Shepard almost felt like he was a performer on a stage in front of an audience. All the crime scene techs, Belon, T'Parro and Garrus were watching and waiting for him to speak. Fortunately speaking in front of a crowd was not something new to Shepard. During his military career, he had to give several motivation speeches to the soldiers under his command before entering into battle. Compared to those moments, giving his initial thoughts on the case was going to be a piece of cake.

"The first thing that I can tell you is that this was not a burglary gone wrong," Shepard began, "in fact it's not even a case of breaking and entering. Shara let her killer inside the apartment."

One of the crime scene techs chuckled at Shepard's statement, "you're already off to a bad start Detective. The door was hacked open, remember?"

"I do remember that," Shepard replied, "except the door was hacked after the murder had already been committed. The killer hacked it so that we would think this was a burglary."

"Why are you convinced this wasn't a burglary Shepard?" asked Garrus.

"Take a look around this apartment. There is no sign that anything was removed from here. Even if the killer had been spooked by Shara and had to kill her right when they entered, they wouldn't just take off without at least taking something for their trouble. They had plenty of time to do it. We know that none of the neighbors heard anything and Shara's body wasn't found until this morning. Besides that, I'm not seeing anything in this apartment that would make this place appealing to a would be burglar. A smart burglar would see that this place was too much risk for too little reward."

"Ok," said T'Parro, "so this wasn't a burglary. But why do you think that Shara would let her killer into her apartment? Those stab wounds on her body are serious overkill. Only someone who really hated her would stab her that many times. I can't see Shara letting someone in who hated her that much."

"A fair point T'Parro," Shepard replied, "it's true that it's not easy for anyone to stab a person twenty times. Even someone who was extremely fit would feel exhausted afterwards because of the energy and stamina it takes. The fact this killer did stab Shara twenty times indicates that, as you mentioned, they were so full of rage that they ignored any fatigue they were feeling to continue stabbing her. As for why Shara let someone who hated her that much into her apartment, it's because the killer was restrained enough not to appear threatening when Shara saw them on the viewing monitor and because the killer was someone she knew and trusted."

"How do you figure that?" asked Garrus.

Shepard gestured to the piles of broken glass, "in this room are the remains of two drinking glasses. Both of which still had some wine in them when they were broken. Shara had poured a drink for herself and a guest. She wouldn't do that for a complete stranger and certainly not someone who broke into her apartment. No she let her killer in because it was someone she knew. Someone she knew well and trusted enough that she didn't view them as a threat. Being a good host, she poured drinks and they sat down on the couch to talk. At some point, the conversation got heated. Garrus could you join me on the couch for a second please?"

Garrus did as Shepard asked and took a seat on the couch. Shepard sat down next to him while avoiding the glass pile directly in front of him.

"The conversation got so heated that the killer threw down his glass hard enough that it shattered when it hit floor," Shepard continued while acting out the motions he was describing, "whatever calmness the killer was showing vanished causing the rage T'Parro mentioned to emerge."

"And the sudden outburst causes Shara to stand up and nervously take a step back," Garrus chimed in while also acting out the motions he described, "then what happened?"

With Garrus as his role-playing partner, Shepard demonstrated the final sequence of events that led to Shara death. Shara tried to calm the killer down but was unable to as the killer's anger had reached the point of no return. It was at that point that the killer pulled out the knife. Upon seeing the knife, Shara threw her glass at the killer and tried to run away. However the killer was able to dodge it and the glass shattered when it hit the wall resulting in the other glass pile on the floor. Quickly recovering from the dodge, the killer charged at Shara and tackled her to the ground. From there, they got on top of Shara so she couldn't get up and proceeded to stab her. And that was the end of Shara'Vael vas Moreh.

"So it sounds like this was a crime of passion," said T'Parro, "the killer was just a friend having a drink with Shara when something set them off and they killed her."

