Read Starbase Human for Free Online Page A

Deshin might have killed the woman. DeRicci firmly believed that was possible.
    It was something else entirely. “Luc Deshin needed a nanny?”
    “He married a few years ago,” Brodeur said, as he ran some kind of scanner slightly above the body. He watched what he was doing. He didn’t look at DeRicci. “I guess he and the wife had kids.”
    “And didn’t like the nanny.” DeRicci whistled. “Talk about a high stress job.”
    She glanced at that room filled with the employees who had found the body. There was a lot of work to be done here, but none of it was as important as catching Deshin by surprise with this investigation.
    If he killed this Sonja Mycenae, then he would be expecting the police’s appearance. But he might not expect the police so soon.
    Or maybe he had always used the waste crates to dump his bodies. No one had ever been able to pin a murder on him.
    Perhaps this was why.
    She needed to leave. But before she did, she sent a message to Lake. Only she sent it using the standard police links, not the encoded link any other officer would use with her partner. She wanted it on record that Lake hadn’t shown up yet.
    Rayvon, you need to get here ASAP. There are employees to interview. I’m following a lead, but someone has to supervise the crime scene unit. Someone sent Deputy Coroner Brodeur and he doesn’t have supervisory authority.
    She didn’t wait for Lake’s response. Before he said anything, she sent another message to her immediate supervisor, Chief of Detectives Andrea Gumiela, this time through an encoded private link.
    This case has ties to Deshin Enterprises , DeRicci sent. I’m going there now, but we need a good team on this. It’s not some random death. This case needs to be done perfectly. Between Brodeur and Lake, we’re off to a bad start.
    She didn’t wait for Gumiela to respond either. In fact, after sending that message, DeRicci shut off all but her emergency links.
    She didn’t want Gumiela to tell her to stay on site, and she didn’t want to hear Lake’s invective when he realized she had essentially chastised him in front of the entire department.
    “Make sure no one leaves,” DeRicci said to Brodeur.
    He looked up, panicked. “I don’t have the authority.”
    “Pretend,” she snapped, and walked away from him.
    She needed to get to Luc Deshin, and she needed to get to him now.

 
     
     
     
    SIX
     
     
    LUC DESHIN GRABBED his long-waisted overcoat and headed down the stairs. So a police detective wanted to meet with him. He wished he found such things unusual. But they weren’t.
    The police liked to harass him. Less now than in the past. They’d had a frustrating time pinning anything on him.
    He always found it ironic that the crimes they accused him of were crimes he’d never think of committing, and the crimes he had committed—long ago and far away—were crimes they had never heard of.
    Now, all of his activities were legal. Just-inside-the-law legal, but legal nonetheless.
    Or so his cadre of lawyers kept telling the local courts, and the local judges—at least the ones he would find himself in front of—always believed his lawyers.
    So, a meeting like this, coming in the middle of the day, was an annoyance, and nothing more.
    He used his trip down the stairs to stay in shape. His office was a penthouse on the top floor of the building he’d built to house Deshin Enterprises years ago. He used to love that office, but he liked it less since he and his wife Gerda brought a baby into their lives.
    He smiled at the thought of Paavo. They had adopted him—sort of. They had drawn up some legal papers and wills that the lawyers assured him would stand any challenge should he and Gerda die suddenly.
    But Deshin and Gerda had decided against an actual adoption given Deshin’s business practices and his reputation in Armstrong. They were worried that some judge would deem them unfit, based on Deshin’s reputation.
    Plus, Paavo was the child of two