Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn Page 9

  Mrs. Kyon slammed her elbows down onto the counter. She started to lean in closer toward me, and a small mischievous smile spread across her face. “A robbery, you say! Does this robbery have something to do with that weird explosion that occurred this morning? I heard it! In fact, it scared the daylights out of me. I thought we were going to have to evacuate the ship!” The more Mrs. Kyon talked, the closer she leaned in toward me. The corners of her lips were wet with saliva. It was almost as if she couldn’t get the words that were trapped inside of her mouth out fast enough. “I’m dying to know what caused that explosion!”

  A few wet droplets fell onto my arm. I wiped them off as I continued to listen to Mrs. Kyon. As gross as this was, I was actually kind of happy. Mrs. Kyon was a talker, and she was giving up a lot of information right now, which meant she would most likely answer any questions without putting up much of a fight. But I thought I’d heard enough of her babbling. I needed to get her back on track.

  “I can’t tell you the cause behind the explosion because we’re still in the middle of investigating things. I would really like to know more about the Nimen-Seki bracelet.”

  Mrs. Kyon pinched the red bead in between her thumb and index finger. “Well, I ordered a few Nimen-Seki bracelets for my shop about two months ago. Unfortunately, they weren’t selling fast enough for me. They were taking up space on my shelves and I wanted to get rid of them, so I put them on sale.”

  I took my notepad and pen from out of my purse so I could write down what Mrs. Kyon had to say. “Okay, when did this sale start?”

  Mrs. Kyon tapped her finger on her chin. “The sale started this week. I wanted the sale to coincide with Princess Rhea’s jewelry showcase. I thought that this would be the perfect time to not only sell as much jewelry as possible but to get rid of anything that had been on the shelves for too long. I had a hunch that some of our guests here would have an interest in jewelry and the finer things in life.”

  “So did you sell a lot of your Nimen-Seki bracelets?”

  Mrs. Kyon reached underneath the counter and pulled out a small box. She placed it in front of me. The right side of the box was red and the left side was white. In bright white lettering on the right side was the word “Nimen,” on the left side in red was the word “Seki.” Mrs. Kyon took the lid off the box. Nestled inside was a Nimen-Seki bracelet. “I sold all of them except for this one. Let me show you why I had to order these bracelets for my store!” Mrs. Kyon reached behind her and flicked off the light switch. To my surprise, the shimmering red beads changed to a bright white the moment the lights were turned off! Anthe got up on her tippy-toes so she could get a better look at the bracelet. Amid the darkness, the only thing we could see were the streams of white light coming from the Nimen-Seki bracelet.

  “Ohhh, that’s really pretty.”

  Mrs. Kyon smiled. “The beads on this bracelet shine the brightest when they’re in the darkness. However, the light smothers its original authentic color and instead you get to see its opposite side. At least, that’s what I like to call it.” Mrs. Kyon flipped up the light switch and the Nimen-Seki bracelet turned red again. Okay, so Mrs. Kyon made all of her sales of the Nimen-Seki bracelet this week leading up to Princess Rhea’s jewelry showcase. So she should have had a good recollection of who bought the bracelets and what they looked like.

  “Mrs. Kyon, the customers who bought the Nimen-Seki bracelet from you the week of the princess showcase—did any of them give you a bad impression? Maybe they offhandedly mentioned their opinion about the Divided, Yet One Law. Or maybe they mentioned how they felt about the princess. If anything comes to your mind, please tell me.”

  Again, Mrs. Kyon scratched the edge of her chin and shook her head. “No, nothing’s coming to my mind. All of my customers were happy little ladies who were excited about their purchase and the princess jewelry showcase.” She said “happy little ladies,” so all of her customers that week who bought the Nimen-Seki bracelet were women. And these women either worked on this ship or they were guests on the ship. I needed to narrow things down so I could figure out who owned this bead I found at the scene of the crime. I turned my attention toward Anthe, who was busy looking at all of the jewelry behind the glass counter. I wished I knew why her mom was a suspect; heck, I wished I knew why nearly all of the Martian women on this ship were being rounded up as potential suspects in this robbery. Especially Wendy. God, I hoped she was okay.

