An Imposter Among Us

14: The Day We Talk it Out

Genesis (1st-person POV)

Ceres went first.

"The killer ran by while I was fueling up the lower engine. They came out of security, probably through the vent. We had a scuffle, and though I clearly won, it seemed they had more important things to do than handle me. I chased after them, and eventually I cornered them in the bunks. I found Light shoving the suit under his bed."

Now all the attention was on Pollux, who withered under so many accusatory glares.

"Anything else?" Elara asked. She sat in the center of our not-really-a-circle in medbay, on a swivel stool, drumming her fingers on the shaft of her cane. "Because now I believe it is time for questions. I'll go around and everyone will have a chance to ask Ceres to clarify some things."

"I have one," I started. "I saw the killer run past admin, and through storage straight to comms. I didn't see you chasing after him at all, but you were already down in the bunks when I started going after him. How do you explain that?"

"I gave up on chasing him, and decided that he would probably come down to the bunks eventually. So I hid there and trapped him."

So why didn't he mention that part in his recount?

"How do you know the killer came through the vent in security?" Zaniah asked from the sink, holding her arm under a heavy downpour of faucet water.

"I said he probably came out of the vent."

Calypso cleared her throat. "And what about your being in lower engine in the first place? Can anyone confirm that he was there?"

Pollux fidgeted with his long sleeve. "I—I can. I could see him from shields."

Elara nodded slowly. "Alright. If no one else has anything, we'll move on."

She waited. No one spoke.

"Okay, who would like to go next?"

Pollux started to raise his hand, then quickly put it back down and cleared his throat. "I...I can go."

"Okay," Elara said. "The floor is yours."

He shifted in his spot on the gurney, next to me. Ceres leaned forward and stared intently.

"I—I was in shields at first. Doing shield things. And I—I heard loud footsteps. Running. I saw the killer come out of comms. I think they came from the bunks because of how I heard the footsteps, they sounded like they were coming up stairs. I don't know. But I hid behind the computer desk for a while until I didn't hear anything anymore, and I went down to the bunks. The killer came down and I hid underneath one of the beds. I saw the helmet fall to the ground, and the killer getting out of the suit quickly."

"Did you see who it was?" Calypso asked quickly.

"N—no. I didn't want to reveal myself. I'm sorry."

I'm sorry. Pollux didn't say it because he was the killer, but because he didn't know who it was, even though he had the chance to find out.

But why did Ceres lie about seeing Pollux shove the suit under his bed?

"Did you see their shoes?" Jericho asked.

Pollux nodded. "But they're just the boots. Everyone's been wearing them."

We all looked down. Yep. We were all wearing identical copies of standard-issued black combat-style boots.

"I waited until they left, then I crawled out and tried to see if there were any clues on the suit. Ceres, he—he caught me looking at the suit, and thought I was taking it off and trying to hide it. He ran out and told the captain, and...yeah."