Chapter 2—Dawn Patrol

Jacen spied their patrol speeder amongst the myriad of GAG speeders in the garage and gestured towards Sergeant Beks, who was searching a couple of rows to his left. "Found it."

Darra Beks nodded in acknowledgment, but said nothing, clearly very nervous about going on patrol with the boss. A tall kid of twenty-three, and his blonde hair cut in a severe crew cut, Darra was part of the second wave of Guard hires the previous summer. He had been third in his class at the Police Academy, and possessed the rare ability to stand up to contrary opinions without getting upset, which is what led to his interview with the GAG. The hiring board had been impressed with the young man's desire to follow procedure and protect the integrity of due process and had offered him a posting at the conclusion of the interview.

After performing a perfunctory inspection, the pair hopped into the speeder, Jacen at the controls. Pulling out of the garage, Solo glanced over at his partner, "I don't know about you, but I could use a bite."

Beks tried to hide his relief; he had been afraid that Colonel Solo would insist on rigid protocol and skip the time-honored police tradition of going to breakfast right after the morning brief.

"Sounds good."

Jacen smiled slightly at the nonchalant tone; he knew that most of the patrol teams grabbed breakfast as soon as they left the station, and could hardly begrudge them. Because the morning brief was at 0545, and with Coruscant traffic being what it was, most of the GAG were forced to eat on the job.

After breakfast, Jacen re-entered the traffic flow and started heading towards their assigned patrol area. "How do you like…." Jacen started to ask his partner before being interrupted by the police comm: All units in Sector 81, we have a 10-39 reported: Grid Foxtrot-2, level 10. Please respond.

Curious, Jacen nodded at the speeder's moving-map display, "Can you find that?" Technically, this was out of the GAG's jurisdiction, but if no one else were closer...well, he had told his secretary just the other day that he thought the GAG and CPD needed to have a better working relationship.

"Sure thing." With a couple of keystrokes, Darra pulled up the location. "It's not far—maybe 5 klicks." He paused as the computer overlaid all of the GAG and CPD cruisers in the area and shook his head slightly, "Nearest police asset is ten…fifteen minutes out."

"Tell them we're on our way." Jacen replied as he put down his cup, quarter-rolled the speeder onto its left side and knife-edged downwards through traffic before rolling out thee-hundred meters lower, heading in the opposite direction.

After swallowing hard to force his breakfast back down, Darra grabbed the handset and keyed the mic, "Dispatch, this is Guardian 54; we're two minutes away from that location. Proceeding now."

There was a pregnant pause on the radio as the dispatch sergeant keyed the mic but did not say respond. Finally, Uhhh…roger that, Guardian 54. Both men got the distinct impression that Dispatch did not want any GAG 'help', but did not have the nerve to say it on an open frequency. Expect assistance as soon as possible. Impossible to miss was the unspoken message for them to leave as soon as the 'real' police got to the scene.

Sergeant Beks grinned at Dispatch's tone, "Guardian 54 copies."

As he parked the speeder near the small throng gathering around the scene, Jacen felt a spike of panic and saw a few people quickly disperse. Grimacing at the fear his speeder induced, Jacen grabbed his uniform hat off of the dashboard and followed Darra to the scene.

On the south side of the dumpster, a man in his mid-thirties with wavy, shoulder-length, sandy-brown hair lying awkwardly with limbs akimbo on top of a modest pile of trash bags—his dark eyes staring sightlessly into the early morning sky. Getting closer, Jacen could see the long cut across the man's throat, the front of his light blue shirt and grey business coat stained black with blood. Interestingly, there was very little blood on the surrounding trash, implying that the man had been killed somewhere else and then dumped here. Staring at the body, Jacen had the unsettling sense that he should recognize the man.

For a long moment, both of them studied the body. Finally, Beks broke the silence. "I'll start roping off the scene."

Nodding once, Jacen turned back to the small group of onlookers, hoping that the person who had called in the report was still around. "Did any of you call the police?" He asked, hoping to sound authoritative, yet approachable.

With a resigned sigh, an elderly Neimodian stepped forward. "I did, Officer." He answered in heavily accented Basic.

"Good morning, sir," Jacen offered, extending his hand, "I'm Colonel Solo. Can I ask you a few questions?"

Knowing he didn't really have any options, and looking like he wanted to disappear into the pavement, the Neimodian nodded once. "Of course."

Recognizing his unease, Jacen offered a small smile, "We're only doing the preliminary work—once CPD gets here, we'll turn the investigation over to them." Seeing the man relax slightly, the GAG Colonel continued as he pulled a datapad and stylo from his inside jacket pocket, "When did you find the body?"

