Chapter Sixteen #2
The inspector nodded, and his partner recorded her report in his tech tab. The device would take what she said and produce a transcript.
“Besides the pullover mask, he wore a black jacket and a dark-gray shirt and pants. A Hyton 600 was tucked into the waistband.”
“How do you know it was a Hyton 600?” Nsia said.
“I know something about weapons. I was in the Earth military,” she replied.
“But he didn’t draw his weapon?”
“He went for it, but I got to mine first, and he reconsidered,” she said, and then regretted her cockiness.
She was the victim here, and she hadn’t used undue force against her assailant, but it would be better to not raise any suspicions about herself.
She needed to stay on the good side of local law enforcement.
“You’re carrying?” Nsia narrowed his eyes. “What do you have?”
“I have the appropriate permits,” she said, and named her two legal weapons, omitting the technically illegal one under her skirt, the one she’d used. Ruyn handed over her tech tab, and she opened the permit stamped by the Luturnan government and presented it Nsia.
The inspector scanned it, nodded, and returned the device. “Did he say anything?”
“He swore at me after I kicked him.” She frowned. A wisp of significance lurked beyond mental grasp.
“What is it?” the inspector asked.
She shook her head. “It’s gone.”
“Did you notice if anything is missing from the apartment?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to touch anything, so I did a quick look to verify no one else was in the apartment.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. You should have left and called for help elsewhere.”
Well, I was armed, she thought, but didn’t say it, preferring the focus not to be on her and her weaponry. “Seeing how the intruder ran away, and I was inside, it seemed safer to be inside,” she fabricated.
“Any idea how he got in?”
She shook her head. “My unit requires a palm scan to enter. Only me, Ruyn, and, I suppose, the superintendent, have access. The apartment was locked when I got home. There are cameras in the corridor.”
“What time did you arrive home?”
“Sixish. A little after.” She glanced at her tech tab. It was 7:10 now.
“The intruder was in the apartment with you how long?”
“A couple of minutes at most.”
“Okay. Puul, track down the superintendent and get a copy of the vid feed of the corridor and the building exits. Let’s find out when he entered the building, and when and how he broke into this unit. While you do that, I’ll document the crime scene.”
Great. My apartment is a crime scene.
“I’m on it.” Puul left.
“Was this your dinner?” Nsia gestured at the mess on the floor.
“Yes. Takeout from Mama Murta’s Café. I dropped it when he grabbed me.” Her stomach rumbled.
“Shame. I love that place. Best food in town,” he said, and then proceeded to record holograms of all the rooms. When he finished, he instructed her to try to determine if anything had been stolen.
She eyed the sitting area. There was nothing worth stealing, but the intruder had pulled the cushions off the sofa, pulled out empty drawers. Had he been searching for something? Or trying to make it look that way? “Nothing in this room,” she announced.
“Okay if I start putting this stuff back?” Ruyn said.
“Fine.” The inspector nodded and followed Michaela to the kitchen.
The intruder had tossed crockery from the cabinets and food from the cool-storage. He’d emptied a whole container of Earth java—her sole supply—onto the floor. He ought to get life without parole for that alone.
She picked up a couple of unopened, boxed food items and stowed them in cool-storage. This is what we’ll eat tonight now. The loss of Mama’s food counted as another felony offense. “Everything seems to be here,” she said.
She passed through the sitting area where Ruyn had managed to right the entire room. He’d activated the floor bot, which had cleaned up the dinner mess. “Thank you,” she said gratefully.
In the bedroom, while the inspector observed, she picked up her clothing and laid the articles on the bed, mentally inventorying her wardrobe. She’d hang the clothes later. “I can’t imagine he’d steal any of my clothes—unless he’s a cross-dresser,” she joked.
The inspector didn’t laugh.
“I don’t think he took anything,” she said, replacing the drawers into the dresser, and then scooping up her panties and bras and shoving them inside. The creep touched my underwear! Offense number three. Three strikes, and he’s out!
The bed had been stripped, the bedding tossed in a heap on the floor. Too bad he didn’t take the mattress with him when he left. I would have given him a hand hauling it out. She recalled the comfortable bed at the resort.
She stood, hands on her hips, as if taking stock of the situation, while wondering how she could check the lockbox under the inspector’s eagle eye.
