Chapter Four
--- Monday Evening
The computer dinged a second time, startling even the seemingly imperturbable Sergeant Walker. Lois looked at the monitor and exclaimed, “It’s Clark’s response.”
Vukovich gestured at the computer. “Go ahead, see what he’s got.”
--- Hello, Lois. We’re shocked to hear that Claude’s been murdered up there, shocked, I tell you. Since you’re not under arrest, we’re assuming that you aren’t in any way responsible for his untimely demise. Please send us any details that Major Vukovich will allow off the station, and please assure her that we won’t publish anything that might impede her investigation or mislead our readers in any way. And anything you need from this end, just let us know and we’ll get it to you as fast as we can. Send back what you can as soon as you can. Perry wants to help with this, too. Our crack research department stands ready to assist you.
She grinned. “What’s so funny?” asked Vukovich.
“The crack research department. A kid named Jimmy Olsen heads that up.”
“A kid?” Karen looked dismayed. “Is he any good?”
Lois waved one hand. “Don’t worry. If it’s on a computer anywhere in the world and it’s connected to the World Wide Web or just about any other network, Jimmy can dig it out.”
Karen still didn’t look convinced. “If you say so. Tell him he’ll get an extra cookie from me if he gets his work done before his nap.”
Lois chuckled. “Don’t worry, Jimmy could find out your blood type and shoe size if they’re anywhere on the Web.” She snapped her fingers. “Speaking of medical-type stuff, your good doctor didn’t mention any DNA evidence in his preliminary report. Let me try to pick one of these attachments that’s not a picture – ah, here we are.”
Walker leaned closer. “Why that one?”
“Because the file name is ‘DNA.DOC.’ If that’s not a clue – “
“Okay, Lois,” interrupted Karen. “Stop showing off and open the file.”
She did. The doctor had written that if DNA could be extracted from the miniscule tissue and fluid samples he’d collected, he’d get it done, but that it wouldn’t be easy and it would take up to four weeks to identify just the base pairs, assuming it was possible at all. Even then, the station didn’t keep DNA profiles of station personnel or visitors in the database, so there was no way to match it to anyone.
“Great,” muttered Karen. “Why do it if it won’t help?”
Walker shrugged. “Any additional information we get is more than we have so far, Major. Maybe we can verify that his last overnight guest was also his last pleasant experience, if the DNA on him matches the DNA on the bed sheets and the pubic hairs we collected.”
“Good point. Sergeant, you mentioned Claude’s most recent ex-girlfriend a while ago. Who was she?”
“Our extremely healthy gym supervisor, Lana O’Meara.”
“O’Meara!” Lois groaned. “I hope you have that conversation saved electronically. I don’t think she’d talk to me unless I was lifting a hundred pounds or more over my head with only one finger.”
Karen laughed and Walker smiled. “Yes, ma’am, I just finished typing up my interview with her. You want to look at it?”
“If the major allows it, yes.”
Still grinning, Karen said, “The major allows it as long as you don’t send it off-station yet. There’s no way we’re giving any news organization any names of suspects until we’re sure enough to make an arrest.”
Lois nodded. “Sounds fair. Mind if I respond to Clark before I read O’Meara’s file?”
“Go ahead and send the autopsy report and the pictures with your message. Might as well ruin their lunches, too.”
Lois didn’t think that was very funny, but she kept her own counsel and did as she was asked. “Done. Sergeant, what’s the name of that file?”
“I can get there quicker if I drive the keyboard and mouse, ma’am.”
She sat back. “Please do.”
Walker leaned in and pulled up the interview with a few keystrokes. Instead of a transcript, she saw a summary which gave her very little new data.
Lois sighed. “Sergeant, I’m sure this is all up to regulation standards, but there’s a lot that’s missing.”
His voice revealed only curiosity. “Such as?”
“Well, you didn’t ask her if she knew about any of Claude’s other girlfriends. Surely she knows something we can use. And we know where she claimed to be last night – alone in her quarters – but there’s no corroborating evidence. Doesn’t the station track power use by individuals?”
Karen frowned. “They track the power usage in each area, like in the cafeteria and the gym and – “
“What about personal quarters?”
Walker crossed his arms in thought. “I’m not sure, I’ll have to check. But if she was in her quarters and asleep, as she claims, the power usage records won’t necessarily show that.”
Lois’s eyes brightened. “But they may show whether or not the door was opened at any time.” She watched the light bulb brighten above the others’ heads.
