Oo-mox for fun and profit

Papus rubbed figure-eights around Val Etilen's ankles until he was fed.  Etilen replicated a feline supplement and placed it on the floor of his quarters, stroking the cat's dappled back.  Sadly, the Bajoran clergy who'd come to visit had not reached out to him with a better offer, or any offer at all.  And he'd performed oo-mox for less than two strips before.  So it was time to go to work.

He changed from his suit to a pair or form fitting trousers and a long, sheer vest which kept his arms free.

He used vocal dictation to leave a message at his door which said where he was going and who he was with.  Usually this would be private information he'd give only his close friends who could check on him if he were to disappear, but unfortunately he hadn't made a close friend yet.  

Gathering a small pack of oils and anti-transference gel (just in case) he left his quarters and made his way to the address the DaiMon had given him.

Letek greets Etilen at the chime of his door, dressed in a loudly printed waistcoat and trousers.
"Won't you come in? I have a bottle of Tarkalian Ale and trade talks waiting for me in the morning."
The garish Ferengi is already drunk, and stinks of cologne.

Etilen pushed Letek back toward his sofa and settled on his lap.
"Tarkalian ale..!" he says, plucking up the bottle with an impressed grin. "And not even replicated."
He strokes the Daimon's ear expertly. "Show me those two strips and you can tell me all about those trade talks."

Letek produced two strips of latinum from his sleeve.
"It's dull really, nothing that would interest a ravishing creature like yourself, but Bajor might open their space to Ferengi freighters."

"How exciting! Does this mean we'll be seeing more of you?" Etilen purrs, slipping the strips into his pocket. He begins to firmly massage the Daimon's ears. "Daimon.. I never noticed he sharp your teeth are."

Letek's breathing went ragged.
"I sharpened them this morning. Keep working your magic. I predict the summit will be a stressful time."

Etilen continues massaging the Daimon's ears, then moves in to work one over with his experienced lips and tongue.

Up to this point, it had seemed that the Daimon Letek had enjoyed himself to the utmost degree, his body spontaneously stiffened; he threw Etilen off of him and clutched his chest. He retched, coughing, sputtering, in the brief throes of agony. His eyes bulged. He went rigid, collapsing back into his chair. With one final wheeze, his body went limp, his eyes remaining permanently affixed.

Etilen scrambled back, horrified and stunned. When the Daimon ceases to move and breathe, he mashes random buttons on the wall panel, hoping one will call help. After hastily checking the man's sleeve for any more latinum, he clambers out to the hall and activates the emergency medical alert he can recognise. He stays by the door, his face blanched and his eyes wide.

"Medical Emergency in Habitat Ring Four"
Reegan started at the sound of the computer's smooth, calm voice.
An emergency so close to the diplomatic summit was exactly what she had been afraid of. The moment she had met the summit diplomats, she had imagined the danger that must follow such people, and had had elaborate day-dreams of various worst-case scenarios. The result being that she was more than usually nervous that something terrible was going to happen at any second.
'Ok, Reegan. Let's do this.' she thought as she grabbed her medkit and ran to habitat ring four.
She found a handsome Bajoran man visibly shaking in the hall.
"Did you activate the alert?"

Val Etilen pressed his back to the wall when he saw the Trill medical officer appear. He nodded with stiff panic.
"In there," he pointed to the Daimon's quarters without taking his eyes off her. "I didn't touch him!"

Regan's eyes followed where the man pointed and stifled the desire to curse. DaiMon Letek - a respected Ferengi leader, and major player in the week's diplomatic summit, was gasping on the floor. She went to his side and checked his vitals with her tricorder. It looked like a heart attack. She would have to beam him directly to sickbay and soon, but if there was a crime here, the security officer would kill her if she let the last person who had been with him go - simply because he had looked scared and said 'I didn't touch him.'
She turned back to the Bajoran man.
"I believe you," she said quickly and evenly, "but I'm going to need you to come with me until I've medically ruled out any foul play. Do you understand?"

"Whatever you want," Etilen said. If this was an elaborate plot to pin an assassination on him, he would only welcome suspicion by running. He made a conscious effort to calm himself, but he did not like being around the dead. And this was bound to be bad for his business. He pulled his earring fretfully.
"The Ferengi are going to call me the kiss of death now.."

