Jud looked down in the file in his hands, silently wishing
that there was a glass of scotch in its place.
Every time something in this office calmed down, another nightmare would
just pop out of Hell and decide to wreck his life a bit more. It was times like this when Jud started to
seriously consider taking that retirement at seven hundred instead of one
thousand.
“Hey, Jud. You want
to stop daydreaming about a beach on some far away planet?”
He sighed while opening the file and looking down at the Federation mug shots.
“Well according to the Federation, these people are dead. But like always, you come in here and tell me
some amazing revelation about how they got it wrong.”
Jud looked over her and decided that maybe he should take a seat in the leather
chair. Cati had moved across the room at
some point, guiding a glass of dark liquid into his hand, and stayed leaning
against the side.
“Jud, guess who else was supposedly killed for war crimes by
the Federation?”
He looked back up to question the movements on her face. Jud didn’t think that she could possibly have
been tried for war crimes, even though there were so many things that he had
heard…
But then again, all of the things he had heard about Harry were commissioned by
the government, meaning she probably didn’t go anywhere for war crimes.
“You?”
Might not have been the best wording but he needed to watch how she reacted to
such a question.
“No. Cati. The point of this story is that the mildest
little old alien you could ever imagine, was supposedly executed for war crimes
on their home planet.”
“How would I have even fucking guessed that was the point of the story?”
She took another glass, that had again mysteriously appeared
in Cati’s hand, and Jud silently checked to make sure his glass was still
there. He slid the ice cube around for a
moment, waiting to hear what her miraculous answer might be. The room continued with its heavy silence
until Leo stepped back into the room, dragging a screeching chair behind him
and failing to apologize with the slight looks in their general direction.
Leo soon broke the silence, justifying the screeching chair
by saying, “I thought we uh could use some chairs on the sidelines, since
there’s so many photographs.”
Before Jud could stand and respond to the slightly illogical
motion of Leo, who had just cleared the floor and was now trying to clutter it
again, Harry beat him to the punch. He could
see the side glare in her eyes, meaning she heard the snide comment running
through his mind. It wasn’t all that bad
to doubt how – smart – the kid was.
“Well I personally do not but thank you for the thought,
Leo. I’m sure your legs are starting to
hurt from all the time in those braces.”
Jud saw her falter a bit while trying to prove she had no
need for a seat, that her legs weren’t in pain.
He could see the spines starting to flex and expand around her ankles,
never a very good sign, even for someone like her. His eyes remained focused on her as she
walked the room to lean against the window, which she explained as a need to
look across the room from that perspective.
Cati’s hand remained on his shoulder as they silently
whispered, “There is no need to make a battle here where there is none. If she doesn’t want to admit to anything,
then we will not press her for any information.”
He was slightly put off by the mention of “we” but waved it
away when Leo started assembling the pictures.
Leo had located a stick to use as a pointer in this makeshift conference
room.
“Alright, so at the center we have the Lucreskis. Now these folks are just middle men for
bigger members of the of the ring. I mostly
know some of the lower contacts, the guys in their smart little blazers passing
the pieces off to the jewelry stores.”
Jud sat there hoping that this kid wouldn’t be a waste of
time. Or really that this case wouldn’t
be a waste of their time since they weren’t getting paid to investigate
it. He should have properly checked to
see how many bounties were involved in investigation before agreeing to such
danger.
Retirement is looking
really good.
Leo glanced over at him before continuing.
“I know that I don’t have the best connections but some of these jewelers
should be able to lead you to the big fish.
Some of them are on the take and personal members of the family, but
then there’s – ”
He spun around for a moment, searching for the next piece of the puzzle, which
wasn’t very detectable among a sea of jewelers who all looked the same.
“Sidney Beit. He is obviously not in the
family and I found out through talking to his stock boy that he’s being kept in
the system through payments and physical force.
This is one of the few guys who interacts with top dealers and is scared
enough to flip on them.”
“Flipping on them sounds good. But who
is he going to run to? And would one the
stock boys say something?”
“Beit will not go to the cops because his status on this planet isn’t the most
legal set of arrangements that I’ve ever seen.
And the boys won’t say anything to Fiacre or Leonet or any cop because
they’re in the same spot. There’s really
no reason for them to back out.”
The Leonets being involved raised the stakes and Jud’s mind
soon bounced to ideas about who else might be involved in this caper.
“Leo, do you know how many families are involved in this?”
“Just on Zinnia or uh through the system or galaxy?”
Jud coughed when came the mention of “galaxy”.
He’d been in the business for a long time but this level of crime issue
might be too big for the agency. Harry stepped
in again before he had a real chance to answer.
“We’ve never really handled something this big, Leo. I’m sure my colleagues do find a bit of
concern for working something on this scale but the more dangerous, the more
the bounty. Right, Jud?”
“Of course Harry. Whatever you say about
this case.”
Leo looked between them for a moment and Jud wondered just
how much of that power the kid inherited.
He probably couldn’t read minds straight and forward, but he swore the
kid could read faces. Jud always knew
how to spot these kinds of people in crowds and maybe that’s how he ended up
with Harry.
“Okay, so maybe it is a big case and I do apologize for
bringing it to all of you, but there is a lot of money in it. I’ve never heard that expression before, but I
have worked in gem rings before, so I can assure you that even if the Feds don’t
give a payout…”
“Then something might fall off the back of the truck?”
“Exactly, Mr. Huff. Exactly.”
“A few nice gems might just happen to fall into my hands and out of the pocket
of a few rich old mafia scumbags.”
So, the kid does have
some redeeming qualities.
“You know he does, Schudea.”
Harry moved towards the center of the room and kept one hand
steady against the brace at her hip. Jud
noticed the slight lean in her stride, the look of pain upon her face and the
overall dismissal that anything was happening.
“Leo, as tempting as that does sound, we have to start with some actual
work. I assume you’re acquainted with
Mr. Beit and the other keepers in his shop?”
“Yes, very. I’ve done a lot of work for
them.”
“Care to set up an appointment?”
“I’ll do it immediately, ma’am.”
Points: 91980
Reviews: 1735
Donate