Part 3

  By the time they returned to the office there was a small crowd gathered out in front. They seemed agitated and rowdy. Ghor stopped her speeder and stepped out of the vehicle and, sizing up the situation, she handed the plastic bag with the items they’d gathered from Kiro’s home to Lucy who’d also exited the speeder. “Take this inside.”

  Lucy accepted the bag without comment and she proceeded inside, keeping a wary eye on the crowd.

  Vilnius stepped up next to the sheriff. “You gonna talk to ‘em?”

  Ghor nodded.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “No. Go inside. I’ll be along.” She assured him.

  “Be careful. I have a bad feeling about this.” He sounded unconvinced but went inside anyway as the sheriff approached the crowd.

  She saw that it was made up mostly of off-shift miners. The barely suppressed rage was palpable. There were a lot of seething expressions on their faces and one of those faces belonged to a friend.

  Will stepped from the midst of the crowd as the sheriff walked up. His face was a mask of fury. Ghor reasoned that the disappearance of his son and now the murder of his wife’s best friend was taking a serious toll on this normally level headed man.

  “Sheriff. We hear you have the murderer locked up in there.”

  The crowd quieted down somewhat when Ghor answered. “I have a suspect. The investigation is ongoing.”

  Will scoffed, “Don’t give us that load of bantha crap. We heard it was your deputy.”

  Ghor was finished with the banter. “What do you want?”

  “Simple,” Will’s voice took on a cold, steely quality. “Justice.”

  Ghor sighed. Her own voice was low and stern. “Somehow I don’t think your brand of justice is going to be very sympathetic.”

  Will scoffed. “Did Kiro give Lexa any sympathy?”

  “Kiro deserves a thorough investigation and if there's evidence that he committed the crime, he deserves a trial.” Ghor offered.

  Will shook his head. “Really? And did Lexa deserve what she got?”

  Ghor could see that there would be no convincing this crowd. “Look. You all head home. Will, come by the office in the morning and I’ll give you a full rundown on what we know.”

  A grumble rolled through the crowd pressing in behind Will who leaned forward and said, “I have a better idea. Why don’t you go over to the saloon and have a drink. By the time you get back, we’ll be done.”

  There were a few voices from the crowd expressing support for that suggestion.

  The sheriff put a hand on the butt of her blaster and raised her voice above the general din of the crowd, “I’m telling you all to disburse now! Go on home.”

  Ghor and Will locked gazes for a few tense moments. Will looked for signs that she might back down but the sheriff didn’t give him one.

  Finally Will spoke, loud enough for the crowd behind him to hear. “All right. We’ll go. For now.”

  Will turned to the crowd and waved his hand in a circle above his head, “Let’s go.”

  The crowd seemed to acquiesce to Will’s advice and slowly, grudgingly they began to go their separate ways.

  Ghor waited until she was certain the crowd had disbursed sufficiently and then went into the office. Lucy and Vilnius were waiting as were Utena and Miska who had been left to watch the prisoner. The old prospector Walt was also present. He had come to the office as soon as he’d heard about Kiro’s arrest.

  Lucy was first to speak. “What did they want?”

  Vilnius answered for her, “They were after Kiro.”

  Lucy’s eyes widened as she realized how close they’d come to witnessing mob justice.

  Ghor nodded. “They were. And they’ll be back. Probably later tonight.”

  Vilnius replied, “We should hand him over.”

  Lucy gasped, “What are you saying?”

  “He’s guilty! The knife was in his house. His serape is covered in blood!”

  Ghor sat down in her chair, shaking her head almost sorrowfully.

  It was Walt that spoke next. “Doesn’t matter. Kiro deserves a trial.”

  She agreed, “We need to get the judge from Eden.”

  Vilnius scoffed, incredulous, “The judge? A trial? That mob is coming back. You said it yourself. They’re not gonna want to wait around for a judge.”

  “Maybe we need to get the boy out,” Walt suggested.

  Utena had been keeping a look out the window. “There’s a guy out there watching.”

  Vilnius scoffed. “They’d bring the mob back right quick if we tried anything funny.”

  The sheriff put her hands down flat on the desk. “We’re not giving Kiro to the mob and we’re not running.” She got back on her feet. “I have to do this. The rest of you need to go. I’ll talk 'em down when they show up.”

  Vilnius rolled his eyes. “You’ll talk 'em down? Like you did before?”

  The sheriff continued, “That’s nothing you need to worry about. Vil, you and your crew should go.”

  “Fine.” He walked away toward the door with Utena and Miska following behind. He mumbled under his breath as they went.

  Ghor turned to Lucy and Walt but Walt cut her off even before she could say anything. “Sheriff, I ain’t goin’ anywhere.” He pulled an ancient appearing blaster from somewhere in his hovering chair. “Yer down a deputy and yer gonna need all the help you can get.”

  That brought a wry smile to Ghor’s porcine face. She looked over at Lucy who answered the glance by patting the borrowed blaster she had tucked in her waistband.

