Different Senses Read online

  “And Sri Terben?”

  “He wasn’t there. He went to lunch and only returned when we were done. I think he was on his way out when I saw him.”

  “And his reaction to the news?”

  “Uh...annoyed. A little excited.”

  “Like....”

  “Like he is when he has gossip to share,” she said. “Sri Nel would sack me for saying that about his lover.”

  “I won’t repeat it.” I easily recalled Devi’s eager expression as he shared some private secret or other. “But not glee? Relief? Anything to indicate he’d pulled off a successful crime?”

  “No. Though I didn’t spend all that long with him, as I had to speak to Sri Nel about what happened.”

  “Okay, let me be blunt here. You were lying when you said you liked everyone you worked with. Who don’t you like?”

  She clasped her hands in her lap. “This isn’t fair, Sri Ythen.”

  “Then who would you suspect of this theft, if you had no evidence at all other than your instincts and your empathy?”

  “That’s even less fair. But we have mentioned them in this conversation.”

  “Devi? You don’t like him, do you?”

  She shook her head. “He’s very funny and is friendly to everyone, but he can be unkind and...he makes remarks about my people I don’t care for.”

  That was Devi all right. Once I’d thought him funny too, a spice in my life. When Kirin took up with him so suspiciously fast, I wondered how I’d been so ready to excuse the bitchiness which had always had such an undercurrent of cruelty. Unfortunately, Jyoti’s report made him an unlikely suspect, even if the little shit was hiding something.

  “I don’t blame you for not liking him. Now, this is more speculative. If you wanted to sneak something out of the lab, and not take it out in your own hands, what can you think of as a way to remove it?”

  She frowned. “Well, I’d take it to Dispatch and post it. Some of the staff, uh, send....”

  “Private material on the boss’s bill? Not surprising. Damn. And no one checks the parcels going out?”

  “Not that I know of. Sri Nel would know.”

  “Yes. You’ve been really helpful, Jyoti. Incredibly so. Do you have to go back to work?”

  “Sri Nel told me to fake a migraine and take the afternoon off. I think Sushri Tarl knows it’s not the truth.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll explain to Payal, or Kirin will. Let me order a taxi for you to go home. This is my phone number,” I said, writing it on my notepad. “I want you to keep your eyes, ears and empathy open, especially on those individuals we talked about. And I will make sure Kirin protects you, okay? He owes me big time for this.”

  “Thank you,” she said unenthusiastically, taking the piece of paper. “There is one thing. One of the people who uses Dispatch for personal purposes is Sri Mlano.”

  “But there are others.”

  “Yes.”

  She looked as if she wanted to say more, and I waited, but nothing came. “I’ll walk you out,” I said.

  I insisted on paying the taxi driver to take her to her door, since she was only here at my request. Then I started home, and called my brother as I walked.

  “I was worried about you,” Yashi said. “Are you on your way over to the clinic?”

  “Yes, I guess so.” I checked the time—almost six. “I’ll bring food.”

  “Great, I’m starving.”

