Forty-sixth and second

[Commander Zemil Vymes]

"What do you remember?"

She continued to stare at me with wide-distant eyes. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and she shrank into the far corner of my office.

"Kala?"

Nothing. But more than nothing. She had to have seen. You could almost see the smoking gun reflected in her eyes. The last punctuated moments before Laius Mirthos passed into oblivion. Death left its fingerprints on everyone around it. You didn't need to be a CSI to know it.

Father murdered. Mother Jocasta and brother Turna missing.

In the squeeze of a trigger, the world had crashed down around Kala Mirthos. Now she needed an escape. Unfortunately for me, I had to pull her back into it. Another pleasant perk to my thankless job.

"Tell me about the man."

Truth be told, I didn't know if it was a man, woman, alien, or droid. The bloodstains had barely begun to dry, but already, clues were evaporating in the dead of night.

And Kala wasn't talking. She inhaled deeply, and gulped, eyes fixated at something beyond me and nothing at once.

My coffee was cold.

"You want to go with Zorah and get something to eat?"

She didn't move. I paged Zorah to my office. The only thing I could do was go back to mucking with what little we had, and hope that Kala came out of her shell. I needed her to talk.

Somewhere on my streets, there was a murderer, and with Jocasta and Turna Mirthos missing, the possibilities only widened.

[Zorah Densen]

"I heard."

Zorah was standing in the doorway, her dark green eyes already running over the kid huddled in the corner. She glanced at Vymes.

"Anything yet?"

His dark head shook once and Zor nodded in response as she walked over to the immobilized girl and squatted down beside her.

"Ive got a four-legged friend back in my office that really needs someone about your size to play with. Matter of fact, he hasnt eaten yet, either. You can feed him while I take care of getting us something to eat - what do you say, Kala? Will you help me out?"

Densen held her hand out to the child, waggling her fingers in front of the blak eyes. Nothing - not a damn thing. Shooting a look toward the commander, Zorah reached over and stood the girl up, placing an arm around her shoulders.

"Come on, sugar, I'll get you fixed up."

Like a blind person, Kala let Zorah guide her from the office, the girls movements mechanical and stiff. The sharpshooting specialist mouthed silent words back to Vymes.

Call a doctor.

[Commander Zemil Vymes]

I nodded wordlessly at Zorah, closing my eyes as she left the room with Kala. After a moment to find center again, I picked up the comm and called in Dr. Laven. She was sort of our resident head-shrinker of the district. Hopefully, she'd get Kala to come out of her shell. I was all out of options with her.

Like any case, I had to start at the beginning. The first step's always the hardest. My desk was a morass of paperwork, the early signs of the drudgery to come. What I had were loose ends and half guesses. To get more, I needed a break.

The coffee was strong and vile, and now room temperature. I winced at it, and continued drinking.

9:54 PM - Report of shots fired.

10:02 PM - Patrol arrives at scene.

I glanced at a few holos from the scene. The cyllinder on the front door was fried. Somebody shot through the bolt, and forced the door open.

Laius Mirthos sat slumped forward in his leather chair. He never saw his attacker enter. If his brains weren't in his lap, you'd swear he was just nodding off.

I took another sip, letting my mind wander. Did he hear the first gunshot? He had to. But he died with his back to the door. Did the murderer force him to sit, and then shoot him executioner style? From a chair?

I rifled through other holos. Other reports.

Nothing in the house was disturbed. Nothing taken. No robbery or secondary crime that might indicate a motive. Laius Mirthos wasn't a prominent figure that would attract this kind of thing.

What was the motive?

Where was his wife? His son? If it was one of them, why was the door cyllinder blasted?

[Zorah Densen]

The sergeant steered the girl into a corner of her office. Not much of a change from Vymes but Densen had a secret weapon that commander didnt.

Something large and tan moved up beside the girl and began bathing her face with its pink, wet tongue, its tail wagging gently but thumping loudly against its owner's desk inside the small room.

"Bitty, watch your tail. Sit down."

The mastiff-type canine obeyed and shoved her black nose into the unresponsive girls' hand, begging for attention.

Zorah made a quick call, placing a lunch order for herself and the child, then turned a sympathetic eye to Kala.

"You poor kid. Must've been hell for you."

Bitty laid her huge head on the girl's leg and whimpered softly.