Nightmare

attacked.'

'Technically they’re right about the odds,' Linus said. 'Less than one in three thousand.'

'Tell that to Mother Diane.' Ara shuddered. 'I certainly wouldn’t take the risk.'

'Let’s do the search,' Tan said. 'See what clue the killer left for us this time.'

Searching the cottage didn’t take long. Ara found six pairs of earrings lined up on Giday’s dresser and a thirteenth singleton broken in the wastebasket. 'It was probably fourteen earrings and the killer broke one to make a ‘set’ of thirteen so he could keep one and leave twelve.'

'Dorna’s a she,' Tan said. 'Unless there’s something the monastery medics don’t know about.'

'I don’t think it’s Dorna,' Ara said.

Linus Gray, who was carefully stowing the earrings in an evidence bag, gave her a hard look. 'Why not?'

'Call it a feeling,' Ara said. 'It’s just-it’s just-I don’t know. Out of character for her.'

'For Dorna, maybe,' Tan pointed out. 'But who knows about one of her alternates?'

'I just think we need to keep an open mind,' Ara said. She started to sit on Giday’s narrow bed, then stopped herself. The crime scene technicians might want to examine it.

Tan nodded. 'I agree. And you’re right-it’s possible Dorna didn’t do any of it. But the fact that she disappeared right after one of the murders says she’s got something to hide.'

'Which may not be connected to this case,' Ara said.

'And there are those nightmares about people dying in the Dream,' Tan said. 'Kendi mentioned her talking about them.'

'She’s not the only one,' Ara countered. 'I’ve had a few bad dreams myself.'

'And I found Giday’s blood on her sleeve,' said Tan.

'Someone could have planted it there,' Ara said. 'If I had chopped someone’s finger off and there was even the tiniest chance some of my victim’s blood got on me, I’d burn my clothes. I certainly wouldn’t hang them in my closet for the Guardians to find. And if I were afraid the Guardians were close to catching me, it’d be awful tempting to plant some phony evidence in the room of someone who had recently disappeared under mysterious circumstances.'

'Do you think Dorna’s dead somewhere?' Gray sealed the bag.

'I don’t know,' Ara said, worried. 'I hope not. But it’s a definite possibility. And what if she was murdered to keep her quiet about something?'

Tan put a gloved hand on Ara’s shoulder. 'Look, I don’t want it to be Dorna either. But she’s the obvious suspect right now and we have to talk to her even if her disappearance and the blood are completely innocent. Come on-let’s see if we can find anything else the killer left behind.'

This time it was Gray who noticed it-a music disk titled Thirteen Lucky Love Songs. 'The last song has been wiped,' he reported.

'All we’re doing is proving that the same killer got each one of them.' Ara tried to pace the miniature living room, then gave it up. There wasn’t enough room. 'This doesn’t give us any clues to who the killer is.'

'He-or she-will slip up eventually,' Tan said grimly. 'The nano-second that happens, we’ll nail the bastard.'

Ara’s gaze drifted about Giday’s living room. The denuded sofa seemed to mock her, a blot in the otherwise tidy house. It was the house of a woman bent on enjoying her vacation until at the last minute a lunatic had crushed her mind and destroyed her body. On the wall above the couch hung a lot of framed photographs and holograms interspersed with the occasional certificate of award.

'Has someone told her family?' Ara asked. 'I’m figuring she wasn’t married.'

'No, she wasn’t, and not yet,' Tan responded.

Ara got up and went over to investigate the certificates more closely. One of them was a commendation for outstanding work in multiple message transmission in the Dream. It was signed by one Tara Linnet, Manager for Dreamers, Inc. Ara blinked, her heart suddenly pounding.

'We’ve been stupid!' she almost shouted. 'God-completely stupid!'

Tan, who had been talking to Gray, jumped in surprise, then recovered herself. 'What are you talking about?'

'There!' Ara pointed to the certificate. 'Right there. We’ve been ignoring a potential lead.'

Gray stepped forward. 'In recognition for outstanding contribution and work in multiple message transmission,' he read. 'So?'

'Isn’t it obvious?' Ara said. 'Giday worked for Dreamers, Inc., before she came to the Children of Irfan. They’re a corporation that offers Silent communication for a price.'

'I’ve heard of them,' Tan said. 'What’s the big deal?'

'You said one of the problems with tracking down information about the killings on other planets is that there are so many law enforcement agencies that don’t talk to each other and compare notes,' Ara said. 'But what about the corporations?'

'Go on,' Tan rasped.

'Dreamers, Inc., has more employees than some governments have subjects. They’re not just multi- national-they’re multi-planetary. But for all that, they’re is still a single organization. It doesn’t matter if one branch falls under one government and a different branch falls under another-it’s still a single unit. And you can bet that if someone’s been killing their employees and chopping off their fingers, they’ll know about it. Why don’t we ask them?'

Tan looked excited for the first time since Ara had met her. 'You’re right! The corps can cut straight across police boundaries.'

'There’s Dreamers, Inc., and the Silent Partners,' Gray said, ticking off his fingers, 'and Silent Acquisitions-'

'Silent Acquisitions only deals in Silent slaves,' Ara said. 'They don’t hire out Silent.'

'Wonder if Dorna passed ever through them.' Tan toyed with her braid. 'The records that came with her were incomplete, and you can bet I checked.'

'That’s pretty common,' Ara said. 'I was the one who bought and freed her in the name of the Children, and the clearinghouse I found her in typically didn’t give anything but a short medical history. Previous owners were kept in strict confidence.'

'Why do they do that?' Gray wanted to know.

'Because sometimes people own slaves in places where slavery is illegal,' Ara replied. 'They keep the slaves ignorant this fact. It’s easier than you might think, especially if the slave doesn’t speak the local language. And a lot of slaves are abused until they acquire a slave mentality. It wouldn’t even occur to them to try escaping or to demand their release. It sometimes takes years of counseling to bring them out of it.'

A breeze wandered through the windows, making the curtains flutter. Ara thought she caught a whiff of decaying flesh and wondered if the shot Gray had given her was beginning to wear off.

'At any rate,' Tan said, 'we need to start checking with the corporations. The killer’s MO is unique, so they’ll probably have no trouble remembering it if they’ve seen it. Then we just find out if they ever owned someone named Dorna Saline, and-'

'That might not work,' Ara pointed out. 'It’s common for buyers to change the names of their new slaves. It reinforces the slave mentality-you don’t even own your name-and it muddies the trail if the purchase was illegal. Half the time the slaves themselves don’t know their owner’s real name or the name of the planet they lived on. Dorna, if she’s the killer, may have had a different name with every owner. For all I know, Dorna made up her current name. She was only listed as a lot number on the auction catalog.'

'You didn’t bother trying to check?' Gray asked.

Ara shrugged. 'Why should we? Like I said, the previous owner is kept anonymous, and we give our new people as much privacy as we can, since slaves have had so little of it. It means a lot to most of them, being able to choose their own name. Some keep their slave names as is or they change the spelling or pronunciation. Some use a name from their childhood. Others make up brand new ones. Kendi did that, I’m pretty sure. I have no idea what name he was born with, and I’ve never asked.'

Gray deflated a bit. 'How will checking with these corporations help us find Dorna’s hiding place?'

'It won’t,' Ara said. 'But right now we don’t have definitive proof that Dorna’s involved in the murders at all. If