Like a pirate asking for parley before he was even interrogated he asked to speak to the merqueen. He didn't know that it was the merqueen personally who snatched Sumas out of their bed. He was just making demands he thought wouldn't be met in hopes of stalling the investigation. Then, in the middle of being interrogated he was utterly surprised that the merqueen had accepted his request. What little he knew about Sumas was becoming more and more apparent to him, but this only intrigued him more.
After being escorted to the antechamber everyone left and it was several minutes before the merqueen emerged. She had the human build of a typical mermaid, which is basically how you'd imagine a person would look if they swam all day. Her skin was an opalescent bronze in color, when in her mermaid form her tail had gold highlights over a deep crimson which was also the color of her thick, curly hair. She had a very commanding presence, but Suraci noticed a softness in her voice even when she ripped Sumas out of his arms.
"Hello Suraci, I'm going to skip trying to teach you my given name because most humans have difficulty pronouncing it correctly, and just tell you to call me Leira. I'm not certain how much you know about our Esteemed Diplomat, but I can assure you they mean more to me than they do you so I'm going to ask you, for their sake, to just listen to me carefully right now if you are concerned at all for their wellbeing. Right now they are being like they usually are which is difficult, the difference is that they're far less reasonable about it. I have reviewed your version of events, Womby's version of what she was told prior to our arrival about your situation and whatever little I could glean from the source whose testimony is obviously questionable considering their level of intoxication... which leads me back to you. I'm sure you're aware of how your situation looks and as much as I really hate to pry into the sex life of my best friend, I have before me evidence of a violent altercation between you, evidence of intoxication of my best friend, and your flimsy testimony of consensual sex which I am still uncertain if they have ever had. What's worse is that I have it on good authority you were working with a known rapist who has abused and abducted my best friend off and on as long as I've known them. To further complicate things you seem to be adamant on hindering the investigation into your own innocence not just by your belligerence, but your complete inability to produce any kind of believable explanation. Our esteemed diplomat fought side by side with me in war, has held my hand through tragedy and joy. I've watched them escape utter hell only to have hell's gates open up, chase them and swallow them over and over again, yet each time they remain undaunted in their struggle to be free. I have seen them fight illness with determination and pour compassion out of their heart to any less fortunate than them. I stand here today because they've snatched my soul from otherwise unrelenting despair. So don't you dare fucking lie to me or try to parade your lofty self righteousness in front of me in attempt to obfuscate the truth. If you gave even half a shit about my friend you would have considered being a little less of an obsequious ass and parading your proud bed notch under the guise of answering the questions you were asked during the interrogation and instead considered their feelings. I realize you're likely used to working with people who are much stupider than you, but I am telling you right now that I am no fool. You are, at this very moment, in mercountry, under merlaw and I will not hesitate to personally murder you if you don't give me some answers. Do you even know their name? And I'm not referring to that stupid number that creep gave them."
"Their name is Sumas, but I only know that because I overheard one of the mermen use it in reference to them. I was indeed working with Hyde though not by choice. And, in truth, I've never found him to be anything other than unpleasant and loathsome. However, I was unaware of the specific things he did to Sumas until they told me last night. They did knock me unconscious and tied me up thinking I was wanting to bring them back to him, but they believed me after I explained that I didn't want to bring them back. I honestly went after them initially because wanted to find them first. Before even finding out what Hyde did specifically to Sumas I found his entire disposition unethical as was every experiment he described to me. I didn't want him to capture Sumas again, so I followed them. They took the medication I had on me of their own accord, but it had some synergistic effect with the herbs they took. However, when I scanned them their vitals were fine. If you give me my tablet I can scan them again and try to discern what's going on. Though I know very little about them I've felt like the more I get to know them the more I want to. I know this looks bad, but I wasn't sure of your motives until just now and didn't want to needlessly imperil either of us with the details of a very nuanced situation." Suraci came clean.
No sooner had Suraci finished when one of the double doors to the antechamber opened. Sumas emerged seemingly even more intoxicated than last night. They braced themselves against one of the doors and tried making the clicking sounds for Leira's given name, but slurred it terribly. They sauntered over to her and hung off her arm. "You know I love you so much, right?" They looked at Suraci and said "Oh hey pretty boy." Then turning back to Leira said "You'll never guess what happened last night." Then they suddenly looked down at the floor and threw up.