Quester amongst the flowers 3

 

Chapter 3

 

Kiliana was more excited than she liked to admit at the idea of a virtually unlimited budget to purchase pretty clothes. She was careful with Quester’s budget, whilst making sure she was outfitted appropriately as a Justiciar’s assistant. She was currently wearing one of her favourite suits in what passed in the fashion world for timeless style. Generally speaking, the fashion called for a skirted jacket or tunic, heavily embroidered or embellished, over trousers or a skirt; and Kiliana’s favourite costume was simple black leggings and shirt, with over the knee boots, and a teal-coloured brocade jacket closing with a double-breasted panel, coming to a point top and bottom, whose intricate embroidery hid that it contained a panel of chitin armour for her vulnerable organs. The neck was high, and the shoulders square rather than built up as some were, and the skirt of the jacket fell in a simple line from the side of her waist to the floor. Kiliana felt confident of sweeping into rooms in this. However, it was not ‘girlish’ enough for a debutant.

Kiliana purchased downloads of several magazines, and went into a coffee shop to peruse them with Miz Lewis.

“It’s good of you to give up time to help with something as frivolous as shopping, even when it’s for a serious purpose, Miz Lewis,” said Kiliana.

“Please, Lady Kiliana, call me Amee,” said Miz Lewis. “My name’s Ameline, but I don’t use it.”

“Oh, Kiliana does... though perhaps you should call me Kerria, as I’ll be living under it,” said Kiliana.

“I’ll do that, it will help you remember that you are Kerria,” said Amee. “I think I can tell you something about current fashion, too.”

“Oh, good; some things pass me by,” said Kiliana.

“Well, teal, like burgundy, is a timeless colour, and a classic, as black is,” said Amee. “Magenta is considered a bit daring, because of the Justiciar’s magenta capes. It’s illegal to wear it as a cape or cloak or collar.”

Kiliana nodded; that could be interpreted as impersonating a justiciar, a capital crime.

“It looks as if this year’s fashion colour is burnt orange,” she said.  “I could get away with that, you know; I love this jacket, brocaded with orange and gold flowers on black on the left of the bodice and the right panel of the skirt of the jacket. As a gold curl comes onto the right bodice, I imagine the pattern peters out to the plain left skirt of the jacket... oh, yes,” she added, using the rotate function to view the whole costume. “And gold embroidery on the side of the trousers, appearing with movement, and down the side of the sleeves... Oh, I see, the trousers and sleeves are part of a jump suit to mix and match, and the jacket has no sleeves.  And there are other jackets to go with it.”

“You would look very good in it,” said Amee. “It’s not really teen costume, though.”

“Leo said to knock myself out,” said Kiliana. “No, actually, he said to get some more clothes for myself to wear as me as well; he isn’t likely to use slang.”

Amee chuckled.

“I can’t see Justiciar Quester ever using slang,” she said. “But if your budget stretches to it, the jump-suit would look well enough under what you are wearing, and having things to mix and match gives a different look. And you could lounge in it informally.”

“Excellent,” said Kiliana. “These sleeveless jackets seem popular, with and without anything underneath; here’s one in pale teal with... no, they aren’t sleeves hanging loose to slip an arm into, they are just tabs of cloth.  Oh, here’s one with sleeves that can hang or not. And some little – well, they aren’t really jackets, just collars and shaped pieces to hold two sleeves together, except that some of them come sleeveless.”

“Jacklettes,” said Amee. “Very popular with teens over corset-tops, to cover the shoulders in more formal settings, but not out of the way with anyone under thirty.” She hesitated. “It’s considered suitable for teens to show more flesh; tunics over bare legs or with shorts underneath, bare arms and a bit of flesh visible around and above the décolletage, which is normally only suitable for ball gowns.”

“What are they wearing on their feet?” asked Kiliana.

“Oh, you mean the bootals?” said Amee. “Very fashionable; essentially sandals with a covered toe, but with boot legs, usually mid calf.”

“How ridiculous,” said Kiliana. “I’d probably better get some.” She considered. “I’ll have a couple of jump suits in other colours; cream seems to team with burnt orange, teal, jade, and other colours, so cream, and a teal one too. Then I can mix and match with these jacklettes, a number of jackets, and I think I shall have a couple of flowing skirts as well, one in black, and one in cream.” She considered. “I shall have a couple of tunic tops which are after the fashion of jackets, too,” she said. “I can choose to wear them with leggings or skirts or bare legs.  And there are some lacy leggings.”

“Lace is very much the province of teens and debutants,” said Amee. “See, some tunics here with lace sleeves; this cream one is plain apart from the lace at the top of the bodice and down the sleeves, and you could have a jacklette with heavy embroidery and loose sleeves or sleeve-tassets to wear over it, and team it with trousers or skirt if you wanted.”

“Or even a heavier, open jacket,” said Kiliana. “Well, with a dozen purchases, I can cover an almost infinite change of look, and I can always dye the cream ones if they get sad, or I want them to be less teen.”

“I didn’t know posh people thought of refurbishing,” blurted out Amee.

“Me? I’m not posh. Just getting good at playacting it for my justiciar,” said Kiliana. “OOH!  I like these cream leggings with faded teal and faded orange embroidery in swirls on them, that goes with one of the bodice things, with faded teal one side and faded orange the other and cream embroidery, and it has a light jacket in layers of lace over it,  and sheer with lace sleeves, which can belt, and a jacklette with those tasset things; lots of layers.” She considered. “Well, I’ll have that full costume, and over the cream skirt, a plain bodice and the sheer jacket would be quite classy. I’d better have some cream bootals as well as black.”

“I don’t think a complete outfit could be got any more economically,” said Amee, trying not to sound envious.

