Ask Coruscant The Room Where It Happened

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

While Amos went about going up and now down several flights of stairs, and then some, he would find Ranger Ruzed on the next roof leaning against his speeder, smoking a cigarette.

As Roomba processed his investigation of a screw, Zad rolled his eyes at the same time Bak-Ru did. Great. A droid with a screw loose. May as well be a loose circuit. He blew through his lips, watching smoke rings disappear into the sky as he thought about their next course of action.

They had to be missing something. This was the last roof out of two that were calculated to be the origin point of the shot that killed the Chancellor. Evidently, Bak-Ru had just found the missing piece to the puzzle. “You’re a prize,” Zad patted his partner on the back.

His immediate focus was on the rifle and what the discovery entailed. “Speedy, pick it up. No butterfingers, now.” The droid had no fingerprints with which to smudge any that might be on the weapon. That, though, was Zad’s next concern.

“All right, so, I’m gonna state the obvious here.” The Ranger was ever careful to not let his cigarette smoke blow in their faces. “We find prints on this thing then it means we got one sloppy assassin to not wear gloves. Even if we don’t, still a sloppy assassin to stow his or her or its murder weapon in the same area it was used.”

Zad searched the gazes of Amos and Bak-Ru, hoping all three Rangers were on the same page. “The plot thickens, amigos.”


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[Amos McCord]

Mercifully, the second building had an elevator. The roof access was still a pain to get to, but eventually Amos found himself standing atop another Coruscant skyscraper. His legs were sore and he was out of tea from the first building that they'd investigated; this one had better be worth it. Zad was waiting there for him and Bak-Ru, having driven a speeder over instead of walking. Why didn't I think of that? the psychoanalyst thought to himself as the R00M-8A went about its search.

A screw was hardly cause for excitement, but to Amos' relief and excitement it did lead to what might be a huge breakthrough in the case- the potential murder weapon! Before he could get too far ahead of himself, however, Zad raised an excellent question; what kind of assassin left their weapon at the crime scene? The senior ranger seemed to think that there was more to this discovery than met the eye, and Amos was content to trust Zad's gut at this stage of the investigation. The pressure to catch the Chancellor's killer was enormous; they had to get this right.

With the sweep of the rooftop complete, the Rangers and the droids would return to the central Ranger station on Coruscant in order to process the evidence and complete the necessary paperwork. In the meantime, the rifle was thoroughly examined for fingerprints and any other evidence that might have been left behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

About two hours after returning to Central, the team was alerted that a fingerprint found on the weapon was a 98% match to some prints already on record. The weapon matched one known to belong to a Twi'lek named Garvin Shre'aka, whose last known whereabouts placed him on Coruscant and whose past crimes included low-level assassinations. As a BOLO was sent out, Amos fretted. "Make sure it's nonlethal" he advised. "We have to do our due diligence on this case." Amos, in particular, was looking forward to questioning their suspect.

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[Bak-Ru Shooska]

Bak-Ru paced in the office they had been granted at Central Station, his mind working over the details they had gathered so far. The murder weapon was discovered and the prints found on it would soon have a Garvin Shre'aka in custody. Well, if the hadn't skipped the planet yet which any knowing assassin would have done. The words of his partner Zad kept repeating themselves in his head. A weapon had been abandoned at the spot it was fired, prints had been left on said weapon. Even an amateur would have known to wear a damn pair of gloves! Something wasn't sitting right, but facts were facts and they had to see this lead through to the end. Especially now that the higher ups had gotten wind of a possible arrest. They wanted this wrapped up as soon as possible.

"Sirs! We got 'em!" A regular beat cop said with enthusiasm as they gestured for them to follow. Soon enough Bak would be standing on the other side of one way glass, staring at a Twi'lek that was just regaining consciousness. With a nod to his partners he would enter the interrogation room first and take a seat on the opposite side of the table. "Mr. Shre'aka." Bak-Ru began as he poured a glass of water and pushed it towards Garvin. "Do you know why you've been brought into custody today?"

With shaky hands the Twi'lek would sip some water as he fully came to. "Didn't tell me shit. Just bust in my place and stunned me right away." Against many protocols, but Bak was sure the commanding officer had gone off the books to assure the arrest. "What are they trying to pin on me this time, eh?"

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[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC

Smoke curled against the glass, fought to breach it, gave up and spiraled away, slow and steady. If there was a poetic statement in that as to gaining a confession out of a suspect then there it was.

Zad stared at Garvin as though there was no glass, not even one-way, and only stale air and stifling smoke stood between the pair. I’m watching you. His free hand pointed while the other flicked ash. I see you.

On first base, however, was not Zad Ruzed but was Bak-Ru Shooska. The former had no complaints in this arrangement. He would use the time to smoke his cigarette, sip his coffee and study his enemy.

There was a tap on the door. Zad bid entry to an officer who handed him a document. “Thanks. Good job getting it so fast. Buy you a beer.” Nothing else said, the door closed while Zad verified the transfer on his datapad.