“Right!” Karen chirped. “Matt, you get on that. Lois, you and I have a date to discuss Claude Guilliot’s murder with Ms. O’Meara.”
“Oh, goody, just what I hoped I’d get to do today.”
“Just don’t say anything to antagonize her and you’ll do fine.”
Lois gave her a deadpan look. “Then you’d better do all the talking.”
--- Monday, early evening
“Ms. O’Meara, are you busy?”
Lana shook her head ‘no’ at the major’s question. Lois almost envied the way her short hair flowed and fluttered around her head in the reduced gravity.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Lana frowned. “About Claude?”
“Yes.”
“I already spoke with Sergeant Walker just a little while ago. Is something wrong?”
Karen smiled. It reminded Lois of a crocodile’s grin. “No, we just need some additional information from you. Mind if we step inside your office?”
Lana looked pointedly at Lois. “Is she coming too?”
“Ms. Lane is assisting me in this investigation.”
Lana gave Lois an appraising once-over and nodded. “Yeah, I bet she helps a lot.”
Lois followed the other two into Lana’s office, wondering what that was all about, then closed the door behind the three women. Lana sat down and motioned to the chairs before her desk. “Have a seat, ladies. What can I tell you that I haven’t already told your alter ego?”
Karen opened her notepad and glanced at the questions Lois had jotted down. “You told Sergeant Walker that you’d been in a relationship with Claude Guilliot for about seven or eight weeks, right?”
“Except that I knew him as Claude DuBois, that’s right.”
“He didn’t tell you his real name?”
Lana shook her head. “Nope. I had no idea.”
Karen nodded. “Neither did anyone else, apparently. When was the last time you spent a significant amount of personal time with him?”
Lana’s eyebrows rose. “You mean, when was the last time we had sex?”
Karen shrugged. “Your description.”
Lana leaned back. “About three, three-and-a-half weeks ago. I’d spent the night in his quarters and got up early to leave before he woke up.”
“Why was that?”
“I knew it was just about over, that he’d gotten everything from me he wanted.”
“Oh? What was it he wanted from you?”
Lana smirked. “A large quantity of high quality sex.”
Karen waited a beat, then asked, “Anything else?”
The smirk faded. Lana leaned back and looked down. “Yeah, actually. He asked a lot of questions about my coworkers and their private lives. He always made it seem like a joke, or like he was trying to convince me I was the only one for him by comparing our relationship with everybody else’s.” She snorted. “As if we were destined to live happily ever after.”
“How did you feel about him breaking up with you?”
Lana shrugged. “I saw it coming so I wasn’t completely crushed. He was charming, handsome, a pretty fair lover, but there wasn’t a whole lot of character inside that character, you know?”
Lois grimaced to herself. She knew exactly what Lana O’Meara meant.
Karen asked, “Have you seen him since then?”
“Just in passing. We had lunch a few days later when he tried to let me down gently.”
“Did he? Let you down easy, I mean?”
Lana chuckled. “He did his best. We were two ships passing in the night, it was a grand and glorious romance but doomed from the start, he’d remember me for the rest of his life and regret that he wasn’t man enough to love me as I deserved, yada, yada. I suspect it’s what he’d planned to tell me that last morning when I slipped out early. You’ve been dumped before, Major, you know the drill.”
Karen nodded. “Yeah, I do. What about since then? Have you seen him, either alone or in the company of some other woman?”
“I’ve passed him in the hallways a few times, seen him in the cafeteria, stuff like that. I didn’t stop to speak to him, and I didn’t corner him and scream at him for dropping me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Weren’t you upset that he’d broken off the relationship?”
Lana’s gaze met Karen’s a little too directly. “No, I – well, maybe a little, yeah. Nobody likes to get dumped, right?”
“I wouldn’t like it. How did you feel?”
“Well, I didn’t exactly jump for joy, but like I said I wasn’t devastated, either. Besides, I knew there was already another batter in his on-deck circle.”
“Oh? What makes you think that?”
Lana opened a drawer and pulled out a folded note addressed to Claude. It was written in pink and had little hearts and Cupid arrows drawn on the front. “This was duct-taped to the outside of his room when I left on that last morning. You want to read it?”
Karen reached for it, then stopped. “If you have it, does that mean Claude didn’t see it?”
Lana shrugged again. “Like he’d really care about how any woman felt. Go ahead, take a look.”
Karen hesitated again, and Lois murmured, “It’s evidence in a murder investigation, Major. You need to read it.”
