Garbage Star (Galaxy Mavericks Book 4) Read online

  “Will it even help?” Alma asked. “What about fresh air, on another planet?” she craned her neck and looked down the hallway. “Dylan?”

  “Won’t work,” Eddie said, thumbing through his directory of contacts.

  “How do you know that?” Alma asked. Her voice was angry.

  “The doctors said so.”

  “Since when do you trust doctors all of a sudden?”

  “They’re the only hope he’s got,” Eddie said.

  Dylan toddled back into the room, laughing.

  Eddie dialed another number and put the phone on speaker.

  A voicemail.

  “You have reached the voicemail of Abel Hartman, financial advisor…”

  “Why the advisor?” Alma asked.

  “We need more money,” Eddie said.

  “No,” Alma whispered.

  “We’ve got to get him back to Gargantua,” Eddie said. “The doctor there knew his stuff. He—”

  “Eddie.”

  “This new doctor they have there, he’s la raza, babe. One of us. He’s got better answers. It’ll be fresh air, like you said. They’ve got salt baths there, too—”

  “Eddie.”

  “I’m not giving up on him. I’m not—”

  Alma took him in for a hug. Slowly, tears came down his cheeks. He couldn’t take seeing the mental image of his grandfather—the strongest man he knew—next to the Papa Ito of now, weak and feeble and hardly able to feed himself.

  He sobbed.

  “There’s nothing we can do,” she said. “We have to make him comfortable.”

  She embraced him and then took his hand and pulled him toward the door.

  “Let’s clear your mind,” she said.

  ***

  They held hands as Dylan ran out in front of them.

  “Papi!” Dylan said. “Papi!”

  He held out a rock.

  “Rock. Rock. Rock!”

  “Rock,” Eddie said.

  Dylan was in the phase where he wanted everyone to know the name of things. He’d repeat it until you said it back to him.

  “I got some quotes for full-time nurses,” Alma said. “There’s one from Gargantua who grew up on Traverse II. She offered to look after Papa Ito for a reduced rate.”

  “That’s good,” Eddie said. He’d wiped the tears away but his eyes were still moist.

  Reader IV was bright in the sky, like a moon. A haze moved in from the east, and Eddie felt a chill.

  They walked along a paved path with solar-powered lights staked in the ground on both sides.

  “We also got some quotes from funeral services,” Alma said.

  Eddie stopped.

  “What?”

  “Mama Tonia insisted,” Alma said. Her eyes were bright in the night. Her perfume wafted toward Eddie, floral and familiar. “I didn’t like it, either.”

  Eddie said nothing. Just sighed.

  “Looks like you had a good week at the plant,” he said finally, changing the subject.

  “Josie is learning,” Alma said. “Cardboard prices were up. I had to work overtime. But we sold it. With the money, we put more toward the mortgage.”

  She smiled.

  “It’ll only be about twenty more years if we keep it up,” she said.

  Eddie put his arm around her shoulder and massaged it.

  “What happened up there, Eddie?” Alma asked.

  He couldn’t lie. That would make his life worse than being captured by the white ship.

  “I ran into some trouble,” he said.

  Alma waited.

  “There was a spaceship in the trash,” he said.

  “Oh? What kind? Can we sell it?”

  “Uh…”

  Dylan grabbed a rock and threw it; it nearly missed one of the solar lights.

  “Be careful!” Alma said.

  Eddie rushed ahead and took Dylan by the hand.

  “Don’t throw,” Eddie said. “You’re going to break something.”

  “What kind of ship was it?” Alma asked.

  “A scientific ship.”

  “A government ship?”

  “A pioneer. Don’t know who it belongs to.”

  “What did the scrapper say?” she asked. “Is it worth our time?”

  “I didn’t make it that far.”

  Alma waited.

  “There was a dead guy on the ship.”

  Alma gasped. “What happened?”

  “No idea. He hadn’t been dead for too long.”

  “Did you call the police?” Alma asked.

