Only a few remembered Mayor Kelton. It had been, after all, thirty-three years since he'd disappeared during that ill-fated hunting trip. There were two or three around town who'd been staff people at that time. They couldn't find a kind word to say for him. The mayor had been affable and easygoing in public, and a tyrant behind the scenes. He had a short temper, grabbed the credit for everything, never talked to his people except to criticize. "I hated working for him," one of the former staffers told us. "But I wanted a political career, and he was the only set of coattails in the area." Another admitted to having experienced a sense of relief when he'd disappeared. "I felt guilty about it," she said. "But I can't say I was sorry he was gone." Never heard from again. It was the hallmark of people who'd gotten in trouble with the authorities. They
went for a walk and didn't come home. In fact, though, blowing up houses was not an aberration. We combed through twenty-seven years of Aramy Cleev rule and found that the tactic was used on a regular basis. In several of the other instances, it seemed clear that the houses had been taken out to ensure that potentially embarrassing information hadn't gone public. Occasionally, the method had been employed simply to send a message. One older woman, who had served as a consultant, still seemed frightened when discussing the event. "My generation," she said, "will never feel completely comfortable talking politics. You just can't be sure he won't come back." "Kelton?" "Aramy Cleev. Some of the family is still around, and there are a lot of people who'd like to see them return to power." She lowered her voice. "There's talk they have a clone stashed away somewhere. Waiting." She looked past me into that long-gone world. "Why do you think it happened?" Alex asked her. "What possible reason could Nicorps have had?" "I don't know, Mr. Benedict." We were in a modest restaurant across the street from City Hall. It was the middle of the afternoon, so there weren't many customers. In fact, other than us, only two. "In those days there didn't necessarily have to be a reason. People just went away." "Did the mayor ever seem fearful? Did he ever talk about the possibility that something like this might happen?" "Not that I knew about, no." She stirred her tea and looked pained. Frightened. "It strikes me," I said, "that going into politics in that kind of system was dangerous." Across the street a skimmer was landing on the City Hall pad. She watched it set down, and a young couple climbed out. "Probably going to get a marriage license," she said. Then: "No. It wasn't really dangerous. There was a lot of corruption. But as long as you played along, didn't make any noise, you were fine. I didn't have any power, so Nicorps didn't even notice I was there." "Did Cleev himself run for office?" "Oh, sure. Every five years. Like clockwork. The Cleevs always pretended we were a republic. They held elections. And they always won big. Like ninety-nine percent of the vote. But nobody ever said anything about it." She grew thoughtful. "Except Katy Doyle." "What happened to her?" "She was running for mayor. This was before Bill's time. Anyhow, she lost. Almost unanimously. A short time later, she issued a statement about how she'd been wrong about Cleev, and what a great leader he was. Then she left town. We never knew what happened to her. I'm pretty sure she was trying to get clear, but I don't know whether she succeeded." The young couple bounced up the walkway and into the building. I remember thinking they didn't look old enough to be getting married. "One more question," said Alex. "Okay." "It'll seem like a strange one." "That's all right." "His wife. Did you know her?" "Oh, yes. We all knew Jennifer." "Did either of them, Jennifer or Bill, ever talk about far-out stuff? Like aliens? Or the Lantner asteroid? Anything at all like that?" "I'm not sure what the Lantner asteroid is. But, no. The mayor spent his time hunting, playing cards, and socializing. Other than politics, that was all he cared about. And Jenny? I didn't really know her that well, but she seemed to have both feet on the ground."
Quantum Labs had gone out of business years before, but there were still a couple of people on the faculty at Travis who remembered Jennifer. "She was okay," one of them told us. "She was quiet. Reserved. I don't think she ever felt comfortable in a classroom. But she had a pretty good reputation as a physicist." He looked hard at us, wondering
whether to say more. Then, what the hell, he plowed ahead: "Bill didn't like her much. He was always running around. Cheated on her. Not that it matters now, I guess. But you never saw them together. Except at weddings or funerals." He looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. Speaking ill of the dead and all that. But you asked." "Any idea what happened that night? At their house?" "You mean the explosion?" "Yes." "We always assumed her husband had gotten in over his head somewhere, and Nicorps simply took him out." He shrugged. "Unfortunately for Jenny, she got caught in the blast. Although when Nicorps got involved, everybody got caught in the blast." "Did you ever hear any kind of explanation? What he might have done to get in trouble?" "No. Nothing. Alex, the mayor took care of number one. It always surprised me, what happened, because I would have thought he'd have been the last to run afoul of the security people. But he must have offended somebody ." We were in his office, which he shared with two other instructors. One, a young woman, picked that moment to come in. We did a round of introductions, then she excused herself, glad to meet you, sorry to run off. She picked up a set of notes and was gone. Alex was leaning against a windowsill. "Did either of them have any connection to Edward Demery?" he asked. "Aha. I should have guessed that was coming. And the answer is no. None that I know of." "Not Jennifer either?" "They knew each other. Beyond that, I'm not aware of anything." "Did she have any connection with the Lantner ?" He had to think about it. "The ship that disappeared, right? No. What does that have to do with anything?" "Probably nothing." "Yes. I just don't know of a reason. Both houses were hit the same night. Nicorps probably just had its assassination squads out. Take care of everybody at once. You know they weren't the only people hit? There were fifteen or sixteen other places they got. All around the region." "We know." He shook his head. "It was probably more economical to blow them all up at the same time."
The young man who'd died that night visiting the Keltons was Jaris Cole. All these years later, his mother still carried the pain in her eyes. "You don't get past something like that," she told me. "It's the one thing in my life that I'd change if I could. And the only thing that really mattered." She was an ordinary-looking woman, quiet, introverted, with a resigned smile. Her husband had died a few years after the incident, and there'd been no other children. "At the time," she said, "Jaris was about to marry Marinda. The mayor's daughter. She was a pretty little thing. Would have made a perfect-" She stopped, bit her lip, and waved it away. "The date was set." We were seated in an overlook, protected from the weather, watching the forest absorb a light rain. Alex had stayed away, assuming she'd be more open with me. "You'd have liked her, Chase." "I'm sure I would." "Not at all like her mother." "You didn't like Jennifer?" "Jennifer was all right, I suppose. Not the kind of woman you could get close to, though. But as the wedding date approached, we got to working together, planning things. It was a good time." "I'm sure it was." "We actually became friends." The wind blew some rain in on us, but she didn't seem to mind. "One day we met in the Sunlight Diner, over near the park. You could see it from here if the trees didn't get in the way. We wanted to talk about the details of the ceremony. There'd been a problem about that. The Keltons weren't very religious. The mayor pretended to be, because people wouldn't have voted for him if they knew what he really thought. But Jennifer was the decision-maker in the family, and she was dead