On the outside, there didn't seem to be anything that made Starfire stand out from other restaurants on the Citadel. Shepard had a feeling that might be one of the reasons why the business was struggling. Then again, that was a problem most Citadel restaurants struggled with. It seemed to Shepard that a new restaurant opened on the station everyday. With so many options for patrons to choose from, each business had to work hard to find a way to make themselves the one that was picked. The best two ways to do it were by coming up with a unique trait that made them stand out from the competition or persistent word of mouth. Now that Shepard was seeing for himself that Starfire didn't go for the unique trait approach, he figured that they were relying on word of mouth. That explained why closing a publicity deal with the Peacekeepers was so important to the owner. The question now was did the deal falling through make the owner angry enough to kill the person he blamed for ruining it.

(BEEP)

Shepard and Garrus were about to step out of their skycar when Shepard's omni-tool chimed to indicate he had received a new message. He didn't intend to read it but seeing that the sender of the message was Ashley made him change his mind. With Garrus watching with concern, Shepard read the message and his facial expressions constantly changed to show different emotions. When he was finished reading, Shepard closed the message, cursed to himself and then turned to face Garrus with an angry look. The intense stare from Shepard caused Garrus to nervously lean away from him.

"What?!" Garrus asked anxiously to find out what he had apparently done.

"You weren't kidding about your wife being a blabbermouth." Shepard softy growled.

That was all the information Garrus needed to realize what had happened, "I'm guessing Tali told Ashley that we caught a case."

"She certainly did. Now my wife is wondering why she had to hear I caught my first homicide case from someone other than me."

"Look Shepard, I'm sorry. You're right that it should have been you who told Ashley. But, at the risk of sounding like I'm taking my wife's side, it seems like Ashley's making too big a deal about this. This isn't related to the hormones human females go through during pregnancy is it?"

Shepard seemed ready to snap at Garrus but caught himself and took a breath to calm himself, "ordinarily, that would be a valid point Garrus. The truth is, hormones or not, Ashley knows these cases require us to hit the ground running and that it could take awhile before I got a chance to give her the news. So that's not the reason I'm mad at Tali."

"So why are you mad at her?" Garrus asked.

"Because Tali didn't just tell Ashley about us catching the case. She also told her about how our case nearly caused a diplomatic incident with the quarians."

Garrus eyes widened, "oh no."

"Oh yes. She tried to put on a brave face by wishing us luck on the case but I can read between the lines. Tali's story has made her more worried for me than she already is."

"What do you mean?"

Shepard shook his head, "Not now, Garrus. We have work to do. I promise we'll continue this discussion later."

Any other person would have pushed Shepard to keep talking but not Garrus. The reason for that was because he knew that Shepard was a man of his word. Whenever Shepard promised something, he always followed through on it. Even when negotiating with criminals during his military years, Shepard would always hold up his end of the bargain (provided the criminals held up their end first). With that in mind, Garrus simply nodded and exited the skycar with Shepard.

As the two detectives approached Starfire's doors, they saw something through the windows that made them stop and share a confused look with each other. The restaurant was packed with customers. There was even a decent sized crowd of people waiting to be seated just inside the door. The noise that greeted Shepard and Garrus when they entered the building was the sound of customers enjoying their food and having a great time. Not only was the restaurant filled to capacity but the place with praise. In spite of the Peacekeeper deal falling through and the average looking appearance of the place, Starfire appeared to be the hot spot for its section of the Citadel.

From everything Shepard was seeing and hearing, the doubt he was having about Starfire's owner being responsible for Shara's murder continued to grow. He wanted to tell Garrus but stopped himself. What Garrus had said about leaving no stone unturned kept running through his head. So he kept his mouth shut and followed Garrus to the hostess station.

"Hello gentleman," the human hostess said when Shepard and Garrus approached, "welcome to Starfire. Just to give you a heads up, it's about a thirty minute wait for a table."

"We're not here to eat," Garrus said as he held up his badge, "C-SEC detectives. We'd like to speak to the owner. Is he around?"

