The White Twi'lek/Chapter 6

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.”



There were several appointments waiting for Jali when he arrived at the office, and it was a few hours later when Jali got the chance to examine the datapad more closely. As he had suspected, anything relating to Lucen Vertey’s work had been wiped, all the appointments, contacts and calendar entries. Jali was looking through a set of extended notes that Vertey had written in the weeks prior to his death when there was a knock at the door.

“Do you have a minute?” Xhen Rinner asked.

“Come in, come in,” Jali replied, not taking his eyes off the datapad, “I was going to call you over, anyway.” For a moment, Jali didn’t say anything, he seemed to be coming to some sort of decision. Finally, he spoke, putting aside the datapad for now. “I know it’s only your second day here,” he began, “but things have a way of turning out differently than we expect.”

Xhen smiled mildly. “Some might say it’s the will of the Force,” he said.

Jali dismissed it with a wave of a hand. “Whatever, but I'm going to put you on your own on a case sooner than I expected,” Jali explained. “A lot sooner,” he added, with emphasis.

Xhen glanced at the datapad on Jali’s desk. “Let me guess, the Vertey case?” he asked. “I thought it was all over like a dead gundark when we found him.”

“So did I,” Jali admitted. “But I wasn't satisfied, so I did a little poking around.”

Xhen raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. “And now you think there’s something more?”

Jali nodded. “Yeah, but it’s a long story,” he explained. He gave Xhen a brief outline of his conversation with Kremoine. “So I told I told Elya this, and she wants me to look into it.”

“She asked you?” Xhen looked surprised, almost startled, at this revelation.

Jali looked slightly affronted by this. “It’s not solicitation, if that’s what you mean. People do have a right to have answers when they want them.”

“Well, you can’t argue with that,” Xhen laughed dryly. “So, you were saying?”

“I want you to take over the Lanco case,” Jali told him. “It’s very straight-forward, just long and involved. I’ll get him in tomorrow and you can talk to him yourself. You right with that?”

Xhen shrugged and smiled. “Hey, what’s ever fine with you,” he agreed. “If you think I’m ready…”

“I reckon you are,” Jali said. “And in case you’re not, I’ll be keeping an eye out anyway.”

Xhen laughed again. “You can’t help poking around, can you?”

“Bad habit,” Jali said with a shrug.

“Could get you into trouble one of these days,” Xhen said darkly.

Jali smiled. “Trust me, it has.”