Jali let the speeder drop him off back at Eastport while Xhen went on home; it hadn't been a bad day's work and Jali wanted to make some enquiries on his own. He got out his comlink and entered a code, one of the several that Elya Vertey had provided them with that morning. Soon enough there was an answer.
"Kremoine here."
"Is this Daur Kremoine?" Jali asked.
Kremoine sounded suspicious. "Yeah, what's this all about?"
"I'm investigating Lucen Vertey," Jali told him, "I was wondering if I could have a talk to you."
"Look," Kremoine said angrily, "I've told you Security Force people all that I know, now why don't you—"
"I'm not with the Security Force," Jali interrupted, "Vertey's wife asked me to look into this privately."
Kremoine was silent for a moment. "Did Elya give you my comm code?" he asked finally.
"Yes, I saw her this morning," Jali explained patiently. "Is it fine with you if we have a chat? She gave me your address as well."
Kremoine considered this. "How about we meet at the Idobal in half an hour," he suggested. "Do you know where that is?"
"Yeah, I do," Jali replied. "I'll be there in half an hour."
He put his comlink back in his pocket and went down the street, down several blocks and across the Bridge of Unity before he found the Idobal, a rather flashy tapcaf with a large globe that resembled an eyeball revolving on repulsorlifts next to the door.
It was dark inside; the only light came from the ultraviolet lamps on the tables. The Idobal was close enough to the Docking Facility to attract the workers from there as well as a mixed crowd. He checked his chrono; Kremoine should be by in a few minutes.
Jali sat at the bar and ordered a drink; it wasn't long before a rather tall man wearing a much-patched jacket cautiously approached the bar. He was broadly built with wide shoulders that seemed to want to escape from the seams of his clothing; his hair was closely shaved to his head and his steely blue eyes were peering out from under a heavy brow.
All in all, Jali decided as he lit up a cigarette, he looks like your average thug.
Drink in hand, he surveyed the bar. "Jali Dawler?"
Jali nodded, putting down the cigarette and offering his hand.
They shook, Kremoine looked cautiously around the room. "Do you mind if we go somewhere more private?" he asked. "I have the feeling that what you're going to ask and what I'm going to answer is something that neither of us want overheard."
"Fine with me," Jali agreed, picking up his cigarette and drink and following Kremoine to a booth at the back of the bar. "I guess you don't subscribe to the theory that Vertey was in some place he shouldn't have and then met someone who didn't like the look of him," he began, inhaling from the cigarette. "Am I right?"
Kremoine nodded, taking a deep draught of his drink and replacing it on the table. "There's something more to it, if you take my meaning."
Jali decided to play dumb for the moment. "Actually, I don't," he said. "I was only brought on to this case as of this morning, and I found Vertey's body less than two hours later. You'll have to connect all the navpoints for me."
"Okay." Kremoine took another swill of his drink and started talking. "Lucen had the idea that certain cargo shipments were leaving Eastport without being checked and that Fenn was somehow in on it."
"Where did he get that idea?" Jali asked.
"Fenn got really farkled about a week ago when Lucen had checked this ship's cargo that Fenn had slapped an exception order on it," Kremoine explained. "Lucen looked into it and thought there must be some mistake as there was no reason for the exception, he checked the cargo and as I said Fenn was really kriffed when he found out. He threatened to take official action for insubordination if it happened again." He took another drink. "So, Lucen mentioned it to me and I suggested there might be something in it, particularly after Fenn practically moved the upper and lower stratosphere to meet this Twi'lek woman. He wasn't particularly happy to see her, either."
Jali gave a wry smile. "You'd think he would be," he said.
Kremoine laughed. "I would've! Lucen heard from Fenn's secretary, he was shouting at her and told her never to show up at his office again."
Jali looked at him curiously. "How do you know all this? Did he share everything with you?"
Kremoine held up his hands in defence. "Hey, hey, I'm just trying to work out what happened to my pal, here."
Jali took a final draw of the cigarette and stubbed it out. "I'm just trying to work out why Vertey ended up killed, knowing all this, and you're still here."
