The Citadome, home of the Citadel Peacekeepers. That was what the sign said above the entry gate that Garrus' skycar approached. In the passenger seat, Shepard was having a hard time resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He felt like someone took the lazy route when coming up with the name for the stadium. Then again, it was at least comforting that the the building wasn't named after a business that sponsored the team like some of the other athletic stadiums Shepard had heard of. Name aside, there was nothing else funny about the stadium. Quite the contrary. like the Citadel itself, the building was a sight to behold. Having only seen the stadium on his TV at home whenever he watched the games, Shepard couldn't believe how much bigger it was in person. Even though they had a bit of a drive to reach the stadium, Shepard had to lean forward in his seat in order to see the entire thing from bottom to top.

"Can I help you gentleman?"

The new voice took Shepard's focus off the stadium. He turned to face the driver's side and saw that a guard had emerged from the nearby booth and approached their car. The tone in his voice revealed that he was confused by Shepard and Garrus' arrival. That wasn't surprising though since there wasn't a game scheduled that day and the only people the guard would expect to come through the gate on an off day were Peacekeeper personnel. The guard relaxed a little bit when Garrus held up his badge. Once Garrus explained who he and Shepard were and why they wanted to be let inside, the guard signaled for the gate to be opened and told Garrus to head for the main entrance.

One thing Shepard noted as he and Garrus continued their approach was how empty the parking lot was. Watching the games on his TV, the parking lot was always packed to the brim with skycars. Seeing it in person on an off day, it felt like a deserted ghost town. If it wasn't for a few cars parked in the rows closest to the stadium, Shepard would have felt like he and Garrus were the only people there. Following the guard's instructions, Garrus pulled into a parking spot close to the main entrance. As he and Shepard got out of the car, they saw a krogan inside the building approaching the main door. The two had no doubt the guard at the booth had called ahead to have someone come unlock the door for them. By the time they reached the door, it was unlocked and they were greeted inside by an asari. While the asari greeted Shepard and Garrus with a friendly smile, the krogan they saw unlock the door stared intensely at them. Shepard thought he even heard the krogan subtly growl at them.

"Welcome to the Citadome gentlemen," the asari said, "my name is Vala Isali. I'm the Citadel Peacekeeper's legal advocate. This is Kormer Maul, chief of security."

Shepard and Garrus shared confused looks with each other. They expected to be greeted by a regular security guard and a receptionist who would direct them where they needed to go. Instead they were greeted by the head security guard and a lawyer. This was weird for them because all Garrus had told the guard at the gate was that they came to the Citadome to make some inquires about Shara. Though he was vague on what the inquires were about, Garrus hadn't said anything that should have made the guard call in the big guns.

Recovering quickly from their confusion, Shepard and Garrus each shook Vala's hand. When they attempted to shake Maul's hand however, they instead received another subtle growl from him. This sent a small nervous chill up their spines. Though they both knew that not all krogan were dangerous, especially since one of their best friends was a krogan, they also knew it was dangerous to provoke one. Between Maul's size and the fact he had been giving them dirty looks and growls since they met, Shepard and Garrus felt they were only one misstep away from setting him off.

"Nice to meet you both," Garrus said quickly hoping small talk would defuse Maul's temper, "I'm Detective Vakarian and this is my partner Detective Shepard. We're here to ask some questions about…."

"We know why you're here," Maul growled, "my man at the gate told us. What we want to know is why C-SEC wants to ask questions about one of our people."

"Because Chief," Shepard said coming to Garrus' aid, "Ms. Shara'Vael was found murdered in her apartment this morning."

"Oh my," Vala said while covering her mouth in shock.

Maul on the other hand didn't show any reaction other continuing to angrily stare at Shepard and Garrus. It was like Shepard's answer wasn't enough to satisfy him and he was waiting for them to give more information before he decided to throw them out. Shepard obliged this by expanding on his answer.

