Chapter 19
"Most of the time, killings don't make sense,” I said. “People behave irrationally. Crimes of passion. Not crimes of deep thought."
Wong smirked. "True.”
"If you hear anything, I trust you will let me know.”
"My loyalty is to the mission. Having a killer aboard disrupts that mission. Be assured, if I come across any evidence that may be helpful, you’ll be the first to know.”
I thanked him for his cooperation. David left us to get settled in.
Flynn joined us not long after he left. "This is some crazy shit, ain't it?"
"It's certainly unexpected," I said.
"I've only been down here three days, and I'm already going batshit crazy. No alcohol, all the women are married except for Dr. Hartwell, and she has this thing about patients." Flynn frowned. “But I'll tell you, Ross has some killer edibles.”
I just shook my head. Expecting Flynn to go 21 days clean and sober was a little much.
"What can you tell me about Weyland and Quinn?”
"Well, that's the scuttlebutt. But I try to keep my nose out of it.” Flynn made a face of envy. "She is a good-looking woman, I will say that.”
"Did you ever see Marston confront Weyland?”
Flynn’s mouth scrunched. “They had words yesterday in front of everybody. I thought they were going to come to blows.”
“So much for everybody getting along,” JD muttered.
“What was their spat about?”
“I don’t know,” Flynn said. “Something about supply issues. There was something Marston dropped the ball on.”
“Maybe the real fight was about something else,” Jack said in a knowing voice.
"Did you see anyone enter the engineering compartment prior to the accident?” I asked.
"No. But it's possible somebody went in there, tampered with the breaker, and bridged it, like you said. Then, when Weyland flipped it back on… bingo. It shorts and arcs, sending him across the room.”
"Where were you when all this happened?”
Flynn squinted at me. "You can't be serious?"
"I have to ask.”
"I was in my bunk." Then he muttered. "To tell you the truth, there's not a hell of a lot for me to do around here. I make personal vlogs and talk to people on the Internet. Go out on missions from time to time. But mostly, I'm here to have a good time and bring attention to this whole thing.”
"What about Ross?"
"What about him?”
"Word is Weyland was going to report him.”
Flynn dismissed the notion with a head shake. "Ross didn't kill Weyland. That guy doesn’t have a violent bone in his body.”
“You sure about that?”
“Talk to him, you’ll see.”
“Sometimes it’s the calm, quiet ones.”
Flynn shrugged. “I guess. But my money’s on Marston or Judy.”
We chatted with Flynn for a bit, then returned to the control room.
Tristan was on the main display, giving a pep talk to the troops.
He expressed his condolences and told them not to forget the purpose of the mission and the broader vision.
"We should all take an example from Judy in this dark time.
Her strength, courage, and perseverance to continue are the stuff of heroes.
If we ever hope to colonize other planets, it will take a legion of people with Judy's heart and spirit. "
Judy watched in tears, still in a daze.
After the communication ended, we found Quinn and asked her to join us in our compartment. When we were alone, I said, “Thanks for getting comms back online."
"Mission-critical.”
“I’ll get to the point," I said. "It's come to my attention that you and Commander Weyland were close.”
Her eyes narrowed. "Close? I mean, we’re all pretty close down here. No choice really.”
"That's not exactly what I mean."
"Come out and say it. What do you mean?” She knew where this was going.
"Were you having an affair with Commander Weyland?”
She chuckled and shook her head. "I see gossip gets around fast.”
"It sure does."
"These people can say whatever they want, but it doesn't make it true.
I love my husband, gentlemen. We have a great relationship.
Denver and I were just friends. We'd gotten to know each other over the last few years when Tristan brought us both on board in the developmental stages. He was a kind man with a dry sense of humor, and I will miss him. But no, we weren’t sleeping together.
" She thought about it for a moment. "I guess I can see how people would come to that conclusion.
We had a certain repartee. Don't get me wrong, he was a handsome man, and had I not been a married woman, who knows what would have happened?”
"How did your husband feel about your friendship?”
"Threatened. What man wouldn't be? Like I said, Weyland was the total package.”
"If it caused your husband such distress, why continue the friendship?”
"We worked together. What was I supposed to do, not talk to the man?“
"Some might say you openly flirted?”
"I'm married, not dead. Harmless interactions. Married colleagues flirt all the time.”
"I'm guessing your husband wasn't too fond of your flirting."
"Drove him crazy. Kept him on his toes. Let him know that I have options. If he wants to keep me around, he needs to pull his weight."
"What if it drove him mad, and madness drove him to murder?”
She gave me a dismissive look. "Please, that's ridiculous. Mitch did not kill Denver. The two were friends.”
"They got into a heated exchange yesterday.”
"All close relationships boil over at some point.”
"There's added stress in an environment like this,” I said. “Maybe that tipped the scale?”
“Mitch did not kill Denver because of my flirting."
“Maybe he believed the rumors and thought there was more going on than just flirting."
"Mitch isn’t stupid. It would be foolish for someone to kill somebody in the habitat.”
"Somebody did it anyway.”
"That's your working theory at the moment. But can you prove it?”
"Somebody sabotaged the breaker.”
"Never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence. Maybe somebody didn't know what the hell they were doing.”
"You're going to tell me that some of the smartest people in the field didn't understand the consequences of shorting a high-voltage circuit?"
"Newsflash, I don't know if you've noticed, but we’re all pretty specialized. Outside of our respective departments, we’re practically idiots."
She might have had a point.
“Look, if anybody wanted Denver dead, it’s Norrington.”
“Why is that?”