by M. A. Owens
A voice shouted from the other side. “I thought I told you no visitors today. Go away!”
Brutus ignored the voice on the other side and pushed open the door
The voice was even angrier and louder this time. “Alright, wise guy, what’s the big idea? Oh, Brutus!”
The little Chihuahua that was sitting behind a desk jumped down from his chair and walked over to Brutus, patting him hard on the back. Funny, the little guy pushed himself backward with every pat on the bulky bulldog, but it was clear this was a regular occurrence. This must’ve been the friend Brutus referred to.
“Trigger. Lieutenant Petey. I want to introduce you to a wonderful friend of mine. He will help you with your problem, but he will need you to help him with his problem at the same time. This is the dog in charge of all the bets, Thor.”
24
Being a little Chihuahua came with the stereotype; you’re small, you’re weak, you don’t have the biggest brains around. When I was a young pup, the teasing used to bother me. Gave me a big chip on my shoulder, like I had more to prove. I puffed out my chest at every big dog I encountered and I was always a little meaner than I needed to be. I guess you could say not a lot has changed, but some things have. The stereotypes? I don’t mind them so much anymore. In fact, I consider them to be an unfair asset at times, giving me an edge I wouldn’t normally have. After spending enough time as a cop and then as a private eye, I learned that being underestimated was sometimes the very best tool you could have in your arsenal. My first impression of Thor was that he was the kind of dog who understood this too.
Petey laughed. “Trigger, we’ve been here less than an hour, and our cover’s already blown. I don’t think we’re very good at this.”
Brutus shook his head. “Don’t worry, Lieutenant. Your cover is very much intact. Thor here is the heart and soul of this organization.”
Thor clapped his paws together. “Brutus here tells me we may get to have a little fun. You want to know what they call this part of the building, down here in the basement? They call it ‘The Island’. You want to know why they call it that?” he asked, expecting no one to answer. “Because we’re untouchable down here. We spent years getting pushed out of the business by Mr. B. As soon as we made it clear we wouldn’t play ball, he squeezed us out.
“Thing is, I admired a few things about that cat. I was one of the few dogs that met him, and more than once. Never under pleasant circumstances, mind you. But being good at what we do combined with being very stubborn against very generous offers made us especially appealing for him to want to win us over. I always had the vision if you could keep this kind of work airtight, build a good reputation for being incorruptible, you’d start making it so that some very wealthy dogs and cats, with very deep pockets, get a lot more comfortable placing big bets, knowing there wouldn’t be any funny business. My associates and I keep a very close eye on anything unsavory, both toward ourselves and sometimes even our fighters. In fact, it just so happens I got a report last night that Brutus’s boy was asked to take a fall today for two hundred grand.”
Petey grinned. “You don’t say? Come on, Thor, tell us a name that’ll make our day.”
Thor stepped over and gave Petey a punch in the shoulder. “Stop it. I’m not through running my big yap yet and you’ll ruin the suspense. Anyway, Lieutenant, it was a cat by the name of Chancey. Gave our boy a little speech about doing his part for cats all over the city. This hasn’t happened often, but sometimes someone looking to make a quick buck thinks they can get around us by going directly to the fighter, offering them a big payout like this. Normally, I instruct the fighter to agree. We watch the bets closely, ring up Buddy, and make a few quiet arrests. This time, Brutus thought I should hold off and speak to the two of you first.”
Petey nudged me. “This is enough to put someone away for a while. The fighter’s testimony can link Chancey to this, possibly to the FLP even. Shouldn’t be hard to link Peach to it. We should run with it, call in Buddy, and make it home in time for dinner.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Problem is, these FLP cats are idealists. They’d probably do anything but die for their cause. Everything you mentioned, the FLP can just deny. They’ll say this was just the work of a rogue entity. They’ll say they knew nothing about it now, so we need to link this in a way that they can’t deny. Maybe they’ll be able to clean it up in the end, but we need something that will hurt their image, and funding, so much so that they can’t recover from it... at least for a while. We cut off those funds from the bank and this little plot of Saint’s will have lived out its nine lives.”
