I THOUGHT I WAS SO SMART

What's this? A bonus chapter?

Gods of Unifras, what was he going to tell Soniee?! Saw wrung his hands in the hallway outside Soniee's room. He had to go in there and pick up Pasc but how could he just waltz in? Hey, honey, you know how we were talking about how I'd like to formally adopt the kids? Well I just lost one of them. Okay, no. Saw exhaled. He hadn't lost Melaana; he wasn't even there. Why wasn't he there? He should have been there!

This wasn't helping. Time he spent freaking out in the hallway was time he wasn't out searching for his daughter. He needed to just bite the blaster bolt, get in and get out. Saw pasted on a grifter's smile and made his way into the room.

"How are we doing?" He asked, trying not to let his anxiety register on his face. How did Sierra do this every day? "I hate to break up your time together but visiting hours are over. Got to get this guy home so he can work on his schoolwork."

"As long as he shows me what he worked on tomorrow." Soniee gave Pascal a quick hug before she bade him crawl off the bed. "Did you and Melaana have fun?"

What would Sierra do? "Oh yeah. She went to hang out with Sandor when we were done."

"Alright," Soniee didn't seem to suspect a thing. "And everything's alright at home?"

"Great," Saw lied. "It's all under control. You can just relax and take care of yourself and Korri."

"Korri?" Soniee gestured to her belly as if to ask if that was what he meant.

He nodded. "I don't know. We were listening to that song earlier and it sort of stuck."

"Korrina?" She asked. "I like it! We'll have to take it under consideration."

…

Pascal had gone home and Saw with him. Finally Soniee could get down to business.

She pulled her datapad from its hiding place under the covers and unlocked the screen.

So she'd been ordered to bedrest. That was just fine; she worked best with a datapad instead of on her feet anyway. With Hutch out of town he wouldn't have been consulted about the robbery or the assault on Hannah Swain, and the con men couldn't operate at their best without the information he gathered. Soniee wasn't in top form nor was she the Cashier From Hell, but she would fill in as best she could. She'd promised Dalla as much.

Which was why she'd chosen to focus on the assault instead of the museum robbery. Soniee opened the list she'd compiled of D.S. Swain's arrests and picked up where she left off.

This one was still incarcerated, that one moved offworld. Soniee eliminated two more names from her list. So far none of the people Swain had arrested had the opportunity to order her hit and Soniee was willing to bet the others would be the same way. Swain hadn't been working with Iziz PD long and subsequently wasn't involved in terribly heinous cases.

Maybe she was barking up the wrong tree. Being a detective wasn't Swain's only profession and Soniee knew better than most how motives could be buried in the past. She knew exactly nothing about who Swain was before she became Selkie and that warranted an investigation. Soniee programmed a record search for her files and waited for the…

But what was this? Soniee was sure that Hutch and Hero were still on their anniversary trip and had been asked not to be disturbed. Perhaps given the gravity of the situation involving Dalla's lieutenant they had called him in to do some checking?

Whatever the case, Soniee was familiar with the Cashier's style and the markers she saw here bore a distinct resemblance to what she had once dubbed Jungle Madness. But it wasn't quite the same and she doubted Hutch would have left this sort of trail on these sorts of files.

"Molly?" she whispered aloud to the empty room and then laughed. She wondered if Lux and Alex had asked the junior hacker to lend her aid since her father was on vacation. They had allowed her to help with the murder investigation after all.

Or maybe she was looking into it on her own, trying to help out? No, not on her own, with the other kids! That's why Melaana has been so keen on spending time with them all. They must have decided to look into the art heist while their parents were working on the assault case.

It was dangerous. The two cases were very likely linked although Soniee hadn't seen any evidence other than the fact that they occurred on the same day and in a similar location. But if a physical item was stolen it had to be somewhere and the obvious conclusion would be to get it out of Iziz.

Of course it was possible that the thief would have just stashed the painting in a closet somewhere until the heat died down but Soniee was willing to bet it had been sent away as soon as possible. The closest shipping area to the museum that could get an item off world or at least out of the city would be the docks at the river. And it was safe to say that no one would have suspected that since the family were all there to see Saw and Soniee arrive back from their honeymoon.

So, who was leaving the harbor the same time they arrived at the docks? Soniee dived into the security vids, focusing on anyone carrying a large package. That one was too small to be the painting, the other the wrong shape, but this one … her mouth fell open as she watched Sandor Wallace hand a large package over to a deckhand who quickly loaded it aboard. He had swiped the painting!

Maybe Dalla did plan the heist after all and the boy didn't know what he was delivering? But she seemed to honestly not know who was targeting Selkie. That was the part that Soniee really didn't like about the crime business. There were so many crosses and double crosses.

Was this a double cross? If Dalla had brought someone on to rob the museum they may have seen fit to bump off her lieutenant. If only she had more information on Swain's past or what being a fence's lieutenant actually entailed.

The datapad chimed an alert and Soniee closed out of the security holos. It was probably some sort of weather or urgent news bulletin. They were sent automatically to everyone who had a comm device in the city. It wasn't as if she could do anything about it shut up in the med center.

But when this one appeared Soniee almost dropped the datapad.

That was her daughter's holo.

That was her ten-year-old daughter's holo on a missing child notification!

Soniee's heart hammered out of her chest. What in the name of all that was holy in the galaxy was going on? Did Saw know about this? Surely not! He would have said something. But he also wouldn't want to disturb her and put her and Korri at risk. Nevermind that her, their, daughter was missing!

She took a deep breath. Panicking wouldn't help either Melaana or Korri. She glanced at the monitor with all of its indicators staying within the normal ranges. The baby kicked and rolled over reassuringly, comfortable in her present surroundings.

Whatever was going on, it was connected to the current events, she knew it. She needed to stay calm and keep going with her hacking. That was the best thing she could do in the present situation.