  Surprisingly, so was I. My appetite had been lousy since I got out of the hospital, which drove my dear, sweet sister-in-law crazy. She spent more time pestering me to eat than she did her twins. Well, tonight, I didn’t need to be pestered. Maybe cop work—even this pretend kind—was what my stomach needed to feel perky again.

  ~~~~~~~~

  I didn’t tell Yashi much about the case, except to say I thought it would be a poke in the eye for my faithless ex. He only grunted and said it was good to see me interested in something, whatever the reason. But as we ate and talked about this and that, my mind turned over the facts I’d gleaned. By the time he’d finished his meal break, I knew I needed to go back to the lab. “I might be late home,” I told him.

  “Be careful and have fun,” he said, sounding just like our father. I grinned and told him that, which made him pull a face.

  I called Kirin at home. “I need to look around while the place is empty. Meet me there.”

  “I was just about to eat.”

  “Wrap your food in a chapati and come down. Leave the weasel behind.”

  “Javen.”

  “You’ve got twenty minutes, and I’m not joking about the weasel.”

  I called a taxi and arrived a minute before Kirin’s tidy red auto slid into the car park. The sight gave me a pang—how many times had we sat in that vehicle, making out at a beauty spot, or at the beach. I grew hard just looking at the damn thing. I’d thrown Kirin’s gifts back at his face as I left, but I’d forgotten how much the auto meant to me. Maybe I should have asked for it as part of my own personal ‘divorce’ settlement.

  “Couldn’t this have waited, Javen?” he said as he walked over. No sign of his supper.

  “No. Stop bitching. This is for your benefit, not mine.”

  “Sorry.”

  “And stop bloody apologising. You’re not really sorry.”

  His mouth opened to issue another meaningless apology. I cut him off with a glare.

  “What are you looking for?” he said as he let us into the quiet building.

  “Records. Dispatch, clients. Specifically anyone giving you work in the last two weeks, or that you sent items to. Not reports—packages.”

  He was completely confused and more than a little irritated. I ignored him and asked him to pull up the dispatch logs for the times after the incident with the centrifuge.

  “Look.” I pointed at the entry. “Wala and Faute, lawyers. Package sent the afternoon after the pendant went missing.”

  “So?”

  “Kirin, they’re Kajal Gemate’s lawyers.”

  His eyes went huge. “Her lawyers are behind this?”

  “That’s what I think. I want to know when they sent you the job and if you’ve worked for them before.”

  It was all so obvious, but the trick was knowing to look for it. Wala and Faute, in the first work they’d ever offered the lab, had sent an inexpensive bauble for DNA testing two days after the pendant arrived. It had been signed out by Jishnu—and returned by him too. “Could he make sure he was the one to process an item?” I asked.

  “Theoretically, no, but he’s been here so long he does pretty much what he wants because he’s fast and does a good job. He’s done this out of turn, but it’s not the first time. But why would her lawyers contact him?”

  “I don’t know but I bet there’s a connection. Maybe they did work for him or a friend. He has to be the one, Kirin. It’s the only explanation that fits all the evidence. He was the only one with access to the wallet at the crucial times, and the one who had the obvious means of dispatching the pendant without suspicion.”

  “The centrifuge?”

  “A smoke device on a timer, then he waited until a new, inexperienced employee was almost alone in the building with him before setting it off. I’d have to contact your repairers to be sure but I bet that centrifuge is in perfect working order.”

  Kirin shook his head. “I can’t believe it. He’s worked here from the beginning. Why would he betray me like that?”

  “You want me to answer that, lover?”

  He flushed. “No. So the others are clear? Devi and Pritam and Waman?”

  “Waman isn’t a suspect. Pritam...may have other reasons to be guilty. I suggest you do a bit of digging. Uh...I think he’s doing something dishonest. Small or big time, I don’t know, but apparently he was frantic to find the pendant, possibly because he doesn’t want the police poking around. I don’t have any evidence but my gut says he’s up to something.”

  Kirin nodded unhappily. “And Dev—�
��

  Before he could finish, the weasel himself walked in. We blinked at him in surprise. He’d clearly come down in a hurry, dressed without his usual care and his artfully cut glossy hair an untidy mess. “Devi, what are you doing here?” Kirin asked.

  He put his hands on his hips and glared. “That’s what I want to know. What are you doing here with him?”