Karen glanced at Lois, then reached out to take the note. She read through it and frowned at Lana. “Have you met this girl?”
“Yes. She’s one of Dr. Breedlove’s dental techs. She cleaned my teeth a few weeks ago before I found the note.” Lana smiled ruefully. “After seeing that thing, though, I’m not letting her anywhere near me, especially with sharp dental tools.”
Lois leaned towards Karen. “May I see it?”
Karen handed it to her. Lois read:
--- My dearest darling, say it isn’t so! The cruel and heartless ones have told me that you are still seeing that other woman! Please tell me it’s untrue! No matter what they say, I will believe you. No matter what has happened in our pasts, our shared future is the only thing that matters now. Our love is strong enough to resist the outrageous lies others tell! Our love is strong enough to withstand the other women who claim to love you but only want the joy and ecstasy you can bring to their sordid, meaningless lives!
--- I love only you. I live for only you. I’m so sad when we’re apart and so happy when we’re together! I long for the day when we are joined forever. I love you more than my own life!
--- I will never leave you. Never! You are my breath, my world, my life, my very heart. I am yours forever. And you are mine forever.
The note was signed Carrie Hillman. Lois looked on both sides of the note and said, “She’s a little on the intense side of the emotional scale, don’t you think?”
Lana nodded. “That’s how she comes across to me, too. And before you ask, no, I don’t know if they were sleeping together, although after reading that note, I’d be very surprised if they weren’t.”
Karen said, “I hope you’ll excuse this next question, but you don’t seem all that upset over Claude’s death. Any particular reason for that?”
Lana’s face settled into a stone mask. “I had sex with him, Major, I didn’t marry him.”
“Still, it seems to me that you must have had some kind of bond.”
Lana snorted. “It was as much to pass the time as it was anything else. I knew going in that he was about as likely to propose marriage as he was to grow another arm overnight. I understood what I was getting into, unlike some others I could name.”
Lois barely restrained herself and waited for Karen to ask, “What others are you talking about?”
“Besides the lovely and apparently unbalanced Carrie following me, I was preceded by two others I knew personally.”
Karen nodded and spoke almost casually. “Can you give me their names?”
“Sure. His first conquest up here was Maria Gomez, and right after her was that Aussie broad, Trixie Witherspoon.”
Karen’s eyes flickered. “I thought Trixie – “
“She did.” Lana’s voice flattened. “I told you I knew what I was getting into.”
“Right. You know anyone we can talk to about Trixie?”
“Check with Mark Wayne. He was engaged to her before Claude split them up.”
Karen made several more notes. “Thanks, Ms. O’Meara. I think that does it for now.” She stood and Lois followed suit.
Lana leaned back in her chair and gave them a lopsided grin. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me not to leave town or something?”
Karen turned and answered with a flat tone. “Don’t leave town. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic,” Lana responded dryly. “Hey, Ms. Lane, you coming in for your cardio workout in the morning?”
Lois glanced at Karen before answering. “If I’m not busy with the Major, yes.”
“Busy with the Major!” Lana guffawed. “Right. I’ll see you when you get free.”
Lois followed Karen into the gym area. Before she could ask what Lana thought was so funny, Karen said, “That was productive. Don’t you think that was productive? Let’s see if we can catch Carrie Hillman before she leaves work.”
And she rocketed along the passageway towards the medical section. Lois followed in the major’s wake, wondering if whatever was affecting people up here would scramble her brains also.
--- Monday evening
“Carrie Hillman isn’t at work, hasn’t been at work all day, called in sick this morning, and isn’t expected back in the office for several days.”
“Why is that?”
Dr. Breedlove frowned. “Come on, Major, she just found out her boyfriend was murdered! I don’t want her poking sharp pointy things at people’s gums until she’s had some time to deal with this.”
“I see. Compassion for her circumstances does enter into the decision somewhere, doesn’t it?”
He frowned harder. “I don’t appreciate your tone, Major. Of course I care how Carrie feels. Sometimes work helps a person get through a tough emotional time, but I don’t want her to break apart while she’s yanking tartar buildup from a patient’s gum line. I want her here, but I also want her calm and cool and collected and ready to work safely. She’s on paid leave for the next week. We’ll decide together what happens after that.”
“Okay, Doctor. Do you know if she’s in her quarters?”
“I expect so. If we’re done here, I have a fairly tricky filling to work on now.”
