He didn’t employ speechwriters, Dagny recalled. That was one of the things she liked about him. “Anyone meet him later?”
“Aguilar says he saw him come out of the room late in the evenwatch and pace the corridors for a while,then go back,” Haugen answered. “That was not extraordinary. He always needed physical activity when he was under stress.” He glanced at Erann. “Aguilar also mentioned seeing you pass by a little earlier. He had an impression you went into the office. You said nothing about that to the police.”
“Nay,” the boy admitted calmly. “It was not relevant, and it was private. He was, as you tell, seen later. I had sought my room, and I believe the steward did akin soon afterward.”
Haugen nodded. He must already have been satisfied, since he had not informed the officers himself. To Dagny he said, “Aguilar went to his apartment and was with his wife till dawnwatch. They retired about 2300, they state.”
Rita stirred. “They are old and faithful servants,” she said. “They came to the Moon to be with us. Do not doubt them.”
“I don’t imagine anyone does,” Haugen reassured her. “Aguilar told his clock to call him early, in case the governor worked through the dawnwatch and could use his services. He found the computer running in the study, text on the screen. That was not Wahl’s way. He left things neat before he went to bed. Therefore probably he had not. Aguilar searched and—found him.”
“It would be natural for him to take a swim somewhere along the line, exercise part of his tension off,” Dagny observed. “Evidently he did sometime around 2400, maybe an hour or two later. But wouldn’t you expect him to turn in then, being halfway relaxed? This was going to be a wicked daycycle, after all. Obviously, though, he meant to come back from the pool and resume work. So he was abnormally charged up, even for this political mess we’re in.” Her eyes sought Erann again. “What did you two talk about?”
“Ayomera,” her great-grandson responded mildly. She knew the Lunarian expression. It wasn’t quite translatable into any Earthly tongue: the polite equivalent o/ making no response whatsoever.
“We’ll have speech in a while, you and I,” she told him. “Stick around. You too, uh, Governor, por favor. Rita, let’s take care of you.”
The woman accompanied her out like a robot. Dagny led her through the motions, pulled a blanket up to her chin, kissed her cheek, and waited till the drug had brought sleep.
Emerging, she looked right and left. Nobody around. The machinery of government was shut down for now, and household staff huddled in their quarters or went about their duties in terrified silence. A guard at the door and a monitor on the phones sealed the news between these walls. Haugen was right, that couldn’t last, nor should it. Whatever called for discretion had better be done fast.
How about checking the scene, just in case? Not that she’d likely find anything the detectives and their equipment had overlooked; but it was something to do while her thoughts churned about in the middle of nightmare. She bounded down the hall.
Jaime had shown her his pool once, and laughingly invited her to take a dip. “I needn’t worry about possible brass monkeys among my ancestors,” she’d retorted, “but I’m pretty sure they included no walruses.” The chamber was, as she recalled, austere, echoey still, the water unruffled and colorless in its utter purity.
No, wait. Where was the faint smoke of mists? The air in here was fairly warm, the water Arctic … Was it? She stooped—her bones felt as if they creaked— and stuck a hand down.
Tepid. What the devil?
She located the thermostat and went to it. The setting read 35°, damn near blood warm. Now why would Jaime want that? Maybe so he could splash and wallow around for an hour, letting the misery leach out of him? That had never been his style.The olden cold went down Dagny’s backbone and out to the ends of her nerves.
Sickness followed. No, por favor, please, let this idea be wrong, let it pass from her.