Jala didn't take Shepard's last statement very well. Before Shepard could start to put the handcuffs on her wrists, Jala started calling him several names that Shepard would never allow himself to repeat. On top of that, she accused him of wrongfully calling her a liar. Officer T'Parro, who was at that moment having to hold Jala still so that Shepard could put on the cuffs, gave Shepard a nervous look as she was wondering if Jala's accusation was right.

Despite the difficulty Jala was causing him, Shepard appeared completely unfazed by everything she was shouting. In fact, a sly smile appeared on his face when Jala made her accusation. The reason for the smile was because he knew something that Jala didn't. One of the things Shepard had learned about interrogations was that it was important to never accuse someone of lying without proof. To do so would give ammunition for a defense lawyer in a trial. Shepard didn't have to worry about that though because he had proof that Jala had been lying to him and he was ready to reveal it to her.

"Ms. Jala'Cal," he said when he finally locked the cuffs on Jala's wrists, "you told us you believed that Mr. Torro'Zal killed Ms. Shara'Vael because he couldn't get over her breaking up with him. Except the truth is that he was the one who broke up with her. I found a picture of the two of them embracing on Ms. Shara'Vael's desk. It had been pulled down so that was how I already knew that things weren't going well between them. The thing is, if she had been the one who broke it off, she would have deleted the picture completely. Sure she pulled the picture down because she was heartbroken by him breaking up with her and it was difficult for her to look at the picture anymore. But I wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't delete the picture because she was secretly hoping that they would work it out and get back together."

Unknown to Jala and T'Parro, Shepard was speaking from experience with his deductions. Back in the early years of his and Ashley's relationship, their relationship hit a rough patch when a series of events and misunderstandings led to Ashley calling Shepard a traitor and refusing to join him on his current mission. Shepard didn't take her rejection well and at one point almost found himself pulling down a picture of Ashley he had in his cabin similarly to what Shara did to the picture of her in Torro. The only thing that stopped him was that, in his mind, pulling picture would mean it was over between him and Ashley. As unpleasant as that experience had been for Shepard, it was that memory that was giving Shepard the insight he needed to make his deduction.

"That would also explain why you looked at Torro like you wanted to kill him. It wasn't because he killed your friend but because he broke your best friends heart. Ms. Jala'Cal, I can understand your wanting to get back at the guy who broke up with your friend but trying to get him arrested for a murder he didn't commit at the risk of letting Ms. Shara'Vael's real killer go free was an absolutely terrible thing to do. Jala'Cal vas Tonbay, you are under arrest for obstruction of justice."

Shepard then gestured for T'Parro to lead Jala outside while he started reading Jala's rights. The whole trip to the skycar, Shepard could see Jala's stunned expression as she processed how her lie had been caught. Eventually the guilt started to set in and she began to cry. It was hard for Shepard not feel sorry for Jala. Between finding her best friend murdered and being arrested, she was not having a great day. True she had herself to blame for getting arrested but it was still something she shouldn't have to go through after suffering a terrible loss. Once the trio arrived at the skycar, Shepard asked T'Parro to sit in the back and comfort Jala. Normally Shepard would jump to the aid of someone who was sad but in that instant he had to leave T'Parro to do that. He needed to get what happened with Jala and Torro out of his mind and focus on the bigger problem. Shara's killer was still out there and Garrus was going to be rejoining him at C-SEC HQ to hit the ground running on figuring out who it was.

Sitting in an office at the quartan embassy, Garrus was taping his fingers on the armrest of his chair while rubbing his forehead and taking some calming breaths. A datapad sat on a dessk in front of him. He pulled up his omni-tool to check the time. His meeting was supposed to have started already but he didn't mind. He enjoyed the chance to relax after the fireworks he had endured. In the last hour, he had managed to avoid a diplomatic incident…and possibly a divorce.