“We’re done. Thank you, Dr. Breedlove.”
Karen walked away and Lois followed. “I’ll get the location of Carrie’s quarters from my office as soon as I find an emptying station.”
Lois frowned. “A what?”
Karen grinned. “Station slang for bathroom. Good, there’s one now. You coming in?”
Lois smiled back. “My mother told me that as I get older I should never pass up an opportunity to use the bathroom.”
--- Monday, late evening
Lois quickly learned that knocking wasn’t the usual mode of announcing oneself at someone’s quarters on the station. Karen pressed the outside comm button and said, “Major Katrina Vukovich, Station Security, to see Carrie Hillman.”
There was no answer, so Karen repeated herself. They waited for a long moment, then Karen punched the button again and spoke with apparent compassion. “Carrie, if you’re in there, we have to talk. I know it’s a very bad time, but if you want us to find out who did this terrible thing to Claude, you have to tell us everything you know.”
They waited some more. Lois opened her mouth to suggest that they move on to the next name, but the door suddenly whooshed open.
Carrie Hillman stood beside the doorway. She was barely five feet tall and somewhere between slender and plump. Her face was lightly freckled, and her extremely short hair was somewhere between red and orange. Lois wondered how natural the color was, but didn’t think it was important enough to ask about. More importantly, she wondered why Claude would bother with someone as ordinary-looking as Carrie.
Between sobs, Carrie invited them in. Lois looked around and saw a tiny room identical to hers, except for the unmade bed and the clothing strewn about. Karen guided the weeping woman to the edge of the bed, then sat beside her. Lois found the desk chair and gently settled into it.
Karen let Carrie cry for a few more moments, then put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Carrie, I know this is a bad time for you, but we want to find out who did this horrible thing to Claude, and in order to do that we have to ask you some difficult questions. Do you think you can talk to us now?”
Carrie wiped her eyes with her fingers and nodded. “Good. Can you tell us the last time you saw Claude?”
The girl nodded again. “Last n-night. Early.”
“What time was that?”
“W-we had dinner – about – about seven. We – I – we – “
Karen spoke softly. “You went to his room, didn’t you?”
Carrie almost smiled. “Yes. I – I did. We – it was a w-wonderful – it was so wonderful.” She hugged herself. Lois thought she was going to start crying again, but she controlled herself. “I’ll keep that night close to my heart for – for as long as I live.”
Lois considered the tableau before her. The heretofore hard-as-nails Major Vukovich was comforting a stricken, grieving woman as a chaplain might. She even rubbed her hand across Carrie’s shoulders. The incongruity puzzled her.
Lois looked at Karen, who glanced at Lois and tipped her head microscopically at Carrie. Lois frowned in confusion, then realized they were going to play ‘good cop bad cop’ with her, and Lois was to be the bad cop. It was not a role she relished.
In for a penny, in for a retirement savings account. Lois took a deep breath and said, “Ms. Hillman, when did you leave the decedent’s quarters last night?”
Carrie exploded at her. “He’s not a decedent! He’s not a thing! He’s not just a job to me like he is to you! He was Claude! He was my world! He was my everything!”
As Carrie paused to inhale, Lois shot back, “So you were with him the entire night?”
It stopped her. She narrowed her eyes and stared at Lois. “No. I left because he said he had some work to do this morning and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off him if I stayed.”
“But what time was that, Ms. Hillman?”
The girl all but snarled at Lois. “Just before eleven!”
“Where did you go when you left the decedent’s quarters?”
Carrie stared flatly at Lois. “You’re a real hard woman, you know that? Hard and cold.”
The thrust hit home and Lois struggled not to show her reaction. It reminded her of Claude’s own accusation and how hard she’d fought to overcome the damage he’d done to her. She forced herself to focus on the job at hand. “Where did you go after you left the decedent’s quarters, Ms. Hillman?”
“Deck fifty.”
“Fifty?” Lois shook her head. “The station only has thirty-four levels, counting the storage areas and maintenance crawlways under the habitat ring. Where do you hide level fifty?”
Carrie sniffed defiantly. “You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Deck fifty is where we say we’re going when we want to be completely alone.”
“I see. Where exactly is your deck fifty?”
She hesitated, then said, “I went up to the construction storage area.”
“Uh-huh. Remember, I’m new here. Where is the construction storage area?”
“In the zero-gee hub, right behind the reception area.”
“What did you do?”
“What do you mean, what did I do?”
