Justice (16 page)

“
He was going to stop giving you money unless you came to the
ceremony?” Nova asked.

“
Yep. This ceremony; that ceremony. So many blasted
ceremonies!”

“
So after you heard the messages what did you do?”

“
Piero and I had a late breakfast and then we shuttled over
here.”

“
Piero June?” Nova asked. The name rang a bell in her memory,
but she couldn’t put her finger on why.

“
Yep. So me and Piero arrived on this lame planet. Piero went
to do whatever and I headed straight to the bar.”

“
What did you do there?” Nova asked.

“
Drank, obviously,” Dustin said, rolling his eyes.

“
Was anyone else there with you?”

“
There were a couple of girls.”

“
What are their names?” Nova asked.

“
Like I care! I’m just hoping at least one of them is waiting
in my room later.” Dustin rubbed his hands together and
grinned.

Nova’s lips
pressed together. “And after that?” she asked.

“
The President’s
chump security guys
came and got me for the ceremony.”

“
You went straight from the bar to the stage?”

“
Yep, with the goons,” Dustin said.

“
And what did you do then?”

“
You were there.”

“
Humour me,” Nova replied drily.

“
I sat listening to dad’s lame speech and then the lights
flickered.”

“
What did you do when they went off?”

“
I was ushered off stage with the rest of the Feders; one big
happy family.”

“
Do you know who was with you?”

“
Judging by the size of the hand it had to be the big ugly
one. Bruce.”

“
And you stayed with your family until the lights came back
on?”

“
No way. As soon as beef cakes let go of me I split. I had a
glow-ball on me.” Dustin paused to pull the small glowing ball from
his pocket and held it up. “I headed straight back to the
bar.”

“
Weren’t you worried about the power?”

“
In this trash heap? No.” Dustin sniggered at the thought.
“Plus it was the perfect time to get a feel of those chicks while
they couldn’t see me.”

Dustin
grinned, but Nova’s expression didn’t change.

“
So in the chaos and confusion you headed down for a
drink?”

“
And the chicks, don’t forget that in your report thing,”
Dustin waved his hand towards Nova’s desk. “And then you came along
and spoiled our fun.”

Nova glanced
at him with one eyebrow raised. “If you mean enforcing the
confinement in order to find your father, then yes.”

Dustin
shrugged. “All I know is that I lost track of the girls and it’s
your fault. Seems to me like you should make it up to me.”

Dustin leant
closer to Nova and let his tongue slide along his lower lip. It
left a trail of shiny spit. Nova ignored him, scrolling through a
small screen that lit up the corner of her desk.

“
I see you have a criminal history?” Nova said.

“
So? Who doesn’t? I bet if you put your name in there all
sorts of interesting things would come up,” Dustin countered. His
eyes gleamed as he stared at her.

Nova continued
to ignore him. He was right after all. “How did you come to be in
the shipping bay when I brought your father’s body back?”

“
I was sitting in the bar, and who do I see running past the
doorway? The witch herself. I figured I’d follow her for a bit, you
know have some fun, and she runs straight to the room with his
corpse in it.”

“
By ‘the witch’ do you mean Meaghan?” Nova asked, deliberately
avoiding any mention of the word step-mother.

“
Yep, that’s the one.”

“
She led you to the body?”

“
Yep.”

Nova nodded
and stored the information away, interesting.

“
How do you feel about your father’s death?”

Dustin’s only
response was a casual shrug.

“
You’re not sad that your father is dead?” Nova
probed.

“
Why would I care? He never worried himself with me. Although
I suppose it will mean more stupid ceremonies, you know, to honour
him. On the bright side, now his money is free for the
taking.”

Nova clenched
her fist, horrified at Dustin’s tone. Then again, she had heard
worse.

“
I see you were recently on trial for manslaughter,” Nova
said, returning to the screen in front of her.

“
That is none of your business,” Dustin said, his eyes
dark.

“
I disagree. Surely someone who killed once is more willing to
do it again?”

“
I didn’t kill that guy. It was a bunch of gang stuff. I don’t
want to talk about it.” Dustin turned away from Nova.

Looking at
him, she decided not to push the boy any further, at least not
today. He did seem pretty convinced of his own innocence, even if
he wasn’t especially upset by his father’s passing.

“
Alright. Don’t spend too much time in that bar, I may need to
ask you more questions,” she said.

Dustin didn’t
bother to reply as he slouched out of Nova’s office. His hands were
deep in his pockets and his shoulders hunched. He walked with an
arrogant swagger that made Nova want to grab hold of him and rip
him back into the interrogation room.

“
Ugh! This entire family deserves to be locked up!” she said,
once the door slid shut behind Dustin.

“
Unfortunately that is not an option,” Cal responded, as if
she needed reminding.

“
What does voice analysis say?”

“
There’s obvious distress over the loss of his birth
mother.”

“
Tell me something I don’t know.” Nova rolled her
eyes.

“
And anger towards his father and step-mother. The past
history of violent crimes and drug charges suggest he is not above
breaking the law.”

“
He definitely could have done it. I don’t think he’d be
worried about the ethical implications,” Nova said.

“
He has motive,” Cal replied.

“
Yes, I suppose a multi-million dollar inheritance is a pretty
big motive for someone like that. But why couldn’t he just wait
until his father died naturally?”

“
Perhaps he was concerned that the President was going to
change his will; give all the money to Meaghan, for
example.”

