Aiden gritted his teeth, digging his fingers into the seat’s headrest. The police and the justice system were useless no matter which planet he went to. They’d let Darren Howe live despite the laws in place for premeditated murder. They’d let him escape real punishment despite the incriminating phone call between him and his benefactor. They’d given him prison time instead of the death penaltydespite his full confession.
Aiden tried to reel in the anger. He needed to keep his cool, now more so than ever. He was so close, he could taste it in the spaceship’s stale air.
“Aiden… You haven—”
“I’m fine, I know what I am doing. I just… I miss her so much, Rick. She’s gone and her murderer is still out there, alive.”
“I know it’s unfair, but I wish you could stop obsessing over it. He’s in prison and he’ll stay there until he dies.”
Aiden knew that, logically. But it didn’t change how he felt. It didn’t stop the merciless hand grasping his heart every time he thought about the woman he’d never see again and the monster who’d extinguished her light. There were so many unanswered questions still plaguing him every night, so many things that didn’t add up in the way the case had been handled. The entire thing stank wrong, and Aiden had to understand why.
“I need some closure. That’s all. Please don’t try to talk me out of it,” he said calmly, hoping his friend would stop probing.
Rick made a sound of protest, but didn’t argue. “Okay… But you’ll tell me when you locate him. And you won’t do anything stupid like trying to meet him. Promise me that.”
Aiden glanced out of the window, the endless dark space peeking through the barrier between the gunmetal gray walls of the station. “It’s not like they’d let me even if I found out where he’s detained.”
“I suppose not,” Rick said with a sigh. “I wish there was something I could do. I hate seeing you like this. It’s been two years. Everyone else has moved on. Even her parents…”
In these two years, Aiden hadn’t been allowed to see the court proceedings or the report from Claudia’s investigation and autopsy. He’d not been granted a phone call with Darren Howe, a chance to understand why this monster of a man had taken her from him. And he needed that, to look the killer in the eye and ask him why. To wrap his hands around Darren Howe’s throat and squeeze hard until everything was put right.
Aiden closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Soon, he would get his opportunity.For revenge and for the answers the authorities had refused him.He was going to figure out exactly what was happening,because he knew, deep down in his gut, that there was a missing piece. Or several of them. Something was transpiring behind the scenes—had been for the past two years—and he wasn’t allowed to know about it. He had no idea why that was, but he was going to get to the bottom of it, to discover the truth so he could fill this hole in him that kept growing.
“You still there?” Rick’s deep voice pulled Aiden out of his head.
“Yeah, sorry. Just a lot on my mind. Listen, I have to go or I’ll be late. I can call you later?”
Someone shouted Rick’s name in the background. “I’ve got a busy week, but I’m planning to stop by Europa soon. We can catch up then. I’ll let you know the dates.”
“Sounds good. It’s been a while.”
Rick huffed a sarcastic laugh. “A while? It’s coming up to six months. You’re a terrible friend for not coming to Mars even once.”
“I’ll make up for it.” And for all the lies he’d told the one man who’d stayed his friend even when everyone else had given up.
After hanging up, Aiden grabbed his backpack from the overhead compartment and made his way to the shuttle’s airlock. Outside, the docking clamp was already in place and the energy barriers were down, sealing the interior from the deadly vacuum of space. Inhaling slowly so he could chase away the agitation and ground himself to the present, he reminded himself of who he was now—Horizons’ substitute warden. He had a mission and a plan, and no matter what happened, he was going through with it.
Tablet and data drive in hand, Aiden got off the shuttle and marched across the stained concrete of the domed space prison station. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons and where he currently lived, disappeared from view when he rounded the corner.
“Mr. Kesley, welcome. This way, please.” The chief guard, Nigel as per his badge, tipped his shaved head toward the entry checkpoint to the right of the elevator.
His muscles bulged underneath the arm plates and his neck was at the very least the size of Aiden’s thigh. Big didn’t quite capture how enormous this giant was, or, for that matter, how massive all the guards of Horizons were, but after the couple of visits Aiden had paid the facility for various health and safety trainings, he’d almost gotten used to it.
Once Nigel searched him and gave him a taser bracelet for self-defense that all staff were required to wear, Aiden stepped inside the barred glass elevator, brushing off the flaky dust his slate suit had collected during the short walk through the docking sector. The debris fallout that had damaged a section of the station and ruined the play field some months back was at fault, but he intended to take care of that inconvenience as soon as he’d settled.
The doors hissed closed, and a monotone female voice announced they were going up. Under different circumstances, Aiden would have lost himself admiring the cutting-edge architectural feat that the prison station was, the way it was delved into the massive oblong asteroid without breaking it apart. The landing platform where the shuttle had dropped him off was located on the left side of the rock’s prolonged trunk-like body, while the prison itself was built at the top, jutting out like a mushroom crown.
Still, the impressive structure brought flashbacks from the last few projects he’d designed, no matter how hard he fought to keep them at bay. He’d left that life behind after Claudia’s death, so he had no reason to lament about it, quickly shutting down his wandering thoughts.
“We cleared out your office, but left the furniture as is,” Nigel said when they reached the prison floor.
“I hope you didn’t toss the paperwork,” Aiden joked with no humor.
The guard laughed, waving dismissively with his big hand. “We didn’t. The damage reports from the debris are also there, as you requested.”
Fixing up the prison and improving inmates’ behavior were the two priorities on his list. Upper Managementhad been very clear about it. “And the list of problematic inmates?”
“Still waiting on Block A. But I’ll give them a nudge and get that to you by EOD.”
