Chapter 16
“Ross is not as well suited to this kind of organizational structure,” Judy said, dancing around the issue. “He’s not quite as focused or disciplined as Denver would have liked. Not to mention he brought contraband aboard the habitat.”
“What kind of contraband?" I asked.
"I know he brought marijuana aboard. I can't really speak to anything else." Anger tensed her jaw. "Look, we’re dealing with people's lives here. I don't think getting high is acceptable."
"That doesn't sound like a strong enough motive for murder," I said.
“No. But I think Denver was going to report him to Tristan and recommend that he not be a part of any future missions." With a frustrated frown, she said, "I'm not sure how much consideration Tristian would give it, considering he smokes his fair share of weed."
"How was your relationship with your husband?" I asked.
She blotted her weepy eyes and gave me an annoyed look. “My relationship with my husband was fantastic. How dare you insinuate otherwise?”
"I'm sorry. I wasn't insinuating anything. Just a routine question. I have to ask.”
Her cheeks reddened, and her jaw tightened. "My husband just died. Now you’re telling me someone may have killed him—someone aboard this habitat. Have a little tact."
"My apologies.” I figured it was best to give her space. “We may have more questions for you later.”
I left the compartment and found Chuck Trask.
He was an energetic guy. With all the money he was making, he had good reason to be.
His company had won numerous government contracts, and he was at the forefront of modern warfare.
We spoke in another private compartment.
He just shook his head and frowned when I asked him about Weyland.
"Such a shame. I think he would have made a great mission commander on any spaceflight. The guy was squared away. No doubt about it.”
"Can you think of anybody who might have wanted to kill him?"
Trask had a blank look. “I think everybody here respected his authority and felt comfortable with his leadership.”
"What about David Wong?
"What about him?”
“You feel confident with his leadership?”
"Well, considering I've only been under his leadership for a few hours, I really can't say. But I think he's fine to lead us the rest of the way on this mission.”
"It’s my understanding he wanted his own mission command.”
Trask gave me a dismissive look. "Doesn't everybody want career advancement? We all want to improve our station in life, don’t we? Move up the ladder. I don't see anything wrong with that. I spent a lot of time with David in the past few days. I can’t imagine he would do anything untoward. He respected Weyland as much as anybody else.”
“What about Judy?”
Trask considered it. “Spouses are always suspects, aren’t they?”
I nodded.
“Lord knows, my wife wants to kill me at times. She was glad to get me out of the house for almost a month.” Then he muttered.
“Probably so she can see her boyfriend.” He paused in thought, getting back on track.
“Who knows what goes on behind closed doors, but they looked like a happy couple to me.”
"Where were you at the time of the incident?”
"I believe I was in the main control room, as was David.”
"Did you see anybody go into the engineering compartment?”
Trask shook his head.
"Tell me about the tremors and HPNS that Weyland was suffering from.”
"I noticed it on the return to the habitat and again when we were in the main control room. We both said something to him on the mini-submersible, but I didn’t bring it up again after we returned to the habitat.
If it had kept up, I would have said something again.
Of course, Weyland dismissed it as nothing. ”
"Can you think of anybody who wanted to do Weyland harm?”
He frowned and thought about it for a moment.
"I really can't. I mean, we’d only been here a few days, but this seems to be a really good group. We're all getting along well. No major personality clashes that I can think of. I’m shocked by this. I can’t imagine what Judy is going through right now. "
"What about Ross? I've heard there might have been some tension between the two.”
Trask gave me a dumb look and shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of.”
"Have you heard or seen any evidence to support the idea that Blum may have brought drugs aboard?”
Trask hesitated, then leaned in and muttered, “You’re not really gonna gripe about a few edibles, are you?"
"I heard Weyland was thinking about reporting Ross for the infraction.”
Trask shrugged. “I hadn't heard anything about that." He considered it. "Then again, it wouldn't surprise me. Weyland was a by-the-book kind of guy, at least from what I knew of him. He wanted everything just so.”
"How was your relationship with him?"
Trask shrugged again. "We got along. As you know, we'd only been on this habitat for a few days. Not really enough time to develop an intense hatred for someone.” With a doubtful squint, he said, “Do you really think he was killed?”
"Somebody tampered with that breaker box. It's obvious.”
“Have you considered the fact that maybe somebody bridged the circuit in an attempt at a half-ass repair? I mean, you know how contractors are these days. How do we know it wasn't a builder issue?”
I shook my head dismissively. "This was deliberate."
"Fair enough," he said with an agreeable nod.
“I’ll have more questions, I’m sure.”
“Whatever you need,” Trask said with a smile.
As an afterthought, I said, "Oh, tell me about the mission on the mini-sub.”
"Not much to tell, really. Routine cable inspection. It's a lot of fun. Have you been in one of those things?”
I nodded. "Not this particular model, but I've been on my fair share of submarines and submersibles."
"It's like an alien world down here. So blessed to be on this adventure. I'm just sorry we’ve experienced something so tragic already. I mean, you know the danger when you sign up, but you never think something’s going to happen.
Least of all something like this. I hope this does not cut the mission short. "
"As far as Tristan is concerned, it's full speed ahead,” I said. “But that might change when he finds out we’re dealing with a homicide.”
Trask frowned.
I stepped back into the main control room and found Commander Wong. "I just have a few more questions for you."
"Certainly. Anything I can do to help. I am at your disposal.”