Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (18 page)

"It
might be easier if I helped."

"Oh,
right. I... thank you for the offer of the bed. I wasn't expecting kindness.
Being what I am, I mean."

Gwen
nodded once and then smiled, wondering what her face looked like. She probably
still had sleep wrinkles on it. Creases from the flat pillow and all that.

She
didn't speak about the idea, since really, she had no clue how looked down upon
the woman would be. She assumed it was pretty low down the pecking order, but
that was only a guess. For all she knew the woman was talking about her
bigotry. That... Probably wasn't it though. Not as popular and open as people
were about hating Westmorlands as they were here.

It
took a bit for the woman to get situated, and they didn't have light in the
room. Not even a glow lamp. That meant leaving the door open until the woman
scrambled into place, and then shutting it, plunging the whole room into pure
darkness. It sent a chill down her spine, and caused her to remember that
tentacles might be reaching for her at any moment. Nothing happened, and she
didn't let herself freak out. That fear was never simply too far from her mind
anymore. On the good side, if there was one, it was no worse in the dark than
the light. Not really.

She
had trouble going back to sleep now, but only because Clara the bigot did it
first and snored pretty loudly, considering she was a fairly trim looking
woman. Average for this world, so slightly heavier than Gwen or Beth was. Not
by a lot though. Back home the woman would have been below average weight even,
by about thirty pounds or more. So she wasn't
fat
, just slightly plush
for say, an actress or model. Maybe not for this world though. Gwen had a
strong suspicion that
she
was actually considered a little too skinny
for this place.

The
rest of the night was a bit restless, though she dozed, and only worried about
Clara killing her while she slept about six or seven times. The idea wasn't
that farfetched, since they were there to hunt down a killer. Everyone had to
be a suspect, didn't they? Even the slow seeming whore that rested above her,
making all that racket.

When
light finally worked through the window, she moved to the next chamber over,
knowing that Beth might not be up yet. Super-soldier or not, the woman did
not
like to get up early at all. That was fine really, since no one else was up
yet, but Gwen wanted to tell her about Clara being there first, instead of
having her walk in and assume that Gwen was being experimental or something.
Not that a Westmorland would have judged her for it if she had been, but the
idea still left her feeling uneasy.

They
hadn't gotten off on the right foot, exactly, had they?

Her
friend was awake however, and had a little mirror out already, putting makeup
on. Even in uniform they had to have some on, most of the time. It was a rule,
and more than that, going without would make people think less of them. She
could do her own, but didn't have a glass with her. She had brought her bags
into the space however, not leaving them even for a moment.

After
shutting the door, she waved back at it.

"I
found Clara, our bigot friend, dozing off in the sitting car last night, so I
let her use the top bunk. I told her to get her information about Westmorlands
from the source, so she may, or may not, ask you some questions later. I kind
of hope so. One less bigot in the world isn't a bad thing, right?" Digging
through her pack she pulled out her little makeup bag. It was the bare minimum
that she felt she could get away with for the trip. Some lip color, blush and
smoothing compound, as well as a single eye liner. Nothing for her lashes, and
only a brush and a hair tie for her hair.

Beth
had at least three times as much with her, Gwen saw. It was spread out on the
bunk next to her.

"Oh?
That's generous of you. Most wouldn't invite a woman with her profession to do
that. People will talk." She grinned though, rather than go into her
stuffy social mode. She did that a lot in private. "Now, did you notice
anything yesterday during our talks with the others?"

Gwen
pulled her pad out and looked at her notes, getting that Beth had, and was
going to tell her anyway, if she couldn't figure it out for herself.

"Um...
Well, not really. I mean, we have two people that could have been in on the
murders, but just being near them isn't the same as killing anyone. I suppose
we could beat confessions out of them, but if they aren't guilty that won't
stop the next round of things. Kind of hard on the knuckles too." Looking
at her hands, she realized that she'd have to find a stick, or something heavy
to do it with. Beating a person with a fist was a stupid thing to do, if you
had another option. It hurt, and that made it harder to keep going.

Bethany
was a detective by training, and, it turned out,
had
noticed a few
things that Gwen had glossed over all together.

"Carter
mentioned that he was alerted to the null magic effect
before
the first
known murder took place. He has family in the area, so that explains being told
about it, perhaps, but no other reports have reached us saying that such things
were going on before the first event." Beth kept working on her face, as
she spoke, looking only at the mirror, making deft and efficient hand gestures.
"We also have not one, but two men that deal with strong magics on the
train, having both been in place for each of the deaths. Carter hadn't mentioned
being questioned like Mr. Hadley had."

Gwen
blinked and then cleared a small patch on the heavy and slightly scratchy wool
blanket that was on the bottom cot.

"I
missed that. Is it that thing where some people get a pass on being questioned,
do you think? Or, was he interviewed and just didn't mention it?"

"Not
a clue, to tell the truth. Probably the first. A prominent researcher into
radiatives would be given special treatment, in a case like this. No one would
dare question such a person too closely, since odds are he's either already
from a prominent family, or will have such rank soon, by his own efforts. Most
can't afford University, so it would pay for Con-Sev or the local Constabulary
to be cautious there."

When
Beth finished, she reached for Gwen's makeup bag and patted her shoulder,
getting her to turn to face her, so that she could do the work on her face too.
It wasn't what they normally did, but it was a nice change. Gwen wasn't
horrible with that kind of thing, but Beth was better at it. Faster too.

It
meant not talking for nearly ten minutes, and when she did, the other woman
shushed her, with a soft smile. She wasn't done yet, after all.

