“I didn’t kill my father!” Celsius shouted in H-Sec’s interview room.

It had been half an hour since the rune carriages had flown myself, Celsius, and his girlfriend to their main office and still he kept sticking to his story. Given the delicate nature of the case, there wasn’t much even H-Sec could outright do due to the nature of Kode’s family NDA situation. Ellcron’s lawyers had made sure to tangle everything with so much legalese that they had proxy involvement with nearly the entire case.

“Fucking deviants,” detective Nixen said, looking at the suspect through the one-way wall. “I didn’t sign up for that crap.”

“And here I thought you had seen it all, detective,” I said. I had to agree with her, though. Flirting was expected, in some establishments even encouraged, but anything beyond that was a bit too far. Interestingly enough, it was always well-off people that were deviants. So far, I hadn’t even heard of a case in which someone with a busted credit score being a deviant.

“Think he did it?” the detective asked. “Or does your seer intuition say differently?”

I could have loved to give a definitive answer. The quick arrival of H-Sec had cut my conversation with the kid short. He had shared some interesting things, though not enough to come to a firm conclusion.

“He claims that he was there when it happened,” I said. “But didn’t do it.”

“Sure. Everyone caught claims to be innocent.”

To be honest, he did look good for it. The kid had a temper, a book load of psychological issues, and in addition to his obvious problems, financial troubles as well. Apparently, his father had cut him off completely. All the money he got was either from his mother or smuggled to him through his sister. With the death of Janas, he’d at least get a direct flow of money from his remaining parent, as long as he kept his affair discreet.

“He also claims that his father was crap at his job,” I went on. “On the verge of getting demoted even.”

“Oh?” That grabbed her interest, as I knew it would. “That’s not what Ellcron said.”

“And also that his father was the junkie in the family. A steady supply,” I stressed. A steady supply meant regular expenses.

“There’s nothing in his financials, even the ones tied up with Ellcron.”

I gave her a skeptical look.

Corporations were known to provide unusual entertainment for their top employees. If they were lying about Janas being highly talented, it was probably that they were lying about other things as well, including drug charms.

“I’ll get someone to look into Ellcron’s entertainment expenses regarding him. The kid’s still good for it. His father didn’t like the uncharted, so maybe junior had enough and decided to show him who’s the man? You can’t trust deviants.”

“Yep. You can’t trust them just as you can’t trust normal people. Where’s Clay?”

“Having a chat with the Lieutenant. Depending how this turns out, you might have gotten him in serious trouble or earned him a pat on the back. My money is on getting him in trouble?”

“Because I’m uncharted?”

“No. Because you’re you.”

She walked away. Seeing the way her hair waved as she walked almost made me regret she wasn’t a spirit. Though, even if she were, I doubt anything would have changed. The whole point about fantasizing was that most of one’s dreams weren’t meant to come true. Those who didn’t know that crossed the line or were condemned to a miserable life, sometimes both.

I redirected my attention back to the interrogation.

“You say that you had a fight?” The H-Sec agent paused for a moment. “A verbal fight with your father,” he quickly corrected himself, “after which, he took a charm and killed himself.”

“Yes!” Celsius grabbed the straw he was given. “No!” He said immediately after. “He didn’t kill himself. He did something that killed him.”

“Are you sure? You just said that he was upset with your relationship. Maybe he couldn’t live with the shame?”

“He was used to living in shame. That’s why he spent so much time at work. That’s why he brought stuff to do back home. He didn’t like us reminding him of the fuckup he turned out to be.”

“Wrong approach,” I said beneath my breath.

The interrogator was aiming to trick the kid with his own statements. It was a great approach that got most people to incriminate themselves. The problem was that it was a terrible method of getting the truth.

The door opened behind me. Initially, I thought that the charming detective Nixen had forgotten something. The person standing at the threshold was definitely not her. The crimson plated crest told me that he was a bit more important than the H-Sec people I’d been dealing with so far. The bar of metal pinned to his collar told me that he likely was Clayton’s boss.

“Lieutenant.” I nodded, acknowledging his authority.

That seemed to do the trick, for the man walked right next to me. His clothes were as casual as could be. That didn’t stop the fabric from costing a small fortune by local standards. Everything was important from Earth. No, it was more than that—everything felt freshly important, suggesting that if he wasn’t used to such clothes, someone in his family was.

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“That’s the guy you found?” the Lieutenant asked.

“Celsius Kode.” I nodded. “Messed up kid. He might have done it, but you won’t get anything out of him this way.”

“You suggest to pressure the girl?”

I couldn’t tell whether he was testing me or he genuinely was interested in my feedback. Just in case, I decided to play it safe. Relatively safe.

“Only if you’re for of gambling. He’s got a temper, so it might go either way.”

“You think you could get a better result?”

“I know it.”

“Tommy, clear out,” he said in his wristwatch. “Waters will take over.”

That was bound to ruffle a few feathers. Then again, my very presence in the building had done enough damage.

I made my way out of the room along the corridor and into the interrogation room. On the way, I didn’t miss a chance to get two cups of something from the free dispenser. Hopefully, it was organic and somewhat good.

“Hey again,” I said, opening the door with my elbow.

Celsius glared at me as I placed both cuts on the table, then took a seat.

