CHAPTER TWELVE – HOW NOW, HECATE?

LUX

Ahsoka's hostess skills would put Onderonian noble ladies to shame. No sooner has Balon Reyes made introductions then she whisks him into a waiting room, offers him a seat, and pours him a cup of very, very strong-smelling caf.

"Thank you for coming in, Mr. Reyes," I say in a poor attempt to match her courtesies. "We appreciate your help with the investigation."

"Are Maria and the baby alright?" He asks and wraps his hands around the cup of caf.

"We're not doctors, but everything appears to be fine. We'll arrange for her to have a checkup once we're done here."

"Thank goodness," he sighs. "When she disappeared I was terrified about it."

"Why'd you sue for custody?" Ahsoka asks casually.

Mr. Reyes seems to choose his words carefully. "Maria is many things. A good mother wouldn't be one of them."

"And why is that?"

"She's cold," he says after a long pause. "Taking care of a baby is hard work. I didn't think Maria would be capable of giving a child the constant attention it would need, and I didn't want to endanger it."

"You believed she could endanger the child?"

"She becomes frustrated easily, yes."

Lots of people have a quick temper, but if her father was willing to sue for custody then Maria's fuse must have been about two inches long. "Mr. Reyes," I say as delicately as I can. "When Maria was growing up did she do anything that disturbed you?"

"Disturbed me?"

"Anything at all that didn't seem normal. Something that rubbed you the wrong way, maybe when her mother died?"

Mr. Reyes' eyes grow huge and Ahsoka points to the caf she's placed in his hands. "Drink that. Don't think, just take a deep breath and drink your caf."

He does, and I realize why Ahsoka brewed the caf as strong as she did. The taste seems to shock him back to reality.

"Are you all right?" I venture.

Mr. Reyes nods. "Yes, I am now."

I decide to repeat the question. "When Maria was young, did she do anything that disturbed you?"

"H-her mother's funeral," he says, all in a rush. "She didn't cry. I took her to one of those head doctors, and she said it was just one of the five stages of grief – but Maria didn't go through the other four. She just carried on with her life."

"Do you remember the name of the psychiatrist?" Ahsoka asks.

Mr. Reyes gives it and Ahsoka steps out, presumably to call Barriss.

I resist the urge to chew my lip, and instead dive into the question I know nobody wants to ask.

"I know this is hard for you," I begin. "But do you believe that Maria is capable of hurting the baby or anyone else?"

He gulps his caf again, probably just trying to keep himself together.

"She wouldn't do it personally," he says. "But if someone did it for her, she would have no regrets about it."

"So, I have a theory."

Ahsoka holds up her hand in a stop gesture. "The psychologist just confirmed it. Maria is an ideal candidate for antisocial personality disorder. Jack, while he's no saint, isn't even close. And she's the only one who has motive. I have more than a theory."

And with that, she holds up a datapad with a warrant.

"I love you, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka blinks.

Force bless it Lux, why can't you open your mouth without mangling your words? "I mean, I love your awesomeness that's given you're a warrant."

She looks hurt. "You mean you don't love me?"

Me and my stupid, stupid mouth! "Yes!" I press my lips together to ensure no more stupid comments escape. "I mean no. I love you, sort of, as a friend but actually - oh this is coming out all wrong and there's no reason for it to come out wrong."

Ahsoka's hurt expression falls off her face, replaced by laughter.

"Lux, you're adorable." She slugs me in the arm, laughing heartily. "We'll finish this later. But first, let's charge these clowns."

Maria sits up in her chair and stretches when she sees us come in.

"Why would Jack lie?" she asks, blinking rapidly as if to push tears back into her eyes. "I don't understand. He was always so focused on protecting me."

"Well, it looks like Jack's done protecting you." I snap.

"What?"

With the speed of lighting, Ahsoka unhooks the binders from one of Maria's wrists, pins both behind her back, and locks them in place.

"What are you doing?"

"You might have had Jack under your thumb when you two were still running wild out there, but getting him away from you was all it took to break that spell you cast on him." I read off the warrant. "Maria Reyes, you are under arrest for three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and multiple counts of petty and grand theft."

"I didn't kill anyone!" she shrieks. "Test that slugthrower all you want; it's just going to show Jack's prints!"

"You manipulated that boy into killing because you wanted to watch," I accuse. "You don't like the killing part, not yet. Are you getting closer to that? Is that why you attacked Vern Kassel instead of just watching Jack shoot him? Or do you just like watching Jack's turmoil after you twisted him into killing those men, just like you watched your father?"

"Leave him out of this! I'm telling you, I'm being set up. Jack is lying – you have to see it. I'm seven months pregnant and so big I can't even see my feet. Do you think a jury is going to believe I talked my older boyfriend into committing bloody murder?"

"It's not that hard. Let's see what we have here," I start ticking the evidence away on my fingers. "First of all, we have your psych evaluation, which suggests you have violent antisocial personality disorder and that Jack is easily manipulated and controlled. We have the custody hearing which decided you would be a danger to your child's welfare by being able to manipulate Jack into hurting it. And we have your father's testimony. So yes, I'd say we have a very good case against you."

The human girl's eyes go huge, and for a second I see straight through them to what she actually is. Not the daughter of a mechanic and a woman who died in a speeder crash. Not Maria Reyes, the scared pregnant girl. I see her as Bonnie, the stone-cold criminal who gets her Clyde to do the dirty work.