  “Oh that’s funny. Fucking hilarious. You’re jealous?” I sneered. “Please. I wouldn’t take either of you with a kilo of first grade nixum.”

  “That’s why you’ve turned up here, turning everything upside down and using every opportunity to denigrate me, is it, Javen? Because you’re so uninterested in Kirin now?”

  I stalked towards him, furious, and he backed away, really afraid. I outweighed him and overtopped him by a head. More than that, I knew how to use my body for evil and he didn’t, and I had real reason to hurt him.

  I forced him up against a wall. “You think by throwing a hissy fit, you can hide what you’ve been up to, don’t you? You came down here because you’re afraid we might find out what you’re hiding. What you’ve been so guilty about. Did you forget why Kirin broke up with me, cockface? I know what you feel. I know you’re hiding the truth. So what is it? Where’s the pendant? Why did you steal it?”

  “I didn’t! Kirin, I wouldn’t!”

  “Stay the fuck out of this, Kirin,” I warned without turning around. “If it isn’t the pendant, what is it? Tell me, you little bastard.” I raised my hand and he cringed, even though I had no intention of giving him any excuse to call the police. “You can tell me now or you can tell my nice former colleagues, none of whom would be particularly thrilled to have someone like you screw over a fellow officer. I’m the son of the regional governor, Devi. I can make shit stick like you would not believe. So talk! What did you do?”

  “Nothing! I didn’t steal the pendant! I....”

  “What? Spit it out or I’ll smack it out of you.”

  Kirin murmured my name but sensibly didn’t interfere. Maybe he wanted to know the truth too.

  “I didn’t steal. It’s nothing to do with that. It’s about you and uh, him.”

  “Yeah? So what did you do? Let me guess. You’ve had your eyes on him for a while, right? Pretending to be my friend, cosying up to Kirin?” He nodded, which surprised me. I never thought I’d get him to admit it. “What else? Badmouthing me?”

  “No! Of course not.”

  “Yes, you did,” Kirin said. I felt him close behind me. “I remember now. All that talk about Javen’s empathy.”

  “I was just being sympathetic,” Devi said, but the guilt was back. And fear.

  “I bet,” I said. “I bet you were such a comfort to poor, poor Kirin. I noticed you never came near me. Afraid I’d find out what you were doing?”

  “I wasn’t doing anything.”

  “We talked for hours,” Kirin said, anger rising. “After I heard about Javen’s empathy being triggered and him having to leave the police force. You were over at the house all the time. I thought you were trying to help, but all you talked about was how empaths can know all our secrets and that’s why the law had been changed. How hard it would be living with one.”

  I slammed the wall next to Devi’s head, making him jump. “How subtle, cockface. How charming.”

  He pouted, which looked ridiculous on him and in the situation. “I only told him the truth. I was right. You can’t be trusted. Look what you’re doing now.”

  “Exposing you? First time since the shooting I’ve been glad I’ve got this power.” I stepped away in disgust, as he folded his arms and failed to meet our eyes. “You’re a prick. I never cheated or lied to anyone, empath or not. But you did.”

  “Because I love Kirin! I appreciate him more than you ever could, you uncouth cop.”

  “Maybe. But he wasn’t yours and you had no right.”

  “He’s not yours any more. Kirin, tell him.”

  “Tell him what? That you played both of us? Get out of my sight, Devi,” Kirin said, his voice rough with emotion.

  “Kirin, we can talk—”

  “No, I don’t think so. Just get out.”

  Devi slid along the wall, and left the room at a half-run. I turned to face my shame-faced ex. “You don’t need to say it,” he said. “I was a fool.”

  “Yeah. We both were. So I guess I’m done. You know who the thief is, and we can probably get him to confess tomorrow.”

  “But if the pendant’s gone, I’m still screwed. I can prosecute Jishnu, but I can’t save our reputation.”

  “I think I know a way to do that. Let’s talk to Jishnu, and then I’ll let Shrimati Gemate know that the governor’s son would like to pay her a call.”

  His eyes widened. “You’d do that for me?”

  “No. I’ll do it for your innocent employees who deserve better. I’m still madder than hell at you.”

  “I don’t blame you. I can’t even blame Devi entirely.”

  “Can’t force the willing, right? You already believed all that crap about empaths, and you let him persuade you to do what you were half-inclined to do. So much for loving me.”

  “I did. I do,” he whispered. “I made a terrible mistake. Javen....”

  I cut him off with a slicing motion. “I don’t want to talk about it. Close up, and you can give me a lift home.”

