“I don’t know,” the Modhri said, sounding frustrated. “Master Colix was so focused on his internal condition that he wasn’t really paying attention to his surroundings.”
“And you weren’t either?”
“I have only my Eye’s senses to work with,” the Modhri reminded me. “If those senses are impaired, I’m as helpless as the Eye itself.”
“Let’s try a different angle,” I suggested. “Did Master Colix always keep the ticket in that pocket?”
“Yes.”
“Did his seatmates know that?”
“Most likely. Master Colix didn’t keep it a secret.”
“Master Tririn know it, too?”
“Again, most likely.”
I grimaced. In other words, whether Kennrick had locked the compartment or not, way too many people knew where to find the key.
“But Logra Emikai was the one we caught in the baggage car,” Bayta pointed out. “How would he have known where the ticket was?”
“Logra Emikai had Master Colix’s ticket?” the Modhri asked, sounding confused.
“Possibly,” I said. “We ran into him poking around the bodies a couple of days after the first deaths. He may have been returning the ticket, or he may have been up to something else he didn’t want to get caught at. No chance you were still hanging around the morgue, I suppose?”
Qiddicoj shook his head. “Both Master Colix’s and di-Master Strinni’s colonies were dead soon after their bodies were taken there,” the Modhri said. “Yet you told me Logra Emikai was not connected to the murders.”
“I said that was my gut feeling,” I corrected. “But that was largely based on the fact that I didn’t have a motive for him, barring some deep, dark connection with either the victims or Pellorian Medical that we didn’t know about. Now that we know there’s at least a tenuous connection between him and Witherspoon via Terese, I may have to put him back on the list.”
“At least as an accomplice,” Bayta murmured. “He couldn’t have created last night’s situation by himself.”
“Agreed,” I said. “All that having been said, he still doesn’t feel right for the job.”
“I had hoped for more from you than mere intuition,” the Modhri said with a hint of disapproval.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get more,” I said, standing up. “Thank you for your assistance. We’ll be in touch.”
Qiddicoj nodded. “If I can be of further assistance, merely ask.”
“I will,” I said. “One other thing. One of your walkers shares a car with the three Fillies on the contract team. Have you seen any of them disappear for long periods, or head back toward third class?”
“No,” the Modhri said without hesitation. “They leave for meals and hygienic needs, but that’s all. All other time is spent sleeping, reading, or playing games together.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Good afternoon, Modhri.”
“Good afternoon, Compton.” Qiddicoj took an extra-deep breath, and the skin of his face tightened subtly as the Modhri disappeared back under his rock.
Bayta and I returned our borrowed chairs to their original places, then headed forward toward our compartments. “There, now,” I said as we passed through the vestibule into the next car. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“He’s a monster,” Bayta said shortly.
“That he is,” I agreed. “But sometimes in investigative work you have to deal with one monster in order to bring down another.”
She was silent another half coach length. “Did we at least learn anything useful?” she asked at last.
“Oh, yes,” I said softly. “For starters, we learned that Kennrick lied to us. Let’s go find out why.”
EIGHTEEN
Kennrick was right where I’d expected to find him: sitting in the bar in earnest conversation with Asantra Muzzfor. Both of them looked up as Bayta and I approached, and neither looked especially happy to see us. “Compton,” Kennrick greeted me perfunctorily as we got within conversation distance. “Sorry, but this is a private meeting.”
“This’ll only take a minute,” I promised. “I just want to know why you lied to me.”
That got his full attention. “What?” he asked, frowning. “When?”
“Perhaps we should step out into the corridor for a moment?” I suggested, inclining my head microscopically toward Muzzfor.
“No,” Muzzfor said firmly. “I wish to hear this. Bring a chair for yourself and your companion, Mr. Compton.”
I raised my eyebrows at Kennrick. “Kennrick?”
“Go ahead,” he said firmly. “Whatever you think you’ve found, I can already tell you there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
I pulled over a pair of chairs from an unoccupied table nearby. Kennrick shifted his seat toward Muzzfor to give us room, and Bayta and I crowded in across from them. “I’ve been told you had a meeting with Master Colix the night he died,” I said without preamble. “I was wondering why you never mentioned that.”
“I did,” Kennrick said. “I told you I was there that afternoon to—”
“Not the afternoon meeting,” I interrupted him. “Later, after dinner, when you swapped out his keepsake blanket and his lozenges.”
A muscle in Kennrick’s cheek tightened. “Oh,” he said. “That meeting.”
“Yes, that meeting,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell us about it?”
Kennrick seemed to wilt a little in his seat. “Because I’d been ordered to stay away from him and the other Shorshians.”
I flicked a glance at Muzzfor. He was watching Kennrick, his expression set in that neutral mask so beloved by prosecutors eyeing potential witnesses, or lions checking out a herd of elk. “Ordered by whom?” I asked.
“Usantra Givvrac,” Kennrick said. “He thought I was spending too much time back in third and told me to give it a rest.”
“Were you?” I asked. “Spending too much time back there, I mean?”
Kennrick looked sideways at Muzzfor. “I didn’t think so,” he said. “Others obviously had different opinions.”
“You also spent a great deal of time with them aboard the torchliner from Earth,” Muzzfor said.
“But not because I was trying to influence their votes,” Kennrick insisted. “I just happen to like Shorshians, that’s all. And Shorshic food, too. It was just natural that the five of us liked to spend time together.”
“Especially on the torchliner, where there aren’t any travel-class barriers between passengers?” I asked.
“Exactly,” Kennrick said, looking back at me. “I was just trying to keep up those friendships here, that’s all.”
“To the point of defying Usantra Givvrac’s orders about staying away from them?”
Kennrick grimaced. “The only reason I went back there was to tell Master Colix why I wouldn’t be able to share the halfway-celebration meal with them,” he said. “It didn’t seem right to just disappear without explanation.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing, because I didn’t tell him,” Kennrick said. “When I got there he wasn’t feeling well, and I decided it wasn’t the time to drop this on him, too.” He winced. “If I’d realized he was dying …anyway, I got his blanket down for him and put his lozenge bag in its place, and said good night.”
“Did you lock the upper compartment before you returned his ticket to him?” I asked.
“Of course.” Abruptly, Kennrick’s eyes widened. “I’ll be damned. Logra Emikai!”
“What about him?” I asked.
“His locksmith’s bypass mimic,” Kennrick said, his eyes darkening with anger. “He’s the one who sneaked in and stole Master Colix’s lozenges.”
“Interesting thought,” I said. “Why would he do that?”
“How should I know?” Kennrick growled. “The point is that no one had to have Master Colix’s ticket to get in there.”