Page 47 of Badass Alien Boss

“Okay. Puul, track down the superintendent and get a copy of the vid feed of the corridor and the building exits. Let’s find out when he entered the building, and when and how he broke into this unit. While you do that, I’ll document the crime scene.”

Great. My apartment is a crime scene.

“I’m on it.” Puul left.

“Was this your dinner?” Nsia gestured at the mess on the floor.

“Yes. Takeout from Mama Murta’s Café. I dropped it when he grabbed me.” Her stomach rumbled.

“Shame. I love that place. Best food in town,” he said, and then proceeded to record holograms of all the rooms. When he finished, he instructed her to try to determine if anything had been stolen.

She eyed the sitting area. There was nothing worth stealing, but the intruder had pulled the cushions off the sofa, pulled out empty drawers. Had he been searching for something? Or trying to make it look that way? “Nothing in this room,” she announced.

“Okay if I start putting this stuff back?” Ruyn said.

“Fine.” The inspector nodded and followed Michaela to the kitchen.

The intruder had tossed crockery from the cabinets and food from the cool-storage. He’d emptied a whole container of Earth java—her sole supply—onto the floor. He ought to get life without parole for that alone.

She picked up a couple of unopened, boxed food items and stowed them in cool-storage.This is what we’ll eat tonightnow.The loss of Mama’s food counted as another felony offense. “Everything seems to be here,” she said.

She passed through the sitting area where Ruyn had managed to right the entire room. He’d activated the floor bot, which had cleaned up the dinner mess. “Thank you,” she said gratefully.

In the bedroom, while the inspector observed, she picked up her clothing and laid the articles on the bed, mentally inventorying her wardrobe. She’d hang the clothes later. “I can’t imagine he’d steal any of my clothes—unless he’s a cross-dresser,” she joked.

The inspector didn’t laugh.

“I don’t think he took anything,” she said, replacing the drawers into the dresser, and then scooping up her panties and bras and shoving them inside.The creep touched my underwear! Offense number three. Three strikes, and he’s out!

The bed had been stripped, the bedding tossed in a heap on the floor.Too bad he didn’t take the mattress with him when he left.I would have given him a hand hauling it out.She recalled the comfortable bed at the resort.

She stood, hands on her hips, as if taking stock of the situation, while wondering how she could check the lockbox under the inspector’s eagle eye.

Then his tech tab chimed. “I have to take this.” He stepped out of the room.

Saved by the bell.

She dropped to the floor and pulled the security case out from under the bed. She could tell from the weight—the lack thereof—it wasn’t good. She pressed her thumb to the reader, and the box popped open.

Empty. Like she’d guessed. “Shit!” she whispered.

“Anything taken?”

She nearly jumped out of her skin, but it was Ruyn.

“My weapons,” she said in a low voice. She gestured to the empty case then closed it and stowed it under the bed again.

“How did he get into the box?”

“I don’t know. How did he get in my apartment?”The intruder is no ordinary burglar.

“Are you going to tell the inspector about the missing weapons?”

Nsia’s voice rumbled from the sitting room, and, from the few words she caught, she surmised he was talking to Puul, who’d acquired the vid.

“Under the circumstances, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She kept an ear cocked. “I only have permits for the two weapons the intruder took.” She patted her thigh. “This one is illegal on Luturna and twenty-nine other planets. If I report the theft of the permitted weapons, the inspector will demand to know what weapon I pulled on the intruder.”

“That would be problematic.”