Inescapable (19 page)

‘Makes too much
damn sense though,’ Dillan continued. ‘If Jackson Martins thinks it
could work, I think Kit’s come up with a compelling case for this
scenario. There has to be some way to make this work.’

‘We have to
hand this over to NAPA soon,’ Fox said. ‘I’ll arrange a meeting and
get it started. There’s no point in putting it off and I can
present the theory to them, offer to help with the case.’

‘They’ll
refuse,’ Dillan grumbled.

‘Probably. So
I’ll arrange another meeting to follow that one. If NAPA won’t
listen, I’ll take it to the UNTPP.’

‘The UniFeds?
What are they going to do about it?’

‘The cases are
international. We’ve got Brazil, America, République Française du
Québec. I know how to talk international cop and they’ll listen, if
only to be able to thumb their noses at NAPA. Would you be willing
to work with them on analysing the LANVisor, Jackson?’

‘Of course. If
they’ll accept the help.’

Fox smiled.
‘They’ll accept the help. Trust me.’

19
^th
April.

Despite all the
pressure to hand over the case, NAPA was unable to make anyone
available for a meeting to do so until the following Monday
morning. They insisted on holding the meeting at precinct 18’s
building and, Fox knew from the floor assignment of the conference
room, were involving IA. That, in itself, raised red flags and Fox
left instructions with Kit to have Inspector Robbard’s profile
checked before leaving for the meeting.

Sure enough
Robbard was waiting for her at the elevator and Ivers was in the
conference room. Also as expected, neither of them was pleased to
see Dillan with Fox.

‘What’s she
doing here?’ Ivers snapped as Dillan walked in.

‘At least try
to show some professional courtesy, Inspector Ivers,’ Fox
suggested. ‘Detective Dillan is here because she investigated the
Doran case and was present for the three disputed homicides you
took off her.’

‘Those have
been determined to be the same perpetrator as the Remus and Clifton
homicides,’ Robbard stated. ‘There is no dispute–’

‘Determined by
whom?’ Fox broke in. ‘Given that the MO has changed
entirely
between these cases, it’s difficult to see how anyone could reach
that conclusion. My investigation suggests that this goes back a
lot further than Doran anyway. The case is almost certainly
international in scope.’

‘Are you
fucking nuts?!’ Ivers barked, climbing to her feet. Fox was
watching Robbard and saw the flash of surprise and irritation
before it was covered with a smooth, diplomatic smile.

‘Let’s all just
settle down and proceed with this in an orderly fashion,’ Robbard
said. ‘Miss Meridian is here to present the evidence she’s gathered
on the Hopethorne homicide. We can, at least, hear what she has to
say.’

Fox pulled out
a chair and settled into it, noting that Dillan made sure Fox was
between her and the other cops. ‘My PA will handle the
presentation,’ Fox said, ‘if you’ll accept the v-tagged data.’

It took Kit
twenty minutes to go through the evidence gathered from the crime
scene. Fox had been a little surprised to discover that Kit had an
alternate wardrobe, apparently designed for business meetings, so
the tiny, puffed-out skirt had been replaced with a pencil one that
fell to mid-thigh, and the knee-high boots were now heeled pumps.
The lace-edged jacket was gone, but she was still in the same
bodice, cuffs, and collar, and her tail still emerged from her
back, twisting and curling as she spoke. Fox watched Robbard and
Ivers as they watched Kit.

The IA agent,
she could not bring herself to think of him as a cop, watched the
presentation intently, but seemed to be paying too little actual
attention to it. His eyes were a little glazed, only showing any
animation when Kit’s tail curled around one of her legs. He was not
really interested in what Kit had to say, and he was not quite
keeping the expression off his face. The presenter was of more real
interest than the presentation. His mind was already made up, but
right now Fox could come to no definitive conclusion as to why he
was not open to new evidence.

Ivers was
another matter. This, Fox thought, was an ambitious, politically
minded detective, but she
was
a cop and she wanted to see
the murderer locked up. Fox could see her mind working as she took
in the details Kit was laying out. The question here was how far
the ambition and political drive would outweigh her desire to see
justice done.

