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Chapter 2: A New Case

Private Inspector Jason Brown stared into the swirling inky pool that was his morning coffee. He took a sip and gave the cup another swirl, enjoying the sharp bitter taste as he swished the coffee around his mouth. Jason was a brown mackerel tabby and wore a pinstripe maroon tie with a white shirt collar. He gulped the coffee and glanced across the single room office to where his partner, Ellie Bennett, was flipping through the daily headlines on her tablet whilst munching a hay bar. Bennett's left leg was bouncing distractedly, and her long ears gave an occasional twitch in response to traffic noises out on the city street below. Bennett was a mostly white rabbit with several large chocolate splotches and a black spot between her nose and mouth that made it look like she had a mustache. Today she was wearing a sleeveless, white, collared blouse with the top few buttons undone. Every few minutes she stopped flipping through stories to fan herself with a piece of paper she had grabbed from the multitudes that lay strewn about the office. It was mid-July, and the office's air conditioner had blown out. The humid heat brought out the scents of old newspaper and decaying particle board, and while Jason didn't dare to mention it, the office was also starting to smell very strongly of rabbit. Being a cat, Jason didn't mind the heat as he sipped his steaming coffee, but he planned to buy a new machine as soon as they caught up on their lease for the office. Money, money, money, everything required money; his tail flipped in annoyance. They needed a case. Unfortunately, they hadn't had much activity, except for a cocker spaniel who had forgotten where he'd buried his favorite chew toy last week. In fact, the sudden urgent knock was so unexpected that Jason jumped, splashing coffee all over his tie and collar.

"Come in!" he yelled as he grabbed a fist full of office paper and began trying to wipe off the coffee.

Bennett jumped up from her desk and, after hopping over a few piles of paper, reached the door and pulled it open. Standing in the door was a lop-eared gray and white rabbit wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat with a pink ribbon and holding a large picture frame.

"Good morning, Ma'am. Welcome to Bennett and Brown Private Inspectors. How may we be of service?" Bennett inquired.

The rabbit turned around the picture frame she was holding to reveal a photograph of a teenage rabbit with a roguish expression and wearing a light blue jersey with the number 32. The family resemblance was obvious.

"It's my son, Danny. He didn't come home after soccer practice last night. I called his friends, and he didn't spend the night with any of them. None of them know where he went after practice. I tried the police, but they said a teenager sneaking off for a few hours is nothing to worry about. But I know Danny would have at least called to let me know he would be staying out. He's really a very considerate boy despite how he acts for the benefit of his friends. Please can you help me find him? I just know he's in trouble!" She finished her plea with a half sob, leaning her head left then right to wipe her eyes on her shoulders.

Spurred to action by her display of distress, Jason scrambled up onto his desk, taking the shortest route to the door without concern for dignity.

"Madam, not to worry!" he enjoined. He attempted to leap off of the desk but slipped and fell with a thud into a box of old newspapers. Scrambling to his feet he rushed to the door and placed his hands atop her left hand, which was holding the top of the frame.

The rabbit blinked away the stunned expression from her big blue eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason noticed Bennett rubbing the bridge of her nose. Jason ignored Bennett and went on in an earnest tone, "Madam, if we can find a rubber bone buried in the city landfill, then by tuna-flavored Krunchos, we can find a teenage rabbit!"

All of the blood went out of the rabbit's face. "L-landfill," she stammered. "Then you think; you think he's. Oh, no!" she wailed, hugging the frame to her chest. "He can't be! He can't-"

"We're not trying to say that," Bennett interjected in a conciliatory tone. She flashed a glare at Jason. "What my partner means is that he's sure Danny is fine, and we will find him."

"E-exactly what I meant," Jason added sheepishly. "I didn't want t-"

"Yes," Bennett cut in. "Please give us your full name and address and those of your son's friends and tell us when and where you last saw him."

The rabbit wiped her eyes on her shoulders again.

"Right, my name is Beatrice Planter. I last saw Danny at our home at 315 Maplewood Drive around 3:30 in the afternoon when he left for soccer practice."

***

After Mrs. Planter had gone, Jason and Bennett left the office to go talk to Danny's

teammates. As Jason squeezed into the passenger seat of Bennett's silver compact car, he noticed her giving him another dirty look. He pretended not to notice and fiddled with his seatbelt while mentally preparing for the inevitable.

"You really fucked up this morning, Jason. Would it kill you to think before you talk or act like a professional, at all?"

Jason winced. "I'm sorry, Bennett. It's just that I-"

"Ellie."

"Huh?"

"How many times have I asked you to call me by my first name? We're partners. I call

you Jason, and you call me Ellie. Calling me by just my last name is like something someone does with their underling or their snooty boarding school classmates, of which I am neither."

