****A White Panama Hat ****

The first time I saw her she was standing across the boulevard and seemed to be arguing, or visiting, or something with the old Chinese.

The scudding gray clouds that normally mask Mega City West had ,for some reason, separated a little bit and the constant drizzle, alternatingwith cool rain, had stopped and within just a few minutes the people who normally scurried about in transparent raincoats and similar transparent umbrellas suddenly came almost running from the apartment complexes that lined the kilometer high walls of Mega City West and were enjoying being out to wear their chiffon colored clothing which is de rigueur when it isn't raining.

I was at my usual table at Tony's having a cup of coffee when she suddenly turned and strode into the boulevard.

She was a striking woman, jet black hair, a black Toreador jacket covering a white blouse with a black A-line skirt and black patent leather, kitten heel, shoes.

Without acting as if she even noticed them. the crowd separated as if she was something that they had never seen before.

The stark contrast between her black and their chiffon was a sight to behold.

I almost didn't have time to rise when she was standing before me herself, and. so I decided to remain seated, and looking up at, what I must repeat, was a most striking woman.

" The man running the shop told me that I might find someone wearing a white Panama suit".

I kind of peered around her and across the street and saw the Chinese turning and going into a shop where he was a purveyor of artificial knee caps, noses and earlobes.

" If you mean this," I replied, indicating the old crush, "then yes it is indeed a Panama Hat. However I am not wearing a 'Panama' suit this is merely a white suit. I admit that it is somewhat out of keeping with the present style; but I like it".

I rose a little bit and offered the other side of table to which she replied that she would.

Before she had even seated herself Tony had appeared with a white towel over his left arm and asked if she would like to have coffee. She nodded and looked both he and me over.

And, again, as if by magic, Tony and one of the waiters had appeared with a white heavy carafe of coffee and heavy white cafe cups and saucers.

As we watched he produced a tall silver coffee pot with a tall silver spout and elegantly decanted the amber liquid in a long stream into our cups.

" Sugar for the lady, cream?"

She passed her hand over the cup and Tony discreetly receded into the background.

" Real ceramic cups? And I assume real silver? "

I nodded.

" And, is this real coffee and real sugar? ".

She slowly reached over and picked up a white cube and a pink tongue darted out to give it just a taste.

She gave me a sidelong glance and held it to her lips.

She was wearing strikingly red lipstick.

*******Red Lipstick*******

And that was the way it began.

"My supervisor ...said that you would be different".

"Well, I don't know how to take that. I assume that it was intended as a compliment".

She dallied with a sugar cube. Not quite seeming to be able to decide to drop it into the coffee; or not. She glanced up at me and seem to decide against, laid it on the saucer and, instead reached for the pair of silver tongs.

First one, then another .

"Oh, I I think he intended it to be a compliment or he would not have suggested that we work together. "

'Kelli,' I sublingualed, ' have I missed something here? '

'No, Professor. Her Kub is, apparently, heavily fenced. She is with the constabulary. I have not been able to establish contact with the Kub. I'm trying several subchannels. I'll let you know when I when I find out something'

She had been stirring her coffee; but I could tell that something was going on because of the way she was watching me.

" your Kub will not find anything out.. mine is fenced ..I'm with a gendarme special detachment from Balboa."

I'm sure that my eyebrows raised a little as I picked up my coffee and took a sip to consider the situation .

An Educator, by definition, has quite a few perks; one of which is having a very high-level Kub. Kubs are generally low level unless they have a specialized function. Most of them are for merely work on data retrieval. For her to be able to fence out Kelli indicated that something was in the works.

And for her to actually approach me as an Educator and not indicate anything about me working with her as a detective was even more interesting.

I sublingualed to Kelli and asked if she was armed; to which Kelli replied 'yes' and that it was a standard issue needle gun, all plastic.

I took another sip of coffee and set the cup down, as did she.

She ran her first finger over the cup's rim. I didn't see any of the red lipstick.

She cleared her throat.

"It's a situation of murder."

***** "Murder you say"? ******