"Twenty minutes ago. I am building superintendent and moved trash from bins to city dumpster." The Neimodian replied, pointing over to where he had found the body.

"Which one is your building?" Jacen asked, trying to get an idea on what the other's point-of-view would have been as he approached the large dumpster.

"That one." The man answered, pointing over Jacen's left shoulder.

Jacen took a look and jotted down the building's address. "Did you notice anything unusual last night?" Because of their size, many apartment complexes took the trash to the city dumpsters several times a day, and he was guessing that this one did as well.

The Neimodian shook his head, "My wife, she take out trash last night. She no say anything about body."

"What time was that?"

"My wife, she like clock; take out trash at 11:30."

Jacen nodded as he wrote; it was not much, but at least they could narrow it down to a seven-hour window.

"Can you stick around for a bit? CPD might have a few more questions." Jacen asked, pocketing the datapad.

"Of course, Colonel."

Jacen did his best to ignore the feeling of relief coming from the Neimodian and walked over to the victim, ducking under the tape Beks had strung around. From the way the trash bags had blown out, and from the man's disheveled appearance, it looked like he had fell from a considerable height. Sighing, Jacen looked up, hoping to see a balcony or walkway. Unfortunately, there was neither.

"Who are you, my friend?" Jacen asked quietly, squatting next to the dead man. Gently, he ran his hand up the man's thighs, searching for a wallet or some other way of identifying the man. Nothing. He then did a cursory search of the man's jacket, again coming up empty. Whether the man's wallet had been taken before or after he had been dumped here was impossible to say.

Getting up, Jacen gingerly stepped over the body and placed a hand on the dumpster, making sure to hide in the shadows: he had one more trick to try. Closing his eyes, he delved into the Force and slowly took in the scene. After a few moments, time started to flow backwards in this small section of Coruscant. He saw his police speeder back away from its parking spot, saw the crowd start to form, watched as the Neimodian drop the trash in surprise at seeing the body, watched as day turned again into night. Shortly before sunrise, the man rose quickly into the air and Jacen stopped his 'playback'. Immersed in his 'flow-walk', he looked up and saw that the man had been thrown from dark-colored speeder from a height of about thirty meters. He tried to get an ID plate number or an obvious dent, paint blemish…anything that might make it easier to find the speeder. Unfortunately, it was just too far up and moving too fast to get anything other than general color and style.

Sighing, Jacen opened his eyes and let his perception return to the present and saw that a CPD detective was looking at him expectantly, just inside the cordon.

"Your Jedi magic turn up anything?" The slightly older man asked, with no trace of anger or resentment. Word of Colonel Solo's 'unorthodox' abilities had gotten around CPD, and the police were always on the look-out for new ways to solve crimes.

Jacen shook his head. "Nothing useful. Body was thrown out of a speeder from thirty, maybe thirty-five meters up. Late model sedan, dark color." He nodded at the body, "I couldn't find any ID."

The detective grimaced and took a couple of steps, kneeling by the body. "Another John Doe. Third one this week in this sector."

Jacen could only nod at the grim tone. For the first few years after the 'return' of Coruscant, crime had been almost non-existent. But, as happens eventually, the economy started to level off and the underbelly of society started to make its appearance.

As he watched the detective gently check the body for identification, Jacen scrutinized the victim's face. "He looks familiar, somehow."

Puzzled, the detective turned his head, "He looks like you. Well, the hair is a bit lighter, and his ears and nose are a bit bigger." He paused, and looked back at the victim, "Otherwise…he's you."

Startled, Jacen looked back at the 'John Doe' and was shocked he did not see it before: the resemblance was quite clear.

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Over the course of the next week, Jacen learned that being a high-ranking official in the Galactic Alliance Guard DID have its advantages. The examiner at the morgue did not think it odd that Colonel Solo asked for a full set of dental x-rays on 'John Doe'; the computer specialist in personnel took the explanation of 'Mission priority' when Jacen asked for Mr. Doe's dental records be substituted for his own; the sergeant at Pass & ID only nodded knowingly when he was asked to produce a passport for the boss using an assumed name. Not one to leave things to chance, Jacen blanked his visit from their memories, making sure to replace his visit with that of someone attractive and interesting. Indeed, the hardest thing for Jacen to pull off as he waited the full seven days needed before he could claim 'John Doe's' body was using the Force to lighten his hair color to match that of the poor man.

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A/N: Hope your enjoyed this snippet of Coruscant - Law and Order! Thanks for Stars90 for the first review!