  “I tried. But…”

  “But what?”

  “Somebody chased me.”

  Alma gasped again.

  “Eddie—”

  “I got away,” he said, looking down. “But they got my corsair.”

  “How did they get—”

  “They kind of attacked me,” Eddie said. “And they blasted open the airlock.”

  “You didn’t leave your keys inside, did you?”

  Eddie whistled. Then shrugged.

  “I told you!” Alma said.

  “How was I supposed to know?” Eddie asked. “It’s not like I woke up and thought, someone might steal my corsair today.”

  Alma folded her arms.

  “Papá called the cops. His guy in the department is supposed to be able to help.”

  “But whoever stole the ship would have access to our personal information,” she said. “It’s all right there on the control panel once you turn it on.”

  “The body will be gone soon, babe, don’t worry.”

  “I don’t care about the body!” she said. “Whoever was chasing you, you probably pissed them off. Even if the police take the body, they’re going to come after us.”

  “We’ve got guns,” Eddie said.

  “You couldn’t fire a gun to save anyone’s life,” she said.

  “And you can?”

  “Better than you.”

  Alma had grown up firing guns. Her brother was in the military on Traverse II.

  “You put all of us in danger,” Alma said. She glanced up at the sky. “Oh no. We have to go. We have to—”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Eddie said.

  “You don’t understand,” Alma said. Her voice was serious now. Eddie didn’t dare interrupt her again. “Did you think about us? Did you think Dylan, or Papa Ito, or the plant, or anything other than trying to be cool?”

  Eddie gulped.

  “So I screwed up, okay?”

  “And you’re going to fix it.”

  “Papá called the police. What else do you want me to do?”

  “How about not pick up dead bodies and try to protect them?” Alma asked.

  “I’m pretty sure this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It’s not like I run into dead bodies every time I leave.”

  Alma’s posture was stiff and she brushed him away. She grabbed Dylan and led him back toward the house.

  “Babe,” Eddie said.

  But Alma didn’t turn around.

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Yeah,” Alma said under her breath.

  Eddie stood on the path, under the stars as Alma hurried back toward the pod glittering in the distance.

  What had he done?

  Before he could think what to do next, a flurry of red and blue lights swirled across the sky, moving toward the pod.

  Alma quickened her pace.

  Eddie, seeing the police cars and grateful for the welcome distraction, started down the path to meet them.

  Chapter 12

  When Eddie made it back to the plant, there were several police cars parked haphazardly outside. The entrance was cordoned off.

  Delfino was talking to a barrel-chested police chief. He motioned to Eddie, and the chief turned around with a look of shock in his eyes. He wore a blue police uniform and while he wasn’t overweight, he had a double chin and two folds on the back of his head.

  “Eddie,” Chief Teodoro Vargas said
.

  “Ted.”

  “I explained briefly,” Delfino said, “but I figured it was better if you told it.”

  Ted pulled out a tablet that had a recording app on it. He hit the record button.

  “You don’t mind, do you?” Ted asked, as if forgetting to ask permission. “First murder we’ve seen in a long time.”

  Eddie hesitated.

  “It’s okay,” Delfino said. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Plus, he’s family.”

  Ted smiled lightly. He was a distant cousin, though Eddie hadn’t really known him. Just about all of la raza on Refugio was family by that logic. Still didn’t make him feel comfortable.

  “Go ahead,” Eddie said.

  “First off, you’re not in any trouble. Can you tell me what happened? It’s not for the courts. It’s for GALPOL.”

  Eddie began his story. Ted listened curiously. Halfway through the story, the tablet beeped. A message appeared.

  App has stopped recording.

  Ted grunted. “Damned thing. Never works like it should.”

  He submitted the recording he had made and tucked the tablet under his arm.

  “Those are your tax dollars at work,” Ted said. “Go on.”

  Eddie finished his story. By the end, Ted had folded his arms.

