#crossmere

“No, the captain bellowed for us.” Shallan rolled her eyes, but didn’t grumble. It had been three days since they’d found the head, and the press must have finally gotten someone to leak who was investigating Representative Sadeas’ death.

“Oh.” Kaladin looked back down at his notes.

Shallan waited for him to finish the sentence and join her, but he was making a list.  She tapped the side of his head with her fingers so he’d look up again. “You’re coming too, maybe you can repel his anger with the power of your grumpiness.”

“That’s not how that works at all,” Kaladin grunted, but put the lid back on his pen.  He rose and pulled down the list of other presidential candidates they’d pinned into the suspect pools part of the murder board, and the list of similar cases they’d compiled before the head was found.  Killings that left nothing but a pool of blood were disturbingly common in the past decade and they’d been looking for a pattern in the old files- but the impressively corrupt Representative was unlikely to be a random killing. Still, the captain and his superiors would want to know how they’d been spending their time. They should try to look like professionals, not the most junior detectives in the department- there were those who would love to take it off their hands with the excuse they were too inexperienced to be working a potential political firebomb of a case.

When they arrived, Captain Zahel’s comfortable office chairs held Police Commissioners Eventeo and Iadon in their press conference suits. They were arguing, as usual.  A pair of Liaisons from the Elendel Presidential Protective Service loitered near the map table, pointedly not listening to the heated conversation. Shallan stored a Memory of them in her People coppermind with a quick blink.

The senior EPPS officer introduced himself as Teleb, and his associate as Pama. He shook Shallan’s hand politely enough but his light green eyes lit up as he traded grips with her towering partner. “Tonerre, I heard you’d finally gotten that step up. Congratulations. Though I hope you’re still joining us for the public debates.” He tapped the bracer on Kaladin’s wrist as he released the handshake, a gesture that would have earned him a glare if he hadn’t also been wearing one. Teleb’s looked to be Tin, not the inlaid Steel Kaladin wore there.

“Captain would have my head if I tried to skip them. Good to see you upright and ambulatory, Teleb. Agent Pama.” Kaladin inclined his head to the woman in grey, and she surprised everyone by stepping forward and hugging him fiercely.

“I promised myself if I met you I’d hug you.” Pama explained, “Thank you for saving my uncle from his own idiocy.”

“You’re welcome.” Kaladin returned the hug then released her shoulders. “Who’s your uncle?”

“Meridas Amaram. He was on the podium and tried to get between Councilor Restares and that Separatist gunman.” Pama explained, stepping back next to Agent Teleb.  Commissioner Iadon was staring at her, but Commissioner Eventeo looked mildly amused by the situation. It wasn’t the first time grumpiness had failed to protect Kaladin from the consequences of his conspicuous heroics.

Kaladin fiddled with two of the golden Terris earrings in his left ear, thinking. “I remember someone with light brown eyes, and his hands had old callouses and ink stains. He walked with a limp, probably an old knee injury that made him change jobs. He was on the Tarier town council, in Vindiel to speak out against the violence of the Separatists?” he turned the last bit into a question, but the smile on Pama’s face confirmed he had the right person. “He was brave and helped calm the crowd down; he had a great voice for that.”

“He’d be thrilled you remember him.” Pama said, still beaming.

“Touching.” Captain Zahel said as he came in with a giant mug of coffee in one hand and his fancy hat in the other. “But we have a murderer to catch and media to wrangle. Davarre?”

Shallan straightened her back and tapped her coppermind idly as she summarized their investigations so far, answering the commissioners’ questions with careful politeness while her partner leaned against the far wall, not quite inconspicuous.  Eventually she finished and turned to address the EPPS agents directly. “We need you to check the alibis of the other candidates and their staff to confirm they weren’t in the city during the window when Representative Sadeas was murdered. And nose around to see if any rivalries had gotten hotter than normal.” she handed the pages to Agent Pama, reserving the top several for her and her partner.  “We’ll take the ones we know were in the city.”

Teleb nodded, “Who?”

“The Kholins.” Kaladin said. “We’ll be questioning His Honor, and his whereabouts.”