  The sheriff's stomach twisted as she thought about facing down a mob with only these two as backup. She wished she hadn’t been so quick to dismiss the Ugnaughts.

  Ghor exhaled deeply. “I must be as crazy as you are. Consider yourselves deputized.”

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  Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Utena walked back into the office. “Sheriff?”

  Ghor took her hand off her blaster. “Utena, what are you doing back?”

  Utena looked a little nervous and finally said, “I thought you could use another hand.”

  Ghor smiled at the Ugnaught gratefully. “Thank you. What’d Vilnius say?”

  Utena smiled back, a little sheepish. “I didn’t tell him.”

  That elicited loud, raucous laughter from Walt followed by a ronchous cough. “Way to go, lad!”

  Ghor handed Utena a blaster rifle from the rack behind her. “Would you watch the front please?”

  Utena took the rifle, a serious expression back on his face. He took up a position just to the side of the front door that gave him an excellent vantage out the front window. From there he could see most of the street in front of the office.

  Then they heard a voice from the back of the office. It was Kiro. “Sheriff! Sheriff Ghor! I need to talk!”

  Ghor exchanged a quick glance with Lucy and, grabbing the evidence bag, she walked to the back of the office where Kiro was standing in his cell behind the ray-shield barrier. When she approached he asked, “What did you find?”

  “Your serape covered in blood with a knife wrapped up inside,” Ghor said succinctly.

  That revelation seemed to shock him into silence.

  “You got an explanation?” she pressed.

  Kiro shook his head. “I swear to you I did not kill Lexa.”

  Ghor held up the clear plastic bag with the blade visible inside with the blood stained garment. “Explain this!”

  “I can’t!” Kiro yelled back, exasperated. “I have never seen that knife before.”

  “We found it in your house. Wrapped in your serape that is covered in blood.” The sheriff felt the need to spell it all out for him.

  Kiro’s expression fell. “Sheriff, if you don’t believe me, there’s no way a judge will. And for sure the mob won’t.”

  “Kiro,” she started but he cut her off.

  “Sheriff, you got to hand me over to the mob.”

  That was not what Ghor had expected to hear. “What?”

  Kiro cleared his throat and stood up straight as he could. “Sheriff, ma’am, that mob is coming back. You said it yourself. They’re not going to settle for anything less.”

  Ghor stared at him for a long moment. She didn’t know what to say. Finally she just walked away.

  “Sheriff!” Kiro called after her but she ignored him and kept walking.

  As Ghor walked back up to the front of the office Walt noticed the blank look on her face. “What’d he say?”

  “He wants me to hand him over,” she whispered.

  “Hmm. That don’t sound like guilt to me,” the old prospector wheezed.

  Ghor suddenly looked up at the old man. “Walt, what are you doing here anyway?”

  He chuckled. “Besides about to get myself killed?”

  The sheriff smiled, “Yeah, besides that.”

  “I haven’t always been there for my family. But I can’t let my grandson go down alone,” Walt said, suddenly serious.

  “Kiro’s your grandson? Why didn’t I know that?” Ghor asked, almost rhetorically.

  Walt ignored the question and asked, “What’s in the bag?”

  Ghor held it up for his inspection. “Probably the murder weapon and Kiro’s serape.”

  A rare look of surprise crossed the old man’s face. “That’s more than a murder weapon. It’s a Sith dagger.”

  “Sith?” Lucy had been listening nearby.

  “Yeah,” Walt continued. “You know, that crazy cult.”

  It was Ghor’s turn to be surprised. “Cult?”

  Lucy explained, “Yeah, they were a nasty offshoot of the Church of the Force. There were rumors they practiced blood sacrifice.”

  Ghor put her head in her hands. “Ritual sacrifice? That’s just great.”

  Walt hurrumpted. “Never were a lot of them around. Haven’t seen or even heard of them for years.”

  A sudden thought occurred to Ghor and she showed Walt the original picture she’d got from Vilnius. “You recognize the ring too?”

  “Dank farrik! That’s definitely Sith. Saw one of those on the hand of a cultist back in Eden years ago. That guy was bad news. Evil to the core,” Walt replied. “Can’t say it’s the same exactly but it’s close.”

  Ghor took the page back from the old prospector and went back to her desk silently shaking her head.

  Lucy stepped closer to Walt. “So there’s a Sith Adherent in town.”

  “Sure looks that way. Too bad your friend Carlo is missing. Could use a Jedi about now.”

  “It’s definitely not Kiro, right?” Lucy begged.

  Walt snorted. “Of course not. But whoever they are, they’re trying to make it look like he is.”

  Lucy looked the old prospector in the eyes. “Seriously, how come you never told me Kiro was your grandson?”

  “I never told him either.”

  *****

  As the hours pressed on the atmosphere become more intense in the little office. Kiro had tried again to talk to the sheriff but her only reply to him was an admonishment to “Shut up!”