She tries to lunge at me, crossing "Infuriate a psycho" off my bucket list. Luckily, Ahsoka is way too strong.

"Not a chance," she says, and grabs Maria by the back of her shirt. "Get a good look at the galaxy when we go past the window, because you're not going to see it again for a very, very long time."

Ahsoka drags her out of the interview room with me on their heels and turns her over to the police droids standing in the lobby.

"Dad," Maria begs. "Dad, make them listen. Please, you know I couldn't do this. Please. Please!"

Balon Reyes looks on, his lip quivering before he turns his back on the scene, and his daughter.

Silence, not boring paperwork, was never so sweet.

"Well," Ahsoka says as we open one of Jack's and Maria's bags. "That's going on my top ten list of missions I'll be in a rush to forget about."

"No kidding," I unzip the top of a rucksack and dump the contents onto the table. "Psychopaths are never my cup of tea, not even in stories. But the image of a blonde pregnant girl getting Jack to do those things … well, let's just say that's going to haunt me for a while."

"It could be worse," she gives me a half smile and continues sifting through her own pile with a stylus. "We still have Saw to go back to."

"Let's make that reunion a little sweeter, shall we?" I suggest. "From the way Tandin's talking, everyone wants that music box back."

"I would too, if it was my family heirloom," she says. "Why did he give those to you anyway?"

I flex my right hand so I can see the ring on my finger. "Tandin doesn't have any kids, so nobody was going to inherit them. He said he wanted to give them to someone who deserved them. He gave the music box to Steela, the blade to Saw, and the ring to me."

"It's a nice one too." She nods. "He couldn't have picked anyone more deserving of them than you three."

"Right now it looks like a less deserving person has it." I rifle through the pile on the table. "All I'm finding is clothing, slugthrower ammunition, toiletries – force, I hope they didn't fence it."

"Maria's smart; she probably knew if they sold it they would be able to afford rent for years and she wouldn't have any reason to keep up the game. It should still be here somewhere."

"Are you sure this is everything from the apartment?"

"Oh no, there's lots more from the apartment. But Jack claims this is all they brought with them, and he doesn't have any reason not to cooperate."

"With the deal we gave him, he'd be stupid not to." Jack Vierson is going to prison, of course, but only for manslaughter. With a little help from his lawyer, he's looking at five to ten years if he cooperates.

"And he isn't stupid," Ahsoka announces. "Think positive, Lux. With our luck, it's probably wrapped in their socks."

"Whoop-de-do," I grumble and experimentally poke through the sock pile. "Well, it looks like there's nothing but socks here. And foot odor."

"Poor you," She jests. "You just can't catch a break, can you?"

She pokes at a bundle of dark pink flannel with her stylus, and some of the cloth falls away.

"Hello!" she grabs the ends of the flannel, rips them apart, and there it is: a golden box with a swirl of gemstones surrounding a gold circle on the lid.

"That's it!" I cheer, swiping the dirty socks off the table in triumph. "I can't believe we actually found it!"

"Me neither." She sets it squarely in front of her and lifts the lid.

Plink plink plink, plink-plink, plink-plink-plink-plink.

A tiny drexl mounted in the box spins slowly as the music begins. I've never heard the box's song before, but in an instant I see why Saw loved it so much. The song is tender and simple, and it almost sounds like my mother's voice singing into my cradle, lulling me to sleep. The effects aren't lost on Ahsoka; her eyes mist over and she relaxes into the sound until the tune plinks to an end.

Ahsoka opens her eyes. "It's beautiful."

"The others always told Steela it was some present, and now I really see why." I reach to take the box. "We'd better pack it safely."

"Hold on. It looks like you two have a matching set."

"What do you mean?"

She grabs my ring hand and holds it next to the music box. "The gems are the same. See?"

I look closer. "Well, that would make sense. They're both from the same set of family heirlooms."

"Is Tandin's family rich?" she taps the gem with her fingernail. "This box is solid gold, and the gems are sapphires and fire rubies. This box alone is worth a fortune, and I'm willing to bet your ring would cost just as much."

Tandin isn't poor by any stretch, but to test her theory I take the box into my hands and estimate the weight. This much solid gold would be a stretch for even me, and Tandin doesn't get a senator's salary.

"How did they afford this?"

"I don't know," she admits. "And here's the other thing: that blade that was missing from Saw's apartment? It's not here and Jack says he doesn't know anything about it."

"If they don't have it, then it's still on Onderon. And we need to find it."

"Looks like another trip is in order." She scoops up the box. "I'll take this to evidence. You take this blanket to Mr. Reyes, he'll probably need it in a few months for his grandkid."

I examine the corner of the blanket. "I don't think this is his. This label is in Onderonian runes."

"Okay, then maybe they bought it. This doesn't look like one of Saw's warm fuzzies."

"It's not." I turn the datapad to show her the holo of little Saw and Steela sleeping in sleeping bags, each wrapped in a fuzzy flannel blanket.

"It's Steela's."

She smiles.

"I think we just found our way in."

Those two definitely have their way in now. Imagine Saw's reaction once he finds out Jack and Maria stole a baby blanket!

Speaking of Saw, I got to see Rogue One yesterday and it was absolutely amazing! I would recommend it to the moon and back.

Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics for your review. And speaking of which, please review!

Until next time,

LS