Message-Id: Date: Wed, 20 Dec 95 23:20 PST From: jekel@cts.com (Julie Jekel) Subject: "Ships in the Night" part 12 SHIPS IN THE NIGHT A sequel to "Donna's Song" by Julie L. Jekel Chapter 12: Suspicions "Kid, psycho fans take shots at their favorite stars all the time." "This wasn't a fan," Sam insisted. The policeman regarded him skeptically. "You wan't me to believe it was her fiancee? C'mon, surely you can come up with something better than that." "Look, all I'm asking you to do is check it out. He had the opportunity--" "Can you give me a motive?" Sam tried not to look stumped. "Well, I..." The officer nodded. "That's what I thought." He started to turn away. Behind Sam, the Imaging Chamber Door hissed open. "Sam! Ziggy says there's a ninety-eight percent chance Ferne Marshall was planning to cut Gardener out of her will the day she died!" Sam jumped on the news. "She was going to disinherit him." The officer turned back to him, his face curious. Sam glanced quickly to Al who read off the information rapidly scrolling by on the handlink. "Ferne Marshall changed her will to leave everything to Gardener two days before the first assassination attempt. Yesterday, when he came to visit her at the hospital, she broke up with him, and she was planning to change her will again to cut him out the day she was killed." Sam repeated the information to the policeman, who stared at him incredulously. "Was killed?" "I mean...she's planning to change her will again, and he's going to kill her to stop it!" "And how do you know this? You some sort of psychic?" "No, no...Look. If you had just tried to kill your fiancee and suddenly out of the blue she broke up with you, wouldn't you be a little worried that she suspected you?" "I still think you're grasping at straws, son. It's an interesting theory, but stuff like that only happens in the movies." "It's not working, Sam," Al stated uneccesarily, staring at the handlink. "I know that!" Sam muttered under his breath. "What was that?" the officer asked. "Nothing, Nothing. It wouldn't hurt to check the possibility, would it?" "Oh, I don't know. Trespassing, illegal search and seizure--" Sam sighed impatiently. "Look, just forget it!" Without waiting to hear more, he stormed out of the station. The officer behind the desk watched him go. "Tommy?" A younger officer standing at a filing cabinet turned. "Yes, chief?" "Keep an eye on that young man that just left, there. He's acting real suspicious." Outside, Sam turned to Al. "Well, so much for the police. What made you think to look up that stuff about the will, anyway?" Al shrugged vaguely. "It's always a good motive for murder on TV." Sam studied his friend thoughtfully. "There's something you're not telling me, Al." "What makes you say that?" "The fact that I've never seen you so evasive since my first Leap." "How am I being evasive?" "Catching yourself in the middle of a sentence and telling an obvious lie to cover for the slip, coming to me with informatio I never asked for, then not telling how you got it, trying to keep me away from Ferne Marshall even though I'm supposed to be saving her life--" "Hey, who says I'm trying to keep you away from her?" "You assumed I was falling for her because she was my type without ever having seen her and then changed the subject when I started to wonder why. Plus you tried to discourage me when I talked about getting her and Jack together--" "I already told you the reason for that! I didn't want you being crazy enough to get her fiancee mad at you!" "But she was already going to break up with him." "Well, I didn't know that at the time!" "Why not?" Al looked uncomfortable. "I hadn't asked." "I don't understand. You've been volunteering information that normally I would have to ask you to find out, and you don't know about vital things, that I assume Ziggy would tell you on his own, until after they've happened. It's almost as if..." Sam paused thoughtfully. "C'mon, Sam, we've got to--" "There's someone else changing history here, isn't there? Is Alia here?" "Alia?" "Zoe, then." "No! Alia's not here and Zoe's not either! Now will you come off it and worry about saving Ferne Marshall?! Unless you don't want to Leap." "Al..." "Look, Sam, I can't tell you, so just forget about it, okay?" "Then there is someone-- "I told you, Sam. I can't tell you." Al poked the flourescent squares of the handlink and the bright light of the open Imaging Chamber door appeared behind him. "I'm sorry." He stepped through the door and was gone, leaving Sam alone with the mystery. JJ My 'Schedule': from the last week in Aug to the middle of December--jj1152@mcis.messiah.edu middle of Dec to the second week in Jan--jekel@cts.com second week in Jan to the first week in May--jj1152@mcis.messiah.edu first week in May to the last week in Aug--jekel@cts.com