There was also
a hint of envy on the homicide cop’s face. ‘That’s quite a report
you’ve compiled in a fairly short period of time,’ Ivers said as
Kit concluded the first part of her presentation.

‘I work for the
best technology company in the world,’ Fox replied, ‘and my
caseload is a lot smaller than yours.’

‘Huh. He’s
definitely escalating. The earlier scenes–’

‘Inspector,’
Robbard interrupted. ‘We are under no obligation to reveal details
of previous incidents to Miss Meridian.’

Ivers looked at
him for a second. ‘The earlier scenes were less violent. He used
the same drug in the second case, but scavenged the binding
material, and we think he was with the second victim for less than
an hour.’

‘And then, of
course,’ Dillan said, ‘he’s gone from killing a mixture of targets
to raping and killing exclusively female victims within a fairly
narrow age range.’

‘Yes, but–’

‘After four
attacks, he’s now decided that some planning might be in order
rather than impulse killing people who annoy him. He’s rapidly
progressing along that course when he showed no signs of it
before.’

‘You are out of
line, Detective,’ Robbard growled. ‘We have determined without a
shadow of a doubt that–’

‘I’d love to
see the report on that,’ Fox said, smiling. ‘I’d imagine it’s
fascinating reading, but I expect that it’ll be hidden behind
“operational considerations” for the next several years. Kit, let’s
move on. Give us the previous case list.’

‘Of course,
Fox,’ Kit replied and dived into the trail of evidence she had
uncovered. This time around Ivers looked perplexed, with a growing
undercurrent of alarm appearing as the relative solidity of Kit’s
argument became apparent. Robbard did not look surprised enough for
Fox’s liking, and he definitely appeared to be annoyed.

‘You’ve taken
an internet conspiracy meme and fleshed it out to support this
ludicrous claim of a problem with a well-respected piece of
technology which your employer happens to be competing with?’ The
rhetorical nature of the question and the sarcastic tone were
fairly obvious.

‘The chain of
logic is solid,’ Fox replied. ‘Kit has obtained the data through
legitimate sources and checked everything.’

‘It makes
sense,’ Ivers stated. ‘I mean, it makes
no
sense, but the
case is well made and it’s the best theory we have on how this is
progressing.’

‘It’s
ridiculous!’ Robbard almost shouted.

Ivers shrugged.
‘If this… pattern of behaviour is being spread by some sort of
agent on the internet, it explains the additional cases and it
means we aren’t looking for a leak in NAPA, which made no sense.
Why leak to some individual? To the media, sure, but not some guy
who decides to use it to copy the MO.’

‘The only link
this AI has found is a vague repetition of this “no escape”
theme.’

‘The only link
you have between the deaths I’m investigating is that message.’
Ivers was clearly getting more annoyed with the IA man now. ‘There
are no other links. How do you want this to go, Robbard? Is the
connection the message or not?’

Robbard got to
his feet. ‘NAPA thanks you for supplying your very complete
forensic analysis of the Hopethorne crime scene, Miss Meridian.
Control of the scene will be handed over to Inspector Ivers.
Further assistance from Palladium Security Services will–’

‘Be most
welcome,’ Ivers broke in. ‘As the primary investigator on this
case, I would value cooperation between our agencies in the
apprehension of this criminal.’

Robbard flashed
her a vicious glare, which she ignored, and then stalked out of the
room.

‘You’re going
to catch flak for that,’ Dillan said.

‘I can handle
Robbard,’ Ivers replied. ‘I’ll get the case reports, all of them,
sent through via channels. Your PA can slot them into her profile
and see if anything clicks. Might take a couple of days.’

Fox nodded. ‘We
can call it technical consultation.’ She held out a hand. ‘Nice
meeting you, Inspector Ivers.’

‘I still don’t
like her that much,’ Dillan grumbled as they dropped through the
building in the elevator a few minutes later.

‘She’s
ambitious and she plays politics too much,’ Fox replied. ‘Her main
reason for siding with me is that she figures she’ll get the perp
that much faster. She may be looking to boost her reputation with
one of the two big players in private security ahead of this
privatisation vote, but she probably won’t neglect Wayden
either.’

‘And you say
you’re not into politics…’ Fox gave an annoyed grunt in response to
that comment. ‘What’s next?’