"Right, sorry, Ellie. She just seemed so upset that I needed to reassure her, but I didn't consider how it was going to come out."

Ellie's face softened slightly. "I know, Jason. Your heart was in the right place, but people want a private investigator who seems competent, not one who makes gaffes and falls into boxes. You need to seem serious to make the best of your good intentions."

Jason knew she was right. He looked down miserably at his knees almost pressed up against the dashboard.

Ellie reached over and patted him on the arm. "Don't worry I have enough seriousness for both of us. Now let's go find Ms. Planter's son!"

Ellie peeled out of the parking garage onto Broadway heading toward the highway and the southside suburbs. Jason dug his claws into the seat as she swerved around a stopped bus and again when she floored it to merge onto route 275, the compact car's engine squealing like the wheel of some possessed hamster. Riding with Ellie always made him nervous, not that she was a bad driver. As she liked to point out, she'd never had an accident, but she drove a bit too fast for him. In fact, the reason she always ended up driving was that she likened his driving to that of a grandma and complained that it took forever to get anywhere. Jason just thought he was cautious.

When they finally arrived at the first of Danny's friends' houses, Jason jumped out of the car and strutted up to ring the doorbell.

"Hey, Jason, remember what I said about the importance of professionalism?" Ellie called.

Exasperated, Jason turned back around. "What's the matter now?"

Ellie winked. "I think your tie has seen better days," she quipped.

Jason looked down and noticed a large coffee stain on his tie. He pulled off his tie and

collar and walked back over to toss them in the car.

"Now I'm not wearing anything," he grumbled.

Ellie smirked with amusement. "Don't worry. Your striped fur is pretty enough without

accessories."

Jason rolled his eyes and sighed. While most people didn't wear many clothes,

particularly pants, which most found too restrictive, they also didn't typically walk around completely undressed unless they couldn't afford clothes or were going swimming. He let Ellie ring the doorbell.

Whilst they waited for someone to answer the door, Jason stood a few paces back and surveyed the house and neighborhood. The house was two stories tall and sided with light blue vinyl. The front door was royal blue with a large circular window composed of several irregularly shaped panes of glass. The small front yard was dominated by a massive oak tree that shaded the asphalt driveway and front of the house. Flecks of light from the early afternoon sun blazed through the leaves and darted across the house's facade as the leaves were disturbed by a slight breeze that carried the sweet scent of flowers mingled with that of freshly sealed asphalt. The neighboring houses, white on left and yellow on right, were separated from the domicile by approximately half its width of grass and a line of neatly trimmed white rose bushes that ran between the yards.

As Jason took in the idyllic setting, he began to feel a sense of serene calm. How could anything as horrible as a missing child happen in a place like this? The police were probably right when they had insisted there was no cause for alarm. They'd probably find the boy had slipped off with one of his female classmates and overslept after staying up all night. Jason chuckled under his breath. He glanced back at Ellie whose attention was laser focused on the door as if she thought she could make it open faster by force of will. She had begun to tap her left foot impatiently, and Jason was just about to suggest they try another place when he heard a lock being thrown.

The door creaked open and a teenage squirrel peaked his head out. He seemed to take notice of Ellie and thrust the door wide with alacrity. He was wearing a blue and orange striped t-shirt, and he grinned showing his oversized incisors.

"Hiya, you looking for my Mom? She's at work right now, but if you'd like you can talk to me instead."

"Actually, we're here to talk to you. You're Roger, Danny Planter's teammate, I presume?" Ellie inquired.

He nodded, still grinning widely. Jason began to think it was a bit unseemly.

"I'm Private Inspector Ellie Bennett, and this is my partner Jason Brown. We'd like t-" "Partner? A bit of an odd couple," Roger jested.

Jason shuffled his feet, but Ellie didn't blink. "As I was saying, we'd like to talk to you about the disappearance of Danny. His mother says h-"

"Which of you is the top?" Roger jeered lewdly. "I'm betting it's the one with the mustache!" He snorted with laughter at his own remark, his bushy tail flailing wildly with mirth.

Ellie dashed forward, grabbed Roger by his shirt, and pinned him against the doorway. "Listen, you twit. This is a serious matter. Your teammate is missing, and his mother is worried sick. So cut the crap and tell us if you know anything."

"I-I-I," Roger squirmed as he stared into Ellie's glaring visage.

Jason thought he saw tears beginning to well in the corners of the squirrel's eyes. He stepped forward and placed a hand on Ellie's shoulder. "Maybe I'd better take it from here," he murmured softly.