  Thinking about Anthe’s mother and Wendy reminded me of that Martian janitor I had seen on the video surveillance footage earlier. It was kind of odd that everyone else was running away from the explosion, but she was running toward it. You know, Mrs. Kyon said that her customers were happy ladies; she never said if they were human or Martian. I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to ask. “So your happy little customers—were they humans or were they Martian?” Upon hearing the word “Martian,” Mrs. Kyon brought her hands up to her stomach and started to massage the end of her left hand.

  “They were all definitely human women. Like I said earlier, it’s against the rules for me to serve anyone that’s not a human and I wouldn’t dare put my store in jeopardy like that.”

  I didn’t believe her at all. I thought she was lying. She was acting way too nervous and I didn’t like how she nearly fell out of her seat after the word “Martian” came out of my mouth. “Are you sure that all of your customers that past week were human? It’s not possible that maybe you let a Martian customer come into your store so you could get some of those space credits you’re missing out on earning because of that pesky Divided, Yet One Law?”

  Mrs. Kyon was practically digging her nails into the end of her left hand.

  “I mean, you let Anthe come in here and she’s a Martian. Are you sure one of your customers last week wasn’t a Martian woman?”

  Mrs. Kyon slammed her hands down on the counter and leaned in close toward me. She kept her hands close to side of her head and, in a voice so low that I could barely hear it, she said, “Okay, I had one customer who was a Martian who bought the Nimen-Seki bracelet.” I moved in closer so I could actually hear what Mrs. Kyon was saying. “It was the day before the robbery. I had just opened up my store and I was in the back room hanging my coat up. When I came back, a young Martian woman was standing in front of my counter. She had neatly stacked some space credits next to the cash register and she had also picked up a dress from off of my dress rack.” Mrs. Kyon pointed toward a small rack of dresses that was in the left hand corner of her store.

  “What did this woman look like? Did she have any scars, tattoos, weird hair color? Is there anything at all that made her stand out?”

  Mrs. Kyon shrugged her shoulders. “She looked like an average, everyday Martian woman. She had on a cute black circle skirt with a neat-looking design. It was a white flute surrounded by some musical notes. I thought it was very charming. And she had her hair up in a big puffy ponytail. Oh, and she had on some foundation. But the color of it really didn’t match her green skin tone. She really had that stuff caked onto her face. It kind of made her look extremely pale. Heck, the girl looked downright sickly. I almost thought something was wrong with her.”

  I jotted down everything that she said. “Did she say anything to you?”

  “Our interaction was very brief. She bought one of my dresses along with a Nimen-Seki bracelet. She stuffed both of them into this big brown laundry bag of hers and then she left.”

  “Can you show me which dress she bought?” I followed Mrs. Kyon over to the small clothing rack. She shoved several dresses aside and she finally stopped when she reached this absolutely gorgeous day dress. The top to the dress was white, with sleeves long enough to cover half of your arm. In the middle of the dress was a small black belt; underneath that was a red pleated skirt that looked like it would probably stop just below the knee. “I keep my dress inventory very small. If I like something, I’ll only order three dresses at a time. Also all of my dresses are one-size-fits-all.” So this Martian
woman who entered into Mrs. Kyon’s store bought one of these dress along with a Nimen-Seki bracelet.

  I tapped my pen on the end of my notebook. “Is there anything else you can remember? Any sort of detail? It doesn’t matter what it is. If you can remember, please tell me.”

  Mrs. Kyon placed the dress back on the rack. “Well, I don’t know if this helps, but I think the young lady might be a janitor.” It took everything in me not to start screaming and jumping for joy as soon as she said the word “janitor.” My suspicions were correct! This bead definitely had something to do with the robbery that had taken place this morning! It might very well have been owned by that mysterious-looking Martian woman I had seen on the surveillance video! Mrs. Kyon continued, “When she stuffed the dress she had bought into her laundry bag, there was an orange janitor’s uniform already inside of the bag. So I guess she decided to make a stop here on her way to work since she came here so early in the morning.”

