Tara Jennifer Shaheef
Names: Tara Jennifer ShaheefTaraShaheefTara Shaheef
First appears in Book 1: Pandora's Star, chapter 4 (THREE)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: Pandora's Star
- Ch 4Tara co-founded AquaState with her husband Morton and was having an affair with Wyobie Cotal while Morton was away.
- Ch 4Tara was murdered by a nervejam pistol in her apartment; her memorycell insert was scrambled so recent memories are lost even if re-lifed.
- Ch 6Shaheef left Oaktier, filed for divorce from Morton on Tampico, was never heard from again, and was re-lifed twenty years ago; her disappearance was written off as an accident.
- Ch 10Tara was murdered about twenty years earlier, then re-lifed; she remains twitchy and traumatized despite her husband's claims of recovery.
- Ch 10Tara admits she has long told herself she ran off on a romantic impulse with Wyobie, though she knew it did not happen that way.
- Ch 10Tara had an affair with Wyobie Cotal while married to Morton, and later married Matthew deSavoel.
- Ch 10Tara left Morton without warning, stripped the apartment, and sent only a divorce file naming Wyobie Cotal as the irreconcilable difference.
- Ch 10Tara put in 65 percent of AquaState's initial capital but the divorce split shares fifty-fifty; her shares sat in a Tampico bank for seventeen years.
- Ch 10After her re-life she married an aristocrat with a plantation and has been selling Gansu shares to support him.
- Ch 11Her accounts show no activity for two weeks after her lunch with Caroline Turner, except a payment to her divorce lawyers; no cash withdrawals or secure memory store found.
- Ch 11Her shares passed to Gansu Construction in Morton's buyout, then sat in a Tampico bank untouched and grew for seventeen years until she was re-lifed.
- Ch 12Tara is a gentle person whose worst fault was selfishness; she cheated on several partners but made peace with all of them.
- Ch 14Tara was Morton's wife at the time of her murder; she and Wyobie Cotal are the presumed victims buried in the foundations.
- Ch 14Tara's family money funded AquaState. She was murdered with her lover Wyobie Cotal and later re-lifed, and testifies she bears Morton no ill will.
- Ch 14Tara Jennifer Shaheef lost decades without a body because of Morton's crime; she screams 'You bastard!' at her ex at the verdict.
Connections
- family ofMortonmarried thirteen years
- partner ofWyobie Cotalcited as reason for divorce
- enemy ofTara's killer
- family ofMatthew deSavoelmarried
- friend ofCaroline Turner
- related toWyobie Cotaldisappeared together; both presumed murdered
- related toMortonex-partner and victim of his crime
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 4Murder of Tara Shaheef and Wyobie Cotal
Forty years before Bose's discovery, a disguised killer cuts the power, murders Tara and Wyobie, destroys their memorycells, and removes the bodies and Tara's belongings.
- Book 1 · Ch 6Paula assigned the Oaktier ice case
Mel Rees gives Paula a possible deliberate bodykill and memory-loss case on Oaktier involving two possible victims, and she accepts.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Paula interviews Tara and Matthew
At the plantation, Paula questions Tara about her affair with Wyobie, the Tampico trip, and weapons. She concludes the Tampico story was a setup and Tara was likely killed over something she encountered.
- Book 1 · Ch 10Morton's private reflections
After they leave, Morton reveals his predatory view of Mellanie, his ambitions for Gansu, and unease over Tara and Cotal, then prepares for a party on Resal's boat.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Paula and Hoshe review the financial trail
Aboard the lift to the Raiel dome, they conclude Shaheef and Cotal's accounts show no sign they were alive after disappearing, supporting murder and a faked alibi.
- Book 1 · Ch 11Shaheef's memory given to Qatux
Paula brings Shaheef's memory crystal to Qatux in the Raiel city so he can search it for a motive or enemy; he promises results within a week.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Defense undermines the prosecution
Madoc's cross-examinations of Hoffbrand, Tara and Hoshe Finn create doubt, getting Finn to admit no evidence rules out a gang killing, and public opinion swings toward Morton.
- Book 1 · Ch 14Morton sentenced
The judge sentences Morton to 120 years of life suspension. Shaheef shouts at him, Mellanie is restrained, and Morton is led away while the prosecutors celebrate and Paula Myo leaves unmoved.