“Theoretically,” Brutus said, “you’ve brought us to another impasse.”
Galiotor Fils looked down at the hound and said, “How so?”
“You told us your embassy people weren’t killers. Yet, if they purposefully denied Tesserax a proper burial ceremony, they killed his soul, if not his physical being.”
The maseni sat down again, compressing himself into the seat that was too small for him, arranging his yellow robes, brushing at his face with both hands. “I’ve considered this obvious contradiction, before coming here.”
“And you can explain it?” Jessie asked.
Galiotor Fils leaned away from the back of the chair. “The only reason for disposing of Tesserax, both physically and spiritually, would be to keep him from making public some secret which my government finds dangerous. By letting his soul dissipate, they silence him even after death, when he might normally have come back to expose them. If he held a secret of proper magnitude, perhaps the embassy people could be lead into such a heinous crime.”
“Earlier, you said they were specially tested for psychological defects. Wouldn’t the ability to kill be a defect?” Jessie asked.
Galiotor Fils looked down at the floor and did not speak for a long time. When he did finally have something to say, it came in a small voice, a child’s voice, soft and distant: “I don’t know what to think, anymore.”
Brutus said, “Where is your brood brother buried?”
Galiotor looked up. “The maseni cemetery, outside of Los Angeles. Why do you ask?”
“It may be necessary to go there, during the course of the investigation,” Brutus said.
“Then you’ll take the case?”
“We’ll take it,” Jessie said.
The alien stood again, energized by elation, this time, and he said, “How can I express my gratitude?”
“Give us a fat retainer fee,” Brutus said.
“Yeah,” Jessie said. “That’ll be a start, anyway.”
Chapter Three
Helena was nude when she reached out and answered the vidphone, her large breasts grazing the video pickup scanner for a brief moment before she leaned back. She glanced at the stunned face in the screen and, before the caller could recover, she handed the receiver to Jessie. “It’s for you,” she said. “Myer Hanlon’s returning the call you placed to his robosecretary.”
Jessie scrambled off the unmade day bed and slid into the shape-changing chair behind his desk. He was nude, too, and he shivered as the cool plastic nuzzled around, him. “It’s after midnight, Myer. When I called your mechanical Girl Friday, I didn’t think you’d get my message so soon.”
Myer swallowed hard and said, “Since I’ve changed over from straight sleuthing to these supernatural cases, I’ve had to take on night hours, like you. So many of the people you deal with, in these things, only come out at night.” He hesitated, craned his neck as if trying to see beyond Jessie, and he said, “Say, Jess…”
“Yeah?”
“Was that Helena?”
“It was.”
“You know, I’ve only ever seen Helena over the phone—and then only her face. I mean, I didn’t know she was so… so… so…”
“Dynamite,” Jessie said.
“Exactly!” Myer beamed. “Is she—married?”
“She doesn’t believe in marriage,” Jessie said.
“Wonderful! Do you know if she’s doing anything Friday?”
“Myer, you ought to know that Helena is an unabashed sexist. She can’t seem to establish a normal relationship with a man, because she thinks of us as sex objects and nothing more.”
“Great, great!” Myer said. “About Friday now—”
Behind Jessie, Brutus howled long and low, and Helena cried out in what sounded like pleasure.
“Brutus, for God’s sake, control yourself while I’m on the phone, would you?” Jessie asked.
Myer looked shocked. “You mean the three of you… That she lets Brutus… I mean, that she…”
“Like many modern women,” Jessie patiently explained, “Helena has catholic tastes. She goes for flesh-and-blood lovers and for a few supernatural ones as well.”
“But Brutus!” Myer said.
“Myer, let’s get back to business,” Jessie said, scratching his bare, hairless chest. “You got something for me?”
Hanlon looked at some notes on his desk top. “Not much,” he said. Clearly, his mind was still on Helena.
“Tell me anyway.”
“Well, you wanted to know if anyone had come to me about a missing maseni diplomat named Galiotor Tesserax, and you said you’d pay for the information. That right?”