When he and Jorin arrived at the embassy with Torro, Garrus' wife, Ambassador Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, was there to greet them with a look that Garrus had seen whenever he made Tali mad in the past. Tali didn't say a word and instead gestured for the group to follow her to her office. It was after they entered the office and the door was closed that the fireworks went off. Garrus thought he had chewed Jorin out hard at the crime scene but Tali practically grounded him to pieces by calling him a "stupid, muscle-headed bosh'tet" and rhetorically asking what gave him the right to storm into the embassy and drag her aide out in handcuffs. Jorin stammered as he tried to defend himself but Tali wouldn't give him the chance to finish a sentence. When Tali was done yelling at Jorin, she turned to Garrus and told him about how she had been receiving a lot of pressure to take diplomatic action over the incident. Some of the staff were even wondering if she could be trusted to make an unbiased decision since she was married to a C-SEC officer. Garrus just kept quiet while Tali ranted as he thought of how he could resolve the situation in a way that would make all sides happy. Since Jorin was (somehow) a C-SEC officer, Garrus felt it was his responsibility to discipline him for his actions. However the quarian embassy did deserve a role in punishing Jorin since he falsely arrested a diplomat without going through proper diplomatic channels. Ultimately the question was should Jorin be punished according to C-SEC's procedures or the embassy's. He weighed the pros and cons of both options in his mind until he noticed Tali was done speaking and giving him an evil stare that was practically daring him to say something.

The situation was resolved when Torro surprised everyone by stating he didn't want charges pressed against Jorin. He acknowledged that he should want Jordin punished for everything he had been put through by the false arrest but none of that compared to the pain he was feeling since learning that the woman he loved had been murdered. As a result, the only thing Torro wanted was for C-SEC to find the killer and he knew they couldn't effectively do that if they were trying to resolve a diplomatic incident. Though it wasn't the outcome anyone expected (or in Tali's case, wanted), both parties agreed to honor Torro's request.

The remaining minutes of the past hour saw Jorin being sent back to C-SEC HQ relieved to have dodged a bullet. Though Garrus knew that he and everyone in C-SEC would be keeping a closer eye on him to make sure he didn't find himself in a similar situation again. At the same time, Torro left with Tali to address the rest of the embassy staff. The majority of staff would likely still want action taken against Jorin but Torro's appeal would significantly help calm everyone's anger. As for Garrus, he was waiting in Torro's office. Torro agreed before leaving with Tali that he would meet Garrus there to answer questions about Shara once he finished addressing the staff. In between forehead rubs and calming breaths, Garrus glanced at his datapad to review his notes for the upcoming meeting.

C-SEC had sent him everything they had on Shara. According to the files, both of her parents were deceased and she had no siblings. After the Reaper War was over, she had chosen not to live on Rannoch and found her way to the Citadel. She found employment with the Citadel Peacekeepers, the local biotaball team. Working her way up the ranks, she eventually became in charge of promoting support for the team. Garrus had a feeling that was a tough job since the Peacekeepers didn't have one of the best records in the league. Despite that, there were many die-hard fans who rooted for the team season after season. No doubt Shara played a small part in building up the fan base. Garrus had just wrapped up his reading when the door to the office opened and Torro entered.

"Sorry for taking so long Detective," he said as he took a seat opposite Garrus.

"No worries Mr. Torro'Zal," Garrus replied, "I take it that things have settled down out there?"

Torro let out an exhausted sigh, "as settled as can be. Some of the staff feel that by letting this incident slide it might make us look like we can be pushed around. After spending nearly three centuries being viewed as second-class citizens by the rest of the galaxy, that wouldn't help the work we've done to escape that since the Reaper War ended. However my appeal did help soften them a little bit. I told them that we needed to focus on the more important problem. One of our own has been brutally murdered and the killer is still out there. Reluctant though it may be, you now have the complete support of the quarian embassy."

"Thank you Mr. Torro'Zal and my partner and I will do everything we can to find Shara's killer."