Lois leaned forward and lowered the pitch of her voice. “What did you do up in the construction storage area all alone that night, Ms. Hillman?”
Carrie shot her a laser glare. “I like to float. It’s a zero-gee area and the area isn’t staffed during Beta or Gamma shift, so I go there when I want to float.”
There’s something else in there, thought Lois. “How do you float, Ms. Hillman?”
“What? What possible difference could – “
“What do you do when you float, Ms. Hillman? Do you bounce off the walls, do you just drift aimlessly, do you pretend you’re swimming, do you – “
“I float in the nude, okay? Like skinny-dipping in a swimming pool or a river! I like the feeling of the cool air on my skin! I pretend there’s nothing weighing me down or holding me back – “ She broke off abruptly. “There’s no stations regs against it. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Did you and Claude ever go there together?”
Carrie’s face softened slightly. “Yes. Once.” She looked away. “It – he said it was the best we’d ever had, even better than doing it while we were high.”
Lois nodded, not wanting any more detail than that, but needing more information from the girl. “Just once? I would’ve thought Claude liked doing it weird.”
The girl’s head snapped around. “What? Weird? You pervert, you, don’t you dare – “
“Ms. Hillman, we’re investigating a murder. We need to know everything we can about Claude Guilliot and his women.”
“His women?” Carrie clenched her fists. “I was his woman! His only woman! We were going to be married! We were going to grow grapes in the south of France and make wine! We were going to have eight children and we were going to be happy!”
“Ms. Hillman, Claude had a long and consistent history of brief affairs with numerous women. What makes you think he really loved you?”
Carrie stood abruptly and took a threatening step towards Lois. “Leave me alone! Why can’t you leave me alone? The man I loved most in all the world has been murdered and all you can do is ask me stupid questions and make evil insinuations about the man I love! Why don’t you go find out who did this? Why don’t you go find out – find out who – find out who killed – “
She couldn’t finish. She collapsed back on the bed in tears. Karen patted her on the shoulder and made comforting noises, then covered her with the bed sheet and waved to Lois to follow her.
They entered the corridor and stopped. Karen hit the outside door button and sealed the compartment, then said, “Let’s go see if your man Kent has come up with anything solid.”
“Okay.”
They walked to the spoke in silence and climbed upwards the same way they’d come down. As they walked to Karen’s office door, Lois stopped. “Look, Karen, I’m sorry if I was too rough on her, but – “
“Don’t apologize. You did exactly what I hoped you’d do.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. All she was going to tell me was how much she’d miss him for the rest of her life. She told you she was with him last night but didn’t sleep there.”
“I see.” Lois hesitated. “How much of that do you believe?”
Karen gave her a sideways look. “Why? How much do you believe?”
Lois frowned back. “I’ve seen women who’ve lost husbands or lovers or brothers or sons before. If they’re innocent, they almost always dissolve emotionally right away, and then they wear themselves out in a few hours. They still cry, of course, and sometimes they get mad when someone asks them questions they think are pointless or stupid, but the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth kind of thing is usually burnt out by this time.”
“And they cry calmly from then on?”
Lois thought about Bonnie and Clyde and Dillinger and Capone, and how she’d reacted when she’d thought Clark was dead. “Not always, no. But Carrie’s reactions – they’re off somehow. I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“So you think she was over-acting?”
“I don’t know. I think she meant what she said, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t ring true to me.”
Karen tapped her on the shoulder. “That’s why I wanted you along. I thought so too, but I wanted a second opinion.”
Lois grinned. “I see. So, let’s find out what Clark has to say.”
Karen opened the outer door. “I just hope he’s half as good as you seem to think he is.”
Lois smiled to herself, behind Karen’s back. “Oh, he’s good. He’s very good. Where do we go next?”
Karen sighed. “We get some sleep and hit it again first thing in the morning. It’s after nine now.”
A male voice inside the office said, “Major Vukovich, you have a visitor.”
Lois stepped in behind her as Karen’s eyebrows rose. Walker motioned to the inner office, the door to which was not fully closed. “In there.”
Karen nodded. “Thank you, Sergeant Walker. Ms. Lane, would you mind waiting for me in cafeteria two? I’ll meet you as soon as I’m through here.”
“Of course, Major.”
Karen turned to Walker. “I’ll lock up when we’re done, Sergeant. It’s past closing time anyway.”
“Yes, Major.” He turned to Lois as Karen pushed the inner door open and stepped through. “Ma’am, I’ll show you where cafeteria two is if you’d like.”
