Abominations (16 page)

      When she finished, she pulled the sheet back into place carefully.

      Then she asked Bethany if she wanted to look at the crime scene using her analytical mode.

      Grimacing, the other woman said yes. Gwen understood her reticence, since once seen in that mode she'd always remember it. Hopefully only at need and not as some kind of image that floated behind her eyes all the time. That would suck too much to bear. It took a few seconds for Gwen to get her into the right state, staring at the scene closely, looking at the whole thing in that eerie way she had, where she absorbed all of the data completely.

      A few minutes later, she stood, waiting. Gwen had her release the work mode and come back to her normal self.

      “Thank you, Gwen. We need this data, but it isn't pleasant to look at in state. Still, I think the table is very similar to the others, the tool marks on it look the same, as well as the color. We should follow your idea of checking with some geologists.” As she said this her head turned, so that she didn't have to look at the sheet in the center of the room anymore.

      They decided to go outside, since there didn't seem to be any reason for them to stand around the body, hanging out. Whoever she'd been in life, in death the body was a horrible conversationalist. Plus, she smelled. It wasn't like on television, the corpse didn't reek, her intestines hadn't been breached, her flesh hadn't rotted. It was just that there was a subtle scent of fresh meat in the air around her. It was just a little too close to things that Gwen associated with food to be comfortable. A scent like fresh pork that made her mouth water a little, which made her feel sick in response when she realized what had happened.

      Gwen got the camera back to the photographer and requested he develop and deliver the pictures as quickly as possible to the district house. He agreed, not making eye contact with her, his eyes looking at the ground as if filled with shame or embarrassment. At first Gwen just didn't notice, a lot of people simply avoided looking at her like that, didn't they? Then she realized it wasn't about her this time. She asked him if everything was alright, worried, since he still looked a little green around the edges.

      “I take pictures of people, portraits and the like. Some landscape and art photos. I... I can see how this might prove useful, but I wasn't ready for it. You had to finish my work, because I couldn't...” He shook slightly, taking deep shuddering breaths.

      Gwen touched his arm, surprised when he didn't pull away, then remembering that she looked different now. Normal. “We asked a lot of you today and didn't give you any time to prepare. Next time you'll be ready and make it through the whole thing. As for being shaken by this... well, good people should be. Eventually you learn to not let it show, but it always gets to you. Not one of these men doesn't feel this. Soon they'll start making inappropriate jokes to cover how horrible they feel, how it makes them just a little sick to see. Don't think for a moment that this is easy for anyone else here, they just have more practice hiding it, that's all. I'm not knocking that either by the way. Anyone that could walk in here and see this and truly be alright with it isn't anyone you'd want at a crime scene.” Patting his arm, she let him take the cameras and go, presumably to develop the film.

      Peals, having heard, walked up to Bethany and Gwen, a considering look on his face.

      “That was insightful. Is death so common a thing where you come from that you know this? Most people don't understand how hard this really is on the investigators.” He waited for her to answer, looking at her eyes as if searching for something.

      Pausing for a second, she decided to just jump in and explain herself.

      “I've lived my life seeing such things on television. I'm afraid that all of this, this whole world, is so odd that I keep saying and doing things based on that, on the fiction I grew up with, because I've got nothing else to work from. I'm adrift in a new land with no context at all, so I keep having to grasp at any little thing I can to hold together.” She started to shrug, then flip her palms up like she'd seen him do several times now. It was a forced move from her, but the man got it at least. Shrugging just didn't mean anything here.

      Instead of chastising her, the man gave her a look that seemed approving, as if she'd said something brilliant rather than just admitting how out of her depth she really was.

      She'd noticed this several times now, she realized. She'd do something obvious, to her at least, or perfectly normal, like helping out Bethany, and the people around her acted like this was something special. Could they be responding to her looks, she wondered, rather than her actions? Whatever the cause, it seemed a lot different than what she'd grown up with.

      Bethany asked her if they could go and check on geologists now, recommending they go to Western University, since it would be the closest place that had dedicated geologists of any sort they could call on. That name sounded familiar to Gwen. After a moment she realized that the man she'd met shortly after waking up, Grainger, had given her numbers for him there.

      Digging through her little bag, which held only several small cards and about thirty dollars of the money that the solicitor, Grimes, had given her, she found it quickly and pulled it out. The card stock seemed heavier than what she remembered people handing out back home, the paper had almost the same texture that the money did. Rag paper then? She'd have to find a book on it or something if she could. Did they have free libraries here? She wondered. If not, maybe she could find one that would let her join for a fee.

      “Here we go. This card, it's for Doctor Professor Grainger, he's the one that checked my story originally, something about radiation he said his specialty was? That's not it, it's one of the your odd words...” She read the card. “Radiatives, it says here. At any rate, perhaps he'll know someone in the geology department so we won't have to hunt for them in person?”

