Nightmare (38 page)

  "Look here," she said. "Cole Keller got in trouble twice for setting the school restroom on fire. That’s also a symptom of ..."

  The fountain sprayed high into the air, which was delicately scented with orange blossoms. Ara perched on the lip of her fountain and a moment later she felt another knock, this one infused with a question.

  "Of course," she said aloud. "Please come."

  Ched-Hisak and Kendi appeared before her in a rush of Dream energy. Kendi instantly fell retching to hands and knees. Ara knelt beside him. She had forgotten that he hadn’t yet learned to adjust to instant transport within the Dream.

  "It’s all right," she soothed in her best mother voice. "Just try to breathe."

  Eventually the heaving subsided and Kendi let Ara help him to his feet. Ched-Hisak waited patiently as Ara conjured up a glass of water for Kendi. He accepted it gratefully, face pale.

  "We still have to work on that," she said. "Now—what’s so important?"

  Excited color returned to Kendi’s face and tossed the glass over his shoulder. It vanished before it hit the grass. "It’s Dorna," he said. "She didn’t do. I have proof."

  Ara thought about what she and Tan had learned in Rashid’s office. "Kendi, I’m sorry, but I just don’t have time for this. I’m sitting in the office of the station’s Security Chief, and his time is—"

  "Just listen, will you?" Kendi pleaded. "I have evidence."

  "He is correct," Ched-Hisak put in. "I would listen."

  That checked Ara. "All right," she said. "Go."

  "Okay, the drug that gets us each into the Dream," Kendi said. "It’s tailored, right? Each person has their own mixture, and no one else can use it. One Child’s drug won’t work for another."

  "I know this, Kendi," Ara said. "What does it—"

  "I’m just setting the stage," Kendi insisted. "Okay, we don’t have to pay for the drug, but the Children do keep track of how much you use, and for students they do more than that. A student dermospray has a microtransmitter that alerts the dispensary whenever we use a dose so our teachers can keep track of how often we practice in the Dream."

  "Right, right," Ara said, barely concealing her impatience.

  "Just before Vera Cheel was killed," Kendi said triumphantly, "
Dorna didn’t use her dermospray
."

  Ara blinked but didn’t answer.

  "I know this," Kendi went on, "because she was between fill-ups. I remember she mentioned it when she and the others came over to play hide and seek. She said she’d been out for two days but kept forgetting to go down the dispensary for more, and it was during those two days that Vera was killed. When I remembered this, I asked the clerk at the dispensary to look up Dorna’s record, but he wouldn’t do it until Father Ched-Hisak and Inspector Gray got permission. That took a whole day. Otherwise I would have tried to talk to you earlier."

  "And the records confirmed that Dorna hadn’t used her dermospray?"

  Kendi shook his head. "She hadn’t. And she hadn’t used it anytime before Iris and Prinna were killed, either. We checked. And there’s no way she could enter the Dream without using her drugs."

  "She could have gotten them from somewhere else," Ara said doubtfully, "or used a different dermospray."

  "This is unlikely," put in Ched-Hisak with a bob of his head. "Her dermospray would have registered the transaction if she had moved her drug, and there is nowhere on Bellerophon that could mix her exact drug cocktail unless they had her medical records. A black market for Dream drugs does not exist—they have no effect on the non-Silent and or on Silent for whom they are not designed."

  "True," Ara admitted, and she let a tiny blossom of hope bloom in her chest. "But that leaves an awful lot unexplained. We found the blood of one of the victims on a shirt in Dorna’s room."

  "You did?" Kendi said, surprised. "Well, maybe the killer planted it there. But still ..."

  "What?" Ara asked.

  "There’s something else," Kendi said. "It happened right after you left. Ben and I—that is,
I
—invited a few people over that evening, and—"

  "You had a party?" Ara growled. "I don’t recall giving you permission to have—"

  "You said the more people who were around me and Ben, the better," Kendi said loftily. "I was just doing what you said."

  "I didn’t say that—never mind. We’ll discuss that later. What happened?"

  "Dorna showed up," Kendi said, and explained in detail. "She blamed the killings on someone named Cole. We figure he’s one of her alternate personalities, but if Dorna didn’t use her dermospray before any of the killings, she—or he—couldn’t have—"

  Ara stiffened. "What was the person’s name? The one Dorna said killed people?"