  We rode to Yashi and Tara’s house in silence, me trying to ignore Kirin’s churning emotions and the headache they’d given me, and him thinking about who knew what. I didn’t envy his situation but at least part of it, he’d brought on his own head. At least he still had his job, his career. His home. And this auto.

  He pulled up outside the house and cut the engine. “So...see you in the morning?”

  “First thing. Pick me up on your way through, okay?” I put my hand on the door to open it.

  “Javen.... We really should talk. A lot’s happened, and I was so very wrong.”

  “It’s too late, Kirin. You broke it, and it can’t be mended.”

  “Can’t it?” He put his hand on my thigh. “I care about you. I never stopped. I just freaked out.”

  “Yes, I remember. I could hardly forget.”

  “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I really am sorry. I was wrong in every way and about everything. I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I hope one day you will forgive me.”

  How long had I hoped for him to apologise, to admit he was wrong? And yet to hear him say the words meant nothing now. It was over. I wouldn’t go back, and he wasn’t asking for me to. Everything was poisoned, dead.

  “One day. But not soon. What will you do about Devi?”

  “He’s destroyed my trust in him. I can’t see how we can go on. I should have listened to you.”

  “Yeah. Not exactly an unbiased witness though, am I?”

  “No. But you spoke the truth. Javen, can’t you tell how I feel right now?”

  He cupped my face and I let him turn it to him. In the low light, in this auto, so many memories flooded back, from when we were first in love, randy as bulls, besotted and amazed at finding each other. Where had that all gone, that passion? Blasted out of me by a gun and Kirin’s words. “I know how you feel. I don’t know how I feel.”

  “Don’t you want me a little?”

  A little? If my cock was making the decisions, I’d have thrown him back and fucked him, family house or not. I was hard, and yeah, I could give him what he wanted, what he was so unsubtly hinting about with his hands and eyes. I leaned closer, wondering if I should let lust carry me where reason wouldn’t, but as he came closer to meet me, I stopped, then brushed his hands off me. “I can’t. You destroyed the trust, Kirin. I’d hate myself, and you, if I ignored that.”

  I didn’t need empathy to read the disappointment and sadness in his expression. “I can’t exactly blame you. Javen, I owe you a lot and I will do whatever it takes to be your friend again, even if we can’t be lovers. I’ll be the man you thought I was. I won’t
ever let you down again.”

  “Won’t get a chance.” But as he winced, I added, “To have you as a friend would feel good. Just...don’t push it.”

  “I won’t.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Good night, and thank you.”

  “We’re not done yet, and you still have to face Devi.”

  He grimaced. “Yes. Part of the penalty for rank idiocy.”

  “See you tomorrow. Call as you’re leaving your place.”

  I stepped out of the auto and he drove off. I didn’t go inside immediately, wanting to appear calm before I faced the family. Was this the closure I needed, or a false start? I was still alone, and without a job, and kicking Devi in the teeth hadn’t felt anything like as good as I thought it would. I didn’t get off on hurting people and never had. So rent-a-thug work was out as a career, for a start.

  I needed a hug, and there were twins inside the house who had any amount of them for their broken down uncle, so I went in search. Sometimes, the only solution was to wait for things to improve on their own.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Kirin picked me up just before eight. “I hope you realise this is the earliest I’ve been out of bed in months,” I grumbled as I climbed into his auto.

  His eyes were tired, and his voice sounded harsh like it did when he hadn’t slept well. “I’m aware of the sacrifice. Uh...Devi’s gone. He left me a resignation note, took a few essentials and told me where to send the rest.”

  “Not surprising. You’re not as crushed as you could be.”

  “No. Which says it all, really.”

  “Mmmm.” I didn’t want to talk about the weasel. “We need to record the interview with Jishnu, so we’ve got proof if you need to go to the police. He could get nasty about this, if you sack him.”

  “I know. What about Kajal Gemate?”

  “Calling her now.”

  Shrimati Gemate’s assistant was surprised to hear from Governor Ythen’s son, but of course Shrimati Gemate could find time to see him. Would just before lunch suit? It certainly would. I closed the call, and found Kirin looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “That’s only the second time since I met you that you’ve used your father’s position for personal reasons,” he said slowly. “The first time was last night, with Devi.”