Page 70 of Identity Unknown

“Maybe I don’t like being reminded of other people you’ve been with,” he says into my hair. “Especially him.” He means Sal.

“Our summer together was another life ago,” I reply. “It seems like someone else.”

“But it wasn’t someone else.”

“I never felt about him the way I’ve always felt about you, Benton. Probably the reason I was with him was to get away from you.”

I remember feeling ruined. We worked together. He was married with children, and I was drawn to him with the pull of a vacuum. I didn’t fight it hard enough. Looking back, I don’t think I could. I’m not proud of our affair but would do it again if it was the only way to have him.

“And maybe I don’t like being reminded of people you’ve been with either.” I stroke his arm. “And that you have an estranged family out there who won’t forgive or forget.”

“A testament to my inadequacies when it comes to personal relationships,” Benton says. “Just ask Connie. She told me often enough.”

“You should have divorced her even if I hadn’t come along.” I kiss him as we hold each other close. “We don’t have to be anywhere for a little while, do we?”

CHAPTER 25

An hour later I’m showered and back in the kitchen when Lee Fishburne calls. He has preliminary results of the trace evidence analysis, and I don’t let on that Faye already leaked the headlines to me. I know how to act as if hearing something for the first time.

Lee verifies that swabs taken of the Brileys’ hands and their clothing are negative for GSR, and I wouldn’t be surprised even if Faye hadn’t told me earlier. I never expected that Luna was shot at close enough range to have soot and partially burned powder deposited on her. As for her parents, gunshot residue can be washed off, and I suspect that’s what they did, assuming one of them pulled the trigger.

“For sure Luna shouldn’t have GSR on her hands if she wasn’t holding the gun when it fired,” I’m saying over the phone as I refill the coffee reservoir. “And I wouldn’t expect Ryder and Piper Briley to be positive for GSR either since they had ample time to make sure nothing like that was found on them. I’m betting they washed the clothing they had on or disposed of it somewhere by the time the police got there.”

“I wonder about any pictures taken of them earlier that evening that might show they changed their clothes later?” Lee says.

“A good point that you should mention to Investigator Fruge,” I suggest. “Based on what I saw when I arrived at the house, Luna had been dead for several hours before the father called nine-one-one.”

“What’s known as being guilty as sin.” Lee’s voice is disgusted over the phone. “Their swabs and clothing also were negative for the particles that fluoresce cobalt blue under UV. The residue that was on their daughter’s pajama top.”

… Made mostly of silica but also magnesium, aluminum, iron and other elements…,Faye said to me moments ago.

“And this is where it gets interesting, Kay. The sparkly stuff is a simulant of lunar regolith…”

… They brought to mind microscopic asteroids…I hear Faye’s voice.

“… In other words, fake moon dust,” Lee is telling me in my Bluetooth earpiece. “Microscopically, the simulant particles are more uniform because they’re ground up by machines. But the composition is the same, about half of it melted silica sand. Glass, in other words. It’s not all that hard to tell simulant from the real thing, but you’ve got to know what you’re looking at.”

“Let’s make sure I have this straight,” I reply. “You’re saying that fake moon dust was on Luna’s pajamas?”

“It’s weird that’s her name.”

“I’m finding everything about this weird, Lee.” I resume loading silverware and plates into the dishwasher.

“We’re talking about pulverized volcanic ash, an igneous rock like basalt,” Lee continues to explain over the phone asI start the dishwasher. “It’s mined and turned to dust by huge crushers and grinders. Then this is processed and packaged inside cleanrooms.”

He goes on to explain that natural moon dust particles are sharply irregular, melted and porous. They’re created by meteors smashing into the surface of the moon. Simulated or real, the shards are electrostatically charged, sticking to everything.

“Explaining why the dust is problematic to astronauts and their equipment,” Lee is saying. “You sure as hell don’t want to track it into your space shuttle or habitat. It’s a wonder some of the Apollo guys back in the sixties and seventies didn’t have serious respiratory problems.”

“You’re sure we’re dealing with simulated moon dust?” I walk through the living room carrying two coffees. “Possible it might be something else?”

“When I got up this morning I had an email waiting from a friend of mine I contacted late yesterday, a materials scientist at Johnson Space Center. She confirmed that the images and composition of the particles are consistent with a high-grade lunar regolith simulant. The reason it fluoresces under UV is because it’s supposed to. Although she said she’s never seen a simulant light up cobalt blue. She has no idea who might make it.”

“That was my next question,” I reply. “Where would someone get fake moon dust?”

“You can order small amounts off the internet. Mainly people do it as a curiosity or they’re space geeks. Or they’re someone like me who wants to look at it microscopically. You’d be amazed by the stuff I order online that I might never get achance to examine otherwise. But moon dust simulated or real isn’t something you’d give to a child who might inhale it or get it in their eyes.”

“Does the simulant one can buy off the internet have a fluorescent additive?” I’ve returned to the bedroom, Benton in the bathroom with the door shut, the shower running.

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