Brutus raised a brow, his mind seeming to fill in a lot of blanks. “I trust you, Trigger. I’ve asked Thor here to trust you. What do you need us to do?”
“We’ll use that mysterious image of yours to our advantage, Thor. I’m guessing Peach, or really anyone else, knows how you deal with those who try to cross you. We're going to convince Peach to give us what we need. After the fight, I need some of your people to isolate Peach, pick her up, and bring her here.”
“And?” Thor asked.
“I don’t want this to come across as rehearsed, so use your imagination. Play a character. Improvise.”
“I think I got you,” he said.
Petey scratched his head. “Brutus, can you get us two seats a few rows back from Peach and Chancey? We need to see if something unexpected goes down. Also, maybe we shouldn’t wait until after the fight to pick her up. I’ve never met a lady who could last through a long event like this without having to go to the restroom. We should pick her up then. Trigger and I will watch and see her leave, then we’ll make our way down here.”
Brutus nodded. “That won’t be easy on the night of the fight. But I bet a chance to sit with me in my private booth at the top will convince the couple to give up their seats. Consider it done. I’ll contact you later to let you know your seat numbers. So, what are you boys going to be doing in the meantime?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Normally this is about the time I would go out and make myself seen. Establish that I’m here as an insurance investigator and make sure there was a face they could put to the entire thing later. May help the execution of this plan go better. Instead, Petey and I will hang out down here for a little while, putting the specifics of our plan together. It will need some work. Once we get through all the details, we’ll brief Thor on what he needs to do, and then we wait. I hope you meant it when you said you wanted a show, Thor, because you’re gonna get one.”
And if this doesn’t work, if Peach calls our bluff, we’re going to be in so much hot water poured on us from so many different directions that we’ll never make it up for air.
I kept that last part to myself.
25
Napoleon, AKA Fire Claws, was the first cat to fight for the title in this weight division. Truth is, most cats just aren’t that big. Napoleon was an enormous red Maine Coon, one of the biggest cats I’d ever seen in my life. Far bigger than me, but that wasn’t saying much. And I couldn’t say that whole idea of asking him to take a loss wasn’t smart, because it was. Here we were, looking at an event that might produce the first feline champion for this weight division, a moment that should be one of celebration for cats everywhere, and the FLP was asking him to lose on purpose. Just to further the organization without suspicion. After all, the political party that champions cats like Napoleon, not wanting him to be the first champion on purpose? Why? That’s exactly why. Because it doesn’t make sense. And if it doesn’t make sense, no one is suspicious.
Petey and I waited until the place was already crowded before we made our way to our seats. We wanted to blend in, so it made little sense to get there early. Peach and Chancey were already in their seats when we got to ours. Sure enough, it was them, there in the fur. No one had used their names to set them up, something they might try to claim later.
As the night dragged on, I couldn’t help but admire Peach’s bladder control. Petey and I ha
d already prepared. We’d both done our share of stakeouts before. It wasn’t until the first round of the main event that she finally got up out of her seat and headed toward the restrooms. We did the same, but before we could tail her far, we were intercepted by four Chihuahuas who asked us to follow them.
They took us down to the basement and into Thor’s office, where they tied us both in chairs. They weren’t easy about it. They spent a couple minutes slapping us around before a screeching cat interrupted us, being dragged into the office and tied to a chair on the other side of the room. She looked terrified, confused, but nothing compared to how surprised she looked when she saw me.
“Trigger! What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you. Or I was trying to. I get a call from this dog here who wanted me to investigate someone trying to buy off one of his fighters, and I run into this cop who came here for the same reason. I had twenty-four hours to wrap this up before Thor said he would handle things his way. This isn’t exactly what I thought he meant, and you were the last cat I expected to see here.”