  I was writing everything down so fast that, for a moment, I thought that smoke was coming from the tip of my pen. I quickly glanced over everything I had written down so far. I had a description of the Martian woman, I had proof that she bought a bracelet from this store that she left at the scene of the crime, and I had evidence that supported my hunch the person who committed this crime was that Martian janitor. I also knew she owned a dress from this store. I thought that was enough. I didn’t think I was going to get any more information out of Mrs. Kyon.

  “Do you need anything else?” Mrs. Kyon asked hesitantly. I picked up the medium-sized day dress that Mrs. Kyon said the culprit had bought from off the rack and I pressed it up against my body. “I simply can’t leave this store unless you sell this beautiful dress to me!”

  I immediately changed into the dress in the store’s back room and put my uniform in the bag. I also bought Anthe a little plastic ring that had a bright yellow flower on top of the clear plastic band. Anthe twirled the little ring on her finger over and over again. When we reached the steps to the Bestla Hotel, Anthe had a miniature tear-filled meltdown about going into the hotel because she was so worried about getting in trouble, but I managed to convince her it was going to be okay, just like it was okay when we went into Orthus jewelry shop; no one was going to bother her at all. We had to suffer through a few awkward stares, some gasps, and hushed whispers, but we made it safely to my hotel room.

  “Go ahead, Anthe. Have a seat while I order our dinner.”

  Anthe climbed up onto the couch in the front room. “You’re going to order dinner!” she said with a wide smile on her face.

  “I sure am. How does a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake sound?”

  Anthe licked the bottom of her lips. “Oh, that sounds super yummy!”

  I looked over at Anthe. She was poking the control panel for the TV that was attached to the couch arm with her finger. “If you want to watch TV, Anthe, go ahead.”

  After I placed our order, I flopped down in the chair next to the couch Anthe was sitting on. After everything I had gone through this evening, I was still no closer to the truth. I had a basic description of the jewel thief, but I didn’t know who this person was, what her motivation was, or how she had managed to pull this huge heist off. Today wasn’t a total loss; at least I had this security uniform, which I was sure would come in handy if I wanted to do more snooping upstairs on the security room floor, and I had Anthe. I didn’t know how much information she could give me about this situation. She was just a child and she was scared, but she was the only witness I could interview right now. After we had dinner, I would start asking her a few questions.

  Anthe gobbled up every morsel of food on her plate. I picked up a napkin and wiped a bit of ketchup from her cheek. “Anthe, can I ask you a few questions?” Anthe shook her head yes. “Earlier, you said that some people took your mom away and that’s why you don’t want to go home. Do you know where those people took your mommy and do you remember what they looked like?” I hoped I didn’t upset her too much. Maybe I should have split that question up instead of making it into one.

  Anthe reached up with one hand and started tugging on one of her pigtails. “These people came when I was eating the lunch that Mommy had made for me. She made my favorite thing ever. Purple squid with rice. I knew today was going to be a good day ’cause Mommy made me my favorite thing to eat and she said she had something nice for me after I ate my lunch. I remember seeing Mommy get this big package from the mailman this morning. It must have been something super important because she had to sign this little paper first. I was just so happy and I tried to finish my lunch as fast as possible. But I didn’t get to finish it because these people came into our house. All of the people coming into our house looked like you and the lady who was yelling at me earlier.”

  Anthe dipped her head down and she blinked her eyes a few times. “Then the people smashed our stuff and started turning things over. I started crying ’cause they were in me and my mom’s room and they were smashing our stuff. Then that mean lady came and she took me away. Some of my mommy’s friends that were in that crowd tried to pull me off the scooter, but those mean people hit them.” Anthe placed her hands over her face. A few tears slipped through the cracks of her fingers. I didn’t want to press Anthe for more information, but the phrase “that crowd” had piqued my interest.

