Tora was about Kim’s height, with auburn hair drawn back, full lips, full breasts pressing against the coveralls. She had her father’s dark, intense eyes. Looking into them, Kim could almost focus down, eliminate everything else, and believe she was seeing the old starship captain. “I appreciate your making time to talk to me,” she said, taking the outstretched hand.
“My pleasure.” Tora glanced from Kim to the taxi. “Have I won something?”
A gust of wind blew across them. “I was wondering if I could ask some questions about your father,” said Kim.
“Ah,” she said, as if she should have realized. “May I ask what your interest is?”
“Emily Brandywine was my sister.”
Muscles worked in her throat. “I should have recognized the name. And the face.”
“I’d like very much to find out what happened to her.”
“Of course.” Tora turned back toward the bay entrance and Kim could not see her expression. “I wish I could help. But I just don’t know anything. When they came back on the Hunter, my father stayed on board to see to the entry procedures. The other three got off, and he never saw them again.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but may I ask how?”
“Because he told me. Don’t you think he was upset by it all? Everything happened at the same time, the disaster at the village, the loss of Tripley, the missing women.” The wind tried to push them toward the excavation. “Why don’t you send the cab away and come inside?” she said.
Kim did and Tora led the way back to the shelter. “It’s not very comfortable,” she observed, “but it’s out of the cold.” She opened the door, and Kim stepped into a flow of warm air.
It was musty and cramped. One room plus a washroom. Maps of the waterfront area covered the walls. Two tables were stacked with jars, electrical artifacts, coins, tools, candles, toys, small pieces of statuary. “How’s it going?” asked Kim.
“Not bad. We think we’ve uncovered Gabrielli’s private residence.”
“Gabrielli?”
“One of Hox’s advisors. If it’s true, we may finally be able to find out why they had Rentzler murdered. Well, you don’t care about that.” She held a heated cloth to her face, offered one to Kim, and sat down in a canvas chair. “Kim,” she said, her tone suddenly regretful, “we all lost people in that business. I won’t pretend that what happened to my father and me compares to losing your sister the way you did, but his life disintegrated too.”
“In what way?”
“A lot of people were dead. There was talk about antimatter. Everybody else who’d been on the mission vanished. It all sounded like a conspiracy. And people like to have someone to blame. He was the only one left alive, at least the only one they could find. So they blamed him.”
“It doesn’t appear in the record.”
“His friends got cold. People he’d known for years backed away from him, looked the other way when they met on the street. Some tried to get up a lawsuit but there was no proof. Eventually he left the valley, but it followed him. Forgive me, but people like you would show up asking questions. No accusations, but the implications were always there.
“My father was a decent man, Kim. He’d never hurt anybody, and he wouldn’t have been part of any of the things that were being talked about.”
“Like stealing fuel cells.”
“Yes. Like stealing fuel cells.” Tora got up, poured a couple of cups of coffee, and held one out to Kim. “I’m afraid I just don’t know anything that would help.”
Two people came in, got introduced, went back out. Kim said: “You don’t think there’s any connection between the return of the Hunter and the Mount Hope event?”
“I don’t. I can understand why people want to tie them together. But they checked the Hunter. All the antimatter that should have been there was there. Everybody forgets that. My father did nothing wrong. He had everything he wanted in life. He had no reason to steal fuel cells. Or anything else.”
“So what do you think happened?”
“I don’t have a theory. I know my father was ruined by it all. He never piloted another ship. Did you know that?”
“Yes,” she said. “I did.”
“With Tripley dead, the Foundation halted its flights, and nobody else would hire him. Oh, they didn’t mention Mount Hope. Just don’t need any captains right now, thank you.
“Look, Kim, I know it hurts. But if you want my advice, let go.”
“You had a call from Dr. Flexner, Kim.”
She took off her jacket and dropped it over the sofa. “Okay, Shep. See if you can reach him.”
“It was just a few minutes ago. He was in his office.”
She picked up a glass of apple juice and slipped into her commchair.
“He seemed upset,” Shepard added.
“In what way?”
“Irritable. Angry. Anyway, we have a connection.”
The walls vanished and she was sitting in Matt’s office. He did indeed look a trifle mussed. “Hi, Matt,” she said.
“Hello, Kim.” He was seated behind his desk, writing. “I’ve got a question for you,” he said, not looking up but putting the pen down.
“Go ahead.”
Now his eyes rose to meet hers. “What did you do to Benton Tripley?”
“What do you mean?”
“I got called in by Phil this morning. He apparently got a call from Tripley. Tripley is in a rage.”
“Why?”
“It wasn’t exactly clear why. But it has to do with you. When you were making the presentation, did you ask him about the Mount Hope incident?”
“We talked about it.”
“Did you imply that his father was involved in criminal activity?”
She tried to remember the conversations. “No,” she said. “Why would I do something like that?”
“That was going to be my question.”
“It didn’t happen.”
“Good. Because whatever benefit we got from giving him the Morton Cable Award, we’ve more than lost.”
“Matt—”
“Did you really break into his house?”
“No!”
“He says you did.”
Kim felt her temper rising. Take a deep breath and don’t lose control. “I looked at the property in the Severin Valley. But it’s not his place anymore. That whole area’s abandoned.”
“Are you sure about the details? Did you check out the ownership before you went in?”
“No—”
“That’s what I thought. The director had to apologize to him this morning.”
“Apologize?” Tripley’s image took shape in her mind. He was smiling. “What for? Whatever the paperwork says, the place is abandoned.”
“Tripley thinks the Institute’s sticking its nose into his business.” Matt sighed. “Kim, we’ve assured him there’s a misunderstanding somewhere, and that the matter is ended. I don’t know what this is all about. But it is ended, right?”
“Matt, this is something I’ve been doing on my own.”
“No, Kim. You don’t do anything on your own. You’re a representative of the Institute. For God’s sake, you speak for us a couple of times a week.” His gaze hardened. “You will back away and not go near any of this again. Do you understand?”
She returned his stare. “Matt, I talked to one of the Interstellar technicians yesterday. About the repairs made on the Hunter after they came back. He lied to me.”
“How do you know?”
“I could see it in his face.”
“Good. That’ll hold up if anybody questions you—”
“Listen, if there’s nothing to any of this, why is Tripley so bent out of shape? What’s he hiding?”
“That’s easy. A lot of people died out there. In the explosion. If it were to be shown that his father was in some way liable, there’d be a hundred lawsuits against the estate.”