“Take a look.” He presented it to Amos standing beside him. They would both bear witness to bank transactions under the name of ‘Vale Meridon’. That meant nothing, of course, except for the surveillance of Garvin Shre’aka’s face presenting itself upon multiple transactions bearing Vale’s name.

"It's a start," Zad reassured both men, and Bak too, given the Weequay's concealed earpiece. "Milk the bastard like a bantha's tit."


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[Amos McCord]

Aoms frowned, even though he'd managed to refill his thermos with more tea. A two-way mirror separated him and Zad from Garvin and Bak-Ru, while a speaker allowed the pair of observers to hear everything that was being said. The psychoanalyst glanced at the papers that Zad showed him, noting the financial link between Garvin and one Vale Meridon.

The frown stayed on Amos' face, and he glanced up at Zad. "If I just killed the Chancellor of the New Republic, and now had plenty of credits, would I be hanging around my apartment on Coruscant?"

Unimpressed, Amos turned back to watch the investigation. "I see no reason to beat around the bush. Tell him that we found his gun and the prints, and see how he reacts."

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[Bak-Ru Shooska]

Bak-Ru listened through his earpiece as his partners began to discuss. Soon enough his data pad would share the same information. Financial records of a one, Vale Meridian, but the photo linked to this alias proved that it was clearly the Twi'lek that sat before him. Fake identities, low level crap that the Ranger's had no time to deal with, but the point of interest would be that "Vale" had very recently become several thousands of credits richer. The evidence was surely mounting against Garvin. Fingerprints on the weapon, a record of serving time for assassinations, now an influx of credits that someone of his standing could only make in one shady way or another. With a nod, Bak-Ru would accept the advice of his comrades and hit Garvin with a gut punch.

"No one is trying to pin anything on you Garvin. We've got you dead to rights. These financial records clearly show that you recently made a small fortune." Bak turned the data pad for Garvin to see. "And as everyone in the galaxy now knows, Chancellor Ro was assassinated last night, but what you might not know is that we found the blaster used in his killing and its got your filthy prints all over it." A look of terror spread across the Twi'leks face as Bak swiped the screen on the data pad to show the evidence report. "W-what! No way man, no damn way! That ain't right, there's no way." Garvin began to sputter out a defense, but Bak-Ru would stand and abruptly leave the room.

"Let him sit on that for a moment, eh?" He said to his partners as he watched Gavin's reaction. This would also allow one of them to continue the interrogation if they chose to. Mixing it up often kept the perp on edge and more liable to slip.

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[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

“Good job,” Zad offered Bak-Ru upon the latter’s entry to the room on the other side of the window. It was one room of two that would decide Garvin’s fate. “And good. I’ve heard enough.”

With that, the Ranger repositioned himself from one room to the other, not looking at the window but into the windows that were Garvin Shre’aka’s eyes.

“And who the kark are you?” The Twi’lek demanded, trying to appear cool and confident. However, it was clear he knew that, guilty or not, this was one accused assassination that he would not so easily get out of this time.

“Your friend, your foe, the good cop, the bad cop,” Zad shrugged. "You pick.” He took a seat, flicked ash into a tray, offered a smoke to his counterpart. There was hesitation, the kind you made when you were trying to quit, but Garvin took the cigarette anyway. “Allow me.” The Ranger lit it up.

“My partner showed you the evidence, Mr. Shre’aka, but let me hit you with facts.” Zad wet his whistle with a sip of coffee, spiced with whiskey though it was. “You’re a smalltime hitman, no judgment there, but good enough at your job for someone else to hire you for liability and all that. You with me?”

Garvin was silent. Loud and clear. “What you are not is stupid enough to leave your weapon at the crime scene with your fingerprints all over it, especially when it comes to Chancellor Emil Ro. So, what I wanna know is…”

Zad slid over his datapad, offered Garvin his own image along with those bank records under the name Vale Meridon. It painted a pretty picture of external funding, the kind that could only come from the political or corporate sector, but those dots still needed to be connected.

“...Who is higher on the ladder than you, high enough to create this identity for you and pay you what they did?” Silence. Loud and clear. “And frame you for a high-level hit?”


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[Amos McCord]

Amos nodded approvingly as Bak-Ru switched places with Zad, complimenting the Weequay's handling of the situation. "Well done" he said as the younger Ranger joined him in observing Zad's turn with Garvin. "You accomplished a lot in a little time. This isn't our guy, but he might be able to help us figure out who wanted the Chancellor dead."

Most humanoids, when rightfully accused of a crime, were either hostile or defensive, or else did a poor job faking surprise. Garvin's shock read as genuine, and many of the usual "tells" of a lie were absent in the moments following the accusation. Zad had clearly come to the same conclusion, and the questioning began again. Throughout it all, Amos continued observing Garvin and the Twi'lek's nonverbal communication for signs of falsehoods.


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