"Not quite," said Shepard, "in order for this to have been a crime of passion, there can't be any premeditation involved on the killer's part. However the murder weapon is nowhere to be found and all of the knives Shara owns appear to be accounted for. If the killer didn't use any of the knives that were already in this apartment, then they had to have brought a knife with them and then left the apartment with it. The only reason the killer would have brought a knife with them was because they fully intended on killing Shara if the conversation they had didn't work out in their favor. In short, what we have here is not the result of a robbery gone wrong but a premeditated murder by someone Shara knew with a deep hatred for her that they were compelled to stab her twenty times."

The room was quiet after Shepard had finished explaining his thoughts. He tried to read the faces of everyone to get a sense of if they were impressed or not. It was a futile attempt as he was in a room of seasoned investigators who were trained in hiding what they were thinking. Eventually all eyes drifted towards Garrus. Shepard figured everyone was letting Garrus give the critique since he was the senior investigator in the room. The silence was getting to be deafening and Shepard was starting to wish Garrus would say something soon.

(CLAP...CLAP...CLAP)

"Well done Detective Shepard," Garrus said while clapping, "you passed with flying colors. All of your conclusions were exactly the same ones I made."

"Really?" Shepard said with a smile, "you're not just saying that to make me feel good?"

"Nope. Unlike certain people who purposely miss in a shooting contest, I tell people the truth regardless if it hurts them or not."

Shepard chuckled when Garrus brought up their shooting contest they had during the Reaper War. For the longest time Shepard thought Garrus was unaware that he only won the contest because Shepard purposely missed his last shot. Then Garrus revealed during the mystery backer mission that he knew the truth. Since then, anytime Shepard loss to Garrus in a contest, Garrus would jokingly ask Shepard if he had lost on purpose again.

"So partner," Shepard said to change the subject, "now that you've seen my detective skills in action, what do we do next?"

"We talk to Jala'Cal," Garrus replied, "the friend who found Shara's body. We'll see if she can tell us anything about who might have wanted to hurt Shara."

"I was wondering when we were going to talk to her. Why didn't we talk to her when we first got here?"

"Remember what I said about how a good detective gathers all the facts before reaching any conclusions? The same is true for when they're about to interview someone. By knowing some facts beforehand, we'll have an easier time noticing if Jala lies about something. I'm not saying I think she's the killer. It's just that a lot of times people will try to hide something they think isn't relevant to the investigation."

"Point taken."

T'Parro, where's Jala'Cal right now?"

"My partner is with her just down the hall." replied T'Parro "being near the crime scene was too much for her so I thought it best if she waited for you somewhere out of sight of all this. If you two will follow me, I'll take you to her."

"Lead the way T'Parro," said Shepard.

As they followed T'Parro out of the apartment, Shepard told Garrus about the items he examined on Shara's desk. Garrus replied that he would make sure one of the techs took the terminal back to headquarters to try and access the content on it. As for the picture, Garrus said it was a good find as it gave them another line of questioning for Jala. Statistically most murders were the result of domestic disputes which made any lovers Shara had the first suspects for them to consider. While Shepard agreed with that logic, something in his gut told him that Shara wasn't killed by the man in the photo. He wasn't quite sure why he felt that way though. Before he could discuss his hunch with Garrus, he noticed that T'Parro had stopped walking and was looking around with a confused expression.

"Something wrong T'Parro?" Garrus asked upon noticing the same thing.

"They're not here," T'Parro replied with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "I told my partner to have Jala wait here for you two. There's no reason for them to be anywhere else...unless..."

"What?" asked Shepard.

T'Parro didn't answer Shepard and instead pulled up her omni-tool to make a radio call, "this is T'Parro, does anyone have a twenty on Jorin?"

"Wilson here," replied a voice on T'Parro's omni-tool, "he left the building shortly after the detectives arrived. I asked him where he was going and all he said was he would be back in a few minutes with a surprise."

T'Parro rubbed her head like she was tending a headache, "not again. Well what did he do with Jala'Cal?"