“So, you’ve got nothing, and neither does he,” she said, with a renewed tone of confidence.
Thor walked in and sat behind his desk, followed by several other Chihuahua’s who stood behind him, and several more who lined almost the entire length of the wall around the room.
He shook his head. “Why, oh why, did it have to come down to this? I gave you one job, detective. I warned you that if you didn’t take care of it, I would take matters into my own hands.”
I pulled against the ropes tying me to my chair. “I just needed a little more time. Besides, I didn’t even get the full twenty-four hours.”
“You lost that privilege when we found the brass nosing around where they weren’t supposed to sniff. Seems our fighter ratted us out to the cops. You know how hard I’ve worked to maintain our reputation. And now, to have the ACPD breathing down my neck… that simply won’t do. So, I think I’ve come up with the perfect solution. I’m gonna teach all of you a lesson so that we're all crystal clear about our places.”
Petey had been struggling to speak this entire time, since they’d taped his mouth shut. Thor motioned for one of his dogs to remove the tape (quite harshly) and let him speak.
Petey took in a big breath when they ripped it off. “Just let us arrest this cat here, and we'll all walk away from this.”
Thor laughed. “Will we now? From where I’m sitting, your opinion doesn’t much matter. You’d be surprised how well we can cover things up without your help. Besides, I’ve done my homework; this dame’s loaded. The police probably won’t hold her and she’ll be back out and free again. Free to cause me problems, that is. That boss of hers might even grow sympathetic to her side of the story and cause me even bigger headaches.” He paused, scratching his head. “Why would I risk any of that when she’s already here?”
Petey shook his head. “Not if I arrest her based on the charges of embezzling all that money from Herman. I have a feeling he won’t be as sympathetic then.”
I sighed. “Petey… I’ve got nothing. That case is closed, airtight. Nobody’s getting arrested for that. Besides, I want nothing else to do with it, anyway. This entire thing has gotten out of hand. In fact, had I known I’d get mixed up in Saint’s business again, I’d never have come back to Adria. Lucky me, I guess.”
Peach squealed with delight. “That’s right! You’ve got nothing. Regardless of what you do here today, there’s nothing you can do to stop Saint. The future is already set in stone. He will be the next mayor of Arc City, and he’ll never allow this kind of discrimination to occur ever again.”
Wow, she went right to it. I really didn’t expect Peach to be such a zealot. Maybe she would be willing to die for Saint’s cause, and all of this would be for nothing. It would be hard to imagine what the city would be like with Saint as the mayor. It would be like being under the control of Mr. B again, except there’d be less we could do about it. Saint cares a lot less about money so he’d probably run the place into the ground, and of course the whole subjugation of dogs things. No, we had one shot at this. This had to work!
Thor laughed again, even harder this time. “Saint? I don’t even know who that is. If I survived Mr. B, I’m sure some second-rate copycat isn’t going to pose much of a threat. Mayor? Mayor of what? The loser’s club? I don’t see him in the room, I don’t see him over in VIP. Must not be all that great. But comedy hour’s over. You can all share your delusions with the fishes at the bottom of Arc River.” He clapped, and several Chihuahua’s started walking toward us.
“Stop!” I shouted, my voice breaking. “Just let me go. I’ve got nothing on the cat here, and nothing on you. I know how to keep my mouth shut. I’ve had to do a lot of it. I’m private, remember? Besides, we Chihuahuas need to stick together.”
Thor raised his paw, and the dogs who were approaching me slowly stepped backward to the wall again. He stood up from his chair and paced back and forth for a moment. “True. Two deaths would be easier to clean up than three. And I do know of your reputation for keeping your mouth shut. Alright, you’ve convinced me. But if any of this gets out, we’ll know exactly who to come after. You’ll be dead by the end of business hours, you get me?”
I nodded, then the same two Chihuahuas came over and started untying me.