"We know that she worked in promotions for the Peacekeepers," he said, "we were hoping to talk to her coworkers to see if they can give us some insights into her life and possibly who might have wanted her dead."

"You mean you think that someone in this organization killed her!" Maul shouted. "do you have a warrant?"

"Maul!" Vala scolded, "let me handle this!"

"If they don't have a warrant, then there's nothing for you to handle which means I can throw them out!"

Up until that point, both Shepard and Garrus had been trying to keep things calm so as not to provoke Maul. Now that he was threatening to throw them out, all bets were off. For anyone else, an angry krogan was a cue to run for the hills. But Shepard and Garrus were not like everyone else. They had both fought krogan, as a team and on their own, and won. So instead of running, Shepard and Garrus put their hands by their sidearms, held up one hand each and stood their ground.

"Don't even think about it," Garrus said sternly, "now listen Chief, you are making this more difficult than it needs to be. My partner and I are not here on a witch hunt. We are here to ask questions, that is it. Now stand down, let us do our job and then we'll leave."

Maul didn't really appear keen on obeying Garrus' order. Instead the order seemed to make him want to forget about simply throwing the two detectives out and just tear them to shreds. What Maul didn't know was that Garrus was not expecting him to follow the order. If there was anyone who could get Maul to stand down, Garrus thought, it was Vala. Thus, while the order was directed at the chief, Garrus issued it for Vala to see. Sure enough, Garrus noticed that Vala realized how serious he was and threw Maul a disapproving look.

"Maul!" She shouted. "Do what Detective Vakarian says! Don't make me call Lyle about this!"

Vala was referring to Lyle Wilkinson, the owner of the Citadel Peacekeepers. As the owner, Wilkinson was the one who signed Maul's paychecks and could fire him if he wanted. This made him one of the few people that Maul would be afraid of since one thing that scared krogan was not getting a payday. Faced with the new threat of having to get an earful from his boss, Maul let out one final growl and walked away.

"Fine," he mumbled as he left, "I need to get back to work anyway."

With the situation back to a relaxing level, Shepard and Garrus each breathed a sigh of relief as they moved their hands away from their weapons. Shepard was starting to wonder if all homicide cases were filled with as many tense situations as he and Garrus had experienced in the few hours they'd been on the case. He put the thought out of his mind when he noticed Vala rubbing her forehead as if she were tending a headache.

"I'm terribly sorry about that detectives," she said, "I know the chief's behavior was out of line but you must understand this is a potentially serious situation for the organization."

Shepard raised an eyebrow in confusion, "I don't understand Ms. Isali. We've repeatedly said we are just here to ask questions about Shara. How is that a serious situation for the Peacekeepers?"

Vala looked at Shepard like he had asked a stupid question, "you obviously don't know a lot about the world of professional sports Detective Shepard. You may think that all the action happens on the field but that is far from true. Between the fans, the press and even C-SEC, there are a lot of eyes watching what happens off the field. Sadly they tend to focus on finding the scandalous and controversial stuff. They want to see athletes doing drugs, having affairs, abusing their loved ones, etc. The Peacekeepers take pride in being a family-friendly organization and yet there have been several attempts from the groups I've mentioned to uncover something that would tarnish that. So when we hear two C-SEC detectives are coming to ask questions about one of their people, we instantly assume the worst."

"So that's why a lawyer and the chief of security came to meet us down here," Garrus said.

"Correct," Vala replied, "I was sent down here in case any legal protection was needed. Now that I know the reason you are here though, I can see that it won't be necessary. Rest assured that from here on out you will have the complete support of the Peacekeepers organization."

"Thank you Ms. Isali," replied Shepard, "we really do appreciate that. Believe us when we say we're not here to cause scandal or controversy for the Peacekeepers. We just want to find Shara's killer."

"Of course. Now I imagine you two would like to see Shara's office. If you'll follow me, I'll take you there."

