Read Online Stealing the Elf-King's Roses: The Author's Cut by Diane Duane - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Diane Duane
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little voice. “I don’t think he even brushed the suit down when it got stuff on it—just shook it off.”
“Sounds like a gold mine for you, Stella,” Gelert said.
“More like a mudhole,” she said, and vanished behind the partition again. “It’s going to take hours to classify it all.”
Telinu pushed his chair back a little from his desk, stretched his arms above his head. “You have a chance to look at our raw findings yet?” Lee said.
Telinu shook his head. “I had a look ten, fifteen minutes ago, but the system hadn’t processed them through. Things are running slow today.”
“Well, there was definitely another Alfen at the murder scene,” Lee said. “I saw him, and Gel smelled him…at least a witness, if not otherwise involved. This might possibly have come from his suit.”
“Let me know if the interviewing makes it sound that way,” Telinu said. “I’d be glad of whatever psych corroboration we can get, because there is simply too much physical evidence on this body. Stelladella wasn’t kidding about his coat: half the county’s plastered over it. Mikki is having to macro some of my custom search routines so that the system can start sorting and flagging some of the eight million samples the guys in the clean room have pulled off it already…”
“Alfen fiber, Tierran fiber, Earth fiber, Alfen hair, Alfen fur…” came a voice from the third cubicle.
Lee and Gelert walked around that way. “Fur?” Gelert said to the long lean silver-haired man who was sprawled in that cubicle’s seat, watching line after line after line of code scroll up the display plate in front of him.
“Somebody’s cat,” Mikki Uiviinen said, looking over his shoulder at Gelert. “God only knows where he picked it up, and the problem is that we’re going to have to figure it out.”
“Did you know we found the murder weapon?” Gelert said.
“Yes indeed,” Mikki said idly. “Good boy.”
Gelert stepped forward, leaned his head over sideways, and took Mikki’s upper arm gently between his jaws. “I invite you to restate that,” he said, grinning around the arm.
“You bite me, I’ll bleed on you, I swear,” Mikki said, not moving. “Okay. Good ‘mancer .”
“Woof woof,” Gelert said dryly, and let him go.
“How come his report gets up here before mine does?” Lee said, slightly aggrieved.
“Because the weapon did,” Telinu said. “The eternal victory of the material over the immaterial, Lee. Sorry. Three sets of prints so far, they say in the clean room. One is Alfen: the characteristic double whorls and ‘barred spirals’ are clearly present. Ballistics is standing in line behind the dusters to get its hands on the weapon for barrel and muzzle work. Metallurgy has already pulled a sample for the registration.”
“Okay,” Lee said, breathing out. “Good.”
“So this isn’t just some mugging, you think,” Mikki said.
“No,” Lee and Gelert said in unison.
“Robbery?”
“No one touched the body after it fell,” Gelert said. “The assailant took off down the street, ran a few blocks down, a few blocks over, ditched the gun, ran some more, then caught a bus.”
“He wait long?”
“Not too long,” Gelert said. “It suggests that the murderer may have known the timing of the bus…”
“It also suggests that someone else might have been operating to make sure that dil’Sorden was in the right place at around the right time,” Lee said.
The others looked at her. She shook her head. “Conjecture,” she said. “I have interviewing to do yet. We’ll see if the facts support the theory.”
“Revenge? Retaliation for something going wrong?” said Mikki.
“Nonpayment for drugs?” Stella said. “Or a gambling debt?”
“Not enough data,” Gelert said. “We’re a ways off motivation yet. But I’m glad there’s at least some physical evidence supporting the idea that this was a joint Alfen-human job. Perceptual evidence may stand on
“Sounds like a gold mine for you, Stella,” Gelert said.
“More like a mudhole,” she said, and vanished behind the partition again. “It’s going to take hours to classify it all.”
Telinu pushed his chair back a little from his desk, stretched his arms above his head. “You have a chance to look at our raw findings yet?” Lee said.
Telinu shook his head. “I had a look ten, fifteen minutes ago, but the system hadn’t processed them through. Things are running slow today.”
“Well, there was definitely another Alfen at the murder scene,” Lee said. “I saw him, and Gel smelled him…at least a witness, if not otherwise involved. This might possibly have come from his suit.”
“Let me know if the interviewing makes it sound that way,” Telinu said. “I’d be glad of whatever psych corroboration we can get, because there is simply too much physical evidence on this body. Stelladella wasn’t kidding about his coat: half the county’s plastered over it. Mikki is having to macro some of my custom search routines so that the system can start sorting and flagging some of the eight million samples the guys in the clean room have pulled off it already…”
“Alfen fiber, Tierran fiber, Earth fiber, Alfen hair, Alfen fur…” came a voice from the third cubicle.
Lee and Gelert walked around that way. “Fur?” Gelert said to the long lean silver-haired man who was sprawled in that cubicle’s seat, watching line after line after line of code scroll up the display plate in front of him.
“Somebody’s cat,” Mikki Uiviinen said, looking over his shoulder at Gelert. “God only knows where he picked it up, and the problem is that we’re going to have to figure it out.”
“Did you know we found the murder weapon?” Gelert said.
“Yes indeed,” Mikki said idly. “Good boy.”
Gelert stepped forward, leaned his head over sideways, and took Mikki’s upper arm gently between his jaws. “I invite you to restate that,” he said, grinning around the arm.
“You bite me, I’ll bleed on you, I swear,” Mikki said, not moving. “Okay. Good ‘mancer .”
“Woof woof,” Gelert said dryly, and let him go.
“How come his report gets up here before mine does?” Lee said, slightly aggrieved.
“Because the weapon did,” Telinu said. “The eternal victory of the material over the immaterial, Lee. Sorry. Three sets of prints so far, they say in the clean room. One is Alfen: the characteristic double whorls and ‘barred spirals’ are clearly present. Ballistics is standing in line behind the dusters to get its hands on the weapon for barrel and muzzle work. Metallurgy has already pulled a sample for the registration.”
“Okay,” Lee said, breathing out. “Good.”
“So this isn’t just some mugging, you think,” Mikki said.
“No,” Lee and Gelert said in unison.
“Robbery?”
“No one touched the body after it fell,” Gelert said. “The assailant took off down the street, ran a few blocks down, a few blocks over, ditched the gun, ran some more, then caught a bus.”
“He wait long?”
“Not too long,” Gelert said. “It suggests that the murderer may have known the timing of the bus…”
“It also suggests that someone else might have been operating to make sure that dil’Sorden was in the right place at around the right time,” Lee said.
The others looked at her. She shook her head. “Conjecture,” she said. “I have interviewing to do yet. We’ll see if the facts support the theory.”
“Revenge? Retaliation for something going wrong?” said Mikki.
“Nonpayment for drugs?” Stella said. “Or a gambling debt?”
“Not enough data,” Gelert said. “We’re a ways off motivation yet. But I’m glad there’s at least some physical evidence supporting the idea that this was a joint Alfen-human job. Perceptual evidence may stand on
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