Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

“Are you a lawyer, too?” Legroeder asked.

“Most of a lawyer. I never took the planetary bar.” Morgan stared at her mother.

“You’re both missing the point,” said Harriet, “which is that we have an urgent need to gather this information, and I need to hear it for myself. And I’m probably better at digging for it than either of you. Now, the fact that I may well lose my legal license is neither of your concerns.”

Legroeder and Morgan exchanged glances. “Then I’m coming along to keep an eye on you, Mother,” said Morgan. “You might be smart, but you think you’re invincible, and you need someone to guard your back. And you’ll probably need some legal advice of your own, before you’re done.” With that, Morgan turned away and busied herself with the last of her work.

Harriet stood silent, frowning into space.

“If that’s settled, are you ready to gather up and head home?” Peter asked mildly.

By the time they reached Harriet’s house, they all realized that they were dead tired, and probably the best thing to do was get some rest. Legroeder tossed and turned on his bed in the little guest house for what seemed hours. The last thing he remembered thinking was that, having snatched Maris, his enemies were not likely to wait long before trying to snatch him, as well.

It was the middle of the night when he awoke from a dead sleep to a thumping on the door. He sat up with a start. “Who is it?” he demanded hoarsely.

“Peter. We need to see you in the house. Hurry, please.”

Legroeder let out the breath he’d been holding and pulled on his clothes. He stumbled across the lawn to the dining room door, rubbing his eyes. Everyone was gathered around the table, including the Fabri housekeeper, Vegas, who apparently had been roused to make coffee and was clucking unhappily as she offered some to Legroeder. “What’s going on?” he murmured, accepting a steaming cup.

Harriet gestured to him to sit. “I think Peter had better tell you.”

The Clendornan’s eyes were flickering like a thunderstorm. “I’ve just heard from a friend in the police department. They’re drawing up a warrant to bring you in on suspicion of murder. And since that business at the hospital, they’re moving even faster. They could be here within the hour.”

Legroeder’s head was spinning. “Just which murder do they think I’ve committed?”

“Two counts,” Peter said. “One—Robert McGinnis. The house has burned to the ground. The forcefield is still holding, but scanners have identified a human body in the rubble.”

Legroeder said nothing, but felt a sudden, fresh weight of sadness and regret.

“I’m sorry,” said Peter. “By the way, they’re considering arresting Harriet on that one, too.”

Legroeder looked up. “Why Harriet?” he asked Peter.

“Because she was with you, obviously. And it was she who put in the call about the fire. And she who stored McGinnis’s flyer. It didn’t take them long to find it.”

“But she didn’t identify herself when she called in the fire.”

“Which is a strike against her. The com had a transponder ID, and they’ve confirmed the voice recording. I might add that my friend indicated that the department is under some pressure from the outside to act against you.”

“The outside? Who on the outside?”

“He wouldn’t say.”

Legroeder sighed. “What else, then?”

“Your old friend Jakus Bark.”

Jesus . “They found him? How was he killed?”

Peter tipped his top-heavy Clendornan head. “They have not found him. But they did find a series of holo recordings, starting with the two of you arguing, then you skulking around in the back hallway of that hangar, and finally Jakus lying unconscious and bloody on the floor of the basement. Oh, and they found Jakus’s bloody cap, which indeed has oil traces from your hands on it.”

Legroeder stared at the PI. “But they don’t have a body?”

“No.”

“Then it’s all circumstantial, right?”

Peter gestured to Harriet, who was lost in thought. “Harriet?”

She looked up with a start. “What? Yes—but unfortunately, they probably have enough to bring you in. Under Fabri law, they don’t need a body, or even proof of a murder, to arrest you under suspicion. They have the circumstantial evidence, plus one piece of material evidence. It wouldn’t be enough for them to convict you—but they could hold you indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely?”

Harriet nodded.

Morgan, who had been sitting quietly at the end of the table, said, “Faber Eridani is not a signatory to the Danii Convention. So the laws are a little different here. It goes back to the days after the Thousand-Sun War.”

“But that was over a hundred years ago!”

“Yes—and there was near-civil-war here, afterward,” Harriet said. “The war took a big toll, you know—in money, personnel, ships. There was a nasty dissident backlash. Coups, attempted coups, martial law. By the time things settled down, civil liberties were in the toilet along with a lot of other things. A few revolutionaries have worked for change over the years, but…” Harriet shrugged.

“Mom being one of those revolutionaries.”

“In my younger years, dear. Back when I had fire,” Harriet said. Morgan rolled her eyes. “But the upshot is, they can arrest you. So let’s concentrate on keeping us out of jail—and alive.”

“Which we will do how?”

Harriet looked pained, and frightened. “As your attorney, I have a hard time saying this—but you’re not going to be able to clear your name from inside a prison cell. And I don’t think I can do it without you, even if I stay out of jail myself. And—” she glanced at Peter “—the fact that they’re being pressured to arrest you on so little evidence, in spite of the attack on you, in spite of your having brought them a captured pirate ship , suggests to me that—” she hesitated, clenching her teeth “—that we’d better get the hell off the planet at once. Right now. Before that warrant is issued.”

Legroeder was stunned.

“At the moment, you’ll be breaking your bail agreement, but you won’t be fleeing arrest. This is probably our last chance to get away. If Peter can get us a ship.”

“We’ll know in a few minutes,” said Peter.

“Have you heard from El’ken yet?” asked Legroeder.

Harriet shook her head.

“So we head there anyway? Because we’re good at dropping in unannounced?”

“Something like that.”

Legroeder sat back, staring up at the ceiling. Fleeing from bail would virtually guarantee he’d be finished at the RiggerGuild. But his career would be at an end anyway, if he couldn’t prove his innocence—not just in the deaths of Jakus and McGinnis, but in the loss of Ciudad de los Angeles . “All right,” he whispered. “I’ll go get my bag.”

Harriet glanced at her daughter. “Are you ready to go?”

“Whenever you are.”

“I’ll do what I can here, while you’re gone,” said Peter.

Vegas, gathering up the empty coffee cups, made a soft chuckling sound. But she did not look happy.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Legroeder heard, as he snapped his bag shut. He ran back into the house. Peter was at the living room window, peering out, a com-unit pressed to his ear. He turned to Legroeder. “Georgio says three patrol cars are on their way up the hill. We’ve got to go now .”

Legroeder piled into Peter’s flyer with Harriet and Morgan. Peter took the controls, and they lifted straight from Harriet’s drive pad, with running lights dark. At the same time, two of his men climbed into a ground-car and roared off down the hill, in the direction of the approaching police. With a little luck, they’d be able to distract any pursuit.