Senior Investigator Kani, in his disguise as Rilikin, recieves a letter from Maza, requesting him for lunch. The Keiltyn waits for her outside Gran's Lumber, and encounters Stavros, the Jupani supervisor. The wolf is openly contemptuous of the fox, and his crew, but offers Rilikin a chance to buy the wood he is interested in, without having to waste more money on Maza. After a good deal of bantering, the fox agrees, paying for the wood after finding a few details out about Maza's customers, and how Gran's Lumber operates.
The Golden Vixen arrives, and has Rilikin take her to lunch. She makes her usual pleasant small talk, and he confronts her about some of the things Stavros said. Maza happily tells the fox everything, because he's so cute. The whole smuggling operation was her idea, and she found people willing to try it, and do most of the work, while she sits back and gets a cut. Rilikin agrees this is very clever of her, and their meal eventually comes to an end.
Later, the Senior Investigator is torn between loyalty to his job, and his heart. He convinces himself that Maza hasn't committed a serious crime, and files a report on everything he has discovered, which works around the Golden Vixen's involvement.