23
Trapped By My Own Foolishness!
From: Pops
To: Vixie
Dear Vixie,
I now have hours before me with nothing to do, so I will again let you know how much I could use your skills and help.
After all my fruitless groping in the hideaway with both hands and feet, I gave up. Instead, I went to descend the rope ladder and made haste for the corridor on Deck 18 to intercept Rocco when he left the State apartments. It was a painful and difficult business to descend that thin and yielding ladder in such a confined space, but I managed. I made it to the room disheveled, perspiring, and rather bewildered, but I was there. I resumed absolute command of all my faculties, drew my sonicpistol, and slipped through the State apartment door.
Strange to say, once I was outside the apartments, I moved so quietly that Rocco apparently did not hear me. I stepped noiselessly inside the door between the sitting room and the bedroom and stood there in silence, looking into the bathroom. Rocco had switched on the lights over the sink and was busy washing his utensils.
I deliberately coughed.
Rocco turned around with the swiftness of a startled tiger and gave me one long piercing glance.
Incidentally upon seeing me, he annunciated the word “Kelpft!” without any accent. He spoke as pure in accent and intonation as I do—dropping any pretense of foreign origins.
Again, I missed you gravely, dear daughter. At this juncture I did not know what to say. I was in such a hurry to apprehend him that I had not thought about or prepared what I would tell him before gaining access to the room. I was so dumbfounded by the whole sordid affair and especially by Rocco’s absolute and sublime calm, that both speech and thought failed me in the moment.
Rocco, however, saved me the trouble and immediately told me he gave up. He further enlightened me by saying he had warned Julbo that I was not the type of person to be trifled with and that he was afraid of me. He further signaled his surrender by sitting in a chair magnificently. Rocco actually kept his dignity throughout.
I had many questions that needed to be answered, so I pulled up a chair myself and sat in it so I could look him in the face before asking him why he had been masquerading as a foreigner on my cruiseshuttle,
He told me it was better for a master chef to be a foreigner. He stated he had changed his planetary citizenship for the same reason Julbo had changed his.
I asked him if he was friends and colleagues with Julbo, and he swore off him from that moment. He stated he had not agreed with the plot to murder anyone. Whether that is true or not the courts will eventually have to decide.
Here the questioning stopped being easy. When I asked him what the scheme was all about, he told me it wasn’t his secret to tell, and therefore he wouldn’t tell it! He also refused to tell me why Lodimmick was poisoned beyond stating that he was against Julbo doing that and he was not made aware it had happened until after the fact.
After further questioning, I found out that Lodimmick was killed because he was a partner with them, but he tried to get out of the overall scheme. Rocco grew even more difficult at that point and would not tell me who killed Lodimmick or the names of the other partners to the scheme.
Then, I pressed him to find out what he had been doing to Major Lodimmick’s body. He admitted that in addition to being a chef he was an embalmer, and he felt the need to take care of it. During this, he hinted that it contains, or rather it did contain, very serious evidence against some person or persons. He promptly skipped off down a rabbit hole trying to make me forget the revelation by stating he needed to move it from place to place to keep it hidden. Julbo was supposed to have taken it off the ship the night of the ball, but our actions prevented it. Rocco reiterated that a corpse doesn’t keep well in the open so embalming was the only answer despite his personal feelings about the murder itself. He seemed especially concerned that I believe him.
Then, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair—letting me know he was done answering questions. I paced the room trying to wrap my head around everything.
Rocco suddenly opened his eyes and demanded I turn him over to the authorities. He told me he did not want to lose any more of his night’s sleep.
I pointed out that I did not think turning him over to the authorities would help him finish the night sleeping, but he insisted they would let him rest in a jail cell. He knew finding him with the body would give them at least a prima facie case against him, but he was counting on a plea bargain and a deal to give evidence against his accomplices to get him off in a year or two.
He promised to go quietly to the Gendarmerie Department on Deck 6, telling me he knew someone would be on duty there.
I pointed out that he would have nothing to do the next day so there was no reason for him to retire as soon as possible. I let him know he had not answered all my questions so I was not keen on taking him to the authorities, yet.
That prompted him to answer more of my questions, and he revealed that he had kept Lodimmick’s corpse in his room, in a storage closet on Deck 1, in some luggage left sitting in a hall on Deck 12, and various other locations to keep it from being discovered. He revealed that since he was in a position of authority it was absurdly easy to get those under him to move the body at various times of the day unaware of what they were really doing.
I asked him what he ultimately had planned to do with the body, and he had the audacity to tell me he would return it to Lodimmick’s relatives!
I wondered aloud why he thought this particular room would be a good place to deal with the corpse, and he let me know that it was the only place where he could work undisturbed and escape discovery. Since the room was unoccupied and we were away from Majriti, he had every belief that no other government person would be boarding at any of the moons and require it.
I should have seen he was playing me, Vixie. He kept telling me how intelligent I was, but whenever I asked him things like if he had been afraid the police would search his room, he stated he had not believed me when I told him those things earlier. I firmly believe he was just trying to stoke my ego to keep me relaxed around him.
He begged to go to the authorities again and even started toward the door. I told him he better not be planning any tricks.
He repeated what he had said earlier—that he had the intention of going quietly. Oh, Vixie, you must know he had wrapped me quite around his finger. I felt that even a criminal can be a dignified man. I asked him why he would be such a fool and get himself mixed up with Julbo when he had so many unique talents. He continued to play me and agreed with me on every point. He told me that Julbo had fascinated him. He brought him into a great game with enormous prizes. He said he had been blinded and hypnotized.
However, and here I think he spoke what he truly believed, he told me he was not ruined. He planned to lay low, and in a few years, everyone would forget his crimes. At that time, he would come back again. He told me a man like him is never ruined until he is dead because genius is always forgiven.
As I was musing about all he had told me and frankly, quite impressed with him, we walked past the elevators.
Here, he stopped me, but I informed him that they would be locked at this time of night. He produced a key for the elevators and told me he always carried one. He immediately called the elevator.
Fool that I am, I stepped in without thinking as soon as the doors opened. He wasted no time in kicking me and sent me sprawling into it. With that, he punched in a code from outside the elevator, and the doors slid shut before I could right myself. I soon realized I was now a hopeless prisoner in my own elevator while Rocco maintained his freedom. I heard him through the closed door tell me that I might be a clever man but he was much cleverer.
I am too disgusted with myself to speak. I think I will count this as the greatest blow in my entire life.
Love,
Your Pops
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