Captivate (Manipulate, Book 2)

Chapter 23

The apartment was in an upscale Vel establishment. A large central courtyard complete with synchronized fountains and ornamental trees was surrounded by three levels of private dwellings. Basher easily guessed that the apartment they wanted was the one with two Tergre constables outside the door.

There appeared to have been no serious conflict in the front room. There were five dead bodies, however, and the smell was not good. They’d probably been dead at least forty-eight hours, though Basher would need more evidence to pin it down. He wasn’t a medical examiner, and he didn’t often deal with murder, so he’d have to ask the embassy physician to help him out. Three of the Rik were slumped in chairs, two seemed to have fallen off stools onto the floor.

“Poison?” Sam said. “It’s a Rik specialty.”

“Probably, but we’ll need to examine the bodies to find out.” Basher wrinkled his nose. There was a strong smell of old blood that didn’t seem entirely explained by the scene in front of him. He went on into the next room, and found the reason. Three more Rik lay dead in this room, and it clearly wasn’t poison. There were pools of dried blood underneath them, stab wounds, and clear signs of struggle.

Sam had followed him and he winced. He started to walk into the room, but Basher stopped him. “Hang on a second.”

Basher mentally cataloged the scene while taking pictures with his tablet, appreciating again that Sam was willing to do as he asked with a good attitude. He’d been pleasantly surprised to find that Sam consistently deferred to Basher’s judgment, even when it wasn’t a big deal.

“Thanks,” Basher said when he was done. “Let’s go on in, but try not to step on the blood, even where it’s dry - there may be hairs, footprints, or other evidence in it.”

Sam had a grim look on his face.

“Are you okay?”

“I met these people on the space station. Nat and I spent several days negotiating with them. Well, technically Senator Fontley was doing the negotiation, but he hates aliens so it was mostly us. It’s... stressful how the people I meet keep dying lately.” Sam gave a harsh laugh. “And I know that’s an incredibly self-centered way to look at it. But I do feel responsible, as I’m the one who made the treaty with the Rik in the first place.”

Basher grunted. “You can’t compare their deaths to your friends who died on Earth. These are just Rik.”

“Yeah, but to the rest of the galaxy we’re just humans.”

“But we didn’t kill anyone to be human.”

Sam nodded, but Basher wondered if he really grasped it. “Anyway, the deal you just negotiated with these people, does it still stand if the negotiators are all dead?”

Sam touched his glasses, indicating that Akemi was talking to him. “Akemi says yes. Our agreement about the moon colony has already been ratified by the Rik government. That’s good news, I suppose.”

Basher stared at him. “Do you still want to have a treaty with the Rik? I understand why you did it to begin with, but now? This violence would indicate that they were somehow involved in the sabotage that could’ve killed you.”

Sam grimaced. “The fact that they’re dead doesn’t prove they did the sabotage.”

“It doesn’t make them look strikingly innocent either.”

“You’re right. It doesn’t. But even if a few Rik did do this, that doesn’t mean the whole species is responsible.”

Basher shook his head. He and Sam weren’t going to agree on that any time soon.