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Umber forced himself to repress a smile. “In addition to being remarkably, even dangerously, outspoken, your droid effects a most distinctive sense of humor.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Jax stepped aside to let Dejah exit. “He’s just rude. As to your question, Baron—I am looking for a CEC to use in my work. I’m sure you understand that someone in my position can’t go into intimate details.”

Umber’s eyebrows rose in response. “Intimate, is it? Well, then, I won’t pry any further.” As Jax looked on, he put his arms around Dejah. Jax thought the clinch lasted a good deal longer than civility required, but the lag was understandable. Those who had the opportunity to embrace red Zeltrons, especially of the opposite gender, were reluctant to let them go.

Stepping back, the Baron finally released her, though he still hung on to her extended hands. “If you need anything, Dejah, anything at all, Kirma and I are at your beck and call.”

She smiled. “Thank you, Baron. For everything. Ves would thank you, too, if he were here.”

“He is.” Turning, Umber nodded back into the domicile. “Vindalia willing, he always will be.”

They were in the lift that was taking them back to the aircar hangar when Jax voiced the conclusion he had reached. “I don’t think this Baron Umber had anything to do with Ves’s death.”

Dejah nodded knowingly. “I told you. He was our best friend on Coruscant. Whenever there was a problem of any kind, Ves trusted him to take care of it.”

“You divine a lot from a brief conversation in someone’s home,” I-Five commented to Jax.

Jax eyed the droid. “You disagree with my assessment? If so, give me reasons. Other than the fact that anyone could see you took a personal dislike to the noble.”

“I did no such thing.” The droid didn’t seem irritated. “I reacted to him and treated him exactly as I would have any other potential lead we might investigate.”

“Loutishly.”

“Directly,” I-Five countered. “I am not confrontational. Merely straightforward. That’s how one obtains desired information most rapidly.”

“Maybe when communication is machine-to-machine,” Jax said. “As a protocol droid, you should know that interviewing organics requires patience, understanding, and something else that seems to have been wiped from your memory.”

“Which would be—?”

“Tact. If I’d let you run your vocabulator, we would have been thrown out of that dwelling in the first three minutes.”

I-Five executed a shrug. “Small loss, since your client had already half convinced you there was nothing to be gained from speaking with the Vindalian anyway.”

An exasperated Jax fell silent, prompting the droid to prove he was still a protocol model by adding, “I’m sorry he wouldn’t sell you a CEC.”

Jax shrugged. “Art lovers. A species unto themselves.”

Dejah put a hand on his arm. The simple gesture immediately calmed him, redirected his thoughts, heightened his emotions, and took away much of the frustration of having wasted half a day learning essentially nothing. Those were only a few of the things the Zeltron touch could do.

“At any rate, I don’t disagree with your assessment,” the droid said, “because I assume that you utilized the Force to subtly probe the Baron while you were conversing with him.”

Jax nodded as the three of them stepped out of the turbolift. At this time of day the hangar was not an especially busy place, and they took their time to enjoy the expensive décor of their surroundings as they waited for their transportation to unlock, activate, and arrive.

“I did,” Jax assured the droid. “I was monitoring him the whole time we were there. I got nothing that would indicate he’s in any way involved with Volette’s murder.”

“Neither did I. Galvanic response, eye contact, epidermal flush—none of it provoked anything like a suspicious reaction.”

“Good. That settles it.”

“Did you check the female?”

Jax raised an eyebrow. On his right, Dejah stared at the droid in disbelief. “Surely you don’t think Kirma Umber had anything to do with Ves’s death? That’s absurd!”

I-Five replied