Inspector Rames

Chapter 24

We traipsed back to our office, and Alex contacted the health authority in charge of withholding medical information from national profiles. He and a health records guardian had a thirty-minute argument about confidentiality while I watched silently.

I was already familiar with the long-term impact bullying could have.

Eventually, the woman provided us with an access code. Alex keyed it into his tabphone, and we looked over Mary's medical record together.

It was massive: filled with notes from dozens of different doctors and therapists, although the summary at the top said that her depression was in remission. Still, she'd been fired from a staggering amount of jobs as an indirect consequence in earlier years. One doctor had recorded that in 2180, she'd turned up to work for less than half of the calendar year.

Her depression had not been diagnosed before she'd left Bright Light University. Back then, her medical record had been sparse.

"Bloody hell," I murmured. "They did a serious number on her. That's a motive, all right. And she was a very gifted student when she studied robotic science, according to Professor West."

Alex shut down the medical record. "Mary started working for Zed last year. Why? And why to kill him wait until now?"

I wiped my sweaty palms over my jeans. "Maybe she was working up her courage."

"Should we talk to her?"

"Not yet. Until we have solid evidence to scare her with, we'll gain nothing from it."

I woke up the touchglass wall instead. Staring at Mary's picture made me think of the photo in my bag. The big, red cross over my face. And...him.

Alex joined me, and I pulled myself together. "Okay. We've discussed motive a lot, so let's have a look at our suspects in terms of means. Who has the skills necessary to hack two robots without leaving a trace?"

Alex frowned. "Only Mary."

I circled her.

"But what if there's more than one person involved in this?" Alex asked. "Anyone could have hired someone to hack the robots for them."

"That's true." I looked at him narrowly. "You'd like to believe Ronan Lewis hired someone, wouldn't you? We're back to Ripley again."

"It just doesn't sit right." He returned my gaze. "You have to read the diary, Amber. You have to see how much thought she put into -- "

My earpiece buzzed. I shot him an apologetic glance as I tapped it. "Rames speaking."

"Ma'am, this is Laney. A gun's been found on Bright Light University's campus."

***

I kept my head down as we approached Bright Light's gates, remembering the photo Clyde had snapped of us last time. When we were in, we were met by a member of staff who took us to the particular triangular tower that was the crime scene. It was a block of student flats, and renovations were taking place across the entire ground floor. The rifle was in one of the empty dorm rooms.

The dorm was long and narrow like a deep prison cell, and all of the furniture had been stripped out of it. Bits of sawdust and old nails were littered across the floor. PRBs had already secured the scene with electro-tape and were dusting the rifle for prints. It was just like what the robots at Duty Bank used.

I turned to the woman who'd shown us in. "How did you find it?"

"The workmen found it when they came to start today's renovations," she said. "They told me it was lying in the middle of the room. It was your robots who moved it."