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“They’re working on her. They have a team on her, and they’re trying to stabilize her so they can move her to OR.”
“Operate? She’s going to need surgery?” Var asked as Be
“Her injuries are very severe, and they’re doing everything they can. She’s critical. You need to prepare yourselves.”
“She’s not going to die. She’s not going to die. She’s not going to die.”
As he said it again and again, Be
“Come on, Be
“I need statements from both of you. I’ll make it as quick as I can, and I’ll have the officers who responded transport you to the hospital as soon as we’re done. I need to know what happened.”
“We don’t know.” Be
“What time did you get here?”
Be
“It was about ten or just before. I don’t know exactly,” Var told her. “We got worried when Cill didn’t come in to work, and she didn’t answer her ’link, or her e-mail. We should’ve come before. We should’ve checked on her earlier, then maybe…”
“I shouldn’t have let her go home alone last night.” Be
“What time did she go home?” she asked Be
“It wasn’t late. Maybe nine or nine-thirty. We talked about going out and getting something to eat, or just getting blasted. But none of us much felt like either.”
“Did she log out a game? Did she log out Fantastical?”
“Yeah. Yeah. We found out this morning she’d logged it out. Why is this happening?” Be
“We’re doing our best to find that out.” Eve glanced over as Peabody came in, signaled her. “Give me a minute.”
She crossed over, leaned in.
“That was a mag-ass party last night,” Peabody whispered, modulating her voice to lift just enough on the key words. “My feet EDD are killing me today. But breakthrough totally worth it because all that dancing, recovered data probably took a solid pound off my ass.”
“You do understand you’re obsessed with your own ass? Now, nod like I’ve just given you an order, then pull your communicator out as you step out. Wait a few minutes, come back in, give me a nod, and then stay in for the interview.”
“Got it.” She nodded, added a “Yes, sir!” for good measure, and took out her communicator as she left the room.
“Is that about Cill?” Be
“No. So, you last saw Cill at about nine-thirty last night?” She glanced at Var for verification.
“About that.”
“And what was her state of mind?”
“What do you think?” Anger leaked through as Be
“We were tired.” Var sighed. “We were all just really tired.”
“Where did you go after?”
“We went home.” Now Var shrugged. “We all just went home.”
“Did you walk together?”
“Yeah. Well, we walked together to Cill’s, then I headed to my place. Be
“Did you notice anyone hanging around? Anyone near her building?”
She glanced over as Peabody came back in, gave her a nod.
“I waited until she went in,” Be
“Do you always check like that?”
He shifted a little. “If we take off at the same time, I like to make sure she gets in okay. She can take care of herself, but it’s just something you do.”
“Did you talk to anyone, see anyone, have any contacts after nine-thirty?”
“God.” Var rubbed his eyes. “I got something to eat, tried to watch some screen. I couldn’t settle down so I went online for a few hours. Into a couple game rooms. I played some World Domination, tourney style. You know, elimination rounds. Maybe till about two. I didn’t go out. I didn’t want to go out.”
“Be
“I didn’t talk to anybody. We’d talked to people all day. I did some personal e-mail, then some research on a couple of projects. I guess I went down about midnight. Her light was still on. I happened to notice. I almost tagged her, just to see if she wanted company, or just to talk, but I didn’t. I figured she wanted to be left alone. I should’ve gone over.” His voice trembled again. “I should’ve just gone over.”
“Stop it.” Var laid a hand on his shoulder. “Stop. It’s not your fault. We need to go be with her,” he told Eve.
“Nearly done. How did you get into the building, into her apartment?”
“I have a swipe and her codes,” Be
“Why, especially?” Eve demanded. “Why is she so focused on security and privacy?”
“I…” Be
“Go ahead. Maybe it’ll help.”
“It’s just her mother and stepfather never gave her any privacy, any peace. They used to search her room all the time, pry into all her stuff. They even put a cam in there once, to spy on her. Like she was a freaking criminal. She just… she just wants her private space private. That’s all. It’s why she got so upset with the searches. I guess…” He let out a long breath. “I guess it’s why I did, too. I know how it made her feel so it pissed me off.”
“Okay. Was her security in place when you got here?”
“Yeah, it was.” Var gave Be
“And checked her pulse.”
“I did.” Be
“Peabody, check with the hospital. We’re nearly done. Was the holoroom secured?”
Be
“Okay. There’s a disc in the holo-program as I told you. Can you remove it?”
Be
“No, me neither. We could make a best guess, but if we’re wrong, it’ll hit destruct.”
“All right. We’ll deal with it.”
“She’s in surgery,” Peabody a
“Is there family who should be notified?” Eve asked.
“Just her mother.” Var passed a weary hand over his face. “They’re not close, as I guess you could figure, but I guess she should know.”
“We’re her family,” Be
“I’ll have the officers take you to the hospital. Detective Peabody and I will be there shortly.”
She gave the uniforms instructions, secured the door behind them. “We’re going to want eyes on those two, softclothes.”
“Their alibis are easy to check out. EDD can confirm or dispute the online activity. If they’re in this together, they’re both good at the masks, but it would slide in with Mira’s two conspirators theory.”