,” she said easily.

He made a gruff huffing in the back of his throat that seemed to convey his gratitude.

An Ormney couple appeared at the door. The woman stood with her arms wrapped around her body as if she held herself tightly under control.

Jolaj laid a hand on Oz’s shoulder as he spoke to Sean. “Would it be acceptable for Oz to speak to his parents for a moment, Detective?”

Sean made a low noise of acceptance and then one of the Law Keepers led Oz through the open doorway, where he walk into the open embrace of his parents.

When Lily turned back to Sean, he was shaking his head. “Everyone give us the room, please.”

Everyone did.

When they cleared out. He waved her into the chair Oz had vacated. “How do you know so much about them?”

This had been simple observation, but there was enough truth to his supposition that she faltered before answering. “There are thing I can’t explain right now. I know you don’t really know me enough to trust me, but I promise you I’m not holding back anything that would help you.”

Sean’s face scrunched into the expression of a man forced to drink sour milk. “I don’t know you? Lil, we grew up together. You slept at my house as often as your own. I backed you up at school and damn-it Lil, after you got in that fight with that girl from two blocks over, I even helped you ice your knuckles and braid your hair so you’re momma wouldn’t find out. You were every bit as heard headed back then as you are now.” Sean scrubbed his hands over his face and rubbed at his temples then shook his head at her. “I know you’ve been through some things. I can accept that you aren’t ready to talk about them just yet. I just wish
you
trusted
me
enough to let me back you up in whatever you’re involved in now.”

Lily gripped the arms of the chair, hoping to prevent the shaking feeling inside her from making her shake on the outside too. She didn’t know how to react to all of that. Didn’t know what to say. The words that spilled out weren’t anything she’d thought over or planned. “I don’t trust anyone anymore.”

Sean got to his feet forcing her to look up at him. “You trust him.”

She followed his pointed finger to see Jolaj filling up the doorway. She looked back to Sean. “He already knows all my secrets.” She pressed her lips together tight to prevent anything else from escaping.

Sean nodded. “Okay.” Disappointment and maybe even pain cracked in his voice. “Then let him back you up for now. He’s a good man, even if he is pissing me off at the moment. When you’re ready, I’ll be waiting. We all will.”

Back straight, he strode to the door. A look she couldn’t interpret passed between the two men and then Jolaj moved out of the way and Sean went outside.

Lily didn’t know how long she sat in the chair, hollow and numb. At some point Jolaj crouched down in front of her, keeping his hands out of sight. The position should have been awkward for a man of Jolaj’s size, but instead he looked like a cat, balanced comfortably, waiting for something to happen.

“I’m all right.” She said it because she couldn’t think of anything else.

He seemed to be searching her face for something. In the end he just said, “I know.”

Lily stood with Jolaj in the shade of the Law Keepers’ neighborhood center. Sean was finishing up his questioning inside. Now that Oz was no longer a suspect, everyone was much more relaxed. Newman had even taken off his suit jacket.

The square had grown more crowded while they’d been inside. A mix of adults and children filled the open space, playing or relaxing in the late afternoon sunshine. Grass covered most of the square but one area was covered with colored stepping stones.

It occurred to her that this was the first time she’d seen an Ormney child. They were all educated in Ormney schools. Many Ormney never left The Zone. Only those who left for work regularly spent time beyond the wall. The requirements of the Ormney Accommodation Treaty had served to keep the Ormney isolated. There had been little attempt to integrate them into Earth society.

“Why did Detective O’Leary lie to Oz?” One shoulder braced against the curved exterior of the building, he studied her profile as he asked the question.

She could only see him out of the corner of her eye, but there was no forgetting his presence. Lily pressed her upper back to the cool surface of the white-washed, adobe-like center. “Sometimes the detectives have to lie to convince a criminal to admit to what they’ve done.” She smiled to herself. “Our legal system is hard to explain.”

“It would be easier for him if Oz had been Mary’s attacker.”

“Sean would never go after Oz because it’s expedient.” Lily shook her head. “There might be some who would, but not Sean.”

“My role as Law Keeper is very different from that of you Metro officers. We don’t focus on catching and punishing law breakers. We are charged to teach and guide our people in how they must fulfill their duties and responsibilities in The Way.” His voice had sparked with enthusiasm when he turned to the subject of guiding his people. Sincerity painted his features. He might not have the same methods as a cop but he had the same passion she’d seen in her cop-grandfathers, uncles, and cousins. It was something she respected.