Dark brown eyes smoldering with anger, Ellie turned to look at Jason, nodded sharply, and let Roger drop where he collapsed onto his butt. While Ellie walked a few steps away, Jason offered Roger a hand. He pulled him back into a standing position.

"Okay, kid, like my partner said this is an important matter. Do you know anything about where Danny went after soccer practice yesterday? Think carefully. Did you see him leave with anyone? Notice which direction he left in?"

Roger glanced nervously at Ellie before shaking his head. "I didn't see him leave. I had to run home before my show started. He was still there when I left."

"When was that?"

"A little before five. That's when my show starts."

"Did he seem himself at practice?"

Roger nodded, "He seemed fine."

Jason stepped back. "Thank you for your time."

He walked back toward the car, and Ellie followed him. The door to the house slammed

loudly.

Ellie shook her head ashamedly as they got back in the car. "And to think I was lecturing

you on professionalism," she groaned. "I can't believe I let myself get so angry over the mustache thing, but that squirrel was such a brat."

The mustache thing? "He was quite a wretch," Jason consoled. "But I suspect, at the very least, you scared some manners into him."

Ellie snorted. "Or gave him a new fetish. I wouldn't be surprised if he's in his room jerking off to what happened right now."

Jason blushed and coughed, "Erhem, maybe. Let's just hope the rest of Danny's teammates aren't so, er, pent-up."

Ellie giggled. "You're so funny when you get uncomfortable, Jason. Right, let's go talk to the rest of these soccer hooligans."

***

By 5:00 PM, they had questioned ten of Danny's teammates without learning much. A

few noted that he had gone into the woods beside the field at the end of practice "to take a piss" as one groundhog insisted.

"How do you know he was peeing?" Ellie had inquired.

The groundhog had just scoffed, "That's what everyone does when they go into the woods."

Unless they hired a bloodhound to help them sniff out his urine, it wasn't going to help them much.

They pulled up beside the sidewalk in front of the next house. It was a small one-story home with peeling white paint and overgrown hedges that partially covered the windows. The grass looked like it hadn't been cut in a few weeks and was growing around bikes, balls, and other toys that lay strewn about the yard. When he stepped out of the car, Jason could smell someone burning trash a few houses down the road. Before they even got to the door, Jason saw a gray fox peering over the hedges through one of the windows. When they reached the door, he disappeared and then cracked open the door without undoing the safety chain.

"C-can I help you?" he asked timidly.

Ellie stepped forward, "Yes, we'd like to speak to Nathaniel."

The fox shrunk back a little. "That's me. What do you want?"

"We need to ask you what you know about the disappearance of Danny Planter. It's ver-" "Danny's missing?!" he yelped, "Oh, no. Oh, no." He slammed the door, and after rattling

around with the safety chain, hastily pulled it all the way open. "When did it happen? I just saw him yesterday at soccer practice!"

Ellie gave Jason a quick glance. "That's the last time anyone seems to have seen him," she replied. "Do you know anything about where he went after practice? Did you see him with anyone?"

"He, uh, went to go pee in the woods."

"So we've been told. Did you actually see where he went?"

Nathaniel nodded. "I, uh, also had to go. I saw him go over by the clearing with the fire ring people sometimes camp by."

Ellie smiled, "Thank you, Nathan. This is the most information we've been able to get so far. Did you see him with anyone by the fire ring?"

"N-no. But I heard them."

Jason and Ellie both started to attention.

"Did you hear what they said? Could you tell anything about them from their voices."

"I couldn't hear what they said, but they sounded big and angry."

"Think, Nathan. Did you see or hear anything of what was going on?"

Nathaniel looked at his feet miserably. "I was scared," he admitted. "I ran away. I didn't

see or hear anything else."

"That's alright, Nathan. You've done very well." She turned to Jason. "It's too bad we

didn't have this information this morning. The police would have had to investigate with this testimony, and we could have gone right to the scene." She turned back to Nathaniel. "Didn't Ms. Planter call this morning? I thought she had called all of Danny's friends to see if he had stayed the night with them."

Nathaniel shook his head, "Danny wouldn't spend the night here," he said glumly.

Jason stepped forward and put his hand on Nathaniel's shoulder. "Try not to worry, kiddo. Private Inspectors Bennett and Brown are on the case, and by salmon-flavored gummies, we'll find him and bring him home!"

"Exactly," Ellie put in. "You've been a great help to us, Nathan." She turned to leave, and Jason followed.

"Good luck!" Nathaniel called.

They climbed back into the car, and Jason gave Ellie a worried look. "We need to go look at that campsite right away."

Ellie shook her head. "With what we know now, we need to go to the police and try to get them involved again."

She made a U-turn and started back toward the highway and downtown.