"Y…yes," the hostess stuttered, "he's in the kitchen but it might be difficult getting him to come out to talk. He's the head chef here too and, as you can see, we're pretty swamped."

"You certainly are," said Shepard, "are you guys usually this busy?"

"Actually we were struggling to bring people in for awhile. But then we had a surprise visit from a food critic. He loved Chef's food so much that he gave the restaurant an amazing review. Word began to spread and now you need to make a reservation if you want to guarantee yourself a table.

"Interesting," Garrus replied.

Shepard and Garrus both came to the same conclusion. The Starfire may not have been a success when the Peacekeeper deal fell through but it became one long before Shara was murdered. With that being the case, they no longer had a motive for why the owner would want to kill Shara. Though it was looking more and more like talking to the owner would be a waste of time, Shepard and Garrus decided to follow through with it. There was still a chance he might know something that could help their investigation.

Following the hostess' lead, Shepard and Garrus were led to towards the kitchen. The closer they got, the stronger the smell of the food that was cooking in there became. Shepard couldn't help but smile because of how amazing the smell was. If the food tasted as good as as it smelled, he could understand why the critic gave the restaurant a great review.

(BANG!)

The enjoyment of the smell was interrupted by a loud noise coming from he kitchen. It sounded to Shepard like someone had slammed their hand on a hard surface. The look on Garrus' face told Shepard that he had heard it too. He then glanced behind him to see if any of the patrons heard the noise as well. Not one set of eyes were looking towards the kitchen entrance. The customers were enjoying their meals like nothing happened. Shepard figured the noise was only loud to him and Garrus because they were standing right outside the kitchen door. The fact the door was closed would have also dampened the noise a bit. He was prepared to forget about the noise when he noticed the hostess looking nervous.

"I think you might want to wait out here Detectives," she said.

"Something wrong?" Garrus asked. "What was that noise?"

"It sounds like one of the cooks made a mistake and now Chef is angry."

"You can tell all that from that noise?" Shepard asked.

"This isn't the first time it's happened. Don't get me wrong, Chef is a great boss and he's a master in the kitchen. Unfortunately he also has really high standards and a short temper. Those two things don't really go together well. I'm worried that if I bring you two into the kitchen he'll start yelling at me."

"Okay Miss," Garrus replied, "we don't want to get you into any trouble. Just tell your boss that we have some questions we'd like to ask him."

The hostess thanked Shepard and Garrus and entered the kitchen. While they waited, the stood closer to the door as they tried to hear what was going on inside. It was muffled but they could hear what they assumed was the owner's voice shouting at one of his staff. They couldn't help but wonder what the poor staff member did to set off the owner. Before they could wonder on the matter further, things suddenly got quiet. They figured it was because the hostess was now telling the owner that they were outside. The sound of footsteps approaching the door told Shepard and Garrus someone was coming and they quickly stepped away from the door.

The door opened and a batarian in a chefs outfit came out of the kitchen. He was wiping his hands on his jacket to remove any food residue that might have been on them. When he was done, he held out one of them so that he could shake hands with Shepard and Garrus. While the hand shakes were being exchanged, Shepard and Garrus were amazed by how composed the owner was considering he had just been yelling a few moments ago.

"Detectives," said the owner, "I'm Bordan Danzic, chef-owner of this fine establishment. My hostess said you had some questions to ask me."

"We do Mr. Danzic" Shepard answered, "is there a place we can talk in private?"

The question seemed to worry Danzic as he looked at his omni-tool for the time, "forgive me Detectives but is this going to take awhile? We're in the middle of a rush and I can't be gone from the kitchen too long."

"We'll try not to take up too much of your time Mr. Danzic" replied Garrus, "but given that we're conducting a murder investigation, we need to be absolutely thorough."

"Murd…?!" Danzic started to say before Shepard shushed him.

"Please Mr. Danzic, we're trying to help you by not making a scene in front of your customers. Is there a place we can talk in private or not?"