“You don’t have to drink that,” I said off the bat. “I just like being close to something steaming,” I lied.

It was one of those lies that people had to think a bit before they could determine if they were false. In most of the cases, I was found out, but that didn’t matter—I had still made them think, and unlike spirits, humans were only able to focus on one topic at a time.

“If your father’s a mess-up, why is Ellcron defending him?” I leaned back. “They’ve even sent a lawyer now to defend their good name and intellectual property.”

“There was nothing intellectual about my father.” The kid gritted his teeth. “Maybe he was good at some point, but after marrying my mother, he became a lazy drone like everyone else.”

“Were they thinking of firing him?” He took the cup, held it for a few moments, wondering whether to take a sip or not. Ultimately, he didn’t put it back down, giving me every excuse to take hold of it and pull it my way.

Back in Clear Swamp I hadn’t had a chance to make a proper reading, not with Rain being so close in any event. Now the cup told me a lot of what I needed to know. I could tell he had no substance abuse issues, which was a surprise, and that he had been meddling with rune tech, though not charms.

“I made a deal for him to keep his shitty position.” A victorious, crooked smile formed on his face. “Would have been fun watching him get replaced by his degenerate son. Mom wouldn’t have taken the scandal well.”

“You got a job in Ellcron?”

“That’s why I was at the building a few days ago—to settle the deal.”

This was unexpected and also NDA territory. As long as I didn’t force him physically to give details, I was fine, but even so, I expected Ellcron’s lawyer to bust in any second.

“Old guard is losing his touch. I’ve learned more at school than the corporate drones learn, slacking in an office for fourteen hours straight.”

“You still became a drone.”

“They approached me. One of my dad’s lawyers saw me playing with tech one time when I was home. They’ve been recruiting me since then. Now I have a reason to say yes.”

I could imagine what it was. And that also pretty much shot the vengeful son theory. Celsius wasn’t having financial difficulties. If anything, both that and his peculiar tastes would have been dealt with by the corporation. What he really wanted, despite refusing to say it, was his father’s approval. Somehow, he was hoping that getting a job would make his father accept him sleeping around with an uncharted. There was no way that would happen.

“What did your father bring from work?” I pressed. “There was a trace of a suitcase container at the scene.”

“No idea. He practically lived with that thing. One time I tried to open it and—”

The door to the interrogation room swung open.

“That would be all.” The familiar dragon-shoe lawyer from the crime scene rushed into the room. He didn’t look like the type that rushed regularly, but I guess he had made an exception just this once. “Taking advantage of my client’s distraught state is a big no-no.”

“Your client?” I crossed my arms. “Isn’t he just your client’s son?”

“He’s my client as well, as you managed to pry out.” He tossed me a crystal shard with an official legal seal on it. “The information wouldn’t have been made public for a few months, but Ellcorn decided to provide H-Sec a sneak peek with the understanding that the info will be kept highly confidential.”

I was about to reply to the first thing that came to mind, but Clayton’s arrival prevented me from doing so.

“Of course.” The detective walked past the layer. Making a point to stand between me and the man. “Our consultant was just having a friendly conversation with mister Kode.”

“Of course.” The lawyer made a sign for Celsius to stand up. “Needless to say that any conversation conducted by an unobserved uncharted cannot be considered evidence.”

“That’s why I said it was a conversation, sir.” Clayton smiled. “You and your client are free to go at any time without charge.”

“And his companion, as well. You’ll see in the contract I provided you that she’s classified as a company asset and as such beyond H-Sec’s jurisdiction.”

“Naturally.”

A few more looks were exchanged, after which the kid and his lawyer left the interrogation room, closing the door behind them. Clayton looked at me, sighed heavily, then sat in the empty seat.

“There goes the only viable suspect we had,” he said, his words soaked with disappointment. “I hope the conversation was worth it.”

“Your lieutenant, thought it was worth the risk.”

“Because it’s not his head on the block when things go wrong. Did you learn anything?”

“A few things. I need to reflect on them a bit more. Bottom line, I don’t think he’s our guy. His fingers still had traces of high-rune-tech essence. Plus, the liar confirmed that he works for Ellcron now.”

“So, we’re back to square one.”

“Not exactly.” I stood up. “We have a few good leads. There’s the question of the charms.”

“Nixen is looking into that.”

“And also, the mysterious item that Jasan always kept close at hand. Whatever it was, he brought it home on a regular basis. That makes it important.”

“A pity the lawyer didn’t come a few seconds later.”

“If he had, Cel would probably have told me that he tried to open it but set off some security safeguard. Trust me, if he knew what was inside, he would have started with that.” I made my way to the door. “Ask yourself this: how good was Jasan in reality? Either the son was lying like a drunken sailor, or the victim was terrible at his job. Either way, Ellcron made a contract with someone they normally wouldn’t have and did a lot to cover it up. Makes you think.”

“Waters, each time you get close to something, you stop making sense. We’re not at customs anymore. Here, I need an explanation I can present to my boss.”

“In that case, I wish you the best of luck. I’m sure you’ll come up with something.” I waved to the see-through wall. “See you tomorrow morning.”

“Wait! Waters, where are you going?”

“I think I’ll walk about a bit. What’s the point of having a temporary pass if I don’t abuse it while I can?”