Read The Domino Pattern for Free Online Page A

hesitated. “Terese,” she said. “Terese German.”
    “Frank Compton,” I introduced myself in return. “How well did you know Master Colix?”
    “Hardly at all,” Terese said, looking at Kennrick again.
    “You didn’t talk to him?” Kennrick asked.
    Terese hunched her shoulders. “Mostly I read or listened to music.”
    “But you must have at least occasionally talked to him,” Kennrick persisted. “You’ve been sitting together for the past two weeks, after all.”
    “He’s the one who did all the talking,” Terese growled. “Mostly about his job. Oh, and he showed me a few holos of his family, too.”
    “He was married?” I asked.
    A shadow of something crossed her face. “No, they were pictures of his parents and brothers,” she said.
    “Are you married?” Kennrick asked.
    “Is that any of your business?” she countered stiffly, giving him an icy look.
    “I was just wondering if you were traveling alone.” he said in a tone of slightly wounded innocence.
    “Then ask that,” the girl bit out.
    “Our apologies,” I said hastily. “ Are you traveling alone?”
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Do you remember Master Colix mentioning feeling ill prior to tonight?” I asked.
    “Not to me,” she said. She let her glare linger on Kennrick another couple of seconds, apparently making sure he got the message, then looked back at me. “As far as I could tell, he felt fine. At least, up to a couple of hours ago.”
    “What did he say?” I asked.
    “Nothing,” she said. “But he was shifting in his seat a lot and making these funny noises.”
    “What kind of noises? What did they sound like?”
    “Mostly uncomfortable-sounding grunts,” she said. “Like his stomach was bothering him.”
    I gestured toward her abdomen. “Like the way your stomach was bothering you a minute ago?”
    “It’s not the same thing.” she said tartly.
    “How do you know?” I countered.
    “I’ve got some stomach trouble, that’s all,” she insisted. “Nothing I’m going to die from.”
    “Okay,” I said, wondering if Colix had been thinking the same thing up to the point where the doctors started poking hypos into him. “What happened then?”
    “I was just wondering it I should give up and go to the bar for a while to get away from the noise when he got out of his seat and headed back to his friends,” she said.
    “How long ago was this?” Kennrick asked.
    “Like I said, a couple of hours,” she told him.
    “Any chance you can pin it down a little more closely?” he asked.
    “No, I can’t,” she said. “I was trying to sleep. I wasn’t exactly looking at my watch.”
    “That’s all right,” I assured her. “Did anything in particular happen just prior to that time? Had he just returned from the dining car, or had a snack?”
    “Or had he been talking to anyone other than you and his other seatmate?” Kennrick asked.
    “He hadn’t been anywhere or done anything that I saw.” Terese nodded at Kennrick. “And the only visitor I saw was you.”
    I frowned at Kennrick. “You were back here this evening?”
    “Early afternoon,” he corrected. “I was working on the plans for a traditional Shorshic halfway-celebration meal for next week and wanted Master Colix’s advice on menu and procedure.”
    “I low long was this before the uncomfortable grunts started?” I asked Terese.
    “Oh, hours,” she said. “He had dinner afterwards. And if he had any snacks, I didn’t see them.”
    Dead end. “Did Master Colix go anywhere else this evening? Maybe back to talk with his colleagues a couple of rows back?”
    “No.” Terese hesitated. “Actually, I had the feeling he didn’t get along too well with them.”
    “How so?”
    “For one thing, he didn’t want to sit with them,” she said. “The Nemut in the aisle seat offered to trade with him right after we left Homshil, but he turned him down.”
    I looked at Kennrick. “And you didn’t notice any of this undercurrent during