The Romance Of Crime Part 10

He felt for her pulses and opened one of her eyes. The pupil was unseeing.

'Concussion,' he diagnosed. He checked the back of her head where it had hit the stair rail. 'A nasty b.u.mp, but she'll be fine.'

K9 trundled forward to examine a liquid that was trickling down the upper steps. His head lowered as he carried out a swift a.n.a.lysis. It was almost as if he was sniffing. 'Master. I have detected traces of human blood.'

The Doctor was shocked. 'What?'

'Human blood, group O, plasma in a solution of '

'Shut up, shut up.' He took a torch from his pocket and shone the beam up the stairs. His face blanched and he licked lips that were suddenly dry.

K9 moved forward to investigate. The Doctor covered the dog's eyescreen. 'No, K9. It's not a very pleasant sight.'

K9's sensors ticked. 'Human body, male. Cause of death: disruption of internal and external organs.' His head p.r.i.c.ked up and his blaster emerged from his nose. 'Danger, Master.

Hostiles approaching.'

A clattering noise came from above. A small group of guards appeared. They were led by Shom. He stopped at the sight of the Doctor. 'h.e.l.lo, sir.'

'h.e.l.lo,' the Doctor said grimly.

'We saw you entering the stairway, sir,' Shom explained.

'Thought you might be lost and need our a.s.sistance.'

The Doctor regarded him with contempt. 'You're responsible for security here, am I correct?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Yes, well while you've been spying on me, somebody has committed a murder.' He pointed past them in the direction of the human remains. The guards rushed up the stairs to investigate.

Shom looked at K9. 'What's that, sir?'

'That's my dog,' the Doctor said simply.

'Oh,' said Shom.

The Doctor stared after him as he joined his men. He heard Romana groan as she regained consciousness and knelt to face her. 'Well done, old thing,' he said, patting her hand. 'How do you feel?'

She forced a smile. 'The way I usually feel after I've been b.u.mped on the head.' She reached over and patted the robot dog. 'h.e.l.lo, K9.'

K9 gave a pleased burble.

'Did you get a clear look at him?' the Doctor asked anxiously.

'Who?'

'The murderer.'

Romana groaned again. 'Can't we discuss this in more civilized surroundings?'

An anti-bruising bandage and a gla.s.s of fruit cordial from the mini-bar of her suite were enough to restore Romana's wits.

She was now pacing up and down the room and attempting to explain recent events to the Doctor and K9.

'Then I must have blacked out,' she concluded. 'I think whoever it was a.s.sumed I was dead.'

The Doctor rubbed at his chin. 'Hmm. What was that Zy fellow doing there in the first place, I wonder? Going for an escape capsule?'

Romana shrugged. 'I think he'd just gone for a walk, to cool off.'

'It's not important,' said the Doctor. 'He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

'I know the feeling.' Romana finished her drink and put the gla.s.s aside. 'And this place is full of security cameras.

Whoever killed him won't be at liberty for very long.'

K9 spoke. 'Negative, Mistress. I have been studying this station's security system.' The map had been propped up before him. 'The stairway does not contain monitor devices.'

'What's more, the corridors around that area would be near enough empty at that time of the evening,' the Doctor put in.

'They'll all be at their recreation centre. So the murderer could quite easily have gone about his dastardly business without being spotted.' He stood up and whispered to Romana, 'I'm more interested in the radiation K9's sensors picked up at about the time that fellow met his end.'

Romana frowned. 'Radiation couldn't cause such a localized effect, it's impossible.'

The Doctor wagged a finger. 'Improbable, shall we say?'

'No, Doctor. Impossible.'

'Master,' K9 piped up. 'This unit is keen to clarify earlier statement. Energy released in the vicinity of Mistress Romana was identified as radiation by vocabulary bank. I cannot say if this diagnosis is correct.'

The Doctor knelt down. 'Did you take a profile of the readings for full a.n.a.lysis?'

K9's head drooped. 'Negative, Master. Such an action relegated by concern for the Mistress.'

The Doctor patted his tin head. 'Good dog, K9, don't worry yourself about it.' He looked up at Romana, his expression grim. 'I have a terrible feeling that we've been wasting time.'

'What do you mean?'

He stood up. 'Whatever's going on here is far more serious than I imagined. The power to kill like that could be the least of this person's abilities.' He gave another of his sudden smiles. 'I think it's time we had another little chat with friend Spiggot.'

'You think the murder is connected to the computer sabotage?'

'I think it's more than likely.'

Shom looked around the stair-well. Flashes from the camera of the security photographer lit the deeply lined face of Pyerpoint, who had joined him on the stairs.

'It's Zy, sir, Stokes's apprentice,' Shom reported. 'I don't know what hit him.' He loosened the collar of his uniform.

'There isn't much left.'

Pyerpoint shook his head. 'Murder aboard this station. It's a terrible business.' A group of men walked past carrying a stretcher. He halted them and reached for the white plastic sheet that covered the remains. 'I wish to see this.'

'There's not much left, sir,' Shom warned him.