After regaining his composure, Danzic nodded and gestured for Shepard and Garrus to follow him into the kitchen. Their destination was the chef's office in the back. On the way, Danzic stopped a cook who Shepard assumed was the sous chef. Danzic explained that he was going to be in his office talking to the detectives and that he was leaving the sous chef in charge until he got back. With the transfer of command complete, Danzic led Shepard and Garrus into his office and locked the door behind him.

Similar to Shara's office, the walls of Danzic's office told a story. With framed news articles and pictures, Shepard could piece together how Danzic founded the restaurant and how it became a success. The one item on the wall that made Shepard stop to take a closer look was a picture that had both the Peacekeeper logo and what he assumed was the Starfire's logo. Shepard figured it was a flyer made as part of a proposal for the publicity deal. Seeing that Danzic would display what many would consider a failure on his wall made Shepard respect the man a little bit. Danzic didn't see the Peacekeeper deal falling through as a failure but as an obstacle he had to overcome to accomplish his dream. That was a logic Shepard tried to apply with his "failures" during his military career. The only difference being that instead of accomplishing a dream, he accomplished missions.

"No one will disturb us in here," Danzic said as he sat behind his desk, "now what is this about a murder?"

"Mr. Danzic," Garrus said while he and Shepard sat down in the chairs on the opposite side of the desk, "do you know a quarian named Shara'Vael vas Moreh?"

A look of recognition appeared on Danzic's face upon hearing the name, "y….yes. I met her when I was trying to become a sponsor for the Peacekeepers. She was the head of their promotions department. Is she okay?"

"I'm afraid not. Her body was found in her apartment this morning. She had been stabbed to death."

"That's….that's horrible. I….I'm truly shocked to hear this detectives. But I have to admit, I'm also a bit unsure about why you wanted to talk to me about this."

"We know that the sponsorship deal you talked about fell through. We also know that you blamed Shara for that because she didn't show up for the final meeting that would have closed the deal. She tried to apologize for it but you wouldn't listen to her. Instead you threatened that one day you would make her pay."

As Garrus listed the things he and Shepard had learned during their investigation, Danzic's expression changed from confusion to horror and finally to the brink of anger. He didn't need to be a detective to realize what the evidence indicated. This didn't go unnoticed by Shepard and he knew Danzic's temper wouldn't allow him to contain his anger for much longer. He quickly spoke up to tell Danzic what and he and Garrus had concluded since arriving at the restaurant.

"I know what you're thinking Mr. Danzic," he said, "and the truth is we did consider you a suspect when we learned about that stuff. However, after seeing how your restaurant is doing now, it's obvious you don't have a motive for wanting Shara dead anymore."

"You're damn right I don't!" Danzic shouted as he banged his hand on his desk, "why would I want to hurt the woman who helped my business take off?"

Danzic's response shocked Shepard and Garrus into silence. Their visit to Starfire had been full of surprises since they walked through the door but what they just heard was probably the biggest. With how things fell through during the Peacekeeper deal as a result of Shara missing the meeting, how could Danzic say she helped his business take off. If anything, she should have nearly brought it to ruin.

"I'm afraid my partner and I are a bit confused Mr. Danzic," said Garrus, "how did Ms. Shara'Vael help your restaurant?"

Danzic turned around to pull down one of the news articles hanging on the wall behind him and put it on the desk for the detectives to see. Upon closer inspection, they saw that it was a review of Starfire. They realized it was THE review. All throughout the article, the critic was praising the restaurant. From the food to the staff to the atmosphere, the critic could not find one fault with any of them. It closed with the critic commenting that everyone should check out Starfire and that once they did, they would want to come back for more. With so many restaurants on the Citadel, its citizens relied on the opinions of food critics to determine which ones were worth trying. With the kind of review Starfire got, it was no wonder they were packed.

"That review saved my business," Danzic continued, "and it never would have happened if Shara hadn't reached out to that critic and asked them to give Starfire a try."