I stood up and started walking toward the door when Petey shouted after me. “Don’t be a coward, Trigger! I know you’ve got something I can use to bring this cat in and make the charges stick. Come on, don’t leave us to die here. The department can reimburse you for telling us what you know. I’ll make an exception.”
I made it as far as the door before spinning back around. “Coward? That’s rich coming from the corrupt ACPD. If it was left up to you, Mr. B would still be the boss around here. Each one of you was more than happy to be on his payroll. None of you seemed to have any problem leaving me to die when given the chance. You’re getting as good as you give here. Besides, I already told you, I’ve got nothing on this cat.”
“Trigger, you can’t do this! Don’t you care at all? You could save this cat’s life.”
As we were all shouting back and forth, I could see the confidence draining from Peach’s face. Her proud smile had slowly contorted to frown, and she trembled. That’s right, let it sink in. She finally spoke up. “H–hey…”
Thor turned his head slightly toward her. “Oh, right. Almost forgot she was here. Well, it’s clear to me that neither of these halfwits have enough on the cat to keep her locked up and protected from me. In fact, I’m getting the impression that neither of them are even willing to arrest her.” He turned to look at her fully. “So, I guess for your part that just about wraps it up.” He clapped, and three Chihuahuas walked over and began roughly separating her from the chair, and standing her up. “You can play a little game to pass the time while you’re drowning. See if you can count how many other bodies are down there before you lose consciousness. I can’t take credit for many of them, but I suspect there’s a lot.” He laughed, waving them away.
Peach shrieked. “Trigger, do something!”
“Like what? What am I supposed to do, exactly? Get killed with you? No thanks!”
She turned her attention to Petey. “I know! I’ll confess! Write me up a confession. I’ll confess to anything. I will even confess to funneling the money from the bank to the FLP!”
He lowered his head, looking at his paws, appearing to think it over. “I’m not sure if–”
I interrupted. “Oh, don’t be a moron, Lieutenant. Look around you. She’s just going to say we coerced her into confessing, and it’ll be dropped so fast your head will spin. Then this guy will look for you. Peach has the money to hide away and protect herself. On your salary? Forget it. He could nab you from your office, and no one would give a rat’s behind.”
Petey hung his head, saying nothing.
“Wait!”
“Gag her,” Thor said. “This one’s noisy, so make
sure you tie on some extra weight.”
They stuffed a rag in her mouth, threw on a piece of tape, and started dragging her kicking and screaming toward the door. As they were trying to take her through the doorway, she sank her claws into the doorframe, screaming as loud as she could under the circumstances. Thor jumped up, and held up his paw. “Enough! These will be your last words, so make them good!”
One of the Chihuahuas pulled away the tape, and took the rag out of her mouth.
“Proof! I have it. I can prove I stole the money from the bank! You can have the documents that prove I took the money and funneled it to the FLP.”
Petey opened his mouth, but I yelled over him. “Don’t fall for it, Petey! She’s bluffing. She’ll say there’s proof, then as soon as she’s out of here she’ll disappear. You’ll never get your hands on it!”
She shrieked even louder this time. “I’ll tell you where it is. There’s a safe! I’ll tell you the combination. There’s a storage building in someone else’s name. I’ll give you the address. I can give you the combination to the safe hidden in the wall. I saved a paper trail in case I ever needed to use it as leverage against Saint.”
“Phone!” I shouted. “Get me a phone!”
Thor pointed to the phone on his desk, and I ran over to it. I called Buddy and told him where to go, and the combination to the safe.
The next hour was probably the slowest of my life. I paced back and forth behind Thor’s desk, and Thor just stood quietly with his arms crossed, staring at Petey and Peach sitting in front of him. I nearly jumped through the ceiling when the phone rang.
I picked it up. “This is Trigger,” I said, looking to Petey, who was grinning wide. “You sure? You looked through it all?” I nodded, listening carefully to the officer on the other end of the line. “That’s great! I’ll tell him.”
