CHAPTER ELEVEN – OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
AHSOKA
Disturbing.
Before this mission began I would have balked at something Barriss found "disturbing," or at least taken a step back before diving headlong into it. But between now and then I've interviewed an upset and doped-up Saw Gerrera, dumpster-dove through Vern Kassel's trash, dealt with angry spaceport passengers, faked a public health emergency, and observed a mop and bucket that would make Cad Bane flee in fright.
To end this mission I'll take any information I can get. I don't care how much brain bleach I'll need when it's over.
"Give us the inside scoop, Barriss."
"If you insist," Barriss says in a tone that suggests she needs to spend some time looking at cute tooka videos. "While I was looking for Mr. Reyes' contact information I stumbled on some strange purchases made with the garage's account. Ahsoka, is there a chance Maria was trying to become pregnant?"
Trying to get pregnant? Considering how much trouble it's caused her I don't see a good reason to try! "She said it was unexpected."
"Someone used the garage's account to pay for several herbal remedies from a local apothecary. In my professional opinion, those are widely used on Ryloth to increase fertility."
Lux nods. "Maria might have aimed to catch Jack in the baby trap?"
Sure sounds like it. "If he's unstable she might have wanted to tie him to her permanently."
"Excuse me?" Barriss pushes back into the conversation. "The plot thickens from there. The apothecary who sold Maria the tinctures was none other than -."
"The same apothecary they killed later?"
"Ahsoka, I'm beginning to wonder why you failed your last deductive reasoning assessment since you're clearly so good at it."
"It's all in the studying, Barriss. You love it. I love it less."
"For Senator Bonteri's benefit, I'll inform him that's a light way of putting your study habits," she says with the shadow of a laugh.
Lux smiles a little, but a second later he's all business. "That can't be a coincidence. Do you think Maria might have been trying to hide the evidence?"
"Medical personnel can't divulge patient information under any circumstances."
"She might not have known that," Lux defends his theory. "But if she did, then that's premeditated murder."
"It might be more than that," Barriss says, her voice flatter than Abafar's wastelands. "I know you two predicted that Jack and Maria began this killing spree because they didn't have anywhere to go -."
"That's correct."
Barriss continues, clearly ruffled at being interrupted. "The evidence tells a different story. It looks like Mr. Reyes was wrongly made into a villain."
I raise an eye marking. "How is he not a villain? He threw out his pregnant daughter."
"No, he didn't," she says. "He's actually terrified for her and was extremely relieved when I told him you had her in custody; he left for the spaceport while I was speaking with him. And when I looked further into his and Maria's records, I found that he's filed a lawsuit with the Department of Youth and Family Services." Lux swallows hard and I can't blame him. He's had a few run-ins with DYFS after his mother's death and I'm not surprised the name of the institution brings on some bad feelings. But since Barriss isn't on hologram, she doesn't see. "Mr. Reyes sued for custody of his grandchild."
"That doesn't make any sense," Lux blurts out. "If Maria was fine living with her father before, and he was willing to give her baby a home, then why go on this mission in the first place?"
"It seems some clarification is in order. Mr. Reyes sued for sole custody of his grandchild."
Sole custody with Maria in the house? Kick me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't make a grain of sand's worth of sense. "On what grounds?"
"According to his lawsuit, she is unfit to be a parent."
Lux shakes his head. "He must be grasping at straws; she may be an ex-con but there's nothing in there to indicate she'd be a bad mother."
"Something convinced the village court that she was. The verdict reads, and I quote, 'While it is admirable that the off-worlder mother wishes to raise the child as a single parent and on the planet of its heritage, the court has determined her incapable of being a fit parent, and remanded custody of the unborn child to her father upon its birth.'"
Well there's a reason to skip town. Maria had a small petty theft charge and apparently she used the garage accounts to fund some of her other habits, but that doesn't suggest anything like her father's accusing her of. Unless… "Barriss, does she have a juvenile record?"
"Yes, but it's sealed and very tightly. I'm attempting to reopen it but it will take time."
Great. Just great. We only have so long to hold these two without a charge and although Barriss' research skills are admirable, when she says "it will take time" it will take time. Time we don't have with Barriss' expertise alone. I'm awful at anything with research and records, and Lux's abilities are restricted to search engines.
But he knows someone who can help.
"Barriss, focus on the specifics of the lawsuit and Mr. Reyes. Lux, can you -?"
Lux is already on his comlink.
…
"Well, fancy hearing from you again! Where the heck were you? The militia tried to contact you seven times!"
Hutch says something and Lux rolls his eyes. "What have you missed? Well for starters, Saw's been shot by some serial killers."
A noise which sounds like a what? comes from the comm.
"Get back to Onderon now and give His Highness and poor Tandin a break from watching him. And while you're doing that, I need you to open a sealed juvy file on Ryloth immediately. The girl's name is Maria Reyes."
Lux steps closer and I can start to make out Hutch's babbling on the other side of the comm, though it's not very clear. He's probably speaking in tech-speak or just shooting off his mouth until a shout pierces the monologue.
Lux pulls the comlink back and rubs his ear. "You opened it?"
Hutch's voice is clear as a bell. "Yeah, and I need brain bleach!"
…
"If Hutch says he needs brain bleach then I'm not sure I want to see those records," Lux admits.
I'm not sure I do either, but I open the file anyway to find – to my immense relief – nothing but text files. "No images, Lux. And it doesn't look like she actually committed any of these crimes. She's only listed on here as a witness.
