team. Acquitted with a warning. Another time he'd gained access to the transit system and given himself priority routing and children's fare. Charged double back payments on his fares and five hundred hours community service. That was three years ago-he'd been clean ever since.
On a hunch, I punched up my desk from the beltcomp and did quick movement trace. Multiple hits-the pattern was clear. Jayce and Tanya traveled as a couple, starting three months ago. I scanned forward and found trouble in paradise-ten days with no visits. I called up the comm logs for the period. A few calls, all very short, then a long one. Right after that, the visits started again. They'd fought and made up. The fight started a week after Miranda arrived and she'd gone missing the day they got together again. I called up her comm logs and found long calls to both of them, starting her first day on station.
The facts suggested a scenario. Jayce and Tanya have a good thing going, then pretty Miranda shows up and gets in the middle. A week later they sort out the triangle and go out for a no-hard-feelings party, which goes bad. Someone kills Miranda and the other gets involved. They make up the dark Wunderlander as cover. It wasn't a perfect theory, but it was a start.
I stuck my head out the door and called Jayce over. He was tall and slender with dark hair and eyes and a Flatlander's blended facial features. I tapped record on my beltcomp and began.
'What can you tell me about the night Miranda disappeared?'
He shrugged. 'There just isn't that much to tell. We went to the Inferno after work like we always did. She was dancing with this Wunderlander. After a while they left together.'
'By 'we' you mean Miranda and you?'
'Miranda, Tay and I.' He was perfectly comfortable with his answer.
'You and Miss Koffman have been seeing each other for some time, is that correct?'
'Yes.'
'I understand you and she had a serious argument a couple of weeks ago.' I stated it as a fact.
He was taken aback. 'What do you mean?
I kept pushing. 'I mean that Miranda Holtzman precipitated a rift in your relationship. That gives you a motive for murder.'
The shock he displayed was genuine. I just didn't know if it was due to hidden guilt or injured innocence.
'What was your relationship with her?'
'She was our friend, that's all.'
'You didn't have an affair with Miranda which brought on a fight with Tay?'
'No.'
'Why did you go to the Inferno that night?'
'We just did. It wasn't unusual, we went fairly often.'
'The three of you.'
'Yes.'
'Did anyone else go with you?'
'There's a bunch of us who sometimes go out, friends of ours, but they didn't come that night.'
'Why not?'
'I don't know, just busy I guess.' He looked stricken as he said it. He felt he was digging himself in deeper with every word.
'So there's no one who can corroborate your story that she left before you.'
'Tanya can.'
I waved a hand dismissively. 'Anyone else?'
'Maybe the bartender.'
'But you don't know for sure.'
He put his head in his hands. 'No.'
I changed tack. 'What about this man she left with?'
He seized the question like a drowning man grabbing a straw. If I was asking it, I must believe his story. 'He was a Wunderlander, thick dark hair. He had a glowflow bodysuit, set to rainbow smears.'
'Had you seen him before?'
'Not that I recall.'
'Do you think he knew Miranda or that she knew him?'
He was anguished. 'I don't know, I wish I did. We just didn't know what was happening.' Then, almost to himself, he repeated, 'We just didn't know.'
He was devastated by the sudden loss. Perhaps he hadn't known Miranda that well but he'd been with her the night she was killed. It wasn't his fault but he felt responsible anyway. Survivor's guilt-or simple guilt. Either way, I wasn't going to learn anything more. The Goldskins would go over his statement and cross-check for inconsistencies. I just wanted a read on the first-pass prime suspects.
'You can go now, Mr. Vorden.'
'What?' He'd sunken into a reverie while I pondered.
'You're done. Thank you for your help.'
'Oh.' He seemed bemused for a couple of seconds, then gathered himself. 'Good luck, Captain.'
'Thanks,' I said, and I meant it. I hoped he did too.
After he left, I punched my beltcomp's audio log through to my desk. I've got a program that analyzes voice microtremors-sometimes it even works. My system told me that Jayce was telling the truth-mostly. He was hiding something about his relationship with Miranda. That concurred with my theory. There had been infidelity, a fight, a murder. I just needed the link.
I had Tanya sent in. She was petite for a Belter-my height. Her eyes were red and she dabbed at them with a handkerchief. In other circumstances she would be pretty.
'Come in, Miss Koffman. Please sit down,' I said in my best good-cop manner.
She sat, giving me a forced, trembling smile. She was barely holding herself together. If I pushed her, she'd go over the edge. At times like this it's a judgement call. Sometimes a little nudge brings an easy confession, sometimes it catalyzes uncrackable resolve.
And sometimes you're just adding pressure to a bystander already under emotional overload. Maintien le droit, the ARM motto cuts both ways. Tanya was a prime suspect. I would step softly, but I would find out what I needed to know.
'Look, I know you're upset. I just have a couple of questions for you, and then you can go.' I said it gently, coaxing. She nodded in response.
'Were you jealous of Miranda and Jayce?'
She didn't answer; she just shook her head, biting her lip.
'But they did… did sleep together?' I couldn't think of a more delicate way to put it.'
She nodded. Paydirt.
'That didn't make you jealous?'
She shook her head. 'We had a… you know… all three of us…” She collapsed into tears.
I hadn't been expecting that. I sat back, implications running through my brain while Tanya wept. No use questioning her further now, my theory was shot. I needed to reassess.
I sent her out and pulled up the transit logs again and cross-matched all three of them for Miranda's tube station. They'd both been spending nights in her apt. Far from causing a breakup, she'd been the hingepoint of a menage. Tanya and Jayce's transit pattern changed because they'd been spending their time at Miranda's. That didn't clear them but it reopened the question of motive. Miranda's file yielded another link. This was her second time on Tiamat. At sixteen she'd been on a six-month school exchange with FRCK1798-Koffman, Bris, Tanya's younger sister. That explained why Tanya was more upset than Jayce and where the spark for the expansion of their relationship had come from. And it told me what Jayce had been covering up about his relationship with Miranda. At least part of what he'd been covering up. The information also offered some good motive possibilities-jealousy now for Jayce instead of Tanya or an old grudge rekindled for her. Even so, my instincts were telling me that they weren't the culprits. I needed another angle.
After a while I got up and grabbed the tube back to my office. On the way, I thought about dossiers.
