Inferno

Kresh had noticed the camp stool, but had not put it together to figure out the attacker had come from inside the perimeter. It irritated him to have missed that obvious a clue. “Maybe you’ve got a point, Melloy, but I have the Governor to think about. You work this any way you want, but I have to work on the assumption that this was an attempt on Grieg’s life.”

Melloy shrugged. “As you like.”

Devray was listening, but still staring at the corpse, as if he had never seen such a thing as a murder victim before. Well, maybe he hadn’t. “You know, Melloy, you’re making an assumption here yourself,” he said. “Perhaps not a valid one.”

“And what might that be, Commander Devray?” Melloy asked, not making any special effort to keep the contempt out of her voice.

If Devray noticed the disparaging tone, he chose to ignore it. “The direction,” he said. “You pointed out the murderer had to come from behind, from inside the security perimeter. ”

“So?”

“So there were a lot of people who wouldn’t need to go past your sca

“Wait a minute,” Kresh protested, suddenly understanding.

“All the people at the party, “ Devray said, his voice so soft and quiet Kresh could barely hear it over the rain. “ Anyone of them could have come out here, done the job, and then gone back. A quick step into a refresher to tidy themselves up and get their clothes dry, and no one would ever know.”

“All right,” Kresh said. “Maybe so. But why the hell would anyone want to kill Huthwitz?”

“That one, I don’t know yet,” Devray said.

Kresh sat in the copilot’s chair and let Donald do the flying. There was a lot to think about here. Things were not fitting together they way they should have. Melloy and Devray both seemed to be following agendas that just didn’t hold together.

A man-a guard-killed two hundred meters from the Governor he was guarding, and neither of them seemed the least bit interested in the idea that the killing might be politically motivated.

And another thing. Melloy had been the one to volunteer the victim’s name. That was the thing that had been bothering him. Devray hadn’t even seemed to have known the victim.

“Donald-the first call-in you got did not have the victim’s name. When was the first general police band hyperwave call with that information?”

“There has been no such call as yet, I presume as a security precaution. I was alerted by a private call from the Governor’s Rangers Operations Center. ”

“Hmmph. Check in with whatever traffic control centers would have it. We got to the crime scene last. Of Devray and Melloy, which got there first, and by how much?”

“One moment, sir. ” Donald was silent for a moment as he ran the query over his hyperwave links. “Limbo Traffic Center reports that Captain Melloy landed first, with Commander Devray arriving five minutes later, approximately two minutes before we got there.”

“So Devray had maybe one minute, maybe three, tops, with Melloy, before we actually got out of our aircar and got to the scene. When we got there, the two of them were not exactly in the midst of warmhearted conversation. The name of the victim is not going to be the first topic of conversation.”

“I’m not quite sure I follow you, sir. ”

“Even if you assume Devray knew the victim well enough to recognize him, it just doesn’t follow that the first thing he would do upon arrival at the scene would be to tell Melloy the victim’s full name and rank.”

“I don’t quite see why not, sir. It is a valuable piece of information. ”

“Maybe so, but it’s just not in character. Devray wouldn’t tell you the sun was coming up tomorrow before he sat back and thought it through-and Melloy’s hardly the first person he’d confide in. The two of them are barely even on speaking terms.”

“It still would seem reasonable to me for him to tell Melloy the victim’s name.”

“I don’t think Melloy or Devray are exactly reasonable toward each other. Besides, Melloy rattled Huthwitz’s name off as if she were familiar with it, knew it well. I agree with you that there is no logical reason preventing Devray from knowing the name, but I tell you it doesn’t make sense as a piece of human behavior. ” Kresh thought a moment or two longer. “Of course, I’m assuming Devray knew who it was in the first place, but he didn’t act as if he did.”

“What actions revealed he did not know Huthwitz?” Kresh shook his head. “Nothing distinct enough for me to point it out. But there was something detached about his actions. Not like he was dealing with a friend or an acquaintance. No. I’d bet whatever you like that Melloy knew Huthwitz and Devray did not. But how the hell would Melloy come to know a low-ranking officer in a rival police force?”

“It seems a minor point, but surely we could resolve the issue by calling either Devray or Melloy and asking.”

Kresh shook his head. “No. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to tip my hand. ”

“Sir, I am confused. What is it you wish to conceal?”

“I don’t know yet, Donald. Maybe just the fact that I think something doesn’t smell right. I don’t want anyone rushing around with disinfectant until I find out where the odor’s coming from.”

“Sir, I’m afraid I still do not understand. ”

“Me neither. I can almost see Devray being worried more about having one of his officers killed than the politics of the situation-but that doesn’t explain Melloy. It’s almost as if she already knew it was nothing to do with the Governor. ” Or, he could not help thinking, as if she already knew that it was.

Wait a second. Wait a goddamned second.

Kresh turned back toward the comm panel and punched in the crash scramble again. The Governor reappeared on screen again. Still at his desk. Still working on the same papers. Still in his formal clothes. “Sheriff!” he said. “Is there some further news?”

“Governor, I was wondering. Could you remind me-what did you send me on my birthday last year?”

“What? What the devil are you talking about?”

“What present did you send me last year?”

“Kresh, how the devil should I know?”

“You should know quite well, sir. You sent nothing at all.”

“You called me at this hour to ask me that?”

“No, I didn’t. ” Kresh cut the co

“Yes, sir. ” The aircar made a hard turn and rushed back the way it had come, gathering speed. “Sir, I could not help overhearing, and I am greatly confused,” he said, his voice steady and level. “ According to my recollection, the Governor sent a memo to all the top government officials as soon as he took office just over two years ago. He told them he was ceasing the tradition of gubernatorial birthday gifts to them effective immediately, as it tended to promote favoritism.”

“And just by chance, the memo arrived on my birthday,” Kresh said. “I didn’t feel much like a favorite that day. I remember, Donald, I remember. But why didn’t the Governor know?”

But Kresh already had the answer to that, even if it scared him to death. The aircar landed hard, and Kresh was out the hatch and ru