“Where are you going to go, Sawbill?”
“The Marragas Islands, then south to the Anacapa atolls. I’d like to put in there for a bit. I understand most of the reefs around there are still uninhabited and rarely visited. Good fishing, too.”
“So I hear,” said Herrera. “Most folk around here go north for their vacations. To Three and Ark and Jumbles—pleasure towns. Where all their surprises can be arranged for them. All the entertainment galactic ingenuity can provide. And build.”
There was a lot of blood in the room, which was done in blue and gold. The red blood contrasted strangely. The electric curtains were drawn back, admitting the sun. They were for effect only, since the glass was fully polarized. The sunlight gave added obscenity to the stains.
What was left of the body of the girl was sprawled across the back of the couch, facing the open window. She had been torn apart. Her insides were strewn across half the room. Her face, Sawbill could see, probably had once been pretty, possibly even beautiful.
Terence Wu was also in the room. All over it. A bit here, a fragment there. Sawbill could make out an arm protruding from under the couch. Nothing was attached
65
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ,,
to the arm. A leg dangled from the mantel over the quaint, wood-burning fireplace.
The corpse of Jasper Jordan was in the bathroom, slumped over the rim of the sunken oval tub.
Herrera was watching Sawbill closely,
“According to what we’ve been able to piece together with the help of the building computer, Jordan broke in some time around three in the morning. Probably he just wanted to talk to the girl. For some reason she had forgotten to set her doorseal. When he came in he found them on the rug. There, in front of the fireplace.” Herrera pointed. “He didn’t even try to talk to them, is my guess. Could be he’d taken something. Blood analysis and tissue evaluation show the presence of complex hormones in his body. Puzzled the lab boys for quite a while. They’re not used to seeing that kind of stuff.”