  It was well after midnight when Utena saw some movement far down the street. At first he wasn’t sure if he’d seen anything but then, emerging from the darkness, was a personnel transport. It was from the mine, he guessed, and was likely used to take workers up the mountain for their shifts. Beside it and behind walked about a dozen miners and townspeople. Utena recognized a couple of them from the crowd that had been gathered earlier outside the office. One of them was Will. As they drew closer, he saw that Vilnius was among them.

  Utena called out, “Sheriff! It’s them! They’re back!”

  Ghor, who was still behind her desk, stood up and strode confidently to the window. She didn’t bother to conceal herself and stood in the center of the window, knowing full well the mob would see her.

  Ghor laid a hand on Utena’s shoulder when she too realized that his mentor had joined the mob. “You don’t have to stay.”

  Utena stayed silent, unmoving.

  Ghor patted his shoulder and turned to Lucy and Walt. “I’m going out. This doesn’t need to end badly. Will’s a good man, he’ll listen to reason.”

  No one said a word as the sheriff turned and went out the door. After the door closed behind her, Walt muttered, “I hope she’s right.”

  Walt moved his hovering chair to the window opposite Utena and readied his blaster.

  Lucy drew her blaster as well and moved to the door, putting her free hand on the knob, ready to throw it open. She nodded to Walt and Utena who returned the gesture.

  Kiro, watching from the cell, called out, his tone one of desperation, “Lucy! Please! Turn me over to them before one of you gets hurt!”

  It was Walt who answered, “Quiet, youngster!” He watched out the window as Ghor stepped down from the porch onto the street between the oncoming mob and the office behind her.

  Ghor stood, resolute, one hand on her holstered blaster. She called out, “Halt!”

  To her surprise the eight-wheeled transport rolled to a stop. Those on foot walked to the front of the vehicle.

  Ghor pointed at Will and then motioned to him to step forward. Will took a half dozen steps forward. Had there been any hope that the sheriff could speak privately, they vanished as Will stopped in the middle of the dusty street.

  Will raised his own hand and motioned as well. A dozen more people, miners and townspeople, exited the transport taking positions along the street. Each of them was armed and Ghor didn’t have to count to know how outnumbered they were.

  The sheriff summoned up her courage and channeled it into as much confidence as she could muster. “Will! I didn’t expect to have to tell you twice. Go home!”

  The sheriff's tone seemed to resonate with a few of the mob's members who shuffled their feet and traded uncertain glances while fiddling with their weapons.

  Will himself was unfazed. He appeared to ignore the sheriff’s command. “Hand over the murderer, Sheriff!”

  Ghor felt the anger rise in spite of herself, her porcine face bearing her yellowed tusks. “Not going to happen, Will!”

  He was equally dug in. “We’re not leaving without the killer!”

  At that point several things seemed to happen all at once. The lights in the office building failed and there was the sound of breaking glass. Sheriff Ghor was hit from behind by the bright blue concentric circles of a blaster's stun blast. Her spine straightened from the shock and she dropped to her knees before falling forward on her face.

  Lucy turned at the sound of the glass window breaking and saw Utena fire a stun blast. Walt saw the blast hit the sheriff and squeezed his own trigger setting off a stun blast that dropped Utena flat.

  At that moment a hand landed on Lucy’s shoulder, dragging her back from the door. A hand ripped the blaster from her grip.

  Lucy looked up and saw that it was Kiro. When the power failed the ray shield confining him in the cell had failed as well.

  Before she could say anything, Kiro tossed the blaster into the corner and stepped out of the door.

  Lucy lunged toward him but it was too late, he was gone.

  Kiro closed the door behind him as he stepped out onto the porch. He didn’t stop until he was standing next to the sheriff's prostrate body.

  A sudden calm and silence washed over the street.

  Will, surprised by Kiro’s sudden appearance, took a step back and called out, “Murderer!”

  Then at least five blaster bolts hit Kiro from all sides. The young man crumpled and fell unmoving next to the sheriff.

  Then silence returned.

  Then the office door flew open. Lucy, followed closely by Walt on his floating chair, came rushing to Kiro and Ghor. Lucy rolled Kiro onto his back and was met by his frozen, dead gaze. She choked and a hand went involuntarily to her mouth. The sheriff groaned and managed just barely to rise up in one elbow. “Kiro?”

  Lucy reached down and closed the young man’s eyes. “He’s dead.”

  Walt had hoped to hear something else entirely. His chin fell to his chest and he lost his grip on his blaster. It fell, clattering to the street.

  Ghor tried to get up but her stunned body would not cooperate. She only managed to barely sit up.

  Will watched them for only a moment before reholstering his weapon. He turned, his head bowed and he walked away. The majority of the mob, their thirst for vengeance suddenly extinguished, also walked away.

  Vilnius appeared in the door of the office carrying the unconscious Utena in his arms. Wordless, he walked to the transport and placed his student inside. He looked back for a moment at Lucy, Ghor, and Walt. Then he pulled himself into the transport. As soon as the door closed behind him the transport reversed back down the street the way it had come.