Inspector Rames

Chapter 32

A long second ticked past. Sweat pooled at the back of my neck.

Jasper hauled me upright, pushing the pistol into my temple. "Lower your gun, Sergeant."

Alex let it fall to his side, raising his free hand in surrender. His jaw was clenched tight.

"Put it on the floor," Jasper said, "and kick it over here."

Alex crouched and put his pistol on the ground. He kicked it in our direction. It slid across the carpet, stopping beside Brady's lifeless hand.

"Don't do this, Jasper," Alex said.

"Forgiveness is needed for all the people caught up in this. But forgiveness can only be found in death."

I licked my dry lips. "You know the truth about Ripley."

"It's taken you a long time to realise that...but then, so many other playing pieces have given you their motives. Clyde Edwards, Mary Daniels, Lars Stephenson, even my cousin Ronan...I knew about it all."

"You made a mistake when you killed Evan," Alex said. "You drew us onto the right tracks."

"Did I? You arrested Ronan, not me!" Jasper's grip tightened on my collar. "You would never have realised it was me. Not if I hadn't been betrayed by Brady."

"You used these backstairs," I said. "I guess there's a fire escape at the bottom. So, Brady saw you leave yesterday. But did he know at the time where you'd gone? Or did he only realise this morning?"

"Questions, questions, questions. I'm aware you like knowing all the answers, Inspector. I saw it in you when you came here as a sergeant all those years ago. Your curiosity has been both a blessing and a curse."

From the corner of my eye, I watched his finger slide down the trigger.

"I'll humour you," he said. "Let's start from the beginning. You know Kristina was my friend as well as my employee. It was she who told me the truth about Ripley's death. It had been weighing on her. At first, I didn't know what to feel. I was fond of Kristina, but I'd loved Ripley -- deeply, like a sister. She was my blood. She had to be avenged.

"I knew exactly how to avenge her when Evan applied for our part-time position. When I learned that he was taking a robotic science degree at Bright Light, everything fell into place. Kristina would suffer at the hands of the robots she loved -- and Zed, too. Better still, it was the perfect way to hide myself behind the crime."

"So you bribed Evan to kill them," Alex said. His gaze was locked with mine. The more Jasper talked, the more time we'd have, but that time was going to run out fast. And neither of us knew how to get the gun away from my head.

"Yes," Jasper replied. "He went to visit his family in Rosek the next day, and I sent Brady to follow him. Brady didn't know exactly why, and he wasn't very good at it -- he would have failed to deliver the note I'd given him without Clyde Edwards. It was pure luck that Evan was pushed to the floor and Brady was close by to lend him a hand. He put the note in Evan's pocket then."

"The note told Evan a date and time?" I guessed.

"Yes. And he came. At first he thought it was about the job, but I asked if it was possible for him to hack a robot without leaving a trace. He said yes; he'd done it once before. So I struck him a deal. He would kill Kristina and Zed using robots. I would pay him more money than he could ever expect to earn in his lifetime. He accepted.

"The punishment of Kristina and Zed went to plan, and it was easy for Evan to leave the gun in Zed's old room. I enjoyed the article Clyde wrote about you finding it very much, by the way. I enjoyed watching you run in circles. But the problem was that you were not as confused as I was hoping. Instead of dismissing Ripley's death, which to the authorities had always been unquestionably a suicide, you examined it thoroughly. The moment you came back here to talk about it, I knew that something needed to be done."