"She's down in the lobby with me. I've been watching her since Jorin took off."

"All right. The detectives and I are on our way down. T'Parro out."

After finishing her call, T'Parro walked past Shepard and Garrus towards the elevator. Shepard looked to Garrus for an explanation but Garrus just shrugged his shoulders. They joined T'Parro in the elevator and rode it down to the lobby. The elevator had barely started moving when Wilson's voice was heard on T'Parro's omni-tool again. However he wasn't speaking in the calm professional tone he did earlier. Instead he was speaking in a loud, frantic tone which was barely heard over what sounded like a commotion in the background.

"We've got a situation down here! Jorin just got back with a quarian male in handcuffs and Jala attacked the guy the minute she saw him!"

Sure enough, when the elevator doors opened the trio was greeted by the sight of a scuffle. A quarian woman who Shepard and Garrus assumed was Jala'Cal was sitting on top of a handcuffed quarian male and viciously hitting him. Two C-SEC officers, a human and a turian were struggling to pull Jala off of the man. Shepard and Garrus charged out of the elevator to assist the officers. The extra manpower was enough to pull Jala off but that soon proved to be half the battle. They had to keep Jala restrained as she struggled to break free while shouting at the handcuffed male.

"LET ME GO! I'M NOT DONE WITH THAT MONSTER YET!"

"MONSTER?!" shouted the man as he was being helped up by T'Parro. "SAYS THE WOMAN WHO ATTACKED ME FOR NO REASON! OFFICERS WHAT IS GOING ON?! I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT I'M DOING HERE!"

"ENOUGH!" Garrus shouted causing everyone to freeze. "Now we can work this out but everyone needs to calm down."

"Officer how do you expect me to be calm?" asked the male quarian. "This officer stormed into my office at the embassy, arrested me and brought me here without any sort of explanation."

"Watch it you," said the turian officer who Shepard was suspecting was the Jorin mentioned in the radio conversations T'Parro had before they arrived, "this is Detective Vakarian. You'll treat him with respect or you're going to find yourself in deeper trouble."

"Wait a minute," Shepard said, "sir did you say you work at the embassy?"

"Yes," the male quarain replied, "I'm Torro'Zal vas Raya, aide to Ambassador Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."

Shepard and Garrus looked nervously at each other after Torro identified himself. It was bad enough that Jorin had arrested a staff member from the quarian embassy but it also had to be the aide of the ambassador who happened to be Garrus' wife. They both knew things had just gotten messy in more ways than one. While Shepard was trying figure out how Jorin could be stupid enough to make such a giant mistake, Garrus looked at Jorin with probably the angriest glare Shepard had seen him give in awhile.

"Officer Kadarus!" Garrus scolded. "You are the one who's going to be in trouble if you don't have a good explanation for this."

Hearing Garrus scold him caused the turian officer, now identified as Jorin Kadarus to freeze up. Turian faces were normally hard to read but Shepard could pick up signs that Jorin was a little bit scared but mostly confused. It reminded Shepard of the way a kid would look when they didn't understand what they did wrong. When Jorin still didn't speak, Garrus scolded him some more.

"T'Parro said you were supposed to be watching Ms. Jala'Cal. Instead you leave your post, waltz into an embassy and bring out an ambassador's aide in handcuffs. Where in your orders did you get the idea you were supposed to risk causing a diplomatic incident?"

"De...Detective Vakarian sir," Jorin stuttered, "you don't understand. I just solved your case for you. While I was watching the friend, she told me that your victim had just ended a relationship with this guy. It was a really messy breakup as he didn't take it well."

"Wait," Torro interrupted, "are you talking about Shara? That's not..."

"Quiet you! I told you that you have the right to remain silent so I suggest you exercise it. Sorry sir. As I was saying, with that information and using my brilliant detective skills that I've been telling you about, I determined he snapped, broke into her apartment and killed her. It's a classic case of a jilted lover killing his ex after she broke his heart. Once we bring this guy back to C-SEC HQ and explain this to the quarian embassy, everything will be fine. The case will be closed and then we can talk about me finally becoming your partner."

