Well, as it turned out I did not have 24 hours, not even 18 hours. I had twelve hours to be exact. Twelve hours after finding the body in the alley behind Latinum Luxury I was summoned to the Mayors office.
Fortunately it had been a very productive twelve hours.
Captain Leo met me in the lobby of the Government building, his face in a “I told you so” expression.
“I hope you have something to report.” he snarled as we got on the elevator.
“I do, but I’m not sure the Mayor will like it.”
“You want to tell me about it?”
I looked up at the big cat. ‘No, I don’t think you’ll like it much either.”
“Your funeral.”
“Your paying for it. You own me, remember?”
The doors parted and dumped us into the Mayors outer office. There was a desk on either side of the room, each seating a striking Romulan woman, I’m not sure you’d call them secretaries.
“What, the mayor doesn’t like men?” I asked.
“Don’t go there.” Leo answered.
One of the Romulans got up and led us to the door and announced us. T’Ken got up from behind a massive desk made of Rizzin Tea Wood. It must have been a family heir loom, it could not imagine even the Mayor could afford such an antique. She came around the corner and stopped, apprizing me as if I had some kind of communicable disease.
“So Mr. Stone, Captain Leo has informed me of the change in your career.” she said giving Leo a nod.
I gave a short bow, not sure what the correct protocol was. “He has been kind enough to see me through a hard time.”
She smirked, “That is putting it mildly.” She sat on the empty corner of the desk. “Mr. Stone, or should I address you Detective Stone? You’re not really a detective….are you?”
“Mr. Stone is fine.”
“Mr. Stone, I understand one of my clan was found murdered a few hours ago. I what to know who is responsible. Can you tell me Mr. Stone. Who did this to one of MY CLAN?”
I cleared my throat, not sure I was ready to take the leap. “No Mayor, I’m not. But I have found the situation to be…..more complicated than what first appeared.”
Leo looked at me, clearly concerned.
“How so Mr. Stone.”
“If I may?” I held up a data pad and indicated I wanted to link to the main viewer on the opposite wall. T’Ken nodded. With a few keystrokes I brought up my initial report.
“The victim was Servena D’Rose , arrived from Romulus only last week. She came in with a group of 200 on the freighter Vanera. After passing through the Vorta Space Port she disappeared. Disappeared until here.” I changed images and now we were watching the security camera feeds around the Latinum Luxury Club. First we could see a crowd around the front door. Ishka was having a very good night.
“Here is where she first appears.” I pointed.
In the crowd we could just make out her face. I put a picture of her death scene in the upper right corner and froze the image. If not for the facial tattoos you would not be certain it was her. I continued the video, she and a man moved off camera to the right. I changed the cameras and now we looked from the front left corner of the building looking down a side alley. The couple were walking away, their backs to us. I froze the image.
“Note that the man is leading, the woman is against his left side and slightly behind.”
T’Ken and Leo looked at each other shrugging their shoulders. We continued to watch them walk away and turn around behind the building. I changed cameras again and now we could see them walking towards us. I enlarged the image and zoomed in on the space between them.
“I believe, if you look closely, you’ll see the man is in fact not leading the woman, she is leading him. A gap suddenly appeared between them and the unmistakable glint of a knife blade shown. T’Ken was now watching very closely.
The couple stopped a few feet from the back door. She seemed to be whispering something into the mans ear and then …he spun around and struggled with her. The knife seemed to pass between them couple of times until the man gained an advantage and in a blur he was behind her. I stopped the video feed.”
“This is the moment she died.”
T’Ken looked at me. “I’ve seen death before Mr. Stone. You need not worry about my sensibilities.”
“As you wish.” I let the film continue. The last few seconds were……disturbing. After the woman falls t the pavement the man pockets the knife and walked out of view. I shut off the presentation.
“So…It turns out Servena was not ‘a victim’ in the usual since. The man, who ever he was, was clearly a target.”
“Why?” T’Ken asked, eyebrow raised.
“I was hoping you’d tell me Mayor.”
She stood up, her face becoming stone. Captain Leo cleared his throat. “Victor!”
I calmly, at least as calmly as I could looked at the Romulan. ‘Mayor, she was of your clan, she was not just a refugee, and this whole thing was staged. She knew the cameras where there. It was a show. For you?”
The Mayor smiled, looked over at Captain Leo. “You’ve proved me wrong about him.”
“Told you.” he answered.
T’Ken returned to her seat behind the monument to her power and her family. ‘No Mr. Stone. I did not hire the assassin. But some one did. I need you to find out who, and more importantly why. Who was that human? ”
I just nodded.
“Well then, if there is nothing else.” Leo said. And with that we were on our way back down to the street. Once out of the building and walking toward RICK’s Leo finally spoke.
“You got balls Stone, I’ll give you that.”
“Or I’m just crazy.”
“OH WELL,, you proved that by coming here in the first place.”