“Now you; you’re supposed to be my governess,” said Kiliana. “Now, with your lovely dark brown skin, I think you’d look fantastic in something like that first burnt orange brocade thing that caught my eye.”

“I... it would be too much,” said Amee, wishing she did not feel that she ought to protest.

“Nonsense; it’s no good blowing my cover for a little pride,” said Kiliana. “Here, a little black dress, with embroidery and beading in a diagonal fashion from under the bust to the skirt,  a hipster jacket in burnt orange brocade, burnt orange jump suit, which I could never wear, but isn’t it lush?  Black half-boots with a strap, a black and orange jacklette, black jump suit, and black skirt. That covers any look, I think; do you have your measurements stored?”

“Honey, I buy off the rack and it fits where it touches,” said Amee.

“Oh, I’ll scan you, then,” said Kiliana. “And your feet for the boots. Leo says it’s economical in the long run and as he’s paying, I wouldn’t argue.”

“I think you just ran up a bill which is more than I get paid in a year,” said Amee.

“Well, Leo never uses his expense account, so it’s about time he did,” said Kiliana. “There’s a good five years of unused justiciar pay in his account.”

 

oOoOoO

 

Burdock brought more coffee.

“Kiliana’s been a long time,” said Quester, testily. “It must be two hours since I sent her shopping for a new identity.”

“When That Woman had me carry fings for her, she could shop all day,” volunteered Burdock, of the woman Cybele, whom the Ogroid refused to dignify with a name.

“Yes, I don’t volunteer to help my wife and daughter,” said Cayban. “It’s exhausting, and frankly, I’d as soon spend a day on stake-out culminating in a shoot-out with sump-rats.”

“Really?” Quester was startled, and did not bother to reprimand Cayban for the lictor slang term for those unfortunate humans who lived in the lower levels of the cities, often flooded, and always damp and filthy. “Kiliana has been very good about shopping quickly up until now.”

“You sent her off with another woman,” said Burdock, gloomily. “Women in shops hunt in packs, and they play with their prey.”

“Essentially correct,” said Cayban. “Shall I tell you about my problem while we await the ladies?”

“Yes, do,” said Quester. “If you’d like to move up here and share an office with me whilst this investigation is ongoing, you’re welcome, so long as you can put up with me snoring on the couch when I’ve pulled an all-nighter.”

“I’ve done a few of those myself,” said Cayban. “I keep a militia camp-bed in my own office.”

“Oh, bring it up. Burdock will provide himself with one his size,” said Quester. Burdock beamed. He had a folding camp bed of what he considered remarkable comfort which he had been given by the Hussars. He had another for his girlfriend, Purity.

The case of Danel Forrest was an interesting distraction from the horrific deaths of young girls. Forrest was accused of killing his friend, who was a security courier, as he was assumed to have known that the deceased, Lindon Bain, was carrying negotiable securities. Some companies preferred not to use electronic funds transfer after the great money heist of a decade or so ago, by a group of still-unapprehended villains, generally held to be agents of the Commutants. A convenient scapegoat, Quester had always thought. All friends and contacts of Bain were, of course, suspect, and Forrest had shown nervousness about where he was during the window of time between Bain leaving the bank, and failing to arrive with pay chits at his first port of call.

“This Danel Forrest, is he an electronics genius, then?” asked Quester.

“No, not at all; he’s a constructionist,” said Cayban.

“Well, look, if the stolen goods consists of pay chits, they have to be converted into money to be worth anything more than the paper they are printed on,” said Quester. “I know; I can issue chits as rewards to people, and my signature is checked as legitimate, as it is recorded and available electronically to any bank. But there has to be a legitimate account for the money to go to. Forrest couldn’t put the money paid to another into his account.  At the very least, you would have to set up a fake banking house, with the customers listed, and some identity proof to satisfy the banking commission, and then each chit must be paid in, and some payment arranged for the fake customers in the names of real people to pay out to some third party, who then has to cash it in, or otherwise distribute it before dissolving the temporary bank. And without an expert, it’s impossible. Follow the electron trail.”

Cayban blinked, groaned, and dropped his head in his hands.

“I was too taken up with it being a physical theft to think through what it needed,” he groaned. “Of course it needed an electronics expert.  I made a real mess of that, just because I let myself be led by his guilty reaction.”

“I have to combat it all the time,” said Quester.  “Many people behave in a guilty way just because of the presence of a Justiciar; I imagine it is true, to some extent, of a lictor, too. And most guilt is minor, but very real to the witness.”

“One of the people I discounted was a professional whom Bain called in,” said Cayban, rifling through his notes on his datapad.  “Here we are; Chet Bradway, who had to reset the automated apartment.  Belongs to a small firm, had recently maildropped Bain’s apartment block with business cards.”

“That seems suspicious in itself, though coincidences do happen,” said Quester. “If I were a thief with such skills, if I knew Bain was a courier, I’d hack his apartment to cause his appliances to go haywire after I’d done a widespread drop of my card to others in the vicinity to hide my target. And then I could introduce more and better bugs, and get to know him, poke around, all legitimately.”

“Abe’s nuts!” swore Cayban, and then looked terrified.

“I’ve said worse; the Blessed Abe is a tolerant god-hero, you know,” said Quester. “You need to have an expert go over Bain’s electronics, and send someone to investigate his firm.”

“I do, indeed,” said Cayban. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get onto that right away, and see what I can uncover; and I’ll start moving some of my stuff up here, and appointing a deputy to everything else.”

“Excellent,” said Quester. “Tell Burdock what you tipple; I don’t drink often, but sometimes it’s enough of a relaxant to sleep without the questions going round in the head.”

“Thanks,” said Cayban.