  "Actually it wasn’t Dorna talking," Kendi said. "It was a personality named Violet. She seemed nice until I grabbed her, and then I think she switched to another—"

  "Kendi," Ched-Hisak interrupted. "Mother Ara asked of you a question."

  "Oh. Sorry," Kendi said. "What was it?"

  "What was the name of the person Dorna said was killing people?" Ara repeated.

  "Cole," Kendi said. "She blamed the killings on someone named Cole."

  Ara blinked. "That’s the name of Dorna’s brother."

  "She has a brother?" Kendi said. "Where is he?"

  "Let me see if I can find out," Ara said. "Give me a moment." She closed her eyes and felt around the Dream. After a moment, she found Lewa Tan’s solid-world mind nearby. Ara reached for it and gently knocked.

~Yes?~
came Tan’s mental voice.

Ara quickly explained what Kendi had told her.
~Do you know where Cole is now?~

  Excitement rippled across Tan’s mind like the smell of cinnamon.
~There’s information on him in the file. Listen to this—his school record says he set the bathroom on fire. Twice. Another time he was cited for setting a cat on fire. Arson and cruelty to animals are both hallmarks of a serial killer. Dorna isn’t our killer. Cole is.~

~But what’s Dorna’s connection, then?~
Ara said. But even as she spoke it fell into place.
~They’re a team. Cole kills them in the Dream and Dorna cuts off fingers in the solid world.~

~Which would explain the spot of blood on Dorna’s sleeve and how the victims died even though Dorna hadn’t entered the Dream,~
Tan said.
~Okay, okay. Let me talk this out.~
Brief pause.
~Dorna and Cole. Both abused as kids. Dorna develops multiple personality disorder, Cole becomes a sociopath. Cole is a coward but also a dominator who needs to control. It’s why he kills—he’s trying to control his victims and he kills them when they don’t fall in line. He also dominates his sister Dorna. They’re both Silent, so when dear old Mom sells them off as slaves and they’re split up, they can keep in contact. Cole stays aloof and remote, ruling and killing from the Dream because it’s safe there. He bullies his sister—or one of her personalities—into doing the dirty, bloody work in the solid world.~

  Ara nodded, though Tan couldn’t see her.
~This complicates everything. Back when we thought Dorna was the killer, we at least knew what planet she was on. But Cole could be anywhere in the galaxy. How are we going to track him down?~

~Sales records are the best bet,~
Tan said.
~Once we explain why we want him, even the anonymous sales people will probably open their records to us. All we have to do is threaten to spread word through the Dream that they bought and sold a serial killer. They’ll cave in or watch their business dry up.~

~You’re evil,~
Ara observed.
~I like that.~

~Cole is younger than Dorna by about two years,~
Tan said.
~So he’d be about twenty-four. Want me to come in there and start looking?~

~I can handle this end,~
Ara told her, secretly glad to be out of Rashid’s office and away from files full of pain and death.
~You keep trading notes with Rashid and see if anything else comes up. I’ll get started with Silent Acquisitions right now and let you know what turns up.~

  They parted company and Ara opened her eyes. Kendi sat on the grass of the pleasure garden, drumming his fingers impatiently on his thighs. On Ara’s turf he was dressed in a long linen shirt, loose scarlet pants, and a matching scarlet fez hat. Ara thought he looked rather dashing. Ched-Hisak was nowhere to be seen.

  "He said he had stuff to do," Kendi said in answer to her unspoken question. "So what did Inspector Tan say?"

  Ara recited the conversation word-for-word. Kendi listened raptly, his face a picture of awe.

  "How did you do that?" he demanded. "You even imitated her voice."

  "Training, O my apprentice," Ara said. "You’ll learn to do the same thing. Come on—we have some slavers to bully."

  "Can we walk, please?" Kendi asked. "I don’t want to barf my guts out on someone else’s turf."

  "We do have to work on that," Ara sighed. "It’s not normal. But yes, we can walk. This way."

  A few moments later, they were standing before the same chrome desk on the same blue carpet Ara had seen before. The Silent Acquisitions sign indicated the company was willing to meet Ara’s needs, though she had her doubts on that score. The same red cone-shaped alien—or perhaps another member of the same species—greeted Ara and Kendi with the same cold pudding voice Ara had heard before.

"Are either or both of you connected with the Children of Irfan?"