"Oh, thank the force." He opens the files. "These don't seem too terrible for Ryloth during the Clone War. It just looks like she was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"The wrongest place at the wrongest time," I correct. "Assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, assault – these aren't even from the Separatist occupation. They're dated before the droid army arrived. I'll admit Ryloth is in the Outer Rim, but most people are just trying to live their lives. Anakin lived on Tatooine in -," I catch myself before I spill Anakin's secret. "Not the best situation, and he wasn't involved in this much stuff."
"She either has the worst luck in the universe, or it isn't luck at all," Lux reads through the files. "All the crimes she's witnessed have been violent; how do you stumble on that from petty thievery?"
"Trust me Lux, if you're the kind who's attracted to trouble, then finding violence would be easier than finding a kid who likes to play. Remember Jack's criminal record?"
He nods. "Right. If these perpetrators are her ex-boyfriends, then she probably just rode along. One of Jack's pops up, so it's not out of the question."
"Do you think he could force her into this?"
I may as well have asked Lux if humans need oxygen for survival. "Let's put it this way. Jack's assault with a deadly weapon charge was this close to becoming homicide." He lifts his hand in a pinching gesture with a modicum of space between his thumb and forefinger. "My father told horror stories about when my mother was pregnant with me. Endless crying, panicking that I was going to die because she pet a tooka that day. If the HoloNet said it, then it was absolute truth in her eyes."
This is the same Mina Bonteri who took me a down a peg with so much a sentence? I don't believe it. "That sounds … tumultuous."
"Even if we all would have liked for me to have a brother or sister, I think it would be a lie to say that Dad wasn't relieved he wouldn't have to go through it again." He shakes his head.
His may be shaking, but mine's just lit up like a thousand suns. "Your mom scared him a little, didn't he?"
"Ahsoka, I hold the firm belief that my mother could scare Sith Lords. My father didn't stand a chance."
"If she were to get angry enough, think a pregnant woman could get her boyfriend to commit murder?"
"I would say that if there was anything in Maria's records to indicate she could actually pull this off. Thieves usually don't escalate to murder."
"You say usually."
"How did Maria's mother die?"
The sudden change of subject catches me off guard, but I mask it and re-check the records Barriss (Dear force, she deserves sainthood) sent to my datapad. "Speeder crash. Why?"
Lux hesitates, and the silence speaks volumes. "Senators don't usually try to join terrorist groups either, but you did. And it was all because Count Dooku killed your mother."
I don't remember my mother. When I visualize that word, the only image that pops into my mind is Padme's. While she's not actually my mom, I know that when I feared for her life, her safety second only to a wish to get rid of whoever dared endanger her. In that case, it was Aurra Sing.
I'm actually a little scared of what I would've done had Aurra Sing killed my Padme. I wouldn't have joined Death Watch, but I might have done something else equally stupid.
Lux cranes his neck over to read the accident report on my datapad. "I can't read upside down, Ahsoka. Was Maria in the speeder with her mom that day?"
When I look at the holo of the scene, I get the feeling that if Maria had been in the speeder she wouldn't be here today. "No. According to the reports she had just dropped Maria off at school when another speeder ran a red light and hit her broadside when she was trying to pull out of the speeder pool. She was killed instantly."
"If she was just leaving the speeder pool, then Maria could witnessed it. Taking the date on the accident, subtracting it from today' date…" He does the mental math. "If Maria is nineteen years old now, then she was eight."
Incident: Speeder Crash. Number of Fatalities: 1
Witnesses: Maria Reyes, age 8, decedent's daughter
Instantaneous death from blunt-force trauma
Child is very calm throughout ordeal.
I shut off my datapad. "You're right Lux. The first responders report that Maria approached the wreckage and got a really good look at her mother. It also states that she was extremely calm during the whole process."
He sits up, but he doesn't need to say anything to tell me it's not normal – I know it's not normal. Anakin did something he regrets after his mother died, though he's a bit fuzzy on the details. My men and I have had to hold back civilians who want to deal death to people who killed their parents. Lux would have dealt Count Dooku a long and painful death if he had half the chance; I'm willing to bet all the credits in the galaxy he didn't just stand calmly when he learned of his mother's death.
"Indifference to death, incredible charisma, a long record of witnessing violence and run-ins with the law prior to age 15." Lux stands up. "I'm not a psychologist, but I think we need to bring one in here. These are symptoms of -."
"Antisocial personality disorder. Looks like it's time to call Barriss again; we're going to need psych evals on both of -."
A police droid opens the door, cutting off my sentence.
"Padawan Tano, Senator Bonteri, there's a Balon Reyes here to see you."
A haggard-looking man shuffles into the room. I would guess his age as fifties or so, and his face and hands are weathered from years of manual labor. He's bald, but his light eyebrows match Maria's perfectly.
"Mr. Reyes, my name is Ahsoka Tano and this is Senator Lux Bonteri." I extend my hand for him to shake. "We're investigating a murder spree and we believe your daughter is involved."
Rule number one of talking to family members: always says "we believe." It makes them more willing to cooperate with you than if you say straight-out that you know their relative is a cat burglar or a stone-cold killer.
But Mr. Reyes just shakes his head. "I knew something was wrong when they disappeared. When that boy is involved, my daughter is a disturbing girl."
And now we have some clarity on the state of one of our killers, but not the other. The answer will come next chapter, along with Part Two.
Rogue One comes out tomorrow night! I'm so excited!
Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics, TessaFred, and McAwsome for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!
Until next time,
LS
