"How do you know all this?" the Commissioner asked.
"You don't need to take my word. It's all in the records. You can investigate them yourself."
"Um," said the Commissioner again and dabbed at his forehead. He purposefully avoided Bemmelman's eye.
Cosmo glanced at Mia who was regarding him in sheer amazement. He smiled at her, said: "Bemmelman figured it'd be safer to breed slaves here on Venus rather than run the risk of capture by the Empire's Patrol Spacers. But he found that land on Venus can't be bought except in rare cases." He paused, looked at the apoplectic slave breeder.
"Bemmelman murdered my father having first provided himself with forged notes to the plantation. You'll remember, he was mixed up with a forgery case on Earth."
"Wh-why," the Commissioner sputtered indignantly, "that's preposterous."
"Here are the notes." Cosmo pulled two packets of papers from his pocket, tossed them to the Commissioner's lap. "You'll find notes for old MacIver's plantation there, too. Bemmelman had decided to grab it off too."
The fat Commissioner examined them curiously.
"They're good," said Cosmo. "But it won't be too hard to prove they're forgeries."
The Commissioner rustled the papers. "But what's all this to do with the Renegade? I came out here to collar him, not rattle old bones."