“Is it true about Janacek?” she asked quietly, and it was White Haven’s turn to nod.

“According to the Landing Police, there’s no question but that it was suicide,” he confirmed.

“Not that very many people were prepared to accept that in the immediate aftermath,” his brother added with a harsh snort. “He knew where an awful lot of the bodies were buried, and quite a few people found it suspiciously… convenient that he should decide to blow his own brains out.”

“Descroix?” Honor asked.

“We’re not sure,” Elizabeth admitted. “She tendered her resignation along with High Ridge, of course. And then, a couple of days later, she headed out to Beowulf on one of the day excursion ships… and didn’t come back. From the looks of things, there was no foul play involved, unless it was her own. I think she planned on not coming back, although at this point no one has the least idea where she may have headed. All we know for sure it is that she transferred about twenty million dollars through a numbered DNA account on Beowulf to another account in the Stotterman System.” The Queen grimaced. “You know what the Stotterman banking laws are like. It’s going to take us at least ten or twelve T-years to get access to their records.”

“Where did the money come from?” Honor wondered.

“We’re working on that one from our end, Your Grace,” Colonel Shemais put in diffidently. “So far, we don’t have any definite leads, but there are a couple of at least slightly promising avenues for us to follow up. If we find what I expect to, we may be able to break Stotterman open a little sooner. They are part of the Solarian League, after all, and Sollie banking regulations are pretty specific about cooperating with embezzlement and malfeasance investigations.”

“And New Kiev?” Honor asked, and blinked in surprise as Elizabeth laughed out loud.

“Countess New Kiev,” the Queen said after a moment, “has… retired from politics. It might be more appropriate to say that she was fired, actually. Your friend Cathy Montaigne led something of a coup d’état within the Liberal Party leadership.”

“She did?” Honor couldn’t keep the delight out of her response, even though she hadn’t been aware that Elizabeth even suspected that she herself had been in contact with Montaigne and Anton Zilwicki.

“She certainly did,” William Alexander replied with a grin. “Actually, the Liberal Party as we’ve known it doesn’t really exist anymore. Things are still in the process of working their way out, but when the dust settles, it looks like there are going to be two separate political parties, each calling themselves the Liberal somethings. One is going to be a substantial majority of the old Liberal Party, centered in the Commons behind Montaigne’s leadership. The other’s going to be a rump of diehard ideologists who refuse to admit how completely they were used by High Ridge. They’re probably going to be concentrated in the Lords… since the only way someone that out of touch with reality could possibly survive as a political figure is by inheriting his seat.”