All four C-SEC officers looked at Jorin with varied expressions. Neither one of them however were looking at him in a way that said they were impressed by his ''brilliant detective skills". Wilson, the human officer, seemed to be trying to hold back a laugh as he headed back to his post. T'Parro covered her face with her hand in an attempt to hide the embarrassment she was feeling. Garrus just rolled his eyes like he was used to hearing crazy stuff from Kadarus. As for Shepard, he was just trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Who is this guy?" he thought to himself. "And what did he mean about becoming Garrus' partner?"

"I'm all for that officer," Jala said interrupting Shepard's thoughts, "lock that monster up and throw away the key. Though he does deserve much worse for killing Shara the way he did."

Suddenly the pieces came together in Torro's head and his eyes started filling with tears, "Shara...Shara's dead? N...no she can't be. No!"

Torro dropped to his knees and began sobbing. If his hands had not been cuffed behind his back he likely would have covered his face with them. The sight of the broken quarian in front of him brought Shepard back to several moments in his military career when he had to give next of kin notifications after someone under his command had been killed in action. The reaction he was seeing was exactly the same as what he got from the people he notified. The initial confusion as they tried to figure out if they had heard correctly, the shock when they realized they had, a brief moment of denial and finally the overwhelming sadness when they accept the fact that their loved one was really dead. Everything Shepard was seeing seemed to prove his hunch that Shara's boyfriend wasn't the killer. Unfortunately Jorin didn't seem to think so as he moved to force Torro back onto his feet. Shepard instinctively stepped between the two men and gave Jorin his own angry look.

"Leave him alone," he scolded, "can't you see Mr. Torro'Zal is broken up. He just found out that someone he loved is dead."

Jorin looked at Shepard like he had lost his mind before turning to Garrus, "sir who is this officer and why is he protecting this scumbag?"

Shepard calmly pulled out his badge and held it up to Jorin's face, "I'm Detective Shepard, C-SEC Homicide and Detective Vakarian's new partner. I'm also not protecting a scumbag but an innocent man who is being wrongly accused of murder."

If Jorin was confused before by the scolding he got from Garrus when he was expecting to be praised for making an arrest, then he was completely lost after Shepard had finished speaking. Shepard didn't know if it was because Jorin was surprised to hear Garrus had a new partner already or because of the fact he had told Jorin that the man he arrested was innocent. Once again however his thoughts were interrupted by an outburst from Jala.

"INNOCENT?! THAT MONSTER KILLED MY BEST FRIEND AND YOU'RE CALLING HIM INNOCENT?! WHAT KIND OF A DETECTIVE ARE YOU?!"

"Ms. Jala'Cal," Garrus said in an attempt to calm Jala down, "I'm sure my partner has a good reason for his theory and he'll tell us what it is if you just let him finish."

"BUT...!" Jala said before being cut of by Jorin who had come out of his shock.

"But sir, you didn't hear the stuff that she told me. Once you do, you'll see that I'm right and that this so-called detective IS protecting a murderer."

Garrus was about to scold Jorin again but was stopped when he noticed Shepard shaking his head, "it's okay partner. Officer Kadarus does have a point. We did after all come down her to talk to Ms. Jala'Cal to get some insight into who would have wanted Ms. Shara'Vael dead. Let's hear what she has to say. Please, go ahead Ms. Jala'Cal. Tell us why you're so sure that Mr. Torro'Zal killed your friend."

"Like I told Officer Kadarus," Jala said after taking a calming breath, "the two of them were together for almost a year until Shara broke it off yesterday. To say Torro didn't take it well would be a massive understatement. Shara called me last night crying because of how badly it went. She said he exploded and she was afraid he was going to hit her. Thankfully he didn't but the last thing he said to her was that if he couldn't have her then no one could. The reason I offered to take her shopping today was to help cheer her up. But thanks to him that didn't happen. Don't you see, he just couldn't get over her breaking up with him so he killed her."