Regan grimaced, "Yeah. I... really wouldn't say stuff like that right now, friend." She said, and pressed her combadge, "Three to beam directly to sickbay."
once there, Regan (with the help of a burly nurse) quickly lugged the old ferengi onto a bed, and instructed the Bajoran man to wait on the other side of the curtained partition. She tried to stay calm and collected as the minutes passed to quickly and the possibility of reviving the DaiMon became more and more remote.
But she did try, until it was clear nothing else could be done for him. Activity calmed, and stilled. DaiMon Letek was dead.
Regan took off her mask and gloves, and steered the shaken Bajoran man out of sickbay. "So." she said, once they were on the promenade, "He's uh. Definitely dead." Every instinct told her that this man had nothing to do with the corpse in sickbay "You don't have tell me anything. In fact don't. Security's going to have plenty of questions for you, and I still still have tests to run. But in the meantime, do you want anything? Mr... sorry what's your name? or should I call you 'the kiss of death?'"

"Val," he said. Etilen had had the chance to calm down a little and felt a bit more like himself, especially since none of the nurses were paying him any attention.
"Antiseptic mouth rinse?" He asked with a smile.

"Of course." Regan said, and she was about to lead him back to get some when the pieces connected. She looked back sharply at the well-dressed, well-polished man to see if her hunch was correct. Difficult to tell. Bajorans didn't have symbolic markers for sex workers. Then, again maybe Val wouldn't need to be paid. Maybe the rich old Ferengi had a charming and lovable personality. Or maybe not. "Of course," she repeated more slowly, "let's go back into the infirmary."
She fished some antiseptic mouthwash out of a drawer and pointed Val to a sink.

"Take a seat here after you're done, while I run a few more tests. I don't want to call security on you if it turns out this was a simple heart attack after all. DaiMon Letek was quite old - even for a Ferengi." As she said it, something in her said it wasn't going to be as simple as that. "But I don't want to bring suspicion on you if it turns out... especially if... um. I'm sorry." She lowered her voice,"You're registered with the Federation, right? I really don't want to be responsible for getting anyone evicted or fined or - but I guess if you're a murderer that would be the least of your problems? But if you're innocent, and you actually are... I mean... have the... occupation I think you have and you're not Federation registered? then I could be landing a whole pile of shit directly on your head just by calling security. But. You're registered right?"

Etilen rinsed with the antiseptic, and held a sterilized tissue over his lips for a moment as her words sank in.
He turned with a smile and gently took the doctor's hand, stroking her wrist reassuringly.
"The Commander knows I'm here. And I promise, I give him no cause to mention me to the federation. Couldn't you be discreet in your report? DaiMon Letek paid me 8 strips for.. a massage. He was experiencing stress. I do not need registration to practice massage, do I?"

The scans on Letek's body indicate that there were deadly plant based compounds taken internally. All evidence points to poisoning. As Etilen was the last person to see Letek before he died, he is the most likely suspect.

The sensitive skin on her wrist tingled at the rather forward touch, but she refused to be the sort of person to be distracted by a straying finger and she snatched her hand away.
"Of course not." she said. It came out sharper than she intended.
"Doctor Ozan," Regan turned to the hulking figure of Nurse Vilix'pran , "the blood tests indicate -" the nurse looked at Mr. Val, "well, maybe you'd better take a look yourself," and handed her the PADD.
Compounds commonly found in Hespra root... A deadly poison, difficult to source since it can kill the victim in minutes, or stay in the blood undetected for days, depending on the victim's activities - the poison itself activates only when the heart-rate accelerates a great deal.
"That must have been some massage, Mr. Val."

Val continued to sit quietly, though he was now a little unnerved that some finding or other was being kept from him.
"Have you ever been intimate with a Ferengi, Doctor? They're very easy to please."

"Based on their physiology, I don't doubt that." And she didn't doubt that the excitable Ferengi circulatory system was relatively common knowledge. She pressed her combadge. "Security to sickbay."

When security arrived, they worked coldly and abruptly. "Val Etilen, you're under arrest for the murder of Daimon Letek." Two Bajoran security officers beamed Etilen to the gruesome and poorly lit Cardassian holding cell. The younger officer erected the field with a sympathetic glance.
"For the time being, you're under Federation jurisdiction. It's up to the Commander as to whether he'll turn you over to Ferenginar."
"If it were up to me, I'd launch the collaborator out the airlock," said the older Bajoran officer.

(continued in Security)