Then his tech tab chimed. “I have to take this.” He stepped out of the room.
Saved by the bell.
She dropped to the floor and pulled the security case out from under the bed. She could tell from the weight—the lack thereof—it wasn’t good. She pressed her thumb to the reader, and the box popped open.
Empty. Like she’d guessed. “Shit!” she whispered.
“Anything taken?”
She nearly jumped out of her skin, but it was Ruyn.
“My weapons,” she said in a low voice. She gestured to the empty case then closed it and stowed it under the bed again.
“How did he get into the box?”
“I don’t know. How did he get in my apartment?” The intruder is no ordinary burglar.
“Are you going to tell the inspector about the missing weapons?”
Nsia’s voice rumbled from the sitting room, and, from the few words she caught, she surmised he was talking to Puul, who’d acquired the vid.
“Under the circumstances, I don’t think that’s a good idea.
” She kept an ear cocked. “I only have permits for the two weapons the intruder took.” She patted her thigh.
“This one is illegal on Luturna and twenty-nine other planets. If I report the theft of the permitted weapons, the inspector will demand to know what weapon I pulled on the intruder.”
“That would be problematic.”
She could be the one getting arrested. She heard Nsia end his conversation, so she gestured and they rejoined the inspector.
“Anything taken?” he asked.
“Not that I could tell,” she lied truthfully.
“Puul got a vid of the suspect.”
When Puul arrived, he plugged the data chip into the hologram platform and the vacant building lobby appeared. “Notice the time.” He pointed to the floating numbers.
“That’s about forty minutes before I got home,” she said.
Three seconds later, a man in black and dark gray entered the building.
He’d rolled the ski mask into a cap but walked with his head down to hide his face.
He knows he might be under surveillance.
He boarded the booster, getting off on her floor, and headed straight to her unit.
I wasn’t a random pick. He knew where he was going.
Outside her apartment, he pulled a handheld from his jacket pocket, shot a beam at the palm reader, and then pushed the door open.
“Shit!” she exclaimed. I’ll bet he used the same device to break into the lockbox.
“Now we jump ahead.” Puul pointed to the time.
In the vid, she and Ruyn entered the building about three quarters of an hour after the intruder.
They boarded the booster and strolled down their corridor, pausing outside his unit.
They kissed, he went into his unit, and she proceeded to hers, palmed in, and entered.
“Wait for it,” Puul said.
One minute and thirty-two seconds later, the door burst open, and the ski-masked man ran for the stairwell. Michaela stepped into the hall, watched him, and then returned inside.
She thanked her lucky stars the hall-cam angle didn’t give a clear view of the illegal weapon in her hand.
The hologram shifted to the man emerging from the stairwell into the lobby.
The ski mask had been rolled into a hat again.
Keeping his head down, he strode briskly out of the building.
His jacket pockets bulged more than they had when he’d entered the building.
My weapons. She glanced at the two detectives.
Did Nsia or Puul notice? They didn’t seem to.
The hologram winked out. Puul withdrew the chip. “We’ll get footage from street cams to track his movements and try to get an image of his face. With facial recognition software, we may be able to identify him,” Puul said.
“It looks like a simple breaking and entering, burglary gone wrong, but the fact you said he was armed kicks it to another level,” Nsia said. “Given that he fled, I don’t think he’ll come back, but do you have another place to stay?”
“She can stay with me,” Ruyn said.
“If he can zap his way into my apartment, he can zap his way into yours,” she pointed out.
“But I’ll be with you.”
“Fine.”
“Good,” Nsia said. “I’ll be in touch if we learn anything.”
The big if. She didn’t expect to hear from him. She walked the men to the door.
“Crime like this used to be almost unheard of on Luturna, but it’s becoming more frequent, I’m sorry to say,” Nsia said. They left.
“They seemed professional, but after the way the authorities botched the investigation in your attack, I’m not optimistic they’ll come up with anything. I’m going to ask for a copy of the hologram from the building superintendent so I can study it,” she said.
“Good plan.” Ruyn pulled her into his arms. “But not tonight, okay? Let’s go to my place, have a crappy frozen dinner, and curl up on our uncomfortable bed.”
She chuckled and relaxed, hugging him tight. “That sounds wonderful.”