Perhaps his incapacity to remember was a blessing. The bits and pieces that came to him were bad enough. In those moments when he was being brutally honest with himself, he had to wonder if he really wanted to remember. As long as his memories remained lost, then he could deny, if only to himself that he was a killer.
Chapter 6
Matt stood facing the door. All he had to do was to walk through and it would be as though the last ten years hadn't happened. No, it wasn't as easy as that, no one could escape their past. He may have gotten his career back, but he had acquired some emotional baggage, and he still had one hell of a past to live down.
Matt had been in the room beyond only once before, to provide information to a detective concerning the trafficking of contraband tobacco. The room was filled wall to wall with computer, displays, monitors and terminals. It was nothing less than the nexus of all the data that ran through the colonies main frame. This time, he walked in under his own newly acquired authority.
“Welcome to the synapsis, Detective Dales.” Officer Perry rose from his seat and crossed the room with his hand held eagerly forward. Matt shook it. The young man waved his arms, sweeping around the room in pride. “If a secretary in Agro sector accesses her computer terminal or leaves work early, this is where the computer lights up.”
“Sit down Dales.” Detective Zimmerman indicated a chair beside hers; eyes never leaving the monitor. “We have work to do.”
“Thanks.” Matt sat.
“What we have here is a sexual assault.” Zimmerman punched a few buttons on the terminal and the large screen before him lit up. A standard police incident report came up. “Start reading.”
“Yes, ma’am.” It had occurred to Matt that not everyone would be happy about his promotion. Although the chief had done his best to discourage rumors, information was difficult to suppress. There was enough data concerning his past, and his condition to make most of the security officers keep him at hands length. He had long ago accepted that as fact. The new promotion did little to alleviate it. Matt turned and regarded at the display.
The top of the screen contained an image of Lori Holt. Directly below it was as short bio listing her as a clerical worker with SiChem. Other images revealed slight bruising and the medical records indicated vaginal trauma. A rape kit was positive for presence of semen, and there were traces of Fantasia in her bloodstream in large enough doses to cause temporary memory impairment.
“Don't call me ma'am.” Zimmerman said. “I'm a detective like you. Just with more seniority.”
“Understood, Detective.”
“Good.” She turned back to the monitor.
Matt knew that it was not going to be a harmonious partnership. That was acceptable. He liked it quiet.
He scrolled down the screen to Lori Holtz’s statement, scanning the report for the pertinent details. She got off work and went to get a drink at the TriNova, a trendy club near the executive quad. After a little dancing and two mixed drinks, she met a man who called himself Max. They had a drink together and the next thing she remembered was waking up in a deserted corridor half-naked with her clothing ripped and in a pile.
“Looks cut and dry.” Matt said. “So we find this Max and match the DNA.”
“This isn't Earth.” Detective Zimmerman said. “Here we have technology. Perry, access the city tracking system. Time coded twenty thirty yesterday. Lock on 13098.”
The younger officer pushed several buttons on her keyboard and the wall screen lit up. The screen was mostly dark with white lines showing building plans, filled with numbered dots. “Let me show you how we do it on Sirius.”
“Those are the signals sent out by the palm chips?”
“The city computer tracks us all at all times, the only catch is that you must have a person’s permission to track them, or a court order.” Zimmerman said. “In this case the incident report gives us the victim's permission to track her motions.”
“I could have used this in Dallas.”
“I'm sure. Pay attention to the red dot. That’s our victim. Perry, zoom in.” The image around the red dot grew so that a diagram of the room appeared. Around the red dot were several dozen blue dots moving around the outlines of furniture. Yes, there were several tables with dots around them and a long table that had to be the bar.”
“Why are we getting only numbers?”
“UN privacy rules. If we find cause to believe that a colonist has broken a law, we request a warrant to access that person’s identification.” Perry said.
“Accelerate feed by factor of ten.” Zimmerman ordered. The dots started to whirl around coming on and off screen. The computer, however, stayed fixed steadily on the red dot, Lori’s dot. Matt observed as dots advanced and withdrew, each time he wondered if the dot was 'Max'. A few times Lori's dot moved to an uncluttered area with another dot and moved erratically for a few moments then went back to her table.
