A drabble series written for the a/u challenge for the LJ comm ar_drabbles.
Title: Public Inquiry
"I don't understand."
Since her Public Litigation Office appointment Members of Cabinet occasionally, and Quorum representatives even more often, had attempted to offer her advice. The President of the Twelve Colonies interfering, however, was a step up the rung of power she hadn't been expecting.
"What's to understand? When the president asks for an inquest into a death, we have an inquest into a death."
"The death wasn't sudden. It had been a long illness. There was no autopsy. The body was cremated. No possible exhumation."
Her boss waved away her concerns. "So, we interview the doctors as to the patient's physical and mental condition at the time of death. There was a recent change in the will, you said."
"Yes, but..." She passed across the piece of paper stating the name and occupation of the new sole beneficiary. "Not very suspicious, if you ask me."
"Oh, I'm confident we can dig up some dirt," the man opposite her claimed. "Enough to get a judge interested."
She raised her eyebrows. "I didn't expect you to immediately jump through hoops for the President's office. You're not usually so accommodating to authority."
He rose, his expression hidden behind a pair of dark glasses. "Just start the ball rolling," he ordered, flashing her one of his trademark enigmatic smiles.
"Yes, sir," she agreed with a flippantly performed salute in his direction as he left her office.
She spent a long moment watching him through the window, noting his limp became more pronounced once he closed the door behind him and mingled with the staff in the outer office.
Eventually she looked away, and with a sigh went through the motions, finding a new file, marking it with today's date, her name, and that of the deceased: 12 Janus 5267, Didi Cassidy, Laura Roslin.