"What?" Kremoine stared at him. "You think I killed him?"
Jali didn't answer.
Kremoine glared at him. "You do, don't you? I really oughta…"
He started to stand up, but Jali was on his feet quickly. "No, no, of course I don't," Jali said in a rush. "I just wanted to check how you would react, that's all."
With a strange glance at Jali, Kremoine sat down again.
"So answer my question," Jali continued, sitting down and lighting another cigarette. "Why do you think Vertey was killed?"
Kremoine shrugged. "I guess he found out too much than what was good for him, but he never let me know what it was."
"You were with him that last night, weren't you?" Jali asked.
"Yeah, I was but not all the time," Kremoine said. "He left here about seventeen ten, and told me not to come with him."
"Did he talk about where he was going?"
"No," Kremoine replied. "But he had a napkin in his hands with something written on it."
Jali stared at him. "Did you see what was written on it?"
Kremoine shook his head. "Nope, he just waved it around and I couldn't catch what it said."
Finally, Jali broached the question he had been meaning to ask all evening. "And what about the Bith and the Twi'lek woman you had a bit of a scrap with? Have they got anything to do with it?"
Kremoine raised his eyebrows. "How did you now about them?"
Jali waved his hand dismissively. "Doesn't matter, what was the story with them?"
"I'm not really sure," Kremoine said, shaking his head. "The Bith seemed to know Lucen, or know his name anyway. I think…" He stopped for a moment, his brow wrinkling in thought. "I think he was giving Lucen some sort of warning, but when I asked Lucen about it he didn't answer."
"And the woman?" Jali asked. "What did she do?"
"She was trying to get the Bith out of there," Kremoine answered, "for some reason, she didn't like him talking to Lucen, but they were only there for a few minutes, left not long after Lucen."
For some reason, those words gave Jali a very bad feeling. He remembered the Bith talking to Xhen last night, and the one he had briefly glimpsed with the crate on the hoversled. Could the Bith have killed Lucen Vertey, carted his body to Eastport and then left it there? Could these two be the same person? No, that was too much of a coincidence.
But there was also the Twi'lek, could this be the same as the one that had so agitated W'kar Fenn by showing up at his office. It was a possibility, but not one that Jali was ready to take seriously yet.
"There's one more thing I'd like to know," Jali said, "it's about those orders you had to search all the cargo, I have the feeling that you don't get 'em everyday."
Kremoine sighed. "I don't know where they came from," he said impatiently, "but it made our day, sure did. It definitely wasn't, Fenn's idea," he added. "He was about as crinked off as the rest of us."
Could they have come from that Judicial Laras? Jali wondered, he knew from his own experiences Judicials could make orders like that. it meant that she was already a step ahead of him, several if you counted the name she had randomly thrown at him.
Kremoine finished his drink. "Anything else you want to know?"
Jali shook his head. "Nothing," he said, "thanks for your help."
"You think you know who did this?" Kremoine asked.
"That's what I'm going to find out," Jali told him
Kremoine left, but Jali stayed at the table deep in thought. It was all starting to look very interesting, as Kremoine had said, there was a lot more to the case than at first glance.
Jali stood up and headed towards the bar, he knew what he had to do next, but there was something he needed to check first. At the bar, he signalled one of the attendants.
"Do you remember a few nights ago when a Bith was having blows with two humans?" Jali asked her. "There was a white Twi'lek woman there as well."
She considered this. "Yeah, I reckon," she said rather impatiently. "They knocked over one of the waitresses and I had to remix a drink for her."
"Did you get any names?" he pressed. "It's important, but it's not the humans I'm interested in."
"I dunno about the Bith's name," she told him after a moment's thought. "But I think he called the Twi'lek woman Trevali."
--
Jali didn't have any appointments until ten, so after assuring Xhen he would be in later he went to an apartment building in the mid-levels of Eastport. He got out of a turbolift on the eleventh floor and knocked on a door with the number thirty-eight emblazoned on it.
Elya Vertey opened it, her eyes were red and puffy. "Oh…ah…Mr Dawler." She examined Jali almost fearfully. "I heard how you found my husband, but perhaps it isn't really necessary…" She cringed and started to shut the door.
