In my part of the city, if someone had to be questioned, they’d be grabbed, runed, and dragged to the station of the guard where the authorities would spend hours interrogating them in less than pleasant surroundings. Here, interrogations were called witness statements and were conducted in a very different fashion.

I followed detective Nixen by the building to where a pagoda had been built. A person in a H-Sec uniform handed a glass of water to the grieving widow. I instantly recognized her from the images I’d seen on the holopane. The woman was a decade younger than her husband, dressed in a stunning violet dress in an attempt to hide her plainness. It was strange that she didn’t seem to have any jewelry or tech accessories on. On the other hand, I couldn’t sense any traces of tears on her face either.

Seeing me, the woman pulled away from the H-Sec agent, making a sign for the large man behind her to approach. The expensive suit screamed lawyer. The sea-dragon skin shoes suggested he charged a small fortune per hour.

“Is that an uncharted?” the lawyer asked after his brief conversation with the widow.

“Yes. Yes, he is.” The detective didn’t blink. “He’s a consultant on this case.”

“I find that hardly appropriate.” The lawyer looked at me as if I were a piece of rotten seaweed. “Miss Kode has just gone through an extremely traumatic experience and could do without further aggravations.”

“Seriously, mom?” a girl sitting a space away asked. She had inherited a lot of her mother’s plainness, desperately trying to mask it beneath a messy rage-against-the-system look. If I could describe her in two words, it would be “trustfund rebel”—a bored child from a rich family trying to be everything her parents weren’t. “Instead of apologizing to him for taking his world, you have your lawyer shoo him away?”

“Marshia.” The widow pursed her lips. “This is hardly the time.”

“Neptune Waters happens to be one of the best seers in the city,” Clayton’s familiar voice came from behind. “I specifically invited him to join this investigation to find your husband’s murderer as quickly as possible. After all, that’s what we all want, isn’t it?”

I could smile if I weren’t the center of attention. Clayton had a knack for using awkwardness to beat anyone into submission. It wasn’t that he had clout or considerable political connections, but rather, he’d present things in such a way that would make it a faux pa for anyone to disagree.

“I can’t even imagine what you must be going through now.” Clayton approached the widow. My guess was that he was lying through his teeth. Judging by Nixen’s expression, she was thinking the same. “Let’s just finish taking your statements so you and your family could grieve in peace.”

While he tapped on his watch to open an official inquiry holopane, I glanced through the rest of the suspects.

Other than the widow and the daughter, there was a man in his late twenties. He was too old to be Kode’s other child, which suggested that he had to be a friend of the deceased. Or maybe he was friendly with his wife?

“You stated that you found your husband early in the morning?” Clay asked.

“Yes.” The widow looked away. “Janas tended to work late and came at all hours. I guess I expected today to be no different.”

“Let me just be clear. You did not hear your husband enter your apartment, or did you?”

“No. I was just making my way to the grove when I…” She sniffled, covering her face with a handkerchief in such a way that would make third rate actresses recoil. “He was just lying there.”

For a fraction of a second, Marshia glanced down, then up again. In that sliver of time, I recognized the glint of shame that flickered within her eye. She was definitely hiding something. The question was whether it was related to the murder of the Kode’s life in general.

“Did your husband bring any work home?” Clayton continued.

“No.” The widow stiffened. “Never.”

“Did he mention having any issues at work?”

“My client has a signed NDA regarding all matters related to Ellcron,” the lawyer interjected. “I would advise you to stop that line of questioning.”

No luck there. Corporations had the habit of wrapping their employees with more legal requirements than seaweed in the ocean. Having the person’s wife included as part of the packet suggested that mister Kode was involved in some rather important things within his company.

I redirected my attention to the last suspect. His posture was tense, even stiff, making it obvious he regretted being caught in such a situation. My instincts screamed that he was the one that we should be pressing. A common trait of opportunists was that they had no loyalties, especially towards their targets.

“Did your husband seem troubled or concerned lately?” Clayton asked.

“No.” The woman turned to the lawyer. “He had his ups or downs, but he didn’t look any different than usual. Well, he was upset with the money Marshia was spending on causes, but—”

“So, there were disagreements between your husband and your daughter?” Detective Nixen asked.

The standard good cop, bad cop routine. What I found more interesting was that this time, the lawyer didn’t step in.

“There were arguments, yes. But if you’re insinuating that my daughter had anything to do with the death of my—”

“I’m sure that detective Nixen had no such intention,” Clayton said. “When did you see your husband last?” he asked.

The widow and the daughter looked at each other.

“I think it was yesterday noon,” the widow said. “Janas had been working a lot lately, so we agreed to have lunch together in Paris. It’s a small restaurant near the Pavilion Center.”

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“Thank you.” Clytan paused as the holopane opened a city map and plotted the location. “And you, miss?” he turned to the daughter.

“It’s been days. I’m asleep when he goes to work, so…” she shrugged. “The last time we saw each other, I asked him to make a donation to the Free Seas initiative. He refused, so I shouted at him…” tears sparkled in the corners of his eyes. “I told him I wish he was dead.”

“Marshia—” the widow began, but was quickly interrupted by the lawyer.

“My client meant that purely figuratively. Her statement is not to be considered a threat or used as an excuse for further questioning.”

“Understood, councilor. And his son?” As Clayton asked, the image of Celsius Kode emerged on the screen. He seemed remarkably normal, considering the rest of his family. From what I was able to see, he was listed as unemployed, but with parents that rich, that wasn’t an issue. “Was he in contact with mister Kode?”

“Cel lives alone.” The widow was quick to say. “He and his father have never been close. I don’t think they’ve spoken in years. Cel considers himself something of an artist. Paradrawing at present. He quit sand drawing a few months ago and glassworks a few months before that. This last week he’s been on an extremely expensive retreat where he’s been jumping from air balloons all day.”

