Another approach

Yesterday, we found out that the Overmind of Deucado had no knowledge of the break-in at Rome's Library and therefore no knowledge of the identity of the Vuduri woman helping Troutman and Steele. Things just weren't adding up. But as my wife likes to say, when the pieces of the puzzle don't match up, you are probably missing some pieces. It is Rome and Rei's job to figure out that missing piece, i.e. who was this mystery Vuduri woman:

     Rome opened up her eyes and stared around the room at the humans and livetars.
     “The Overmind has no knowledge of such a woman,” she said. “He was unable to detect a person with motives before the crime or since.”
     “How can that be?” Bonnie asked. “I thought you were all mind-connected?”
     “They are,” Rei said. “And they can’t lie. But they sure can keep secrets.”
     Rome held her hand up and closed her eyes again.
     “Is there anything at all, anything amiss that you could tie into this? Our lives depend upon it.”
     “No,” the Overmind replied. “You and Rei are beloved across this entire planet. There is not a single Vuduri here who has ill will toward you. From my understanding, the same is true of the Essessoni, Deucadons and the mandasurte. No, whoever this is, she has had no experiences that she has shared with me or any of the Vuduri. That or she was never a part of my samanda to begin with.”
     “Not part of your samanda?” Rome scrunched up her face. “How could that be?”
     “I cannot answer your question,” the Overmind replied, “but it is the only explanation I can postulate that fits the facts.”
     “Hmm,” Rome said. “I will have to think about that.”
     “I am sorry that I cannot be of more help,” the Overmind said wistfully.
     “I appreciate your efforts,” Rome said sadly. “We will have to find them another way.” With that, Rome disconnected. She looked up at Rei. “The Overmind has nothing to offer. He speculated that perhaps this woman never belonged to his samanda in the first place.”
     “How could that be? Do you think she was Cesdiud?”
     Rome shrugged. Rei looked around the room and stopped when he made eye contact with Bonnie. “You mentioned the police shows we used to watch. What would they do now?”
     “They’d haul the first witness back in and hook him up to a lie detector,” Bonnie said. “Try and catch him with an inconsistency. That’s all it usually takes to break them.”
     “What is a lie detector?” Rome asked, standing up.
     “It’s a machine they hook up to you and it records the person’s vital signs during an interrogation. Inside a person’s head, there are all sorts of things happening that might indicate their words were not the truth.”
     “Inside their heads, you say?” Rome offered. “Like the espansor bands?”

A germ of an idea is forming. It just takes a computer to fit the components together to come up with the ideal solution.