"She arranged for the critic to review your restaurant?" Garrus asked.

"Yes, apparently the critic was an old friend of hers and she asked them to come out here as a personal favor to her. I have to say, Shara went out of her way to help my business, even after the way I've treated her. It's true that I threatened to get payback for her missing that meeting but the way things turned out, it's I who should be paying her back. But…now that she's dead….I guess it's too late for that."

The combination of sadness and guilt Danzic was feeling in that moment caused him to tear up. Seeing a batarian cry was a sight that Shepard didn't recall witnessing before. It was further proof that batarains and humans weren't that different. They felt the same emotions and reacted to them in similar ways. Shepard had no doubt Danzic would have been a complete wreck if Shara had been a close friend of his. Since she was not however, only a single tear built up in his eye but not enough to fall down his face.

As sorry as he was that he had to break the news of Shara's death to so many people in the last few hours, Shepard was also becoming slightly frustrated. He and Garrus had been already exhausted all the people who would know Shara best trying get an explanation for her strange behavior in the days prior to her death. The lead that brought them to the Starfire was the only thing that came out of them but it was proving to be a dead end. If the people Shara knew best couldn't give an answer for her behavior, who could? Whether it was because he was trying to be thorough or because he was desperate to salvage something from their current interview, Shepard asked Danzic one more question.

"Mr. Danzic, did Ms. Shara'Vael ever give you a reason for why she missed that meeting?"

The tear in Danzic's eye vanished as he pondered on Shepard's question, "well, at first I wouldn't give her the chance to explain because I was too angry with her to listen. After I found out that she was the one who arranged for the critic to come, I was so happy that I told her all was forgiven and that she didn't owe me any explanation. But then she said something strange."

"What?" Garrus asked, his piqued interest causing him to lean forward.

"She told me that she intentionally missed the meeting because it was in my best interest for the deal to fall through."

"Wait a minute," Shepard said confused, "she intentionally missed the meeting?"

"And it was in your best interest not to negotiate a deal with a major sporting franchise that would have brought your restaurant money and publicity?" Garrus asked.

"I know" Danzic replied, "I couldn't understand it either. She had always believed in me and my restaurant and she was willing to do whatever she could to help it succeed. Hence why she asked her critic friend to come here. Which begs the question, why would she sabotage a deal that would have done the same thing? Things got more confusing when she explained what she meant. She said that the day we were supposed to have that meeting, she found out something troubling about the Peacekeepers. Before you ask, she didn't tell me what it was. All she did say was she planned to make the information public soon and that keeping me from becoming a sponsor was the only way to guarantee I wouldn't get caught in the fallout when she did."

Both Shepard and Garrus were stumped. They had been sitting in their skycar since their interview with Danzic had ended for several minutes. Garrus hadn't even bothered to start the car yet. They weren't in a rush to go anywhere. Then again they weren't quite sure where they were going next anyway. All they could think about was what Danzic had said towards the end of the interview.

On the one hand, it allowed them to nail down the exact day that Shara began behaving unusual. That would be a big help to their investigation because they now had a starting point for the timeline they would be putting up on their murder board to chart the events that led to Shara's murder. Danzic's statement also gave them a strong motive for the killer. If the secret Shara had learned really could cause severe fallout for the Peacekeepers if it were made public, then anyone in the organization would have a reason to kill her to keep the secret from getting out.

Even with this new information however, Shepard and Garrus had two big obstacles keeping them from being able to identify the killer. The first was that the Peacekeepers were a large organization with thousand's of employees. It would take them days of running down the names just to find out which ones had a strong enough motive to kill Shara. The other obstacle was that they didn't know what exactly Shara had uncovered. If they knew that, they might be able to figure out which employees would be the most affected by the information getting out and narrow down their list of suspects. Since they didn't and were facing a large haystack of suspects to go through, Shepard and Garrus sat in the car running through what they knew about the case up to that point.