Ultimately, a dot moved to the other side of her table, 34129. It remained for a time, moved to the bar, returned and then the two dots moved out of the room.
“Stay with her.” Zimmerman commanded. Perry typed a bit more and the red dot returned to the center of the screen while the lines surrounding her moved about. The two dots moved out of the building, her red dot was moving with increasing irregularity.
“Is she drunk?” Matt asked.
“Fantasia intoxication.” Zimmerman looked at Perry. “I need maximum zoom.”
The image increased until almost all Matt could see were the red dot, the blue dot and the lines indicating walls and walk way. The red dot continued to move erratically. The blue dot converged and both went into an alley. Then the dots moved around each other a bit, it appeared to Matt as though she were trying to escape. The blue dot obscured the red for a few moments and then deserted her, bearing back to the walkway. The red dot remained still.
“Do we have a camera view?” Matt asked.
“No, not in the alleys.” Perry said.
“Damn, now that would have been useful.”
Zimmerman said. “We got enough. He's ours. Officer Perry, send a recording of this and request a warrant for the identity of 34129, and a visual warrant of TriNova.” She twisted in her chair and considered Matt. “You get involved in your cases and you'll burn out.”
“Call it a habit. On Earth, if we didn’t get involved in our cases then it meant we just were not trying. Here I can see how that might be a flaw.” Matt said. “Now what?”
“We wait for the warrant then we investigate 'Max' and order his arrest.” Zimmerman informed him.
“It was never this easy back home.” Matt said. “It may take a while, but I could get used to it.”
“This is why there are no unsolved crimes here.” Officer Perry commented. “This system makes it impossible to get away with anything.”
“While you’re at it, request a Level Three contact web on 'Max' here.” Zimmerman said.
“Yes, Detective.” Perry turned to his monitor and started to file the appropriate paper work.
“How long does it take to get a warrant authorized?” Matt asked.
“Depends on how busy the council of judges is. Maybe an hour or two. They never say no. When the warrants come in we'll follow the web to the supplier and we'll get them both.”
“I don't know what to think. I knew the system was in place, but had no idea of how well it worked.” Matt commented.
“I have a one hundred percent conviction rate.” Zimmerman asked. “How was yours, back on Earth I mean?”
“You don't want to know. Even when we got them, they often got off on technicalities.”
“Not here. Everything is airtight before we make the arrest. Backed up by the city tracking system.”
“I'll try not to get bored.” Matt said.
“Requests filed detective.” Perry said. “We should have a response in an hour or so.”
“Well what do we do while we're waiting?” Matt said.
Officer Perry rose and turned. “I'm going to lunch. Say Soy has a new meat substitute hamburger, which is almost passable if you smother it in mustard. You want to come?”
Matt wasn't comfortable eating out. Restaurants were too busy, too many people. He never relished the experience. “I think I'll stay.”
“I'll stick to the cafeteria.” Detective Zimmerman said.
Matt was overcome with a sensation of deja vous. He was sure that he needed to go with the new detective, he just wasn’t sure why
. Psychic impression?
One thing was certain, however, when the feeling struck it paid to go with it. “Changed my mind. I'm in.”
“Good, a guinea pig.” The young officer waited at the doorway. Matt was a little slow getting up, but he followed.
Chapter 7
Say Soy! was a chain of restaurants that sprung up in the out world colonies promising superior tasting food within the restrictions of food type availability. Since every colony and space station had hydroponics gardens and soy crops, the bulk of the menu items were derived from those substances. In Sirius, as well as other outposts lucky enough to have fish and lizards, the menu was a bit more creative.
Matt had gotten food from the establishment before, although he commonly made a point of coming in between shifts when there wasn't much of a crowd. It was a place to grab some food to eat at home without garnering much attention so long as a person cared little for things like taste and texture. He and Officer Perry, however, arrived at the lunch rush. Matt took a deep breath and tried to envision the California surf as he plunged into the crowd.
