Connection - 35

~1021

Although Maru and Drigg had been very helpful, Kerra felt the need to talk to someone who had known Shandi well. So as she left Dark Lake Books, she found herself turning away from the center of the city instead of toward her home. She was going to pay Numbers a visit. Then she paused, reconsidering. The person that Shandi had been closest to had probably been Angelface. But Kerra didn’t know where she lived.

She’d saved The Grin’s contact information in her communications chip, so she called him.

“This is Maxwell Smiley, how can I help you?” he answered mechanically. The hologram portion of the screen was blank, so she couldn’t see him, but Kerra understood. He probably didn’t like people to stare at his paralyzed mouth. She didn’t really like people looking at her face or skin either, so she usually turned off the hologram function on her calls. It was off right now, so The Grin had no idea who was calling.

“Grin! This is Kerra.”

“Kerra!” The immediate relaxation in his voice was obvious. “What’s up?”

“Uhh…” She didn’t know where to start, or if she even should. “A lot. Do you know where Angelface lives? Or could you give me her contact? I’d really like to talk with her.”

“Are you gonna accuse her of murder too?”

Kerra’s stomach dropped and she grabbed onto a nearby handrail for support. “I- I- No!”

The Grin gave a dark chuckle. “I’m just messing with you. Don’t take it so serious, Kerra.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the dizzying lights that ran up and down and side to side for what seemed like forever. “I can’t believe No Name told you.”

“Of course they did.” His voice sounded puzzled. “I mean, it was a little embarrassing that you got mixed up, I guess, but of course we would want to know that your mother died. We’ve all been on the look out for anything that might clue us in on who did it. We’ll support you in anyway we can.”

Her hand clenched the handrail so hard that it was sending constant ribbons of pain shooting all the way up her arm. “I didn’t want you guys to know. Or worry. Or just… You all have so much that you have to deal with already, and it seemed like my duty to figure this out.”

“You have friends, Kerra. You don’t have to do this alone.”

It was true. It was amazing how much The Grin and all of the gang had supported her just in the last few months. She briefly remembered how it had been The Grin that had told her that the gang was headed to the surface. What if he hadn’t cared about her enough to tell her? What if one day Shandi had just disappeared and Kerra had never known where she had gone or why she had died.

But it was because Kerra was so indebted to them that she couldn’t let them keep helping her. They had done enough, and what had she done? Let them store some fertilizer in her apartment for a while? She shook her head, as if The Grin could see it. “No,” she said, “I am so thankful for everything you’ve done for me, but this isn’t something you need to do. You shouldn’t concern yourselves with it.”

“We care about you Kerra, and we really want to help you, but if this is something that you want to do privately-”

“It’s not that I want to do it privately, it’s more that I just need to do it alone. I can’t explain the difference, really, but I do know that I’m the only one who should have to deal with it. The police think it was suicide, and there’s no reason for you to believe me that it wasn’t. Just don’t look into it anymore. Anyway, Angelface?” she pressed, trying to change the topic.

“Right, right,” he said hastily. “I’ll send you her address and contact info right now.”

A holographic notification popped up. She opened it and found all of the pertinent information. “Got it. Thanks, Grin.”

“Any time Kerra.” He closed the call.

Kerra looked at Angelface’s address, which was on the upper crust and several pillars away. She decided she’d take the closest multi-level elevator and then walk the rest of the horizontal distance. She needed a bit of exercise to clear her head.

--

A/N: this would be a chapter break here.

“So what do we do now?” Everen asked. Their communicators were still sitting in the drawer so she still felt reasonably safe. “How do we convince others that the captain is the killer?”

“That’s the real question here,” Janna said. She stared at the floor and was absentmindedly rubbing her bottom lip.

“Maybe other people are like you and have been suspicious this whole time?” Everen suggested.

“Maybe,” Janna said, sounding unconvinced.

“And then when we suggest it to people, everyone will agree and we can just have a very civil, organized mutiny, easy as pie.” Everen smiled, imagining how great it would be if it was that simple.

“You know as well as I do that that’s too good to be true. No, I bet most people on the ship are too oblivious to notice. If she thought they weren’t, she’d be avoiding them like she’s doing to you. She didn’t know how perceptive I was, so she didn’t expect me to notice.”

“Everyone always underestimates you Janna,” Everen said with a smile. “Even yourself. But what do we do?” She hopped off of the hospital bed and began to pace around the room.

Janna watched her restless movements for a moment before saying slowly, “We’ll need proof somehow that it was her that did it. And it can’t be ‘aliens told me so’ kind of proof.”

“I know that,” Everen huffed. “But it is true, so don’t go thinking I’m crazy.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just thinking out loud. Don’t mind me.” Janna was quiet another minute as they both thought. At last Janna grunted. “I have an idea. It’s a terrible one, but it’s an idea.”