  “Well, sounds like a mess,” Ted said. “At least you made it home safely. I need you to show me a couple of things. We need to know where you touched the body and how you moved it. Probably gonna have your prints on it, and we’ll want to note that.”

  Ted walked into the plant.

  “Are they going to take the body?” Eddie asked.

  “Eventually,” Delfino said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  ***

  Ted knelt in front of the body, frowning.

  The corpse looked like a dummy, lying on its side from where it fell out of the airlock closet.

  “No idea at all where you might have found him?” Ted asked.

  “None,” Eddie said.

  Ted pointed to two wrinkles on the man’s black trousers. “This where you grabbed him, I assume?”

  “Yep. And under the arms, too.”

  Ted motioned to another officer and pointed at the two areas of the body. The officer wrote something on his tablet.

  Ted stood.

  “You gave us a lot of work,” Ted said. “Whoever this guy is, he was definitely murdered.”

  Eddie exhaled.

  “Knife wound to the stomach.”

  Eddie winced at the thought of the man being disemboweled.

  “You got some pretty bad luck,” Ted said. “But we’ll take the body. Since we don’t know where the murder happened, it’ll be a GALPOL investigation.”

  “Great,” Eddie said.

  “Great’s right,” Ted said. “I’m gonna have to do paperwork like you wouldn’t believe. You might get a phone call or two, Eddie, but nothing to worry about.”

  “What about the family?” Eddie asked. “Are we in danger?”

  Ted studied the garbage ship and thought for a few moments.

  “You guys should be fine. Whoever was chasing you probably just wanted the body.”

  “But what if they want revenge?” Delfino asked. “I’ve got to protect my family, Ted.”

  Ted regarded the comment. His walkie-talkie beeped and someone spoke, but he silenced it.

  “How about we put you up in a hotel for a few days? Can’t imagine it’ll take GALPOL long to find the perp.”

  Eddie shook his head. “But Papa Ito—”

  “Just think about it,” Ted said. “Don’t need to decide this moment. But the offer’s there.”

  There was a commotion near the entrance. Two police officers tried to stop someone from entering.

  Alma.

  She pushed past them and stopped at the dead body, gasping.

  “Night, Alma,” Ted said.

  “Ted, how are you?” Alma asked. Her eyes drifted down to the body again.

  “Be a lot better if I didn’t have to do paperwork,” Ted said.

  “Eddie,” she whispered, looking at the body incredulously. “Eddie, what have you done?”

  “It’s going to be fine, Alma,” Delfino said sternly. “They’re working on moving the body as we speak. I made a call to a crime scene cleanup company on Provenance. They’ll be here tomorrow. They’ll have the plant cleaned and sanitized before Monday.”

  “I offered to put you all up in a hotel for a few days,” Ted said. “You know, for—”

  A piercing scream filled through the plant.

  At the front door, a woman with a leather purse slung around her shoulder stopped at the sight of the body. Her face was done heavily in makeup, and she wore a green trench coat over a blouse and jeans.

  “Lord God in Heaven!”

  At the sound of the voice, Eddie knew he was in trouble.

  Next to him, Delfino said “When you tell the story again, leave out the grisly parts, will you?”

  Xiomara Puente walked closer and Alma stopped her, whispering. Then the woman’s eyes went straight to Eddie, and they widened.

  “What is going on?” she asked.

  “Hola, Mamá,” Eddie said, trying to smile. “You are looking beautiful tonight. How was church?”

  Chapter 13

  , Alma, Dylan, Xiomara and Delfino sat in a circle in the living room.

  On the living room couch, Xiomara listened to Eddie’a story, completely mortified. Even though he left out the parts about the blood and guts, she still turned pale and crossed herself.

  “I told you not to visit that sports gambling bar,” Xiomara said.

  “What?” Eddie asked.

  “That bar on Messina!” Xiomara said. “You know, the one with the soccer betting. I told you not to go!”

  “Mamá, that was three months ago.” Eddie said.