"Please Detective, just call me Torro. It's funny, it used to be quarians couldn't take C-SEC's word seriously because of how we were viewed by the galaxy. However the ambassador does speak highly of you. As for your partner, even if he didn't already have such a legendary reputation, what I witnessed when we met tells me that he's more than up to the job. So, thank you."

Garrus smiled before turning his attention back to his datapad, "tell me Torro, how long were you and Shara together?"

"Just about a year. We met at her work."

"You met her at the Peacekeeper's stadium?"

"That's correct. Some of the embassy staff planned a group outing to one of their games. Shara had heard we were coming and thought it would be a good promotion if one of us threw out the first ball. Since I was the senior staff member, she asked if I would do it. After I did, she thanked me for volunteering, we got to talking and we hit it off. We had our first date later that week and before I knew it, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. That year we were together was the best time of my life. (sob) To be honest, a couple of weeks ago I was thinking of asking her to marry me."

As Torro told his story, Garrus saw the gradual change in Torro's expression from happy reminiscing to sadness. But there was something else about the sadness. Torro almost seemed to be feeling remorseful about something. From what Garrus and Shepard had learned in their investigation up to that point, Garrus already knew Shara and Torro's relationship had a falling out. Thanks to Shepard's deduction, he also knew Torro was the one who broke it off. However the way Torro was acting seemed to indicate that he was having some second thoughts about it. That would explain why he was taking Shara's death especially hard since her death meant he lost any chance of undoing his decision. Everything Garrus was seeing seemed to indicate that Torro really loved Shara. So why would he break up with her?

"But you broke up with her instead. What happened between then and now that lead to things falling apart between you two?"

Torro shrugged his shoulders, "it seems so stupid now. We both had packed schedules with our jobs but we always found time to have a date night every week. The last couple of weeks though we haven't had a date night because she kept cancelling. She said it was because she had to work late. The first couple of times she did that I was okay with it. But then it kept happening and I started to get suspicious."

"Why? Hasn't there been times in the past where she had to work late a lot?"

"Detective, the thing about Shara is that she was always good at getting her work done on time so that she never had to work late. During the entire time we were dating, these past couple of weeks were the first time she ever had to work late. I just couldn't understand what was going on at her job that she needed to put in so many extra hours."

Garrus started wondering the same thing. The Peacekeepers may not have been doing well but their fans were loyal to a fault and thus Shara shouldn't haven needed to work too hard to promote support for them. Suddenly a troubling thought entered Garrus' mind when he remembered something he saw on his datapad while he was waiting for Torro to arrive. It was in the file that contained Shara's financial information. He asked Torro to wait a second while he pulled up the file again. Looking at the entires that showed the deposits that Shara received from work, he noticed what was troubling him. The deposits didn't increase since Shara had started cancelling date nights to work late. By all accounts it looked like Shara was working the same amount of hours each week that she always had. Why then was she saying she had to cancel dates because she had to work late?

"I'm guessing you're realizing the same thing I did," Torro said causing Garrus to look up from his datapad, "she was never working late."

"Yeah," Garrus replied, "how did you find out though?"

"Yesterday she had to cancel date night again and I was getting restless from not having seen her at all for weeks. I thought I'd surprise her by bringing dinner to her office. When I got to her office, she wasn't there. I found one of her coworkers and said that Shara had told me that she was working late again that night but he said that she had already left for the day. He was also confused when I said she was working late "again" because, as far as he knew, she never stayed late."

"So after you found out she had been lying about where she was, what did you do next?"