Jali put his foot between the door and the doorframe. "There have been a few developments since then," he told her, his voice low and soft, his eyes boring into hers. "I thought that I should share them with you before I do anything else."
Once again, her eyes travelled down Jali's form. "Ah…oh…well…you had better come in then." She opened the door wider and closed it behind Jali.
It was not the first time that Jali had spoken to a widow when he was investigating her husband's death, it had happened several times with the Security Force as well as when he had investigated Tollan's death last year and spoken to his wife Verda the morning after. That was why he hadn't wanted to take Xhen along, there was every chance it could all go wrong with him present.
Elya showed him into a modestly furnished sitting room, and, after declining any refreshments, Jali told her the sum of what he had found last night. For a moment Elya sat there, turning over this information, her eyes still slightly fearful.
"Did you have any idea about this?" Jali asked after a rather long silence.
Elya shook her head. "No, not really, but…" Her voice trailed off and she stared into space. "I do remember Lucen saying things, about how not everyone is honest any more, and something about credits changing hands, but I really wasn't sure what to make of it."
"He probably did that deliberately," Jali suggested gently, "didn't want to get you involved, to get into any danger."
"I suppose so," Elya agreed, her voice shaking slightly. "There's something else I remember, I once suggested that if he didn't like it where he worked that he should try and get another job."
"And what did he say?" Jali asked.
"He didn't want to let those murglaks get away with it," she replied. "It's just…" She took a deep breath and leaned back so her eyes were on the ceiling rather than on Jali. "I can't understand why the Security Force would dismiss something like this, they think that Lucen got waylaid, robbed and hit on the back of the head… but…but…"
Jali proffered a small smile. "You don't think so?"
Elya shook her head, looking as if she was going to cry but seeming to take a hold of herself. "But really, I shouldn't be telling you this, not now anyway." She reached for a purse on the couch. "How much is it that I owe you for that one day?"
"I just want to ask you one question first," Jali asked. "Do you want me to look into this?"
"I…ah…" Elya faltered, but Jali could tell that she did want him to investigate her husband's death and she had brought him into her apartment for that very purpose.
"I can tell you right now," Jali continued, "that there are several avenues of enquiry that I'd like to check out. The Twi'lek woman and her friend, for instance."
"I see," Elya said, her voice measured and controlled. "I'm just wondering about…the…"
"As for fees," he went on as if she hadn't spoken, "I probably would charge a bit more for a murder case, but…" He let the word hang in the air for a moment then made a chopping motion with his hand. "This time I think I can make an exception."
Elya balked at this. "There's no real need to…to…"
"I said it would be no problem," Jali reassured.
"Oh, oh, all right then," Elya said, still a little nervous about all this.
"So we have a deal?" Elya nodded. "Okay, for starters I need to have a look through your husband's personal effects, and there may be a few more questions I need to ask."
"They sent a box with some stuff from his locker," Elya said.
Jali smiled. "Good, then we'll start with that."
Elya brought out a sealed carton and placed it on the low table. Jali removed the lid and examined the contents.
The first item he laid his hands on was a datapad. Jali activated and scanned the data entries, he could see the details of ships that had arrived and what cargo they had carried, but he knew he would have to search for a long time before he could find anything useful. Chances were, the memory banks had been cleaned before the datapad had been given back to Elya, but there still could be something on there.
There were several other items of no consequence. A marker with the word 'Idobal' printed on the side that had a wet nib, but it left no mark when Jali ran it across his hand. There were several memos printed out on flimsies and quite a number of printed receipts. The last one caught Jali's eye, it had a series of words written across it, but he could only make portions of some of them out. El…t…n, Orve…h, Pr…thiu, S…g, Sk…on, …lium … Jali wasn't sure about the others, but the second word looked like orveth to him, which was a gas commonly used in blasters. His own blaster even had a few cartridges.
"Do you mind if I take these?" he asked Elya, showing her the datapad and the receipt.
"Be my guest," she agreed, "anything that can help find out what happened to him."