Part 28 (2/2)

Someone spoke to me, came near, and I shouted, ”Let me alone! Get away from me!” A moment later, I realized that I had shouted at Wright, my first. I had told him to go away. Stupid of me. Stupid!

I looked up at him, saw that he was already backing away, not wanting to go but going.

”I'm sorry,” I said. ”Stay here, Wright. Stay near me while I finish this.”

I breathed deeply for a moment, then turned back to Theodora and tried again. I rolled her from her back onto her side so that I could see and smell whatever had been trapped under her. The significant odors were more blood, of course, and the scents of five more people. Again, I recognized some of them-three of the five. Through the night, then, nineteen people had had enough contact with Theodora to leave their scents on her-nineteen people, any one of whom might be her murderer. I would have to find each of them and speak to them or to their Ina.

I stood up, finally, and went on looking at my dead Theodora. I would have to go to her daughter and son-in-law and tell them that she was dead. They couldn't know everything, but they had a right to know that. After I found her killer, I would go to her family.

I looked around for Martin. He was still there. The onlookers had gone away, but Martin and my four symbionts still waited.

”Has anyone left the community today?” I asked.

He shook his head. ”Not that I know of.”

”Could someone have left without your knowing?”

”Of course. I have to sleep, too, girl.”

And William Gordon had bitten him early this morning. I looked back at Theodora. ”I don't know what should be done with the dead, Martin.”

”She should be cleaned up, given a funeral, and ... well, buried. We have our own cemetery here.”

I still didn't know what to do. Theodora should be prepared for burial. A memorial service of some kind should be arranged. Her killer should be caught, should be killed. And yet in a few hours the Council of Judgment would begin its second night, and I would have to be there.

”Shori, girl,” Martin said. He spoke with such gentleness that I wanted to run away from him. I could not dissolve emotionally and lose myself in grief. I did not dare. There was no time.

”Shori, we'll take care of her body. We'll prepare her for burial. We can have services for her after the Council is over. You go find out who did this. That's what you want to do, isn't it?”

I looked at him, and all I could do was nod.

”Leave her to us.” He almost turned away, then stopped and drew a deep breath. ”Two things, Shori. They're important.”

”All right,” I said.

He looked down and met my gaze with a different expression-harder, unhappy, but determined.

”Tell me, Martin,” I said. ”You've been a friend. Go ahead and say whatever it is that you don't want to say.”

He nodded. ”Don't kill anyone. No matter how certain you are that you've found the right person, don't kill. Not yet. Chances are, the murderer is one of the visitors-one of the Gordon family's guests. You are more than a guest. You'll be mated to the sons of the family in a few years. But still ... Tell Preston or Hayden what's happened before you take a life.”

I stared at him, unable to answer at first. Until that moment, if I had learned that Martin himself had killed Theodora, I'm not sure I could have stopped myself from killing him. And yet, I understood on some murky emotional level and from slivers of recovered memory that it would be a serious offense against the Gordons to kill one of their guests. I couldn't remember anyone ever doing such a thing, but I felt enough horror and disgust at the thought of doing it to know that I must not.

”I won't kill anyone,” I said finally.

Another nod.

”And don't bite anyone.”

That one was even harder. But I could see the reason for it. If I found the killer, he or she would be the symbiont of someone here. Again, I knew-again without understanding fully how I knew-that it would be wrong to interfere with someone else's symbiont.

”The Ina might be the guilty one,” I said. ”Probably would be.”

”All the more reason not to abuse the symbiont.”

”I won't bite unless someone attacks me,” I said. ”I would rather bite than break bones or tear flesh.” And I walked away from him. My symbionts followed me.

When we were alone, Wright pulled me to him and hugged me and held me for a while. I felt as though I wanted to stay that way, safe with him, breathing his good, familiar scent. It mattered more than I would have thought possible that he was alive, that he loved me and wanted somehow to comfort me. I knew that if I let him, he would take me home and put me to bed and stay with me until I fell asleep. I knew he would do that because I had come to know him that well. I longed to let him do that.

But there was no time. If possible, by the time tonight's Council session began, I wanted to know who had killed Theodora. I wanted to prevent the murderer from leaving or killing anyone else, and I wanted to put this new crime before the Council to see whether they would deal with it. If they didn't, I would.

I pushed back from Wright and realized that he had lifted me off the ground and was holding me so that I could look at him almost at eye level. I kissed the side of his mouth, then kissed his mouth and said, ”Put me down.”

He set me on my feet. ”What do you want us to do?” he asked.

And I almost disintegrated again. He understood. Of course he did. ”I need you to stay together,” I said. ”Protect one another.” I looked at each of them, missing immediately the face that was not there. ”I don't know whether Theodora's murder has anything to do with the other attempts on us or with Council of Judgment, but it seems likely.” I paused. It hurt to say her name. I took a breath and went on. ”Go talk to Jill Renner sym Wayne. She spent some time with Theodora last night and left her scent for me to find. She wouldn't have hurt Theodora, but she might have seen her having trouble with someone or leaving a party with someone. Was there a party at Wayne's house last night?”

”Sym Wayne?” Wright said, frowning. ”Is that how you say it, then, when someone is a symbiont? That's what happens to our names? We're sym Shori?”

”You are,” I said.

”Something you remembered?”

”No. Something I learned from hearing people talk. What about Wayne's house? Was there a party?”

”Not at Wayne's,” Celia said. ”But there was a party at Edward's and a big party at Philip's. Jill, Theodora, and I were at both of them. Theodora was a little shy at first, and she kind of hung out with me at Edward's. We ate there and talked with a lot of people. But at Philip's she met a couple of guys. They got her dancing, and the three of them just sort of stayed together, dancing and flirting and enjoying themselves.”

Wright frowned at Celia as though she had said something wrong, but Celia ignored him.

”Who were the two men?” I asked.

”A couple of older guys. I don't know their names or who their Ina is. They were both graying, maybe five-ten, well built. They could have been brothers. They looked a lot alike.”

”Did you touch them?” I asked. ”Shake hands or squeeze past them?” She shook her head.

”Tell me what you can about them. See them in your memory, and tell me what you see.” We were walking toward Wayne's house where Jill Renner was probably still asleep.

Celia frowned and looked desperate for a moment, as though she were grasping for something that she couldn't quite reach but had to reach. She glanced at me, then closed her eyes, focusing, remembering. Finally she said, ”They both had the same salt-and-pepper hair-black with a lot of white. One of them had a mustache. It was salt-and-pepper, too. They aren't with the Gordons. I'm sure of that. Westfall! I think they're the two male Westfall symbionts. The rest of the Westfall syms are women. These guys talk like they've been here for a long time, but every now and then you could hear a little English accent ...” She let her voice trail away. Then she said, ”The one with the mustache, he has a scar on his forehead, or maybe it's a birthmark. I'm not sure which. I don't know how big it is. It starts just below the hairline and goes back into the hair. It's a red oval, or I think it would have been oval if I could have seen all of it.”

”All right,” I said. ”Relax. I know who you mean. I've never spoken to them, but I saw them and got their scent when the Westfalls arrived. Their scents were on Theodora. You're right. They probably are brothers. I'll find them. The rest of you go talk to Jill Renner.”

”Let me stay with you,” Joel said. ”I know a lot of the visitors, and they know me. I might be able to help.”

I glanced up at him and nodded. ”You three, watch out for one another.”

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