Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey [61]
“You have proof of that?”
“I have an OPA guy that said as much.”
“On the record?”
“No,” Miller said. “It was informal.”
“And it tied into the Martian navy killing the Canterbury how?”
“She was on the Scopuli,” Miller said. “It was used as bait to stop the Canterbury. The thing is, you look at the broadcasts Holden makes, he talks about finding it with a Mars Navy beacon and no crew.”
“And you think there’s something in there that’ll help you?”
“Won’t know until I see it,” Miller said. “But if Julie wasn’t on that freighter, then someone had to take her off.”
Shaddid’s smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“And you would like to ask the Martian navy to please hand over whatever they got from Holden.”
“If he saw something on that boat, something that’ll give us an idea what happened to Julie and the other—”
“You aren’t thinking this through,” Shaddid said. “The Mars Navy killed the Canterbury. They did it to provoke a reaction from the Belt so they’d have an excuse to roll in and take us over. The only reason they’re ‘debriefing’ the survivors is so that no one could get to the poor bastards first. Holden and his crew are either dead or getting their minds cored out by Martian interrogation specialists right now.”
“We can’t be sure… ”
“And even if I could get a full record of what they said as each toenail got ripped off, it would do you exactly no good, Miller. The Martian navy isn’t going to ask about the Scopuli. They know good and well what happened to the crew. They planted the Scopuli.”
“Is that Star Helix’s official stand?” Miller asked. The words were barely out of his mouth before he saw they’d been a mistake. Shaddid’s face closed down like a light going out. Now that he’d said it, he saw the implied threat he’d just made.
“I’m just pointing out the source reliability issue,” Shaddid said. “You don’t go to the suspect and ask where they think you should look next. And the Juliette Mao retrieval isn’t your first priority.”
“I’m not saying it is,” Miller said, chagrined to hear the defensiveness in his voice.
“We have a board out there that’s full and getting fuller. Our first priorities are safety and continuity of services. If what you’re doing isn’t directly related to that, there are better things for you to be doing.”
“This war—”
“Isn’t our job,” Shaddid said. “Our job is Ceres. Get me a final report on Juliette Mao. I’ll send it through channels. We’ve done what we could.”
“I don’t think—”
“I do,” Shaddid said. “We’ve done what we could. Now stop being a pussy, get your ass out there, and catch bad guys. Detective.”
“Yes, Captain,” Miller said.
Muss was sitting at Miller’s desk when he got back to it, a cup in her hand that was either strong tea or weak coffee. She nodded toward his desktop monitor. On it, three Belters—two men and one woman—were coming out of a warehouse door, an orange plastic shipping container carried between them. Miller raised his eyebrows.
“Employed by an independent gas-hauling company. Nitrogen, oxygen. Basic atmospherics. Nothing exotic. Looks like they had the poor bastard in one of the company warehouses. I’ve sent forensics over to see if we can get any blood splatters for confirmation.”
“Good work,” Miller said.
Muss shrugged. Adequate work, she seemed to say.
“Where are the perps?” Miller asked.
“Shipped out yesterday,” she said. “Flight plan logs them as headed for Io.”
“Io?”
“Earth-Mars Coalition central,” Muss said. “Want to put any money on whether they actually show up there?”
“Sure,” Miller said. “I’ll lay you fifty that they don’t.”
Muss actually laughed.
“I’ve put them on the alert system,” she said. “Anyplace they land, the locals will have a heads-up and a tracking number for the Dos Santos thing.”
“So case closed,” Miller said.
“Chalk another one up for the good guys,” Muss agreed.
The rest of the day was hectic. Three assaults, two of them overtly political and one domestic. Muss and Miller cleared all three from the board before the end of shift. There would be more