"Dave, thanks so much! How much do I owe you?"
"I'll let you know. And the other thing you asked about, I organised that too."
Harriet nodded her thanks. "I really appreciate it. Anything you want, just ask."
"There is one thing." Birch hesitated. "You're about to debrief, right?"
"Sure. I've got to tell Bernie everything that's been going on." Harriet grinned. "Well, almost everything."
"Can I sit in?"
Harriet's eyebrows rose. "That's your payment? Half an hour of Bernie tutting and telling me and Alice off?"
"I miss the old days," said Birch. "The tough captain running the show, the officers joking around … and then the part where the detective paces back and forth, telling all the suspects how it really went down."
"Did you just say 'went down'?"
"Hey, I'm hip with the kids, you know."
"Yeah, don't do that." Harriet spread her hands. "But sure, of course you can sit in."
"Bernie won't object?"
"You saved her from Foster. She wouldn't object if you painted her orange and used her as a bollard."
"Excellent." Birch put the sheaf of pages down. "Lead on, Officer Walsh."
— ♦ —
When they reached the staff room Alice and Bernie were sitting together at one of the tables.
"Are you certain?" Bernie was asking her.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Alice noticed Harriet and Birch. "You won't say anything?"
"Of course not," said Bernie.
"About what?" asked Harriet.
They both looked around. "Nothing that concerns you," said Bernie. "Not yet, at least."
Harriet tossed Alice a chocolate bar, and got a nod of thanks in return. "Is everything okay?"
"Certainly. And if you have quite finished throwing food around, I wish to start the debrief."
"No problem. Oh yeah, Dave's sitting in."
"An excellent idea. As an experienced officer, he can point out any mistakes you two have made."
"That's not quite …" began Harriet.
"Now, you will recount your version of events."
Harriet stood at the head of the table, and Birch took a seat nearby. When everyone was ready, and Alice had finished noisily unwrapping her chocolate, Harriet began. She outlined the events on Vasquez briefly and accurately, while Bernie sat in silence, presumably recording everything. When Harriet got to Teresa's threat to kill them both, Bernie growled quietly, and when Harriet described the shot which had taken Teresa down, she could have sworn the robot muttered 'good riddance'.
"So Teresa just got greedy at the end?" asked Birch, who'd been following along, enthralled. "She saw the chance of a haul and took it?"
Harriet shook her head. "She was working with Smith from the start."
"What!" exclaimed Alice.
"She fed him information on the pair of us. But I think she always intended to double-cross him." Harriet looked around the table, seeing the surprised faces. Well, she had an even bigger surprise for them. "By the way, it wasn't Smith who broke into the apartment, it was Teresa."
The reaction was everything she expected. Birch looked stunned, Alice's jaw dropped and Bernie sat there like a piece of stone. "But why?" demanded Alice. "Smith had the box!"
"Yeah, but Teresa managed to get one of your hairs off the brush. Sure, it was my brush, but you're always losing your stuff and borrowing mine."
"That's true," admitted Alice. "The other day I forgot to put your toothbrush back, and I thought you'd notice for sure."
"Alice!" exclaimed Harriet.
"Oh, I didn't put it in my mouth. I needed it to clean something."
Harriet turned to Dave. "Can you organise another lock for me? I want something for the bathroom cabinet."
He hid a smile, and nodded.
"Anyway, speaking of locks. Teresa managed to open your uncle's box behind Smith's back. It must have been while she was aboard his ship, after the break-in, but before he abducted me at the spaceport. She discovered the photograph, dismissed it, and assumed there was something special about the box itself. But she couldn't just take it, because Smith would know immediately."
Alice's face cleared. "She asked me for that box, right after I got it open!"
"When you said no she knew she'd have to steal it, which is why she showed at the hotel the next morning and offered to fly us home, despite being badly wounded. Then, when we found out the truth about the photo, she switched plans and … well, you know the rest."
"Harriet, that's genius!" said Alice, her voice full of admiration.
"Well, it was easy once I worked out the bits and pieces."
"Not you. Teresa! What a plan!"
Harriet frowned at her. "We're supposed to lock criminals up, not applaud their efforts."
"You have to admit she's a pretty sharp customer. I mean, Smith's just a sledgehammer, but she's a stiletto. Shiny, deadly and slick."
"All right, that's enough of the hero worship."
"There's one thing I don't understand," said Birch. "You got to the storage locker, Teresa tried her double-cross, Harriet put her down … so what happened to the missing cargo?"
Harriet and Alice exchanged a glance. "The storage locker had one of those DNA locks on," said Harriet at last.
"It sort of went off," said Alice. "Everything in the locker just vanished."
"That is not acceptable," said Bernie. "You were both in charge of—"
Birch laid a hand on the robot's shoulder. "Bernie, think of the expense they just saved you. The cost of freighting this cargo to Dismolle could have run into the thousands."
The robot looked thoughtful.
"Not to mention the paperwork," said Birch. "Booking stuff into evidence, cataloguing everything, storage fees … it's a nightmare."
"I suppose there is that," said the robot. "But I am curious about the cargo itself. Did either of you find out what it was?"
"I'm sure we don't need to go into that now," said Birch. "They're not robots, Bernie. Just look at them … they're exhausted!"
"Very well. I will schedule a further debrief tomorrow. Are there any further matters to discuss?"
Birch raised his hand. "I have a question for Harriet, if I may?"
"Of course," said Bernie gravely.
"How come you're only a trainee? Why haven't you been promoted yet?"
Harriet reddened. "Thanks, but—"
"Well, it seems the debrief is over," said Bernie, interrupting her. She stood up.