“That sounds interesting. And you, sir?” Clayton turned to the man. “I understand you’re a friend to the family?”

“Err, yes.” The man hesitated. “I’ve been close to them, yes.”

“Could you clarify the nature of your relationship?”

That was a nice touch. Clayton had subtly changed the focus from the victim to the entire family.

“I’m miss Kode’s economics tutor. Her parents expressed a desire that she learns the basics so as to get a good start in life.” He reached into his trousers pocket and took out a crystal business card case. “Here’s my card. I’m with Icemore University.”

“Icemore?” Clayton took the card. “And do you have anything to add to the situations?”

“No. Nothing I could think of?”

Even why you’re spending the night in Kode’s place? I laughed internally. If I knew Clayton, he’d give him just enough rope to hang himself later on.

“Thank you.” Clayton stopped the holopabe. “That would be all. If we have any news, we’ll be sure to inform you as quickly as possible.”

“Did Janas use charm uppers a lot?” I asked casually.

The question couldn’t have been more shocking if I had tried. Everyone from the deceased’s family to H-Sec stared at me. Even the lawyer was at a loss for words. Others in my place would be worried that I’d face serious consequences. Being an uncharted water spirit, I had no such fear. There wasn’t much I could lose anyway—at worst my pass would be revoked and I’d be thrown back in the slums where I lived. If someone wanted to be particularly nasty, they could banish me out of the city itself, but in a case such as this that would bring more questions that it was worth hurting me.

“Y-you!” The widow stood up and rushed to me before anyone could react. “How dare you!” She gave me a sharp slap in the face. Considering her size, it was stronger than expected. Then again, it wasn’t the first time I’d gotten one of those. “My husband had his faults, but he was a senior researcher and an esteemed member of this city! He’s achieved more than your king can dream of!”

She briskly walked away, still trembling. A few moments later, once the shock effect had expired, the lawyer followed.

“Thank you. That would be all.” Clayton smiled, downplaying the whole thing in his typical fashion. “Thank you for your statements.”

He passed by me, walking away from the pavilion. His colleague was less than understanding. The glare she gave me was enough to burn through steel.

“You’re a bastard,” she hissed. “This’ll be one shitstorm. We’ll be dealing with lawyers till the end of the case just because you couldn’t shut up.”

“There’ll be no lawyers,” I said, heading after Clayton. “If anyone was serious, they’d say it now. Besides, she knew about her husband’s habit.”

“How do you know that?”

“She’s using as well. When she slapped me, I felt the essence on her fingers. Uppers, sexers, and a few other charms. A lot taken in the last day.”

“You’re telling me she could be the target?” the Nixen blinked.

“I’ve no idea. I just know that she’s been using charms.”

We went to the rune carriage in silence. H-sec had opened the security cordon of the area, which meant that in addition to every vehicle already here, we could expect a heavy media presence to descend upon us like vultures on a corpse.

I was quickly shoved in the back of the carriage. Rune charms activated, making the window panes opaque from the outside. I could guess that having my face on every news report and article next to a murder headline wasn’t going to be well received by H-Sec of the powers that be. That suited me just fine.

“Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch.” Clayton took the driver’s seat. “The lieutenant approved your transfer, by the way. There’s still some paperwork needed, but it’ll all be sorted by tomorrow.”

“If he’s not kicked off the case by then,” Nixen took the other front seat, slamming the carriage door as she entered. “You sure you want to risk our careers on him?

Clayton chuckled.

“I’m sure Waters won’t put the case at risk, will you, Waters?”

“No, sir. No risk at all.” I said, switching to the stereotypical water spirit accent.

“So, what do you think?”

“About the case?” I took out a charm from my pocket.

Similar to the unfortunate victim, I also used recreational charms. The difference was that mine was custom-made to keep the nightmares at bay. The slight high was merely a side effect, and lately it wasn’t much of a high. Of course, I had no intention of telling Clayton that, nor did I intend to use illicit charms in the back of a H-Sec car. The charm I was about to use was a memory charm—it created a small crystalized water crystal of all recent memories and stored it within my body.

“It’s murder alright.” I pressed the jagged piece of crystal against my forehead. It disappeared with a faint cyan glow. Invisible to everyone else, a new crystal formed within my gut. “The family’s massively messed up, but I don’t think any of them killed him. I know that all of them were lying.”

“Shocking,” Nixen grunted.

“The widow found the husband while he was alive. My guess is that he surprised her as she was preparing to have sex with a lover, though not the so-called teacher. They probably got into an argument, which was probably why Janas took a charm. I guess that’s when the daughter woke up and helped cover up things.”

I leaned back, closing my eyes. The lack of sleep was getting to me again.

“That’s a lot of guesswork.” Nixen didn’t sound impressed.

“You’ll see. Your RU guys will tell you that Janas died in the kitchen and had some sort of case with him. Anything else?”

“Good old Waters,” Clayton laughed. “Glad to have you aboard, my friend.”

The next step was to check out Janas’ place of work. Given who we were dealing with, even H-Sec would likely take a day to cut through the walls of legal paperwork required for a visit. With me involved, it might take even longer.

“I want to be there when you go to Ellcron,” I said.

“Joker.” Nixen scoffed. “They’d burn the building down before they let an uncharted set foot in their lobby.”

“Which is why they’ll be focusing more on me and less on your questions.”

It was a weak argument, but caused both to clam down. If I were them, I’d be thinking of ways to use my distraction to their advantage. There was a high chance that I would be asked to bring in some device within my body.

“I’ll run it by the Lt,” Clayton said. “Until then, lay low.”

“Your word is my command. Can you just drop me off back home? I prefer not to attract too much attention on my first day.”