[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

The officer was nodding. I could see the top of his hair brown, brushed
straight, cut short moving up and down, up and down.
"I tried so hard to make sure she knew how I loved her." Red. Gold. My mothers
head dropped, and her shoulders shook, and I heard the sniffle. With her head
down, she said, "I failed her. If I had been a better mother, I would have
found some way to reach her." Gold, red, gold.
And the officer said, "Some people are born bad, Mada Elenday. If she was born
bad, nothing you could have done could have saved her."
My mother kept her head down and her voice grew softer. "She came home six
days ago. I hadn't seen her in almost three months. She had been to the Sensos
before she came home, and to the joy chambers.
Her eyes were fever-bright and angry. She wanted credit. She said she'd used
all the credits on her identicard and she wanted me to transfer some of mine."
Red and gold, but mostly red. Anyone studying the recording would see what
pain she was in and give her the benefit of the doubt. The officers made it
clear that they felt for her, but no one could look at them and say they were
unprofessional. No one else
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Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood knew what I knew.
My mother was important in Meileone. She did so many public works. People
liked her. People empathized with her they always had. She always seemed so
warm, so caring and compassionate, so devoted to her family, her causes, the
common good. Strangers, on finding out I was her daughter, used to tell me how
lucky I was, and how they envied me. And the people behind the scenes, the
ones behind the camera and operating the Verilamp knew what people in Meileone
thought of her. They could count on her halo effect to cover the flashes in
the Verilamp. They could count on the viewers of the recording looking at my
mother and saying, "Poor, brave woman. I don't know how she has managed to
hold up under all of this."
My mother stopped speaking and leaned forward, a movement so boneless she
seemed to topple, and her face dropped into her hands. She was silent, and her
shoulders shook, and occasionally I could hear the muffled, tremulous intake
of her breath.
The officer waited.
Waited.
Waited.
Said, "I know how hard this is. Take your time."
My mother took a long, shuddering breath and sat straight up again. "That's
all right, officer. This is just so horrible. I lost all of them, and she's
lost, too. My Tanasha is so lost."
He nodded. Waited.
"I told her I wanted her to come home. That I didn't like the friends she was
with. Bangers, droppers, Senso-heads. I said I wouldn't give her money. I told
my child to come home. That I loved her." And this was red and gold, mostly
gold.
The officer was still now. Waiting.
"She said I was going to be sorry. That she would hurt me, take away
everything I ever loved." A
mother's convulsive sob, gushing tears, arms flung forward and down to grab
tight to knees. "And I
didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't believe she would do it. I
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didn't believe my daughter was capable of such atrocities. I let her walk away
when I should have stopped her. I should have found her help. I should have
told someone what she had said."
The officer rested a hand on her shoulder at last, and said, "You don't need
to sit here any longer. You've been through enough. But I have one other
question that I have to ask you before you go. I'm sorry I
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Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood have to ask, but I wouldn't be
doing my job if I didn't."
The guilt-wracked, wretched-voiced whisper. "Don't apologize, officer. You can
ask me anything.
Anything."
He took his hand away, and in the emotionless professional voice of a man who
had to do unpleasant things every day, he said, "Did you kill your family?"
She looked up, doe-eyed and startled. "No, of course not," she said, and the
light glowed golden as a sun.
"Did you have any part in their deaths did you hire someone else to kill them,
or solicit for their deaths?"
"No."
Gold.
"Did you know in advance that their lives were in danger and withhold
information from any authorities?"
"No. Officer, I never believed that my Tanasha& " and here she began to weep.
Gold. Flawless unflickering glowing gold.
The questioning officer waited. Patient.
She caught her breath, lifted her head, looked into his eyes and said, in a
voice breaking from her grief, "I never believed that my Tanasha would be
capable of hurting anyone. Never. And certainly not her own family, no matter
how lost she has become. This was my fault. All my fault."
Gold. Gold. Only gold. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]