  "We are investigating a series of Silent murders," Ara told the creature, "and we have evidence that the killer came through your slave warehouses. I need to speak with someone immediately."

  The creature’s expression, if it had one, didn’t change. Instead it said, "One moment," and vanished, taking the reception area with it and leaving Ara and Kendi standing on an empty plain. Whether the creature had left the Dream entirely or simply gone to another part of it, Ara didn’t know.

  A few moments later, another office appeared. This one had red carpet, scarlet wallpaper, and red plush furniture. Even the woodwork and the tables were red. Standing in front of the cherry wood desk was a rather pudgy man wearing a kimono of embroidered red silk. Kendi rubbed his eyes.

  "Fashion pain," he muttered, and Ara nudged him.

  "I am Sales Manager Leethe," the pudgy man said. His tone made it clear that although he hadn’t made up his mind about Ara and Kendi, he was inclined toward hostility. "How may I help you?"

  "My name is Mother Araceil Rymar of the Children of Irfan," Ara said. "This is my student Kendi Weaver. I am investigating a series of murders on the planet Bellerophon. So far over a dozen Silent women have been murdered in the Dream, and we have uncovered evidence that indicates the killer was sold through your company. I would like to see the sales records."

  "Quite impossible," Leethe said. "Our sales records are confidential."

  Ara’s temper started to boil. Women were being murdered—another could go at any time, in fact—and this little man was citing confidentiality? Images of Iris Temm and Vera Cheel, torn and bloody, swam before her and mixed with Diane Giday’s rotting corpse. She drew breath to snap out a reply, then carefully let it out. Kendi’s eyes were on her.

Serene must you ever remain
, she told herself.
Serene, serene, serene
.

  "I’m not sure you fully understand the situation, Manager Leethe," Ara said. "This person has tortured and murdered fourteen Silent women in the Dream. Five of them were monks at our monastery."

  "The problems of the Children of Irfan are of no concern to this company," Leethe said, smoothing his scarlet kimono. For a moment, Ara expected the red color to come off on his hands like blood. "You and your kind cost us millions in revenue every year with your lying, thieving ways. If Emperor Bolivar and Empress Kalii hadn’t granted you protection, we would have—"

  Ara raised her hand. A bolt of lightning cracked from her fist and smashed a hole in the ceiling. Kendi gasped and leaped back. Leethe went pale.

  "How—how
dare
you attack my turf," he sputtered. "Empress or not, you’ll hear about—"

  "Shut up," Ara snapped. There was a time for serenity and a time for anger. "Let’s get a few things clear, Manager. First, the fact that I could crack your ceiling proves that I’m stronger in the Dream than you are, and that means you’re going to listen. Second, if you don’t cooperate with me, I will see to it that every corner of the universe hears about how Silent Acquisitions withheld information in order to protect a killer of Silent. Of
Silent
, Manager. How many customers will you lose and how many Silent will refuse to cooperate with your company when word of this gets around? Third, there is something you are going to see, whether you want to or not."

Before Leethe could say a word, Ara reached into the Dream around them and
twisted
. A blindfold appeared over Kendi’s eyes and earplugs stopped his ears. He tried to pull them off. Ara could feel his resistance, but although he was strong—perhaps even stronger than she—he didn’t have her decades of experience. Leethe’s Dream office resisted Ara’s touch, but his power was nowhere near Ara’s, and his office melted and reformed under her anger. She snapped her fingers. Abruptly they were standing in a dead, black forest. A ghostly Temm ran screaming, and the branches tore her to pieces. Ara gestured, and the Dream changed again. Vera Cheel, transparent and wavery, sat wrapped in heavy chains on her sofa, scarlet blood pouring from a hundred wounds. A shadowy man in black chopped her finger off and wrote a number in blood on her forehead. Leethe made a low, animal sound in his throat and slapped his hands over his eyes. Ara mercilessly yanked them back down. The Dream changed one more time. Diane Giday’s corpse lay stinking and slippery on her living room couch.

  "Stop it!" Leethe cried. "You’re making this up. It’s not real!"

  "It’s real enough to prevent you from concentrating enough to leave the Dream or teleport away," Ara growled. The smell from Giday’s corpse burned the very air. "Even a slaver must have some conscience—or a sense of self-preservation. The monster that did this passed through your hands, Manager. Tell me what I need to know so I can find him."