Shepard and Garrus thanked Vala again and proceeded to follow her. Along the way, they passed several giant pictures of past Peacekeeper players on the walls. Many of which had symbols in the corner to indicate they were in the biotaball hall of fame. They were the stars of the Peacekeeper's golden years. There were also some pictures of entire teams from the years the Peacekeepers won championships. Upon first glance at the number of championships, a person would think the Peacekeepers were a successful team. It was only upon looking at the years the championships were won that the truth was revealed. The golden years of the Peacekeepers had not been recaptured for quite some time.

Having lived on the Citadel longer than Shepard, Garrus acted like a tour guide as he told Shepard the story of the rise and fall of the Peacekeepers. For centuries, the Peacekeepers could do no wrong. They attracted the best players in Citadel space and didn't have a decade go by where they didn't win at least one championship. That all changed seventy-five years ago when the Peacekeepers made the controversial decision to trade their best player for three up and coming stars from a rival team. The rumors were that they thought the player they traded was getting too old and they wanted to get some young blood on the team. This did not sit well with the player. She was later quoted in the press saying that the Peacekeepers had made a big mistake and that she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't win a championship ever again. Unknown to everyone at the time, that was the beginning of what became known as the Peacekeeper Curse. The next year, the Peacekeepers failed to even make the playoffs. The three up and coming stars they acquired in the trade had the worst seasons of their careers. No one could remember the last time the Peacekeepers had a season as bad as that year. Alas bad seasons quickly became the norm the following years. Making things worse, the asari matriarch who had been the owner of the team during the golden years had passed away. The organization would then go through several new owners with each one hoping they could rebuild the team back to its championship glory days only to be met with failure each time.

It was at that point of Garrus' story that he and Shepard passed a picture of human male who didn't look like a player. This was due to the fact he was wearing a nice suit instead of a team uniform. Garrus identified the man as Lyle Wilkinson, the team's current owner. According to Garrus, Wilkinson became the first human to own the Peacekeepers when he bought the team ten years ago. The first thing he did upon taking over was retire the number of the player whose trade caused the curse and posthumously awarded her a spot in the Peacekeeper's hall of fame. By formally acknowledging that the trade was a mistake, Wilkinson's hope was that it would lift the curse. Sure enough, under his leadership, the team finally started to see its luck turn around. Their regular season records were consistently among, if not the best in the league and they were making frequent playoff appearances again. Yet despite lifting the curse and all the progress Wilkinson had made in improving the team, a championship season was always just out of reach.

"Needles to say," Garrus said as he wrapped up his story, "some of the fans have begun to lose hope. Every year since Wilkinson took over, they've been excitedly watching him get the team ready to win it all only for them to choke just short of the finish line."

"Which is why this organization has relied on Ms. Shara'Vael and the rest of our promotions team to keep interest and support in the Peacekeepers alive," said Vala, "from what I've heard, some of the best ideas came from her. She will be greatly missed by this organization."

When Vala had finished speaking, the trio had reached Shara's office. Shepard and Garrus thanked Vala for guiding them and asked her to send the rest of the promotions team to the office so they could interview them. Vala nodded and left them alone to begin their search. The office was about as big as most of the offices Shepard and Garrus had seen before. It featured a desk, a chair, three chairs on the opposite side of the desk for visitors, some bookshelves and assorted decorations on the walls. Between the two detectives, it wasn't going to take long to search the whole room.

While Garrus examined the decorations on the walls, Shepard went through the contents on and inside Shara's desk. At first glance it didn't seem too different from the setup of the desk in her apartment. One notable difference though was that there was an upright picture of Shara with Torro. Not that Shepard was surprised. The blowup between them happened at her apartment and she was murdered shortly afterwards so there was no way she could have come to her office to pulldown the picture in her office. Besides the picture, the only other thing of interest on Shara's desk was the terminal. It was password protected but Shepard knew that the tech's would be able to crack it once he and Garrus delivered it to them. More so they needed to be able to crack it. If Torro's hunch was right about something at Shara's work getting her killed, there could be a clue on the terminal that would explain what it was.

