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Her stomach folded in on itself. “Corran describes Loor as wearing a hooded cloak and following Captain Celchu out the back of the cantina as Corran entered it. Corran recognized Loor from his height and his gait, but he never actually saw his face.”

“And as good as Corran was, you think that his making an identification without seeing the individual’s face leaves room for him to be mistaken?”

“Yes.”

The Twi’lek nodded. “Thank you for your candor. Nothing further.”

Ackbar looked at the prosecutor. “Redirect?”

“No, Admiral.”

The Mon Calamari nodded down at Iella. “You are excused, Agent Wessiri. I am going to recess the court at this time. The Provisional Council is meeting to discuss a number of problems and I must be there. I may, in fact, recess the trial for a week. I assume, from the question you asked earlier, Counselor Ven, you would not mind having the extra time for investigation of the case?”

Iella, returning to her place at the prosecution bench, watched Nawara’s grey profile as he nodded. “I welcome the time to continue to prepare my defense.”

“Commander Ettyk, you have no objections to a delay?”

“No, sir.”

“Very good, court stands adjourned for one week.”

Iella entered Halla Ettyk’s office. “Diric’s in the outer office, lying down. I hope you don’t mind. The crush of people leaving the court was a bit much, but the bailiffs didn’t seem to want to let him catch his breath. In fact, they weren’t too interested in letting me bring him along with me here to the office.”

The black-haired prosecutor shook her head. “Not a problem, but get him a special visitor’s identification badge.”

Iella frowned as she slipped into a nerfhide chair in front of Halla’s transparisteel desk. “What’s going on?”

Halla set a comlink down on her desk. “I just heard from Admiral Ackbar’s aide, Commander Sirlul. The reason for the abrupt adjournment was more than a routine meeting of the Provisional Council. It appears, in the wake of the PCF assault on that bacta storage site, we’ve had a bomb threat here. They aren’t sure who made the threat or how real it is, but they want a week to reinforce the courthouse complex.”

“I see.”

Halla nodded solemnly. “Just as well—it gives me a week to shore up my case.”

Iella winced. “I’m sorry for what I said in there. I don’t want to have Corran’s killer get off, but—”

“Not your fault. Admiral Ackbar was right—I asked one more question than I should have. I tried to make sure there was no question that Corran had been right, and I was too smart for my own good.” She shrugged. “At least nothing got said about the Duros that Captain Celchu says he was meeting with that night. Right now the Tribunal just knows that Corran might have been mistaken about his identification. If the Duros is brought in, they’ll be free to wonder how much Kirtan Loor in a cloak looks like a Duros in a cloak.”

Iella’s eyes narrowed. “We all knew Celchu claimed he met a Duros that night.”

“So it seems, but all those stories get traced back to Celchu himself, so anyone else bringing it up gets it stricken because of the hearsay rule. The only way that comes in is if Tycho takes the stand.”

“What if the Duros testifies?”

“What’s the likelihood of that happening? There’s no evidence Lai Nootka ever was on Coruscant, as nearly as we can tell. Moreover, there was some history between Corran and Nootka—Corran got him out of an Imperial prison on Garqi, wherever that is. Why would Nootka run from the man who saved his life?”

Iella opened her hands. “Maybe he was just following Tycho.”

“Fine. Let’s assume that meeting was as innocent as Tycho has tried to make it out to be. It doesn’t make the least little bit of difference. The bribe data alone is enough to show he was working for the Empire. Corran believed Tycho had met with Kirtan Loor; his threat to dig into Tycho’s background because of that belief is our motive for the murder.”

“But why kill Corran when you can show he’s wrong about the meeting just by producing Lai Nootka?” Iella frowned.