"I left her office and went straight to her apartment. She wasn't home but she gave me the code to her door so I let myself in to wait for her. It was several hours later when she finally got home. After the initial shock she had upon seeing me, I confronted her with what I found out. Even with my proof, she insisted that she was cancelling our dates because of work. I asked her to tell me exactly what she was doing but she wouldn't tell me. I pressed and pressed but all she said was that she wanted to tell me but she couldn't. Well that was when I finally exploded. I told her that after all the time we spent together, she should have known that she could tell me anything. If she couldn't see that, then we didn't deserve to be together. I stormed out of her place and went home. (sob) Kee'lah, what have I done?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What if what she was working on was dangerous. That means she was just trying to protect me by keeping me in the dark. (sniffle) Then I go and throw her concern right back in her face and left her alone to be killed. Maybe she'd still be alive if I had just been more patient with her and stayed at her place a little longer. The woman I love is dead because of me!"

Up until that point in the interview, Torro had managed to keep himself composed. Now that the pain he felt over losing Shara was mixing with guilt he was feeling for his possible role in her death, he couldn't keep it together anymore. Garrus remained silent to let Torro grieve. What he was seeing was a scene that played out in front of him during all his previous interviews with the loved ones of murder victims. Though their were slight variations from person to person, they all went through the stages of grief. The stage Torro was at was the guilty stage. It was irrational thinking for sure but Torro couldn't help but feel that he was partially responsible for Shara being killed. It may have been irrational but Garrus could sympathize with how Torro was feeling. He went through the same exact stages when he lost his mercenary squad during his vigilante days on Omega.

Realizing he was about to flashback to an unpleasant time in his life, Garrus decided it was time to wrap up the interview. He felt he had learned all that he could from Torro anyway. When he finished gathering his things, he slowly put a comforting hand on Torro's shoulder. This caused to Torro to look up at him.

"Listen to me Torro," Garrus said, "you are not responsible for what happened to Shara. And despite what happened the last time you saw her, I have no doubt that she knew how much you loved her. I know it will be hard but I suggest you go home and get some rest. After everything that's happened I'm sure the ambassador would approve."

Torro nodded, "yes…yes I suppose I should. Thank you Detective and give my thanks to your partner. I wish you both luck in your investigation."

Garrus shook Torro's hand and started to walk out of the office, "don't worry Torro. We'll find out who did this and bring them to justice. I promise."

Back at C-SEC HQ, Shepard was putting the finishing touches on a project he had been working on while waiting for Garrus to return from the embassy. After leaving Jala with T'Parro to be processed for obstruction charges, he compiled all the presently known facts of the case and organized them onto a holographic board. One of the things Garrus showed him on his first day was how the other detectives used what he called "murder boards" to help keep their facts and evidence organized and on display for quick referral. Though he had never used a "murder board" himself, Shepard could see how it would be helpful for the case. He always viewed his deductive process as being similar to putting pieces of a puzzle together. By having the "pieces" visually displayed, it could potentially make it easier for him to see how they go together. Secretly Shepard wished he would be able to solve this puzzle without having to gather all the pieces but he knew that the more he had, the better chance he and Garrus would have with getting a conviction after the killer had been identified.

Shepard barely finished working on the board when he heard Garrus approach him, "very impressive Shepard. It's hard to believe this is the first murder board you've put together."

"Thanks Gar…," Shepard started to say as he turned around but stopped when he noticed the exhausted expression on Garrus' face, "uh…forgive me Garrus but you look terrible."

Garrus sighed, "I know. All I can say is I'm glad to be out of the embassy. We managed to dodge a bullet with Kadarus' screwup but it's probably going to be awhile before I get back on Tali's good side."

"Sorry partner. What's the deal with Kadarus anyway? The way you and T'Parro acted, this clearly wasn't the first time that he's screwed up. Sounds like he should have been kick off the force a long time ago."

"You're right. Unfortunately he happens to be the executor's son-in-law. We're just lucky that Torro convinced the quarians not to press charges. The executor wouldn't have hesitated bailing his daughter's husband out of trouble even if it meant breaking the trust C-SEC has been working to earn with the quarians. While Bailey can't have Kadarus fired, he's at least able to keep him from becoming a homicide detective."

"Yeah I noticed he seems determined to become your partner in particular. What's up with that?"

