The Domino Pattern

had those ten kilos on me. and he was perfectly capable of backing out of his verbal agreement if he chose to do so.

But he didn’t. Apparently, he was smart enough to realize that someone who had just showed my brand of restraint in round one was likely to have more painful options available for round two. Stepping to the side, he gestured me back into the dining area.

Terese was still standing by the bar, her mouth hanging slightly open. Apparently, she hadn’t expected her white knight to be vanquished quite so easily.

Which meant she’d had some expectations to begin with, either about me or about the Filly. I tucked away that little bit of data for future consideration. “Hello, Ms. German,” I said, nodding politely as I came up to her. “Remember me?”

She clamped her mouth closed. “What do you want?”

“The answers to a few questions,” I said. “A very few questions.” I gestured her to one of the bar stools. “Have a seat?”

Reluctantly, she plopped down on the stool. I took the next one and sat down facing her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Bayta and Kennrick had now come into the dining area and were watching us from across the room. “I heard a rumor that Master Colix might have brought along some private snacks,” I said. “Did you notice him with anything like that?”

Terese shrugged. “He might have had something.”

“Were they in a bag?” I asked. “A nice box? A tube dispenser?”

“It was a dark brown bag,” she said. “Small, like a meal from a quick-food spot. But I don’t know where it came from.” She gave a flip of her fingertips that somehow managed to take in the entire room. “He could even have gotten it from here, for all I know.”

“We can check on that,” I said. “Did you notice anything specific about the bag or its contents, anything about how either looked? Or were there any strange aromas that might have caught your attention?”

She shook her head. “Like I said, I didn’t really pay much attention to him.”

“So who should I be talking to about this?”

“The Juri on his other side,” she said. “The two of them were jabbering all the time.” She wrinkled her nose. “It was like bad Chinese or something.”

That was actually a pretty fair description of how Juric sounded. “You said he showed you holos of his family?”

“Once,” she said. “Mostly, he just talked about his job.”

I nodded. “How was Master Colix’s English, by the way? I’m told he was trying to brush up on his language skills.”

She wrinkled her nose again. “He still had a long way to go.”

“But you could understand him?”

“As much as I wanted to. Look, can I go now?”

“Sure,” I said, gesturing her toward the exit. “You know, you really ought to see a doctor about that stomach of yours.”

That got me another glare as she slid off her stool. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “It’s not contagious, it that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Not really,” I said as she turned away and took a step toward the archway. “I’m sure Dr. Witherspoon would have said something to the Spiders it you were.”

Even with her back to me, I could see her reaction to Witherspoon’s name. “Who?” she asked, stopping but not turning around.

“Dr. Witherspoon,” I repeated. “The man you had dinner with last night.”

“I didn’t have dinner with him,” she said, still keeping her face away from me. “I was eating by myself and he came over and sat down.”

“And you immediately told him to take a hike, right?”

She hesitated, and I could see the tension in her shoulders as she tried to guess how much I knew, and therefore how much bending of the truth she could get away with. “He might have stayed for a few minutes,” she conceded. “He said he’d noticed my stomach problem and wanted to ask me about it.”

“What did you tell him?”

She gave me an oblique look over her shoulder. “Can I leave now?”

“I already said you could,” I said. “Thanks for your cooperation.”

She might have expelled a sarcastic snort as she strode off, but with the dining car’s acoustics I couldn’t tell for sure. She glared at the Filly who she’d sent to stop me, strode past Bayta and Kennrick without a glance at either of them, and headed back down the corridor toward her car.

“Well, that was interesting,” Kennrick commented as he and Bayta joined me at the bar. “What exactly did you say to her there at the end?”

“I take it there was a reaction?” I asked.

“Oh, a beaut,” Kennrick assured me. “What did you say?”

For a moment I considered not telling him. But he’d already heard the Nemut mention that Terese had met a white-haired Human over dinner, and it wouldn’t take much of a deductive leap on his part to tag Witherspoon for the part. “I asked about her dinner with Dr. Witherspoon,” I said.

“Really,” Kennrick said. “And?”

“She denied it was an actual dinner,” I said. “According to her, he just dropped by to see how she was feeling.”

Kennrick grunted. “Did you get anything about her sickness?”

“Not a whisper,” I said. “I wonder if you could do me a favor.”

He cocked an eyebrow, possibly noting the irony of a former Westali agent asking a former fugitive for help, But if he was tempted to make a comment to that effect, he managed to resist it. “Shoot.” he invited.

“I want you to track down Dr. Witherspoon,” I said. “Find out what the symptoms are of heavy-metal poisoning in Humans.”

Kennrick looked at the archway where Terese had just exited. “You think she’s the one who poisoned them?”

“No idea,” I said. “But she seems to be the only one who was in the victims’ immediate vicinity who’s also noticeably ill.”

“Yes, but her?” Kennrick persisted. “She doesn’t exactly have that icy killer look about her.”

“Not very many icy killers do,” I said. “Maybe her stomach trouble has nothing to do with this. But if it does, I’d like to find it out before someone else joins the choir invisible.”

“Point,” Kennrick said heavily. “Any idea where Witherspoon might be?”

I looked at Bayta. “His seat is two cars back from Ms. German’s,” she said. “I don’t know it he’s there, though.”

“But there are only fifteen third-class cars,” I added helpfully. “He has to be there somewhere.”

“Thanks,” Kennrick growled. “If and when I find him, where will you be?”

“In my bed.” I said, yawning widely. “I’m still way too short on sleep.”

“I know the feeling,” Kennrick said. “Talk to you later.” With a nod at Bayta, he left the dining area and headed toward the rear of the train.

“Do you want me to see if the Spiders can locate Dr. Witherspoon?” Bayta asked.

“Even if they could, I’d just as soon have Kennrick wander around on his own for awhile.” I said. “I know he’s worried about his precious contract team, but I don’t especially like having him underfoot. How’s the disassembly of the air filter system going?”

“Slowly,” Bayta said. “I don’t think one of these has ever been taken apart while the train was in motion, and the mites are having to figure it out as they go. Do you think Ms. German is the killer?”

“My first impression is no,” I said. “But I’m not ready to write anyone off the suspect list quite yet. She’s certainly had enough access to the victims over the past two weeks. And she’s definitely hiding something.”

Bayta looked at the archway. “Do you suppose she could be running away from home?”