When I arrived back at Odra, my body had already been found. The dead body, I mean. I went to the police station to identify myself in the morgue. It is a very unsettling experience.
They put the argicultural brochures and my "Udder Chaos" mug in a plastic bag next to me, but I wasn't allowed to take it back with me. It's evidence now for a murder case.
I've been shot!!
Unimaginable! Me, a cleric from the Empire, chaplain and librarian, the victim of cold-blooded murder? What manner of evil creature would do this and condemn their soul to the fiery pits of hell?
The police investigator told me it was Harry the Hulk.
He's a henchman working for a local gangster kingpin called Boulette. He shot me at point blank range in a dead-end alley close to the restaurant I was going to. He panicked when he realized that the man he shot was actually a capsuleer. He ran as fast as he could to collect his bug-out bag and get off planet. He was arrested using false papers at the spaceport, and after enhanced interrogation admitted the murder in exchange for protection.
He'd been ordered to take me out because had been showing too much interest in the source of the biodrone material at the Tacky Parts store. Apparently, it is common knowledge that the shop sells not only biodrone parts but also rare drugs based on Takmahl phrenic appendix fluids. There is too little hard evidence to prove the drug sales at the moment. Boulette feared I might be a scout for a competing gang trying to take over his market by going for his supply chain, and wanted to make a statement.