"The best way for me to explain it is that he is my personal Conrad Verner."

The name Garrus mentioned was one that Shepard knew well, but not in an entirely good way. Conred Verner was a human Shepard met on the Citadel back when the Reapers first came to his attention. It quickly became apparent that Conrad was a fan of Shepard. The first time Shepard talked with him, Conrad asked for an autograph. When they met again after Shepard became a Spectre, Conrad asked to take a picture of him. They seemed like harmless requests so Shepard obliged both times. The third time they met was when Shepard realized how unhealthy Conrad obsession with him was. Conrad wanted Shepard to recommend him for Spectre status. Knowing that Conrad's lack of training and experience made him unqualified to be a Spectre, Shepard declined. Despite Conrad insisting that he would be a great Spectre and that he wanted to be out there with Shepard fighting the good fight, Shepard was able to change his mind by pointing out that he played an important role in keeping humanity strong on the home-front.

Whatever good Shepard's advice to Conrad did was undone when Shepard was killed in a surprise attack. Feeling that someone had to fill the void left by Shepard's absence, Conrad left his home and made it his mission to help people like Shepard did. A mission he still pursued even after Shepard had been brought back to life. Unfortunately his naive and gullible nature kept getting him into trouble. Shepard was there to witness two such instances and was able to help him out both times.

In the end, Conrad did finally earn some respect from Shepard when he not only provided some scientific help constructing the Crucible, the weapon used to defeat the Reapers for good, but he dove to take a bullet meant for Shepard. Fortunately Jenna, another acquaintance of Shepard's, was able to remotely sabotage the assailant's gun so Conrad didn't actually have to take the bullet. Even so, the gesture was more than enough to show Shepard he had underestimated Conrad's bravery. The last Shepard heard, Conrad and Jenna were still volunteering to help people in need and recently got married. Thus bringing a happy end to a frustrating but interesting side story in Shepard's fight against the Reapers.

Now it sounded like Garrus was having a similar problem with Jorin. In Shepard's view, the only thing that was making Jorin more troublesome than Conrad was the fact that unlike Conrad, Jorin had an authoritative position that made his mistakes have more far reaching repercussions. If he were to somehow become a homicide detective, Shepard had a feeling a lot of killers would escape justice. The thought of that sent a shiver up Shepard's spine.

"You know," Garrus continued, "after my last partnership didn't work out, I was hearing rumors that the executor was pressuring Bailey to finally give Kadarus a chance and partner him with me since I had already gone through every other available homicide detective on the force."

"I guess it's all the more reason for us to be thankful that he decided to promote me instead," Shepard said with a smile.

"Indeed but enough about Kadarus. I can only talk about him for so long without getting a headache. I see you've added the information I gathered at the embassy to the board. Tell me Detective Shepard, what do the facts tell us so far."

Shepard turned to face the board as he spoke, "we know that Shara started regularly cancelling date nights with Torro a few weeks ago. She claimed it was because she had to work late but her finances don't show any increases in her paychecks to reflect that she had been working extra hours. When confronted by Torro about it, she could only say that she wants to tell him the truth but for some reason she couldn't. Sometime after Torro left, Shara ended up dead. I don't know what it was that happened a few weeks ago that prompted the sudden secrecy in Shara's behavior but I've got a feeling that it has something to do with why she was murdered."

"I agree and that's why it's crucial we figure out what happened ourselves. Normally the way to find an explanation for a sudden change in a victim's behavior is to talk to the people who knew them the best."

"Unfortunately I think that's going to be tough," Shepard sighed, "Torro has told us everything that he knows and Jala's been in a less than talkative mood ever since we arrested her for obstruction. Not that we would be able to use anything she says anyway since all she's told us so far are lies. So if we can't get help from her fiancé or her best friend, who do we talk to next."

"The people who would be able to notice a change in her behavior because they see her everyday: her coworkers."