He also didn’t tell her that the case studies were hers.
It wasn’t so much that he believed Stone – although, admittedly, Stone had never lied to him, and had helped him in a few close shaves, into the bargain – as much as it was that he wanted to prove to himself that Stone’s accusations weren’t true. It troubled him to think that an innocent Tabby might get undeservedly tarred with her uncle’s filthy brush. So he sat down at the desk in his bedroom and checked into VR, digging out as many of her records as he could legitimately access, all the way back to her police academy days.
Tabby Koch had done well at the police academy, there was no doubt about it. She was smart, and quick, and knew what she was doing – which wasn’t surprising, given who her uncle was. But in the end, you could do well in school and not so well on the street, and the real test for academy graduates was how they did on the street.
There had apparently been no question that Tabby would return to Sintar; several other sectors had made offers, but she had turned them all down. She had been in the class six months behind Nick’s, so she’d been on the beat around three-quarters of a year at this point.
Her first case had been under Inspector Ron Thomas. It had been labeled a suicide. Knowing Thomas’ predilections, Ashton dug a little deeper, pulling the forensics and coroner’s reports and studying them. The first thing he checked was the top-level coroner report, then he sat back in dismay.
IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF DEATH: A knife wound which penetrated the left ventricle of the heart.
DETAILS: Width of incision was between 1-2” and some 5-6” deep; rear wall of ventricle was fully penetrated and interior front wall was cut but not penetrated.
OTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: None.
OTHER ADDITIONAL INJURIES: Some bruising in the throat and clavicle region.
TIME OF ONSET: Approximately 10:20am.
TIME OF DEATH: Approximately 15 sec after onset.
LOCATION OF INJURY: Between the third and fourth ribs on the left posterior portion of the thoracic wall, immediately adjacent to the left scapula.
DESCRIBE HOW INJURY OCCURRED: Subject self-inflicted the injury.
MANNER OF DEATH: Suicide.
“Damn,” he muttered to himself, “that was blatant. What the hell did the guy do to deserve that?”
Another quick side search verified that the victim had been an employee of the principal weapons maker for the Imperial Marines. More importantly, he had been contacted by a member of the Empress’ Staff for information regarding the testing processes for some of those weapons.
“Oh. Well, that explains it,” Ashton all but snarled, face twisting in disgust and anger; he and Stone had had several very private discussions of how matters laid in Imperial City, the military situation being only one, especially after a minor disaster in one of the systems toward the Rim. “He probably blew a whistle, and they got him for it.”
Then he saw the evaluation that Inspector Thomas had written on Tabby, and the room spun as the blood seemed to leave his head.
The rookie Tabitha Koch was extremely helpful and caught on to the nature of my work very quickly. Unlike some recent recruits, who sometimes seemed to believe themselves detectives in their own rights, Officer Koch was smooth and polished, and did not try to explain away the crime scene, but did exactly as she was told with no demur and no complaints.
“Shit,” he whispered in dismay.
Several additional case studies produced similar results. Evidently Tabby was completely inured in her uncle’s ways, and content to go along with the flow and the corruption. Ashton felt sick to his stomach. He had been serious about Tabby, and had been thinking about whether or not to take their relationship more intimate, maybe even asking her to marry him. He would have invited her to meet his parents, but they had died when the house in which he’d grown up got struck by lightning and burned down overnight, shortly before he had graduated from the police academy; it had been the reason he had not gone back to Flanders to begin work.
Then a thought hit him.
She’s regularly working with Thomas, and I’m not, even though I’m supposed to be assigned to him. And she’s gotta know half the upper echelons, given who her uncle is. And her first come-on was really blatant. Fun, and sexy, but blatant. What if she was told to get my attention? What if she’s either spying on me, or trying to sway me to their way of doing things? SHIT!
“Hey, Pete?” he called then, standing and heading toward the living room. “You here?”
“Yeah, Nick. What’s up?” Stone asked, coming out of the kitchen with a beer.
“I need to ask you something…”
“…Yeah, Nick, that’s why I thought you needed to know,” Stone said, after Ashton had told him what he’d found, then explained his concern. “That’s exactly what I was afraid she was doing. Either way, spying or influencing, it ain’t good for you, man. Watch out for that chick.”
“Hell,” Ashton said with feeling. He had felt like they had something, something good, and now he found she had likely been fooling him the whole time. It hurt badly; he had trusted her, and it sure looked like she’d betrayed that trust from the beginning. Before, really, he thought, deeply pained. Her whole intent looks to have been to turn me, one way or another. Well, at least it explains why she never wanted to talk about her family. In a lot of respects. Let alone bring me home to meet ‘em.
“Hey, I’m
