Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates #4)(34)
Trowly flinched. “The initial intel made her appear to be the guilty party. The poisoned beer did come from her table, and the surveillance footage the security team viewed showed her touching it before it was given to Zackary Mule.”
“What they didn’t do was view all angles, or go back any further than the beer being dropped off at her table,” Clark stated. “The view from the door proved she just touched the side of the mug. It also showed her head down, reading her device, when a man wearing a baseball cap swiftly walked by and placed it on her table. All employees on duty were accounted for, but they couldn’t identify him. He wore one of their jumpsuit-type outfits, but the hat isn’t permitted on the job. He wore it to hide his face from being picked up on the cameras.”
Trowly jumped in then. “It was as if he knew where the surveillance cameras were located. We went back further to find out how and when he’d entered the bar. He stepped into the kitchen from a maintenance access hatch, already carrying the beer he left at Miss Wade’s table, and dropped it off there. Then he quickly retraced his path and exited out of that same maintenance hatch.”
“There are no cameras in those tunnels,” Clark spat. “There should be.”
“In conclusion,” Trowly said, raising his voice over Clarks, then quickly lowering it, “we believe Miss Wade was the intended target. Not Zackary Mule. Thankfully, he is recovering.” He peered at Vera. “Who would want you dead?”
Vera gripped Roth’s hand tighter. It was horrifying to realize she’d been right. Someone had tried to kill her. “I don’t know.”
“Who is your beneficiary if you die?”
Vera licked her lips. “A charity. They wouldn’t be aware of that. I didn’t contact them to let them know.”
“You have no family?” Trowly asked.
“I have a biological father still alive. We aren’t close. At all. He knows I’d never leave him a dime.”
“And where is he?”
Vera met the investigator’s gaze. “On Earth.” She gave him her father’s full name. “I got a recent message from him. You can verify it with the data pad assigned to me by your fleet. He’s tried to gain access to my apartment on Earth. I’m sure the management can verify that, too, since he’s been bothering them.”
Trowly leaned closer. “Are you certain he knows you didn’t make him your beneficiary?”
“I try like hell to avoid him, and have moved a few times to do just that, but I’m certain.” She lifted a hand and brushed hair off her face. “If your next question is, could he afford to pay someone to kill me…the answer is no. He’s always flat broke. It’s why he harasses me.”
Trowly seemed to ponder her words. “Who do you know onboard Defcon Red? I want a list of names.”
She stared into Trowly’s steely gray eyes. “Nobody. I don’t travel on fleet ships or even hang out with fleet people. We run in different circles, you know?”
Trowly frowned. “No. I’m afraid I don’t know. Everyone knows someone in fleet, Miss Wade.”
“Don’t speak to Vera with that aggressive tone,” Roth warned Trowly. “She is frightened, and your security humans treated her badly. You will not do the same.”
Vera was grateful to Roth. “I work for New Worlds. It’s a planet survey company. We use company-owned freighters to travel to and from job sites. They’re manned by civilian crews. I’m usually only home on Earth for a few weeks to maybe a month before I’m sent off on the next project. I can spend anywhere from four to eight months on each job. It all depends on the size of the planet we’re surveying and the difficultness we might face gaining all the information we need. When I’m home, I just go shopping around my neighborhood. I live in San Francisco, and there are no fleet bases there. The closest one is in Los Angeles, which I never visit. I don’t travel around on Earth. When I’m home, I just enjoy being in my apartment, relaxing until the next job.”
“You don’t have any pissed-off ex-boyfriends?” Trowly removed a small data pad from his pocket. “Tell me about them. Any who are in fleet?”
“I’ve never dated anyone who works for the fleet.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. One of my ex-boyfriends has a criminal record. I know because I pressed charges against him for stealing from me. I also learned at that point that he had done it before. Fleet wouldn’t accept him, even if he tried to join. The second one works for New Worlds too, in security. Before that, he worked for the city of San Francisco doing street clean-up.”
Trowly glanced up from his device. “What about your other boyfriends? Maybe one-night stands? Is there some guy who wanted more from you but you refused?”
She felt her cheeks heat. “That’s it. That’s all. I’ve had two boyfriends. No one-night stands.”
The security investigator didn’t look convinced.
“Look…I’ve worked from the time I was fourteen to help add to my college fund. After I graduated from general education, I crammed five years of schooling into three and half years. I had no time to date with all those classes. Nor was I going to screw up my dreams by risking getting accidently pregnant. Birth control implants can fail. It happened to my mom. When I wasn’t in class, I had part-time jobs, and I got hired on by New Worlds when I was twenty-one, two days after I earned my degrees. I’ve already told you how long and how often I’m gone on jobs. It’s difficult to meet men, and the ones I work with tend to lie about being single. No way did I want to start a relationship with someone, only to find out he was married or had a girlfriend when we returned to Earth. It happens all the time in my line of work.”