Nova’s stomach
sank as she considered the possibility. What if Dustin had reason
to think that Geron was going to cut him out of the will? A man
like him would definitely consider murder over something like
that.

But could he
do it? Could Dustin really kill his own father? Who was she
kidding, of course he could!

“
What a frickin’ mess,” Nova said, slumping down at the bar
next to Jack.

“
The investigation is going well then?” Jack asked. He lifted
his finger at the bartender to bring Nova a drink.

The bar was
quiet. Most people were engaged in whispered conversation. It was
probably some show of respect for the dead President. As much as
Nova had tried to keep a lid on the situation, news travelled fast
in the confined space of the complex. People were already flooding
the President’s family with condolences.

Small groups
of people leaned over their drinks and muttered to one another.
Tension crackled through the air like electricity before a storm.
People argued over who the murderer was and who they’d kill next.
Nova tried to block the paranoid conversations from her mind but it
was hard to stop the whispers filtering into her thoughts.

“
How can they all be so crazy that any one of them could have
done it?” she asked.

“
It’s the curse of the rich and famous,” Jack said with a
shrug and slid the drink to Nova. She seized it with a grateful nod
and took a deep swallow.

“
I wish they’d taken their curse somewhere else. All I wanted
was a cheap, easy job; rack up a few credits and get out of here.
Now I’m stuck with this cluster f--”

“
Ha! If you wanted cheap and easy then you chose the wrong
business,” Jack laughed.

“
I’d be off this planet in the next minute if we weren’t
obligated to fix this. Thanks for volunteering us, by the
way.”

“
All hail the Confederacy,” Jack said, lifting his glass an
inch off the bar. Nova did the same and took another mouthful of
her drink. The sweet drink left a pleasing burn down her throat. It
was a welcome distraction from the day of interviews and sorting
out lies from truth.

“
Shouldn’t you be working?” Nova asked after a few moments. “I
swear, whenever I see you you’re here.”

“
Ah yes, but our job was to stop the worst from happening. The
worst has already happened, so I figure I’m pretty much off the
hook,” Jack said with a grin and another mouthful of his
drink.

“
Interesting logic,” Nova said, raising an eyebrow.

Jack shrugged.
“It’s gotten me this far. Not to mention a certain someone dragged
me into the forests of Drigoon where I was nearly eaten alive by a
giant plant.”

“
To clarify, we were both swallowed alive. Then I cut us out
and saved your arse.”

“
Not quite fast enough.” Jack swivelled away from the bar and
gestured to his bandaged legs. The new skin would take a while to
heal. A shadow of pain lurked in his eyes, but the alcohol was
doing a good job of erasing it.

“
Ah, so I see you’re well enough to start blaming me,” said
Nova.

“
You’re the one who went out a second time and found the body.
All hail the hero Nova. I figure if I’m not going to get any credit
then I might as well blame you for it.”

“
Noble as always, Jack.”

“
You don’t know the half of it,” he said. “At least here I get
a good view.” He nodded towards the corner of the room where a
young woman hugged a drink close to her bountiful chest. Her bright
blonde hair glinted in the overhead lights, contrasting with her
unnaturally coloured, pink eyes. There was something very sombre
about the woman’s expression, but Nova dismissed it without a
second glance.

“
At least keep your ears open while you’re here,” Nova said,
rolling her eyes and placing her empty cup on the bar before
standing up. “If you hear anything let me know straight
away.”

“
Aye, aye, captain.”

“
Do that again and I’ll have you thrown into solitary
confinement for the rest of the investigation,” Nova said. He
grinned at her, but didn’t dare test her word.

Nova nodded
once and strode from the bar room towards Crusader and her
welcoming sleeping pod.

The next
morning, Nova woke with a groan. Her muscles ached from her hard
slog through the jungle and her head ached with the stress of the
investigation. There was so much she still didn’t know and she
wouldn’t be able to leave the planet until the mystery was
solved.

She rolled out
of bed and made some cereal.

“
Crusader, bring up the investigation board,” she said as she
sat down in the pilot’s chair.

Crusader’s
front screen flashed to reveal the investigation notes she had made
the day before on her desk. Pictures of the President’s family
looked back at her, only now she saw the mad selfishness in their
eyes. Knowing what she did about his family it was much easier to
believe that President Feders could have been involved in some
cruel rituals in the Inner Galaxies.

“
Add notes from the interviews,” Nova said.

Dot points
appeared beneath Meaghan and Dustin’s photos. It wasn’t much, far
from a smoking gun, or a ripe Cypris plant for that matter. Nova
hoped that today would be more fruitful than the one before.

***

“
Who is Piero June?” Nova asked once she and Cal were inside
her make-shift office and the door shut behind them. Cal’s circuits
whirred into action as he processed the request.

Sunrise spread
over Drigoon’s landscape, and in the soft glow the plants looked
far less threatening. Nova could almost imagine strolling through
the trees on a relaxing walk. It only took a single glance at a
moving plant to bring that daydream crashing down. She shivered and
turned away from the window.

“
Piero June is co-owner of Terraforming Incorporated. He and
Geron have worked together for many years. They founded the company
and have grown it from humble roots to the mega-corp it is today,”
Cal said.

Nova looked
over Piero’s file as it flashed onto her desk. “Okay, so Geron’s
friend and Dustin are close. That doesn’t seem so bad.”

“
Hmm, the message I have just received from Tanguin may not
support that hypothesis,” Cal said. A written message appeared on
the screen projected onto Nova’s desk.