‘You go back to
work. I have a meeting with UNTPP this afternoon.’

~~~

The United Nations
Trans-Planetary Police had their New York offices in a tall spire
of a building set on Governors Island not that far from the
precinct 19 HQ. The New York Tower had been put up to provide
offices for administration personnel, but the shrinking government
of America had resulted in the tower being oversized for its job.
Space had been let out in the building to various governmental and
pseudo-governmental agencies. A number of UN functions were run
from there.

Fox had not
been a member of the UNTPP for over two years, but one of the
guards on the floor she was directed to snapped off a salute as she
stepped off the elevator and then led her through the corridors to
a conference room which had coffee and Danish pastries waiting. She
got to wait all of two minutes before the man she was meeting
appeared through the door.

‘Captain
Meridian,’ he said, using her old UNTPP rank, ‘I’m Captain
Deveraux. I head up this station house.’ He was quite something: he
gave Sam a run for his money in the looks department with a firm
body showing through a well-tailored suit. There was a hint of an
accent in his voice, probably French, but heavily softened by time.
His face was hard, angular, with prominent cheek bones, cool blue
eyes, and a slim nose. His mouth seemed quite large, enhanced by a
bright smile at the moment. His hair was blonde, falling to his
shoulders and in a thin fringe of long bangs over his eyes. And he
wore a lot of black.

‘It’s just Miss
Meridian,’ Fox replied, taking his offered hand. ‘I haven’t been a
captain for years.’

His smile
remained, but his eyes flickered with a calculating intelligence.
‘One of the executive officers of MarTech’s security wing now
though.’

‘Yeah, well… Me
and my assistant
are
the investigation division of
Palladium. I had a falling out with NAPA, just as I had one with
the UNTPP.’

Deveraux
nodded. ‘Politics. We all hate it, and we all end up playing
it.’

Fox shrugged.
‘If everyone hated it, I’d probably still be in the Army. I’d
definitely still be with the UNTPP. I have something for you,
Captain. A potential international crime issue. It’s already cost
lives in a number of countries, including this one.’

‘Why come to us
with this? Yes, we’re supposed to handle that kind of criminal
activity, but I’m sure NAPA would jump at the chance to pursue
this.’

‘Yeah. I’ve
been to NAPA regarding the current string of homicides, but this
goes back a lot further and… Let’s just say that there’s a
political element to this one. I need an unbiased party looking
into the wider implications.’

‘What
implications, Miss Meridian?’

Fox flashed him
a smile. ‘You can call me Fox.’

‘Jason.’

‘Jason, right.
Kit, let’s show Jason what you’ve uncovered.’

20
^th
April.

Fox sat on her sofa,
drinking coffee, while her image sat at a virtual conference room
table. The image was drinking coffee too, but it was dressed in
jacket and jeans while the real Fox had not bothered with anything
more than her bodysuit so far that morning. This was the Palladium
catch-up meeting for the week. Everyone was there via telepresence,
including Jackson, who was reporting to the management team rather
than being boss of the corporate group.

‘I’ve received
a request for assistance from the UNTPP regarding the LANVisor
analysis,’ Jackson informed them. ‘We decided to handle it as a
consultation exercise with data exchanges being managed by Fox’s
investigation division. The work is to be carried out by MarTech
Technologies personnel, because they have the technical skill.’

‘How’s the
budget for that being managed?’ Eaves asked.

‘There’s a
UNTPP consultation fee coming through to Palladium. We’ll need to
handle internal transfers to Technologies for their time and
resources. MarTech Group will handle any costs above and beyond, if
that becomes necessary. I’ve spoken to Mariel and we’re taking this
as an exercise in building bridges with external law enforcement.
She’s putting together a budget proposal for the forthcoming vote
anyway.’

Fox listened as
the chatter about budgets and funding continued on. Her gaze
flicked around to Vaughn, sitting nearby in one of her business
suits: a pale pink blouse this time. Pulling up a side window
in-vision, Fox established a private message link and dropped a
text message across to Vaughn:
In your bra and panties
today?
She watched as Vaughn shuffled a little in her seat,
though there was no other outward indication of embarrassment.