Lois grinned and put her arm in Walker’s elbow. “Thanks, Matt, I’d like that.”
They strode through the office door, walking arm-in-arm beside each other. In one way, it helped Lois not so miss Clark quite so much, since he was a fairly attractive, well-built young man with good manners.
He also made her miss Clark more, simply because he wasn’t Clark.
--- Monday night
Lois was finishing her orange dessert-flavored light brown dinner goop when Karen walked into the cafeteria and slid several sheets of paper onto the table beside her. Lois glanced at them as Karen sat across the table from her.
“How’s it taste?”
Lois put her spoon down. “Like library paste flavored with oranges. If I didn’t have to look at it, I’d probably be able to tell you what else it reminds me of.”
“I know what you mean. There’s no black market for that stuff.”
Lois grinned. “I sure hope not.” She glanced at the pages on the table beside her. “What do you have here?”
Karen tapped the top sheet. “Your guy Kent came through for us. Claude had a book deal to write about the sordid sex lives of the perverted denizens of Prometheus Station and they were planning to go to press with it in six months. His agent is dancing around like a duck on a hot plate trying to keep from giving back the advance, even though the book isn’t anywhere near finished and probably never will be.”
Lois’s eyebrows rose. “Wow. Talk about your bad publicity for the station.”
“Oh, yeah, that would be all we’d need. Right now, the department heads can pick and choose among the top people in their fields. But if the station got a Playboy-type reputation, we’d have to weed out the ones who’d want to come for a sexy lifestyle instead of coming to work, and station management is almost as afraid of that as they would be an asteroid strike on the Hub.”
“Is there a real story in people’s love lives here on the station?”
Karen shrugged. “No more than in any other city back down, I suppose. I’d guess that the thousands of people who lived in Los Alamos, New Mexico while they were designing and building the first atomic bomb had their personal soap operas, too.”
“True. I remember reading that there were a bunch of marriages and lots of babies born during the years they were lumped all together.” Lois moved the top sheet of paper on the stack and uncovered a legal-looking document. “What’s this for?”
“The station manager was the person waiting for me in my office.”
“Oh?” Lois asked cautiously.
“He’s not real happy that you’re walking around with me asking questions like you’re a cop.”
“Oh?”
“So I told him you’d already agreed to work with me in the official capacity of special investigator, temporary rank of Inspector, to solve this crime.”
“Oh.”
“I, ah, fudged a little and told him you were an experienced investigator.”
She hid her smile. “You did, did you?”
“Lois, the director is shaking in his boots. If we have an unsolved murder on the station, dozens of people will ignore the penalty clauses in their contracts and leave and we’d have the devil’s own time trying to replace them with people of equal quality. We’d either have to scale everything way back, lower our people standards drastically, or turn this into a police state to make it feel safe, and doing any of those things would cost more than the station can afford. I’ve got a staff of three officers and nine non-commissioned officers, all sergeants, and we’ve never had to deal with anything other than fistfights and the occasional still. Besides, you need some official oomph behind the questions you’ll be asking.” She pulled a pen out of her coverall pocket. “What do you say?”
Lois hesitated, and Karen continued, “I promise this is temporary, only until we catch the killer. You don’t have to sign this, but if you don’t, you won’t be able to help me any more. I’d also appreciate it if you’d not make me look like a moron in front of the station manager. He’s not exactly my biggest fan to begin with.” Karen took a deep breath. “Besides, this way I’ll be able to keep tabs on you. The killer won’t be able to get a good shot at you.”
“Is that your main reason?”
“It’s one of them.”
“And if I’m the killer?”
Karen’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Then I won’t have to go far to find you.”
She thought about it. She was sure Perry wouldn’t object, since that would give the Planet first shot at any publishable information on the crime. Besides, she thought she’d enjoy the chance to work as a cop instead of behind the cops for a change.
She took the pen, then hesitated again. Time to take control again.
Totally deadpan, she asked, “How much money is involved here?”
Karen looked startled. “Money?”
“You don’t expect me to do this for free, do you? What does the job pay?”
“You get to carry a fancy badge and you’re on call twenty-four-seven.”
“On call all day, every day. That’s not bad, but show me the money anyway.” Lois put her elbows on the table and rested her unsmiling face on her interlocked fingers. “How much?”
Just as deadpan, Karen picked up Lois’s spoon and held it between them. “You get all the orange-flavored brown goop you can possibly eat.”