“Fish sandwich, onion rings and a vanilla shake.” Matt ordered when he reached the front of the line. Perry had a soy burger, fries, and a banana shake. Matt had once tried their banana shakes; it was an experience not to repeat. Banana wasn't a flavor that blended well to artificial impersonation; the detective didn’t think that peach did either. He avoided both flavors when he could. Still, people like Perry didn't seem to mind the chemical aftertaste.
“There's a table over here.” Perry carried his tray toward an empty table in the center of the dining room.
“Let's eat outside.” Matt strode out to the patio. The meds were working, but sitting in a crowded room encircled by boisterous customers might just push the pills beyond their design capacity. Perry followed behind him as Matt found a table in the corner that faced the entire patio. He took the seat that permitted him the greatest field of vision.
“Good choice.” Perry said. “We can watch women walk past.”
“Yeah.” Matt took a sip from his shake. Humanity had been making decent artificial vanilla flavoring for decades, his shake was nearly indistinguishable from one on earth. He took a sip with assurance in its bland uniformity. “On earth, we were taught, as detectives to watch people.”
“That’s not creepy at all.”
“Yeah, maybe it was. But without the system we have here, it’s how the job got done.”
“So you like fish, huh?” Perry asked.
“I like things to be what they are.” Matt responded.
“I don't get it.” Perry took a bite of his soy hamburger.
“That's okay.” he tried his fish sandwich. It tasted exactly like the first one he ate, and everyone he'd ever ordered at Say Soy. That was the point. The food all tasted the same if you were on Mars or Sirius Primary. Computer processed food; not great, but edible.
“So I heard a rumor that you used to work with Chief Vanderhaar back on Earth.” Perry said.
“Yep.”
“What was he like?” Perry took a deep slurp.
“Is that why you asked me to lunch, to interrogate me?”
“Hey, look I was just curious. He arrived here and took over the position. The chief almost never changes policies or comes down on us. He stays in his office reading reports and occasionally hires someone. It makes it hard for us get to know him.” Perry continued. “I was just hoping you could shed some light.
“He was intelligent, ambitious and a good friend when I needed one the most.” Matt ate a couple of onion rings, luckily onions and flour grew on the station. He wasn't sure about the other ingredients, but the rings tasted just like they did on earth, the French fries too. It was good to have some things that connected people to the world they left behind. “We were partners, that's all.”
“Don't you dare!” The woman’s voice drew his attention in its familiarity. She stood abruptly and stepped away from a table in the center of the patio, and the large man who loomed over her with his arm poised to strike. As she turned to avoid the blow, Matt saw her face for the first time outside his dreams. Inside his dreams, her face was covered with blue and purple bruises.
“Stand down!” He flew out of his chair and toward the man, his hand on his side arm. “Unless you want to be pulled in for assault, I'd lower your hand.”
“What's up?” A mouth half full of soy burger did much to garble Perry’s words.
“Oh, yes officer. Sorry. She provoked me.” The man dropped his arm.
“You lying bastard.” she said. The man's hand went up reflexively.
“Back away now! I won't ask again.”
“I'd do as he says.” Perry's unexpected voice from behind started him. Matts sidearm was in his hand before he was aware he’d drawn in.
“No need for that.” The man lowered his massive arm and took a few steps back.
“I'm through with you.” He backed away.
“You got that right.” Matt’s dream woman said.
“Do you feel threatened?” Matt asked her.
“Pardon?” She brushed her curly brown hair out of her eyes.
“Do you feel that man poses a potential threat to you? I can take you to file a restraining order. It looks to me as you have cause.” Matt continued.
“Threatened by him.” She laughed.
“Tramp.” The large man burst, his face flushed red in anger.
“Oh is the big man threatened by Michael?” She said. “It was only lunch, and for the record. Michael is gay.”
Perry stepped toward the man, putting his sidearm back into his holster. “I have enough to bring you in for disturbing the peace and the threat of violence against another. So I'd leave quietly if I were you.”
“Yeah, okay. Not a problem.” he turned and plodded out, bumping a few customers on his way.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked.
“Yes, he didn't hit me.” She smiled. “I don't think he has it in him. He's an idiot, but a harmless one.”