felt her smile freeze in place. “Teachers here have weapons.”
“You’re a visitor, Jaguar. Not a Teacher.”
“I’m investigating a murder. I should have the means to defend myself.”
“From what? Meetings and reports? Your knife won’t get you out of that. And if I let it through, there’d be hell to pay. Susan Eideler’s already been very clear about that.”
Jaguar’s jaw tensed. Without speaking, she unstrapped the mechanism that held the retractable blade close to the skin of her wrist. A shiver washed through her, then she put her hand out and let it go.
“Thank you,” Regina said. “And don’t worry. I’m keeping a good watch on everyone while you’re here. They all know that.”
That, Jaguar supposed, was something. Regina was kind, soothing, but she allowed for no breach of her rules, and she’d shown herself to be protective of Jaguar in the past. Still, there was a murderer abroad. Jaguar wasn’t about to forget that.
“You think Diane’s killer will care what you think?” she asked.
Regina startled. “But—well, Francis killed her.” She stopped walking, looked to Jaguar. “You know that, don’t you? Alex told you, right? I know the protocol leans toward execution but, well . . . .”
She let the sentence trail to silence and thought of Alex’s conversation with Regina. “You hope I’ll figure out a way around the protocol?” she asked.
“You are very good at that,” Regina admitted. Then, she sighed. “I’d much rather let Francis live out his natural life here. We’d keep a better watch on him, of course. Adjust his meds and so on, but I don’t want him executed. I spoke against it, but others pushed for it. Quite vocally.”
“Who was the loudest?” Jaguar asked. That, she thought, would be a good place to start digging. And it would be better to dig while Regina believed she was merely trying to prevent an execution.
“Susan Eideler was one. She was good friends with Diane. And of course Diane’s ex-fiancee—Ned Tackerson—had a lot to say. Do you remember him?”
“I don’t think he was here when I was. I didn’t even know she got engaged.”
“You’re right. He came right after you left. They had quite the affair, and then they broke it off, but they stayed friends. He’s not a Teacher, though. He works in our PR department.”
“You have a PR department?”
“Something else we started after your time. Our production programs grew, and we had a lot of interaction with the home planet, selling our wares, so it proved useful. In fact, our PR director and the production manager are on the home planet now, setting up marketing and distribution for our Big Bear exports.”
“Like the bear Francis clutches?”
“That’s right. It’s a very successful export. Francis used to work in production, stuffing the bears, and Derek Rhinehart, the production manager, lets him keep one or two. He’s a lovely man. You’ll interview him when he comes back. Him and our PR director, Clyde Holmesby.”
Jaguar bit back on some words she knew she shouldn’t say. Instead, she considered Regina’s stance, and how to make use of it. “So you won’t mind if I gather enough evidence to establish reasonable doubt for Francis? At least, enough to get rid of the execution order.”
“You’d be doing us all a favor,” Regina said. “Aside from the humanitarian considerations, executions don’t do our reputation any good.”
“Okay,” Jaguar said. “Then let’s start with the fact that Diane was strangled from behind and Francis always attacked from the front.”
“No good,” Regina said. “His defense lawyer tried that, but Francis made those marks on her, and everyone knows that’s his signature.”
Jaguar sighed. That was all she had. That, and the ephemeral Francis carried, but she couldn’t even mention that here. Regina wasn’t one to see the spirit realm as a solution to mundane problems. “Then I’ll need something else,” she said.
“Like what?” Regina asked.
“The most logical thing is finding someone else who might have killed her. Someone with motive, means, opportunity.”
Regina frowned. “I—I hadn’t considered that, oddly enough. An interesting denial on my part. But I’m not sure you’ll find anything. Everyone liked Diane very much. Even though. . .”
“Even though what?”
“Well, there were some accusations about a relationship with a female prisoner—a pretty young schizophrenic woman, here for aggravated assault. She wasn’t responding well to medication, and we had trouble with her before Diane took over her case. Then, of course, she had to be removed from it. The girl didn’t make the accusation, though. Susan Eideler reported an incident she thought was suspicious.”
Susan again, Jaguar thought. She was everywhere. “I thought you said they were friends.”
“They were. Thick as thieves. But Susan’s a stickler for the rules, and she felt obligated, she said. There was a thorough investigation, but it came to nothing. You knew Diane, so you know how unlikely it was. It broke off her engagement with Ned, though. Or, something did. They broke up just around that time.”
“And you think it was this accusation?”
“I’m not sure. It could be just one of those things. In a closed system like ours relationships get heated fast. Sometimes too fast to realize they won’t work. But Susan and Diane patched it up, somehow. Diane respected what it took for her to make the report, thank God. You can imagine how difficult that kind of fight makes things. Here’s your room.”
Regina stopped and opened a door, one in a long row that all looked the same. These rooms were for visitors and new workers. No point giving them the better housing until they looked like staying. She handed Jaguar her key card, and the two women stepped inside.
Jaguar looked around. Her bags were already there. Other than that there was a bed. A desk. A bathroom. A kitchenette with a tiny refrigerator, a toaster oven, microwave, and a hot plate. She remembered the set up from her first six months here. That, at least, hadn’t changed, except for the small black circle on the ceiling she recognized as surveillance equipment, and a black box on the wall she knew as an intercom.
“Cozy,” she said.
“I know it’s not much, but you can take your meals in the dining halls, and this way,” she pointed at the circle, “we can keep an eye on you.”
“Right,” Jaguar said. “What’s that for?” she pointed at the intercom.
“So you can reach security quickly, or for security to reach you if they see trouble headed your way.”
“Can I turn it off?”
Regina raised her eyebrows. “Why would you want to?”
“So I