"It would seem Shara wasn't completely lying when she told Torro that she was missing their date nights because of work," said Garrus, "she just wasn't actually working on company time, hence there wasn't an increase in her paycheck to show she had been working extra hours. She couldn't let her employers know what she was doing so she was doing her work in secret, off the clock."

"That makes sense," Shepard replied while nodding, "it would also explain why she didn't tell her coworkers what she was doing. I'm sure she trusted all three of them but she also wouldn't want to put them in the uncomfortable position of having to lie to the people they work for."

"Which means that we're not going to get anywhere if we keep talking to the people who knew Shara the best. She kept them all out of the loop. Guess we're going to have to find a new avenue of investigation."

"(BEEP)"

Shepard and Garrus' conversation was interrupted by the sound of Garrus' omni-tool beeping. Garrus' eyes widened when he saw the caller I.D. He angled his omni-tool towards Shepard so he could see it. The call was coming from the Citadome. Garrus hit a button to answer to call and the two detectives were greeted by the holographic image of Vala Isali.

"Detectives," she said, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I was just curious how things went at Starfire."

It took a lot of effort for Shepard and Garrus to hide their surprise. How did Vala know where they were? They didn't even see her after they finished their interview with Shara's coworkers so they couldn't have told her where they were going even if they wanted to. In spite of their efforts to hide their surprise, Vala was able to figure out what they were thinking.

"Shara's team told me what you discussed during your interview with them. They may have been willing to talk to you without me present but I still wanted to know what was discussed since their answers could have an impact on the Peacekeepers as a whole, which I represent. Anyway, did you have any luck? Do you think Mr. Danzic killed Shara?"

Now Shepard and Garrus were trying to hide the boiling frustration they were feeling. Not only was Vala, and maybe the Peackeepers as a whole, poking around in their investigation but now they were expecting them to give them status updates. In the first place, Bailey was the only one they had to provide updates to. Not only that, but as a lawyer, Vala should know full well that they couldn't reveal anything since they were going to need to keep some facts close to their chest so that they could have leverage when they interrogate a suspect. With those things in mind, Shepard and Garrus should have just hung up on Vala.

But they didn't because an idea was forming in their minds. For some reason, Vala and the Peacekeepers wanted to keep a close watch on the investigation. Maybe it was because they wanted to be sure Shepard and Garrus didn't stumble onto something they didn't want them to. What if it was the same thing Shara stumbled onto and was killed over. The Peacekeepers also promised Shepard and Garrus would have the organization's full cooperation. If the two of them played nice with the Peacekeepers, they might just be able to use that cooperation to find out what the secret was. With the plan formed, Shepard spoke first.

"Unfortunately no," he said, "Mr. Danzic's restaurant is doing well. The idea that he killed Shara as revenge for ruining his business is now highly unlikely."

"Oh," Vala said with a disappointed look on her face, "I see. So do you have any other leads?"

"Well," Garrus replied, "while Starfire may have been a bust, I'm afraid we can't quite rule out the possibility that Shara was killed over something work related. Would you mind if we came back to the Citadome tomorrow for some follow up questions?"

Instead of replying, Vala looked towards someone who was off-screen. A voice Shepard and Garrus couldn't quite understand started speaking. When the voice stopped talking, Vala looked like she was about to protest against what the voice said but froze. The source of the voice was doing something off-screen that forced Vala into silence. She then turned so she was facing Shepard and Garrus again.

"That'll be fine Detectives," she said, "Mr. Wilkinson and I will greet you when you arrive."

"Thank you Ms. Isali," said Garrus, "we have a meeting first thing in the morning but we'll be at the Ciatadome as soon as we're done. See you then."

When the call ended, Shepard and Garrus shared a smile with each other. Their plan not only worked but it convinced them they were on the right track. If Lyle Wilkinson, the owner of the Peacekeepers wanted to meet with them, then they were onto something huge. Unfortunately they were going have to wait until the next day to find out more. After hitting the case hard for the past several hours, the smart thing for them to do at that point was head home and get some rest. As soon as the new day began, the investigation would continue.