Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [83]
“You mean, do I plan to pursue this any further?”
“Yes. That is what I mean. Because I honestly don’t understand—can’t imagine—what happened. I’ve done a lot of research on Tripley and Kane. I mean, I’ve looked at everything that’s available. I just don’t believe either of them is capable of murder.”
“Those are my thoughts exactly.”
“So are you going to continue?”
“To the extent that I’m able.”
“Then I want you to be careful. Yoshi’s killer may still be out there.”
“After all these years?” She tried to sound skeptical.
“You have someone up there with you?”
“Yes,” she said. “A colleague. Solomon Hobbs.”
“Good. Stay close to him.”
Chepanga conducted a virtual interview that afternoon. He asked Kim to repeat her story in tedious detail. When she was finished he asked why she had become interested in the case. “End of the century,” she told him. “It got me reminiscing about the sister I’d lost.”
He had clearly hoped for more. He asked Solly whether he had anything to add.
Solly did not. “I was just trying to help a friend,” he said.
“How did she die?” Kim asked.
“Her neck was broken.”
“And what do you plan to do now?”
“We’ll conduct a thorough investigation, of course. Although we have to face the reality that it’s been a long time. A case of this nature—Well, we’ll do what we can.” He thanked her and blinked out.
“I think he’s telling us it’s over,” said Solly.
“He thinks Tripley did it, and Tripley’s dead. At least he’s legally dead.”
“Yeah, that’s my guess.” Solly fixed her with an odd look.
“What?” asked Kim.
“You promised Sheyel you’d press on. How do you go about pressing on?”
“I don’t know. There ought to be something we can do.” She still felt exhilarated after her derring-do in the river. Who’d have ever thought little Kimmy had that in her? “How about going out on the town?” she said.
“Absolutely.” He made drinks for them, swallowed his, excused himself, and went back to his bedroom. Minutes later he reappeared in a lemon-colored jacket. “The new me. What do you think?”
“Dazzling.”
“Bought it last week. For a special occasion.”
“Good. It should put us in the right frame of mind for taking the next step.”
“Us? How do you mean us?”
She canted her head and gazed steadily into his unblinking eyes. She was sending out a subliminal call for help and she knew it and Solly knew it. “I wouldn’t put any pressure on you, Solly,” she said.
“Of course not. And what,” he asked cautiously, “would the next step be?”
“To find out what happened to the relationship between Kane and Emily.”
They went to a show. Dancers, live music, a celebrity troop of singers, a comedian. The place was packed. Afterward they strolled along the skyways, enjoying the fountains and the bistros.
They stopped by the Top of the World for dinner. But they’d hardly been seated when a text message came in from Matt: We understand police found Amara’s body in Severin. Some of us are wondering how it happens that Institute personnel are involved.
“Some of us” translated to Philip Agostino, the onetime physics whiz who’d realized his tastes ran more to power than to science and who was now director of the Institute. “I suspect,” Solly said ominously, “there’ll be some fallout.”
After the experience in the river, trouble with her boss seemed of minor consequence. Kim ordered a bottle of wine far more expensive than she could afford, filled both glasses, and raised hers to Solly. “For all you’ve done,” she said.
Later, back in the hotel room, she looked again at the final conversation between Kane and Emily, as the Hunter approached Sky Harbor. The lights were dimmed in the pilot’s room, and they spoke in the casual manner of longtime colleagues.
“Thanks, Markis.”
“For what?”
“For getting us back. I know we put some pressure on you to continue the mission.”
“It’s okay. It’s what I would have expected.”
“As always, Markis, it was nice to spend time with you.”
She stopped it there, backed it up, went to get Solly, who was trying to read in another room, and reran the