"Dammit Clouseau, when I send you to stakeout a suspect I don't mean stop at the DunkinGulp for 20 minutes on the way!" Senior Inspector Peter Falkus terminated the comm connection with a curse. The Millennial Falcon had been cleared for departure and long gone before Clouseau had reached the Spaceport. Skywalker and Solo had slipped away again.

If one wanted to come up with a single word description of Inspector Falkus it would have to be 'dogged.' When confronted with a tough mystery case he was like a terrier with his teeth in the neck of a rat.

Like this Kylo Ren case. He's pretty sure that Rey Skywalker is stonewalling 's no good reason for her not to cooperate. Kylo Ren was the top officer in the old First Order. She should be happy to assist - unless she knows something and is hiding it from him. Although, why she would be shielding Kylo Ren from the United New Republic? Falkus is not a Force sensitive and the motives of such strange people are a mystery to him. He picks up a datapad on his desk and pulls up the case file. He looks at it for a few minutes, thinking.

Then he comms his secretary and says "Gracie, could you do a data search on the name 'Rey Skywalker'? Yeah, try variations on the name. See if you can get anything from Organa's old Resistance group. Supposedly she was a member. Thanks Gracie."

He gets up from his desk and wanders down the hall to the break room. Coffee - he needs something to charge his brain cells a bit. He grabs the pot, fills a cup and takes a gulp. Ugh, how long was that pot cooking? The coffee in the External Investigations break room is never very good but this is a whole new category of bad. He frowns at the coffee and deliberately pours it into the sink.

As he makes his way back to his desk his comm unit buzzes. "Falkus here. Oh hey Gracie, that was quick. Ok, I'll check my datapad when I get back to my desk. Thanks Gracie." He makes a mental note to put an 'attagirl' in her personnel file.

As he gets back to his desk he makes another mental note to call his wife and let her know that he would be late again tonight. She's not been happy with his fixation on the Kylo Ren case. Liz has been threatening to take the kids and visit her parents on Corellia again. Ok, he has been spending a lot of time on this one, but if he can crack this and arrest Ren he's looking at a promotion and a really nice pay raise.

Ok, let's see what Gracie has dug up. Hmm, interesting. Rey Skywalker is also Rey, no last name, from the planet Jakku. According to an Unkar Plutt, junk yard owner and parts dealer, she was an orphan he employed as a parts scavenger in the so called Starship Graveyard. What else? Looks like she left Jakku over two years ago. Ha, she stole a junker freighter from Plutt. Did he file a theft report? Nope, no government on Jakku to handle that sort of thing.

What's this? She was spotted on Takodana shortly after in the company of the late Han Solo and a First Order deserter. Solo, huh? Coincidence maybe? Hello, here's a possible connection - Kylo Ren lead a raid on Maz Kanata's castle/cantina/hideout about the same time Rey was there. A trip to chat with Kantana might dig up some useful leads.

Falkus switches to the file on Rey Skywalker's time with the Resistance. Hmm, she was known by Rey, no last name, there too. When did she start calling herself 'Skywalker?' Is she in fact part of the Skywalker family? Maybe an unacknowledged daughter of Luke Skywalker? He'll have Gracie look into that but his gut tell him that a Jedi Master like Skywalker wouldn't have a by-blow hidden away. Looks like she didn't start using Skywalker until after the battle at Exegol. An acknowledgement of some sort of connection to the Jedi Master? Or perhaps to Leia Organa? She was a Skywalker also.

The file contains known associates she had in the Resistance. One name catches his eye - Poe Dameron. Talk about a lucky break. Dameron is working in this office as a junior inspector. Falkus decides to walk down to Dameron's desk instead of calling him into his office. A casual conversation may get more information out of him.

He stops by the break room, notices there's a fresh pot of coffee and risks pouring himself a cup to take with him. Dameron's at his desk. Good. Falkus strolls up. Dameron looks up. "Good afternoon Inspector Falkus. What can I do for you?"

"Well, I thought I would congratulate you on your upcoming nuptials. When's the wedding?" replied Falkus.

"Two weeks away" said Poe with a grin. "We're having the ceremony on Takodana. Finn insisted. First real battle we were in together. He's a sentimental softy."

"Big wedding planned? Liz and I had a small family gather when we got married." Falkus drinks some coffee. Bleh.

"Not too big. Mostly friends from our time in the Resistance." said Poe. "Rose Tico, Connix, Snap Wexley, some of the Black Squadron pilots, Rey."

"Rey's that Jedi girl, right?"

"Yeah. She and Finn were friends. I knew her but he hung out with her more."

"So what was she like?"

Poe shrugged. "She was ok. Kept to herself a lot."

"Not a very social person? Maybe it was a Jedi thing."

"Maybe? I think being around so many people made her uncomfortable. I remember stopping by her room a few times to ask her to join me and Finn in the ready room but she never wanted to socialize. I think she had someone with her sometimes. Heard her talking to someone she called 'Ben' but I never met the guy."

Falkus nodded. "Interesting."

Poe looked at the inspector quizzically. "If I may ask, sir, why are you asking about Rey?"

Falkus took another gulp of coffee. Ugh. Still horrible. "I'd like to talk to her about my current case. She might be able to clear up a few things for me."

"If she makes it to the wedding I'll make a point to ask her to comm you, Inspector."

"Very kind of you, Dameron."

"No problem Inspector."

A couple of hours later Poe is done for the day and meets Finn at their favorite corner bar. Poe slides into the booth next to Finn, who greets him with a kiss and a smile. He grabs one of the two pints of lager in front of them and takes a generous swallow. "Aargh, I needed that!" he says, putting the mug back on the table.

"Tough day at work?" asks Finn sympathetically.

"I hate desk jobs." gripes Poe. "I belong in a cockpit, not an office. Hell, I'd fly a prop job just to get back in the air."

"So what has you wound up today?" asks Finn.

"Nothing in particular." replied Poe. "Just everything in general. What am I doing in External Investigations? It feels like I'm there just because they didn't know what else to do with me."

"Well, you have to admit that you have bit of a spotty record when it comes to good decision making."

"There's that." Poe admitted. "Though I suspect the fact that I didn't actually resign my commission when I left the New Republic Space Command to follow Leia to the Resistance didn't really help matters."

"You do tend to let your heart rule your head." said Finn, patting his hand. "Lucky me." he added with a grin.

"Don't get soppy on me" smirked Poe as he took another pull on his lager. "Hey, do you still talk to Rey?"

"I get an occasional letter from her" answered Finn. "She kind of fell off the map after Exegol. Disappeared for months, then I get a note telling me she and her cousin were running shipments with the Falcon." Finn took a swallow of lager. "I'm not too sure, but she may be doing some smuggling on the side."

"My boss asked me about her today. He wants to talk to her. Something to do with his current case." said Poe thoughtfully. "I bet it's connected with smuggling."

"I guess we can ask her about it when she comes for the wedding." Finn finishes his drink and puts the mug on the table. "The drinks are good here but the food is a bit rubbish. Let's go find some dinner."