The Third Lynx Read Online Free PDF Page B

cop knew it. But just the same there was no point in offering Morse the opportunity to add that bit of weight to the case against me. “Still, we do know of at least one person who entered the compartment car prior to the discovery of the crime,” I said instead.
    “Who?” one of the Bellidos asked.
    I pointed to the lady politician still hovering behind them. “Her.”
    The woman’s eyes widened. “What did you say?” she demanded. Unlike her screaming voice, her demanding voice was solidly in upper-crust territory.
    “Just stating facts, ma’am,” I said mildly.
    “Lady Dorchester had nothing to do with the crime,” Morse put in hurriedly. “I can personally vouch for her.”
    “So what?” I scoffed. “Bayta here can personally vouch for me, too. That proves nothing.”
    The mental daggers I’d been sending Morse earlier reversed direction. “This is nothing but an attempt to muddy the waters,” he ground out. “I’ve shown you my credentials. If Mr. Compton has any of his own—”
    “Excuse me, but Mr. Compton and I have business to attend to,” Bayta spoke up unexpectedly. “You three go ahead and continue your discussion.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Morse growled. “Until this is settled you can’t go anywhere unattended.”
    “What’s to settle?” I countered. I had no idea where Bayta was going with this, but I was willing to play along. “As long as we’re still in the Tube none of you has any right to hinder our movements.”
    “That may change momentarily,” Morse warned darkly.
    “When it does, be sure and let me know,” I said. “Until then, we have lives to lead. Honored sirs; Lady Dorchester,” I added, nodding in turn to the Bellidos and the woman. Taking Bayta’s arm. I turned us in the general direction of the stationmaster’s building and started walking.
    I half expected Morse to try to stop us, but he didn’t. I gave us five or six steps worth of distance, then leaned my head toward Bayta. “What’s up?” I asked quietly.
    Her answer was to pull subtly on my arm, changing our course a few degrees to the left. “Those hatchways,” she murmured, nodding toward a set of shuttle hatchways fifty meters ahead.
    I craned my neck to look over a line of goose-feathered Pirks that were hurrying past across our path. Two of the hatchways had the glowing rims that proclaimed the presence of docked shuttles. A crowd of travelers had gathered in the area, waiting their turn to embark for the transfer station and the torchliners that would take them to their ultimate destinations here in the Estates-General’s capital system. As I watched, one of the two glowing hatchways opened and began disgorging a line of passengers, upper-class Bellidos with lots of plastic guns riding beneath their arms. “What about them?” I asked Bayta.
    “I just saw another shuttle from that same group only let out five passengers,” she said. “All of them upper class.”
    “So they had a short load,” I said. “So what?”
    “But then only five outgoing passengers got on,” she said. “Belldic shuttles are supposed to carry sixty passengers.”
    I frowned. She was right about the number. And given that it cost as much to run a half-empty shuttle as it did a full one, nobody deliberately ran short loads without a good reason. “Let’s take a closer look,” I suggested.
    Sure enough, before we’d gotten twenty paces the flow of incoming Bellidos from the shuttle stopped. Five of them, just as Bayta had said. The outgoing passengers started filing down the stairway; again, only five made it in before the hatchway light went out, indicating the shuttle was full.
    “Interesting,” I said, shifting my attention to our five new arrivals. A dozen paces from the shuttle hatchways they joined up with another group of five, possibly the ones from the shuttle Bayta had first noticed. The first five were standing casually enough, looking at first glance like any other collection of