  “You mentioned a crowd. Were there a lot of people outside of your house or something?”

  Anthe pulled her hands away from her face and I gave her one of my leftover napkins so she could wipe away her tears away. “There were lots of people in my house who looked like that mean lady who took me away and they were going into other people’s houses too.”

  “Anthe, where do you and the rest of the Martian people live on this ship?”

  Anthe let out a small hiccup. “We live underneath the parking garage.” I got up from my chair and I took Anthe into my arms. I rubbed the middle part of her back as she finally let out the tears she had been holding in during our conversation. If what Anthe was saying was correct, then all of the Martian women the security officers had taken during the security sweep were most likely being held downstairs underneath the parking garage where they lived. Also, for some reason, her mother was a prime suspect in this case and the members of security on this ship flipped their home upside down in an effort to find evidence against her. I mean, what other reason would they have to tear their residence apart? I needed to go there now, to the Martian living quarters, but first, I needed to take care of Anthe before I left. I dabbed away at the stream of tears that had stained Anthe’s little green cheeks. “Anthe, would you like to stay here at my place until I find your mom for you?” Anthe rested her head on my shoulder, then she wrapped her small arms around the base of my neck.

  I scooped up Anthe into my arms and carried her into Wendy’s room. I pulled the covers back on Wendy’s bed and gently laid Anthe down. As I was bringing the covers up to her chin, she said to me, “If you find my mommy, tell her I’m okay.”

  “I will,” I answered before she finally closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Poor kid, she was so tired and stressed out. I wished I could ask her more questions and get better clarification, but I didn’t want to push her any further. I pulled my security uniform from out of the paper bag and put it back on. I checked the ship’s map I had tucked away in my purse. Right next to the elevator Wendy and I boarded when we arrived was a staircase. I looked over the map once more to see if there were any other staircases. There were none.

  Before I left the room, I placed a “do not disturb” sign over the doorknob. Hopefully, I’d be back before morning so I could check in on Anthe. I took a quick glance out into the hallway. It was empty. I knew that by just wearing my security uniform, I was taking a huge risk, but I needed to wear it so I could get past security and gain access to the staircase in the garage. I slipped through the door and onto the elevator. Thankfully, it was empty. I really didn’t want to walk through the lobby and out of
the front doors of the hotel in this security uniform. In the back of the elevator was a second set of doors hotel workers used so they could transport dirty laundry or bring room service up to the guests. I pressed the button that would let me off on the ground floor in the employee section. When the doors opened, I was greeted by a Martian man with a large black trash bag slung over his left shoulder. Neither of us said anything to each other. I kept my head down and tried to walk off the elevator, but the man smacked his hand down on the button next to the entrance and closed the elevator doors behind him. I was beginning to feel a little bit uncomfortable with this situation. Who was this guy and what did he want?

  Chapter 9

  I turned to face the man who had trapped me inside of the elevator with him. “What do you want?” I asked, trying my best to sound as confident as possible.

  The man rested his fingertips on his forehead. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m really worried about my co-workers. They were taken away and I want to know when they will be back.”

  I let out a small sigh of relief. “I’m sorry. I don’t know. I’m just a low-level security employee. I just do what I’m told and that’s it.”

  The Martian man dropped his trash bag. “What about the lockout? We were told earlier by your people that we would be allowed to go home soon, but it’s eleven o’clock and I still can’t go home.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m sorry; I wish I could tell you, but like I said, I’m a nobody. I don’t make any decisions.”

  The man pressed his hand to his chest. “I hope I’m not out of line or anything by asking you these questions. I’m just a little bit upset and I’m really worried about my friends.”

  I tapped my finger on the elevator door open button and we walked off the elevator together. “It’s okay, but if I were you, I wouldn’t ask any more questions. Some of the guys I work with get pretty nasty when people ask them questions about their work.” I hoped this guy would take the hint. After watching those security guards beat up on those journalists earlier, I was sure they would have no problem beating up this guy for asking about what was going on. Even more so because he was a Martian.