The plastic sheet was lifted. Shom saw a look of revulsion cross Pyerpoint's face. But mixed in with it was a brief tension of muscles about the jaw that he could have taken for anger. It was the same irritated response displayed by Pyerpoint when a barrister rambled into a long and specious argument.

Pyerpoint replaced the sheet and waved the stretcher party and their grisly burden away. 'And you say the Doctor was here?'

'Yes, sir, with the young lady and some kind of computer.

He said it was his dog. Do you think they did it, sir?'

Pyerpoint gave one of his rare laughs. 'They are police officers, Shom. I think it is obvious who was responsible.' His jaw tightened. 'I argued against the government for years on this matter. Perhaps now they will see I was right.'

'You think it was Stokes, sir?'

'I do. That idiot should never have been permitted to take one step aboard this station. Find him.'

'Yes, sir.' The junior officer started to move away.

'And Shom I want security status raised to black. No transmat communications, arrivals or departures, are to take place without personal authorization from myself.' He hesitated. 'This matter is to be kept private for the moment. I don't want to cause a panic. Tell the people there has been a technical fault.'

'We regret to inform you that a technical difficulty will delay all transmat communications for the next few hours. Please be all transmat communications for the next few hours. Please be patient while we a.s.sess the situation. Normal service will be patient while we a.s.sess the situation. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.' resumed as soon as possible.'

Spiggot sneered up at the speaker. 'And the first beacon satellite has just gone into orbit. Wonder what they're trying to cover up?'

He lit another cigarette, popped it into his mouth, and opened the door of his cabin. It contained Romana, who lay on the couch. 'How did you get in here, then?'

The Doctor's head popped from the mini-bar. 'No sign of any ginger beer, Romana,' he said. He caught sight of the detective. 'Ah, Mr Spiggot. We were just about to have a drink, would you like to join us?'

'This is my room, mate,' Spiggot said threateningly. 'I think we should have a little talk about privacy.'

'Really?' the Doctor said. 'I think we ought to have a large talk about murder.'

Spiggot sighed and threw the bulging Xais file onto a table.

Romana picked it up and started to examine the contents.

'Hey,' called Spiggot, 'hold it a second, lady. And what's all this about murder?'

The Doctor forced a drink into his hand. 'We were very much hoping you could tell us. Have a cherryade.'

Spiggot looked down, confused, at the soft drink. Not really his style. 'I've already explained, the computers '

The Doctor put a hand over his mouth. 'No more flim-flam, please. The performance is over. And you needn't worry about the bugging device, either.' He removed his hand.

Spiggot shook himself. He hadn't reckoned on this. They were cleverer than they looked. 'You knew?'

Romana looked up. 'Oh, yes.'

The Doctor grinned triumphantly. 'To use an old Earth expression, Mr Spiggot, you were throwing us a line. All that stuff about the security net was designed to get Pyerpoint looking in the wrong direction, yes?' He clicked his fingers and what looked like a metal box on wheels trundled into view.

'Bugging device located and destroyed as instructed, Master,' it reported.

Spiggot jumped back, alarmed. 'What the h.e.l.l is it?'

The box took this as an invitation to introduce himself 'This unit designated K9 Mark II. Purpose: to a.s.sist and protect the Doctor Master and Mistress Romana.'

Spiggot shook his head in bewilderment. 'Where are you lot from?'

Romana smiled. 'Aren't we from Central?'

'That was all part of it, too,' Spiggot admitted uncomfortably. 'I took a gamble that paid off. I figured you were stowaways and were looking to get baled out. Decoys and distractions, see. Good tactic. Always works. With you two running about, old Pyerpoint would be kept even busier. I knew he'd order a check on the security data core after he overheard our conversation. That's just what I want, because believe it or not, I was telling you the truth. It'll take days, and I can get on with the other business which I didn't tell you about.'

'How were you to know we weren't criminals?'

Spiggot gave a wry grin. 'I can sniff a crim from the other side of a nebula, love. And I've seen characters like you before. s.p.a.ceniks, Romanies. Harmless. But useful.' He was pleased to have an opportunity to explain himself. 'Thought I'd read you right. Still, when you want results, you have to take risks.'

'Quite right,' said the Doctor. 'We work in similar lines, you see. You might say that we,' he indicated himself, Romana and K9, 'are freelancers. We saw through your deception straight away.' He sniffed. 'And your performance was just too reckless to be convincing. The delay in your warrant, your ham-fisted break in, none of it made sense.

Unless you weren't telling the whole truth.'

'Which had to be something very important if you were keeping it back from the High Archon.' Romana held up the file. 'I presume this is it. Makes for rather gruesome reading.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, really?'

'Committal papers, indictment and trial doc.u.ments in the case of the State of Uva Beta Uva Five versus Xais of Guaal,'

Romana read aloud. 'According to this, she killed at least two thousand people in the s.p.a.ce of two years. And all before her nineteenth birthday.'

'I never liked early achievers,' the Doctor said with feeling.

'I was barely out of long socks at that age.'

Spiggot was glad of the chance to explain the situation.

'Haven't you heard of her?'

'We travel a lot,' Romana said.

'She was a Ceerad. Some say the last. She '

The Doctor held up a hand. 'Sorry. Ceerad?'