"You find anything?" Shepard asked when he was done examining the desk.

"Nothing that's related to our case but still some interesting stuff," Garrus replied, "take a look at some of these pictures."

Shepard joined Garrus at one of the walls that ran from the desk to the door. Scattered across it were pictures of Shara posing with various people Shepard recognized. It was practically a wall of fame featuring Shara with the who's who of the Citadel. Celebrities, politicians, and CEO's of major companies, Shara had been with them all. In each picture, the person posing with Shara was wearing Peacekeeper apparel. Shepard couldn't help but be impressed. Despite the team's terrible record, Shara had been able to help them earn several high-profile fans.

A quick observation Shepard made gave him further insight into Shara's character. The pictures weren't placed on the wall behind Shara's desk. Usually people who had frequent encounters with celebrities would place their pictures of them in that spot. The logic being that when a visitor came, they would sit opposite the person and see the pictures behind them. That would make the visitor realize they were meeting with someone who hung out with the elite. Shepard always felt it was an unnecessary move to make the person appear to be elite themselves. Shara on the other hand placed her pictures on a side wall where a visitor would see them in passing but lose sight of them once they sat opposite Shara's desk. When a visitor sat with her, they wouldn't be intimidated by her collection of pictures and just focus on business. In short, Shara was someone who didn't mind showing people the perks of her job but she didn't want to shove them in people's faces. An admirable trait and Shepard was starting to wish he could have met Shara when she was still alive.

(KNOCK KNOCK)

Shepard and Garrus turned towards the door to the office and saw that a three people had gathered outside. The group consisted of a male turian, a female drell and a quarian male.

The drell spoke first, "we're from the promotions team. Vala said that you two wanted to see us."

The first thing Shepard noticed was that each one of the people standing in the door seemed confused by his and Garrus' presence. Not so much because they were in Shara's office but because the trio didn't know why they were in it. Combined with the fact no one looked as though they had been crying recently, Shepard figured that Vala didn't tell the trio about Shara's death. He looked toward Garrus who nodded to indicate he had come to the same realization. Garrus then held out his arm to gesture for Shepard to take the lead on the interview.

"Yes we did," Shepard said, "I'm Detective Shepard and this is my partner Detective Vakarian. Please, come in."

Shara's coworkers proceeded to enter the office and each took a seat in the office's chairs. Shepard sat in the chair behind the desk while Garrus leaned against the wall behind him. While everyone was taking their seats, Shara's coworkers introduced themselves. The turian's name was Koran Teronis, the quarian's name was Peda'Tok vas Qwib Qwib and the drell's name was Tamala. Before Shepard could give the customary "nice to meet you" response, Koran spoke.

"Forgive me for being blunt Detectives," he said, "but why are we meeting in Shara's office and why were you searching it when we came in."

"Well," Shepard said as he prepared himself to deliver the bad news, "because Ms. Shara'Vael is the reason we're here. I'm sorry to have to tell you all this but she was found murdered in her apartment this morning."

The trio reacted about how Shepard expected. Tamala initially gasped in shock and then started crying. Peda tried to comfort her but his face showed that he was struggling to process what he heard. Koran's initial expression of surprise slowly turned to anger as the news sunk in.

"What happened?!" he said with an almost inaudible growl, "who killed her?!"

Shepard held his hand up in an attempt to calm Koran down, "that's what we're trying to find out Mr. Teronis and we're here hoping the three of you might be able to help. Have the three of you worked with Shara long?"

"Y…yes" Peda replied while steadily regaining his composure, "we've been on the promotions team together for several years now. Everyday we'd work together coming up with new ways to promote support for the Peacekeepers."