      Bethany looked surprised for a moment, as if she'd done or said something odd again. After a few seconds Gwen thought she understood. Radiatives. That was one of those things that everyone simply knew, wasn't it? She'd heard the word herself several times now, but didn't know what it meant at all.

      “Most sensible. Let's find a telestator and see if we can connect with him.” The other woman started walking down the street toward a row of small shops. Finally she pointed up at a sign, brown wood with painted white letters. It didn't have words, just a capital letter T with an S laid over the top of it, a logo of some kind, Gwen guessed.

      Gwen entered the small shop behind Bethany, who marched firmly up to the front desk. Once there she pulled out a medallion connected to a chain that looked like a pocket watch. It seemed vaguely iridescent, looking a bit pearl-like on the surface as she held it up for the thin older man behind the counter to get a good look at.

      “Constabulary Detective, I need to use your telestator for case related information gathering.” Her voice sounded firm and commanding, as if she'd brook no argument from the man. He wiped his hands on the front of his white, heavy apron, as if drying them due to sudden sweat.

      “I haven't done anything wrong,” he said, looking scared suddenly.

      Gwen saw that he seemed awfully nervous about something, beads of sweat forming suddenly on his forehead, even though the room itself felt fairly cool to her. Playing a hunch she turned to Bethany. “Could you go into telepathic mode for a moment please?” She asked the other woman, who complied instantly her face going slack.

      She turned back to the man, who only now noticed her, she realized, having been so focused on the detective before.

      “Tell me,” she said to the man. “What is it you're trying to hide from us?”

      Before he could answer, Bethany spoke for him, picking the information up from his mind, just as she told Gwen she'd do in this state.

      Awesome.

      “Illegal canned goods shipment from the Northern Sector. Didn't go through all the legal checkpoints.” The Westmorland detective's voice had no expression to it.

      Gwen nodded.

      “I see. Anything else? Is there anything else you're hiding from us?” She leaned into the man, knowing that it wouldn't really menace him, probably seeming comical instead.

      “He's thinking about touching himself at night, when no one is around. He thinks of men while doing so.” The flat voice seemed to cut into the man who sobbed a little, a single gasp.

      Gwen thanked Bethany and asked her to return to her non-working state.

      “So,” Bethany said to the man. “Illegal goods? That would be a fine that could ruin your whole business, you know.”

      Looking down, the older man nodded.

      Gwen looked at both of them and cleared her throat from behind the detective.

      “You know... Bethany... I think that maybe, just this once, we could cut this man a little slack, if he promises to get rid of the canned goods before we come back? In... let's say a week? Especially if he gives them away to the poor or something, without making a profit off of it, I mean, as long as the goods are safe and all?” She didn't know how the Constabulary did business here, but remembered the detectives helping her hold Mr. Wright for her threats the day before. It seemed the rules here were a good bit different than back home, or at least more flexible at times.

      Bethany glared at the man, as if she wanted to have him thrown in prison immediately and demanded his name and telestator number, which she wrote down on the small pad that she carried in her bag, slightly larger than the one Gwen carried, she noticed. He complied, eyes downcast the whole time, defeated looking.

      “Now, my friend here seems to feel you deserve another chance. I'm not certain I agree, but I'm willing to give you that chance, just this once, because she's spoken for you. Don't disappoint us and don't bother trying to fool us about where the goods go. Agreed, Mr. Pender?” Her face bore a vulpine grin that would have scared Gwen if it had been pointed at her. Apparently the store owner felt the same way, and agreed instantly. In fact he went to the back after pointing out where his telestator was, to box up the illegal canned goods he told them. If it were her world Gwen would have worried that the man had run to get a gun, but Beth didn't seem worked up at all. Maybe people just didn't do that here?

      When he left the room, Bethany turned to her and gave her a wink and mouthed the word later. Then turned to a device that looked like a series of steel balls, each about the size of a grapefruit balanced on a lacquered wooden dowel about an inch in diameter. It had five of them and took up the top of the small table it stood on. About two by three feet Gwen guessed, eyeballing it.

      Bethany told her what she did at each step, so that Gwen could use one herself in the future, if she needed to. The other woman pointed as she went.

      “See this button? It connects to the crystal pack, those are what power it, actually they power almost everything, unless you do it yourself, so you should learn more about them if you can. Push the button and you engage the device. Then just put your hand on top of the second sphere over, away from the button, and speak to the operator when she comes on. Like so.”

      Pushing the button and placing her hand carefully, the other woman waited. After nearly thirty seconds a voice came out of one of the spheres, or so it seemed to Gwen. She couldn't tell which sphere it came from though.