Finally,
she got to speak freely.

"So,
tell me again why we aren't just having you read their minds while being
questioned? Is it because Carter might have had contact with Debussey or her
crew at the school? That's why I didn't ask who he'd taken Traditional Magics
from there, just in case that triggered him."

Beth
shook her head.

"Good
thinking, but no. We
technically
aren't allowed to do anything like that
yet, not being at the crime scene. As it is we'll need to go carefully into
this. People get uneasy when they think a Westmorland is going to be seeing
their thoughts, and unless we have a decent level of evidence to back up our
efforts in the first place, there might be trouble over the whole thing. We
nearly have enough for Carter and Mr. Hadley, I think. Not for Samuel the
porter however. Unless you have suspicions you haven't mentioned to me yet?
After all, if you do, then I can simply act under your direction. That gets
around a lot of problems pretty solidly."

She
packed the makeup away, leaving Gwen with nothing to do really.

"Well,
not honest ones. My take is that we should do it anyway, and only mention it if
we find something, but I guess there are laws and things that I don't know
about... Don't tell me what they are though, so that when I break them later, I
can claim ignorance. For now, I guess we need to just ask questions. Do you
think we should try and get something to eat? I haven't had much for a while
now." Her stomach didn't growl, but Beth's did, at the mere mention of
food.

"Are
you buying? Normally I'd suggest we wait until we get in to the next station,
but we've been on the same schedule." It was one of those things that Beth
normally didn't mention, but Gwen had a lot more money than she did. A whole
lot more.

"Naturally.
We should pick up everyone else too I guess, and treat them to a meal. If it's
going to be that expensive. I want them thinking that they're all free and
clear of this, instead of our suspects. So try not to glare at them so much
this time. Make it seem like we were just being tired and grumpy
yesterday."

"We
weren't?"

Gwen
cleared her throat and then let her eyes cross, making a funny face.

"Well,
I
was, but you seemed like a hardened Westmorland, ready to kick
everyone's butts if they didn't toe the line."

"Why
would I do any of that?"

Gwen
knew that it was a language problem, and not that Beth hadn't been being strict
and a bit glaring on purpose. She just didn't get the references. For once Gwen
just didn't bother to explain. It wouldn't hurt for others to learn a little
about her way of speaking, after all.

"Why?
Because you're a hard, hard woman, Bethany Westmorland. Right now we need you
to be friendly, and at least seem soft. Let's see if we can get people around?
It's still pretty early."

That
didn't seem to be too hard of a problem, since most people hadn't needed to
sleep for nearly twelve hours like she had, and didn't want to on their hard
cots with their scratchy and questionable blankets any longer than nature
required them to. She was probably going to end up with pubic lice or something,
from the one that she'd been on the night before. Just thinking about it made
her scalp crawl and itch. She badly wanted a real bath or shower. Even one of
the shockingly high powered things they used here, if that was all she could
get.

Covertly
she scratched at the back of her head, but Bethany didn't, just making certain
everything was packed up.

"We
have these rooms for the whole trip, but you mentioned keeping our things with
us the whole time?" Beth didn't sound like she was disapproving, but
looked at Gwen's bags, which she'd carried just to go to the next room. She
hadn't taken them to the bathroom the night before however, leaving them locked
inside her space. That was probably a bad idea, because in a set up like this,
half a dozen people might well have keys to it.

She
was going to have to do a lot better.

"Yeah."

Bethany
managed to get everyone around fairly simply, by stepping out into the hallway
and walking toward the front of the car, poking her head into the next one and
calling out softly. Gwen didn't hear the words, but not ten seconds later there
was a man dressed like a porter there. One that she didn't recognize at all. He
was white, and older, but still had a fit look to him, like Sam did.

Too
muscular for men that just handled bags every now and then. Like athletes, or
fighters. Ex-military, probably, she guessed. Ones that worked hard to stay in
shape?

Her
friend explained things to the man quickly, which got his eyes to go a little
wide.

"Breakfast
is being provided by the Kingdom. Would you ask everyone to join us?" It
was a good thought, since that way no one would worry about who was paying for
things. Gwen could just pass one of the workers the cash, and it would be all
set. Men here could be a little picky about letting women pay for them, but if
Ferdinand was doing it, then there was no problem, right? Even if he didn't
know about it. The King probably didn't know about most of what was done in his
name, she bet.

She
tapped on the door to her own room, to give Clara some time to wake up, but
entered using her key anyway. It was her room and the woman was just sleeping,
so it wouldn't be like she was interrupting her doing something awkward. Gwen
hoped.

"Good
morning! We're headed to breakfast. The King is paying for everyone today, so
you should go. I don't know what they have here, but hopefully it's of better
quality than the beds." She felt bad, putting down the sleeping chambers,
but when you considered that a meal in a cafe was only about a dec, then paying
two decs per night, per person, was a lot. Rolling her eyes she realized that
she'd need to pay more too, for Clara. It could be worse though, and if it
helped the woman avoid being embarrassed, it was probably worth it.

It
was going to take the lady a bit to work herself around and change clothing.
Gwen was still in what she'd slept in, so took a few moments to change too,
being careful of her makeup. It was into a nearly identical outfit, but had
fewer wrinkles, which at least showed it was clean. Hopefully they could find a
laundry when they reached their layover town. That wouldn't be for two more
days though.

Certainly
that was enough time to figure out who was possibly involved in things, wasn't
it? The trick now, she knew, would be making sure they had the right person
before they held them down and started beating them. Otherwise they'd look bad,
and like they didn't have a clue what they were doing.