"What?" Torro said after he had started regaining some composure. "I loved Shara. I would never hurt her. Besides that's not what hap..."

Jorin rolled his eyes, "that's what they all say. See sir, it's just like I said. A classic case of murder by a scorned ex-lover. I'm sure Detective Shepard meant well but I think it's plain to see he's not ready for the homicide desk. We can talk about my taking his place as your partner once we get back to HQ."

Shepard should have been insulted by what Jorin was saying but he was too busy thinking about something else. He had watched and listened carefully while Jala explained her reasoning for suspecting Torro of being the killer. Though he hadn't been trained by C-SEC, his time in the Alliance featured several occasions where he had to question people and he had picked up a few tricks in telling if they were lying or not. As he listened to Jala, a couple of alarms went off in his head. The first thing he noticed was that her entire case for Torro's guilt was based on his supposed reaction the day of the breakup. It was true that no one would take being broken up with well but that didn't automatically make them willing to kill over it. They usually also needed to have a history of violent, angry outbursts but Jala didn't mention Torro having anything like that. If there was anything in Torro's past that would further prove he was capable of murder, Shepard wasn't seeing it and for some reason Jala wasn't sharing it.

The other thing that bothered Shepard was that Jala didn't even mention the reason for the breakup. If it wasn't because Torro had an abusive nature, then what other reason would Shara have had for breaking up with him? Of the few reasons for a relationship falling apart that Shepard could think of off the top of his head, none of them seemed like a logical motive for murder. Again it was strange that Jala was not giving more details that would help catch her best friend's killer.

The last thing that was bothering Shepard was not something that Jala said. While giving her statement, Shepard noticed that Jala would occasionally throw Torro nasty looks. Anybody else would have likely guessed it was because she was angry with Torro for murdering her friend but Shepard felt like there was something else to it. There was definitely anger in Shara's eyes but it seemed like that was all there was in them. She didn't have any of the pain or sadness a person would feel about someone they knew killing their friend.

It was only when Shepard applied one final piece of evidence that things made sense. The evidence was something that had been on his mind ever since he found it and was the thing that made him initially believe that Shara's lover (now revealed to be Torro) was not the killer. He just hadn't figured out why until he heard Jala's statement. With his mind made up, he walked over to Garrus and whispered something to him. Garrus was initially surprisd by what Shepard said but then his eyes crossed with anger as he turned to address Jorin. Sensing that he was about to be scolded again, Jorin took a few cautious steps back as Garrus approached him.

"Officer Kadarus!" Garrus said sternly, "we are not going to back to HQ because we are going to take Mr. Torro'Zal back to the quarian embassy. On the way there, the only thing we are going to be talking about is how you are going to apologize for WRONGFULLY ARRESTING AN AMBASSADOR'S AIDE!"

"But...but sir..." Jorin tried to speak.

"THAT'S AN ORDER! Officer T'Parro, will you give my partner and Ms. Jala'Cal a ride back to HQ?"

"Yes sir," T'Parro replied anxiously as she had been waiting to get out of the embarassing situation her partner was causing.

A stunned Jala could only watch as Garrus helped Torro up to his feet and led him and Jorin out of the building and to the parking lot. She would have remained speechless until Shepard and T'Parro approached her and she saw that Shepard was pulling out handcuffs.

"WHAT THE HELL DETECTIVE!" she shouted. "YOU'RE ARRESTING ME BUT LETTING THAT MURDERER WALK?!"

"Enough Ms. Jala'Cal!" Shepard said in an authoritative tone, "I have to say that I'm really surprised at you. As Ms. Shara'Vael's friend, you should be wanting to do everything you can to help us catch her killer. Instead the only thing you've been doing is lie to us in an attempt to get the wrong man arrested for the crime."