  “You brought bad energy to Refugio,” she said. “To our home.”

  “I’m sorry,” Eddie said. It was the first time he had apologized to everyone. “I had no idea this would happen.”

  “What’s done is done,” Delfino said. “We’ve got to decide what we’re going to do now.”

  “I’ve already done some research,” Alma said, bouncing Dylan on her lap.

  “Research on what?” Eddie asked.

  Alma unwrapped a piece of paper that she had tucked into her bra. Her neat, measured handwriting was written across the paper.

  “The dead man’s name is Tavin Miloschenko,” Alma said, reading from the paper. “I looked him up. He was a scientist on Zachary.”

  “Zachary?” Xiomara asked, gasping. “He worked for the empire?”

  Delfino smacked his head.

  “As if this could get any worse.”

  The Zachary Empire was the sworn enemy of Refugio. Eddie and his family had fled the empire’s brutal tactics. If it came out that Refugio had anything to do with the dead body, the empire might take it as an act of war. They might break the GALPOL treaty and attack. Few hated Refugio more than the Zachary Empire.

  “Papa Ito can’t know this,” Delfino said. “He’ll get upset.”

  “What about me?” Xiomara asked, offended. “I’m upset, Delfino. I’m—”

  “I asked Ted not to give our names in his press release,” Alma said. “He promised he wouldn’t.”

  Outside, two paramedics carried a stretcher from the plant. The body was covered by a white sheet. Xiomara saw the body and looked away.

  “We can’t just leave,” Delfino said. “It’s Saturday. Who’s going to run the plant?”

  “What’s more important?” Alma asked. “Opening the plant or surviving?”

  “We don’t even know if we’re in any danger,” Eddie said. “I told you, I don’t know if they actually got the corsair or not. All of this precautionary stuff could be for nothing.”

  “You should have thought about this before you acted,” Alma said.

  Her words stung. He knew better than to say anything.
>
  “Ted offered a hotel,” Alma said. “I say we take it for at least a week.”

  “And who’s going to work in the plant?” Delfino asked. “We can’t afford to be closed that long. A day or two, okay, but…”

  “After a week, if there hasn’t been an arrest, then we should think about moving off-planet for a while,” Alma said.

  “No,” Delfino said. “That’s crazy! We’re under contract with other planets. Can you imagine the garbage logjam that would create?”

  “Fortunately I’ve already thought of that,” she said. “I will take a garbage ship. Josie will come with me, and she will watch Dylan. I’ll complete the regular route. It’ll takes couple of days, anyway.”

  “But that doesn’t account for the recycling,” Delfino said.

  “Eddie is going to write an email to the waste management divisions of all the planets on our route, and it will be explain that we are going through some trouble at the plant and hope to be back in operation soon.”

  Eddie gulped. He hated writing letters. He was never any good at them. He could never get the punctuation right, and Alma ended up correcting all of his paragraphs.

  “But,” Eddie said. He felt Alma’s eyes on him and he wanted to shrink. “What happens if they never find the murderer? Do we run for the rest of our lives?”

  “The average length of a manhunt in the galaxy is seven days,” Alma said. “Ted told me that, and there’s data to support it.”

  Delfino eased off the chaise and started pacing around. He shook his head feverishly.

  “It won’t work,” he said. “It won’t work, Alma.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “We don’t have the money,” Delfino said.

  “I just checked the family savings account. There’s plenty in there.”

  “But the mortgage,” Delfino said. “The mortgage, Alma—”

  “No, not the mortgage!” she shouted.

  The room went silent. Dylan began to cry.

  “Am I the only one who’s looking out for the family?” she asked. “I guess so. But then again, I’m always the only one looking out for you all. And I’m not even your blood.”

  Delfino walked out of the kitchen, waving his hands. Xiomara grabbed him.

  “Delfino, don’t walk away,” Xiomara said.

  Delfino grunted.

  Eddie knew it was time for him to say something.