One shot Summary
Dalton Murrieta
It was three years ago when the spacer merchant Dalton Murrieta first encountered Ikari Kintsugi. She had picked the pocket of another spacer merchant and didn't know how to fence the off-world data-chip she had lifted. "Murri" had been quick to promise her to turn Bane's Eye crypto wallet into one of those fancy spacer pocket-watches and some cash once he got off-world, and that he would return to Aladon soon. He never made it over to Bane's Eye to "convert" the crypto cash in the time since, and so had not spent the time to seek out Kintsugi.
Now he was back on Golden Seed, and while traveling back to Alodon from Abilene, Murri spotted Kintsugi serving drinks at the roadside inn. He decided to avoid any unpleasantness by staying at the back of the common room and trying to remain unobtrusive while he ate his own meal.
When Lady Zanetti walked through the door to the inn from the fiercely falling snow, she called for a room, a meal, and three pitchers of ale for her and her bodyguard. The bodyguard, Guts Matronas, stated that the snow storm was getting worse, and they were probably stuck here until it let up. Murrieta decided that his luck was really running out, but his only option was to continue to remain unobtrusive. He couldn't make it past the table where Zanetti and Matronas had settled into their meal, and Matronas would surely recognize him from the card game only a month ago.
Ikari Kintsugi
Kintsugi had left Alodon a few weeks prior to avoid some heat surrounding her acquisition of a piece of jewelry from Lady Zanetti. She was holed up at the inn on the road to Abilene, working as a serving girl, when Lady Zanetti and her bodyguard walked in and announced that the snow storm was bad enough that no one was traveling tonight. Fortunately, she had covered her golden scars with makeup, and the chance of them recognizing her was slight. She decided to tough it out and hope that she wasn't recognized.
Later, she got a good look at the guy who had been lurking at the back of the common room, and recognized Murri. She had wondered for three years if she got taken on the deal for the data chip, but here he was. Before she could find out if he had her fancy pocket-watch and her money, they heard a scream from the top of the stairs.
The Murder
Lady Charrisse Grant had been murdered, stabbed in the back with her own steak knife while eating her meal in her room. She had been discovered by the innkeeper Laura Dursley, who had delivered the Lady's meal an hour before.
Everyone in the inn was under suspicion, and Constable Briggart was on the case.
Who dunnit?
After some questioning of everyone in the inn, Briggart was heavily suspicious of Kintsugi. While he was out in the stables questioning the stable staff and other servants, Murri and Kintsugi managed to avoid Lady Zanetti and her bodyguard in the common room, and examined the crime scene themselves. They determined that the killer was Constable Briggart, who had stolen an expensive brooch from Lady Grant in order to gift to Lady Zanetti, who had idly commented that she wanted the brooch.