Gene had signed himself up for this because he'd wanted to investigate something that wasn't going to end in violence. The fact that he and Valdis are on Team Murder does not escape him. What a crazy random happenstance!

"I can talk to the suspects," Gene says. Hey, he can be charming and diplomatic when he has to! Most people in Keeliai still think he's a quiet, dutiful Foreigner rather than an apocalypse-causing ex-supervillain.