Tamala sniffled, "Shara was the best of us though. A lot of our best ideas came from her. That's why she was picked to be our boss. She was passionate about the team and she made it her mission to keep people supporting the team regardless of the struggles they've been having."

"Did that mission have her working long hours?" Shepard asked.

"Oh no," replied Tamala, "Shara was an efficient person. She made sure we got our work done so that we could leave on time every day."

Peda was starting to relax by that point and chuckled, "she said as much as she enjoyed working with us, she wanted to us to be able to go home and have enough time to spend with our families every night, We were lucky to have her as a boss because she always looked out for us."

Shepard and Garrus looked at each other. What Shara's coworker's were saying confirmed what Torro had told Garrus back at the embassy about her efficient nature. However they still needed a reason for why Shara had been cancelling date nights recently. It sounded like it would be tough though if her coworker's were still getting out of work on time everyday.

"Are you sure she hadn't been working late some nights?" Shepard asked. "Maybe she stayed here after you three had left for the day."

All three coworkers looked confused by Shepard's question before Tamala answered, "yes, we're sure. At the end of the day we would walk out to our skycar's together."

"Why are you asking if she'd been working late?" Koran asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"My partner spoke with Shara's boyfriend before coming here," answered Shepard, "he said that for the last couple of weeks, she had been cancelling their date nights and said it was because she had to work late. If she wasn't here, then we have a lot of times where here movements are unaccounted for."

The three coworkers shared a puzzled look with each other before Peda said, "Detective Shepard, we don't know why Shara had been canceling her dates but we can assure you it wasn't because she needed to work late."

"Okay," Shepard replied, "Shara's secrecy behind her cancelled date nights aside, was there anything else out of the ordinary going on with her these past few weeks?"

Tamala eyes widened when a thought came to her, "now that you mention it, something had been off with her lately. I said she was the best of us at coming up with promotion ideas but the last few weeks it's been a struggle just to get one idea out of her."

"Yeah," said Peda, "it was like she was in her own world while the rest of us were brainstorming. We asked if something was wrong but she always said she was fine."

"Wait a minute!" Koran exclaimed. "I just thought of something. Shara started acting weird around the time we were negotiating a deal with Starfire. It's a new restaurant that opened on the station recently. They were going to sponsor a new promotion we're working on. The deal was going to lead to a lot of money and publicity for both the restaurant and the Peacekeepers."

Garrus stepped away from the wall he was leaning against, "what happened?"

"The day we were supposed to close the deal, Shara was a no show," said Peda, "Come to think of it, that was out of the ordinary for Shara as well. She never missed important meetings like that. By not showing up, we weren't able to close the deal and the promotion was abandoned."

"Did Shara ever say why she missed the meeting?" Shepard asked.

Tamala sighed, "all she said was that something had come up that she couldn't get out of. She kept apologizing to the owner of Starfire for missing the meeting but he just threw it back at her. He said it was her fault that his business was struggling and that one day he was going to make her pay for it."

Shepard and Garrus looked at each other. Though it didn't sound like an explicit threat, the owner's statement did provide them with a motive. With a new lead to follow, they thanked Shara's coworkers for their time and said they would be in touch if they had any more questions. The trio wished them luck with their investigation and left the office. The two detective's were about to leave as well but Shepard suddenly stopped in his tracks. Something about their current theory bothered him.

"Why would Shara have let the owner into her apartment?" He asked. "we said that Shara would only have let her killer inside because she didn't see him as a threat. This guy blamed her for his business failing. Not exactly someone you'd welcome into your home."

Garrus shrugged, "maybe he told her that he was willing to talk things out. Shara thinks she may finally have a chance at forgiveness and lets him in. The conversation however takes a bad turn and he kills her."

"Maybe, but still…(sigh) I guess it wouldn't hurt to talk to him. We might still learn something."

"There you go Detective Shepard," Garrus said while patting Shepard on the back and walking out of the office, "another key rule about being a true detective is 'leave no stone unturned.'"