A Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

Pete Lincoln, a private detective out of place and time because of a fifteen-year coma, is struggling to stay solvent. When Mara Kalleigh walks through his door, he doubts she really needs his services. However, his low account balance and her determination convince him to take her case. Pete has barely begun to investigate whether Ms. Kalleigh is being followed or if she is merely paranoid, when she is violently murdered. With his client dead and his services paid for in advance, Pete jumps into solving her murder and stumbles into the newest kind of prejudice. In a world where even the most intimate acts are visible to everyone and where everyone knows everyone else’s business, who could have killed Mara Kalleigh and walked away unseen?

Originally published in the June 2012 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact and edited by Stanley Schmidt, this sociological science fiction murder mystery is set in a future where privacy no longer exists.