FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Wolfie Steel: Private Eye

Written by Wolfie Steel

Part 7.

With breakfast now over Tyler and I head back to my room so that we can begin the day properly, we take it in turns to use the shower and then we get dressed and head back down to the living room, Tyler stands before me and looks into my eyes as he begins to speak.

"Wolfie, last night was mind blowing, you are everything that I could ever want in a mate, and yes before you say anything I know that it is still too early to be talking about forever, but damn with you it is hard not to."

I gently kiss Tyler on his muzzle, and then I make my reply.

"Tyler, I want to thank you, when I lost Calvin, I won't lie to you, I went into a deep pit of depression, and I vowed that I would close my heart off to everyone because that way I could hurt no-one else nor would I be hurt ever again, but when I first saw you in the restaurant I just knew that you possessed the key to unlock my frozen heart, and so it is thanks to you that I feel like I can live again."

Tyler licks my right cheek lovingly.

"You are so worth it Wolfie, but alas now I must love you and leave you, I still have a full day's work ahead of me, and as I will be travelling for work tomorrow I won't be able to see you again until Friday night, but I will be dreaming of you the whole time."

Tyler then plants a huge kiss upon my muzzle which left me in no doubt about the fact that he would be back soon, as he heads towards the door I again take a pawful of his butt and squeeze earning me a playful growl from the sexy Dobie.

"I will see you again on Friday Wuff Dog, and then you will begin to see more of what this Dobie is packin'."

Oh crap, now I know that my mind won't be on my job, I'm brought back to the here and now by the sound of the front door being closed, oh well may as well try and bury myself into work, maybe there is a relatively easy job to do.

I head to my computer desk and take a seat, a huge grin plastered onto my muzzle; Trip enters the room and sees the bright grin.

"Oh great, now I'm going to be working with a Wolf that has a permanent hard on."

I snicker softly.

"Well Trip, think on this if you will, in an indirect way it is your fault that I am in this mess, if you hadn't messed with my love life I would still be the all business Wolf that you started working for...and so I should thank you for what you have done, I don't know how I can repay you, but a consequence of that is that now I am a Wolf in love and so you can expect to get even more training to become a Private Eye like me."

Trip's ears perk up as he hears this.

"What you mean I will be taking on some cases of my own?"

I let out a huge belly laugh.

"Oh don't wet the paper just yet, you are still a relative puppy when it comes to working in the security business, but yes, maybe if we get a fairly simple job then I will let you take the lead."

I open my email to check whether there is any pressing business to take care of, but finding nothing I decide to take in the fresh air by taking a walk around the grounds, it will hopefully give me chance to put everything that has happened into some sort of perspective.

"Trip, I am going to take a walk to help clear my head a little, keep an eye on things here and if any cases come in then you can get me on my cell phone."

The young Wolf just nods his head in acknowledgement and I head out for my walk. I realize that it has been a while since I last walked around the grounds that belong to Doberman Manor mainly because of the steel plate that I have in my leg. Memories begin to flood back of times when I used to walk the grounds with both Tony and Calvin, the memories stir a deep emotion within me and I feel like the waterworks are going to start at any moment, but I manage to keep a tight rein on things and I continue to walk at a steady pace.

I have been walking for I guess about half an hour when I spot a familiar Doberman ahead of me, he is completely lost in a conversation that he is having on his cell phone and so I make a slight change of direction so as not to disturb Linkin while he is obviously talking business, unbeknown to me though Linkin has spotted me and heads towards me.

"So this is indeed something that I haven't seen in quite a while, Wolfie Steel is taking in the fresh morning air, now that in my mind says that he has a mind that he needs to be cleared, how close would I be to the truth?"

As usual Linkin has hit the nail on the head and so I just gently nod in affirmation.

"Well Linkin, at the moment my poor head is spinning with so many thoughts, yes I love Tyler so much but then I think back to both Tony and Calvin, I loved both of them too and look at where it got them, let's face it bud I do seem to be a bad omen when it comes to find someone that I want to settle down with, I don't want to take things with Tyler all the way for fear of losing him, my heart is no longer that strong."

Linkin places a gentle but knowing paw on my thigh.

"At this moment Wolfie your confidence is low, probably lower than it has ever been and hell I can understand that my friend, but you cannot constantly live your life in the past, if you don't follow your heart with Tyler then I fear that you will never find happiness and that would be a crying shame. You lost both Tony and Calvin through no fault of your own, yes the fact that you are now a PI does carry its own set of risks but in your time as my Chief of security and bodyguard you have faced risks that are one hundred times worse, now if you think that a case has the opportunity to turn deadly then you simply do not take the case, I know for a fact that both Calvin and Tony are up above and looking down on you telling you to follow your heart."

Linkin removes his paw from my thigh and stands up.

"Now Wolfie, take a walk with me and tell me all about this strapping Doberman that has you in his sights."

I cannot help but chuckle at Linkin's choice of words, I stand beside him and then we continue our tour of the beautifully kept grounds. We eventually arrive back at our starting point and my head has never felt clearer, I shake Linkin by the paw and thank him for his time and then I head back to the house so that I can bury myself back into work.

I arrive back to my computer room and I see that Trip is checking through the emails.

"Oh hey boss, we have just received notification of a case that looks as though it could be quite a good one, apparently there is an elderly Fox who it is believed to be cheating on his Vixen mate of thirty years, could be something that would be of interest?"

I nod gently and take a seat next to Trip so that I can get the details of the case. I finish writing down the notes in my notepad and then I hand it to Trip.

"Okay Trip, you wanted to maybe take on a few cases so why not go with this one, I will come with you but I will just be observing and offering help when I feel that it is needed."

The young Wolf pockets the notepad and picks up a pen, he does not want to fall foul of a newbie mistake like forgetting to take a pen with you when visiting a client, he checks that he has the address written down and then we make our way to the truck.

After an hour's drive we arrive at the Vixen's home, they are obviously a fairly well to do couple so hopefully things won't get that messy. Before we climb from the truck I turn to Trip and look him straight in the eyes.

"Now remember Trip, Mrs. Harcourt will undoubtedly be in quite a lot of distress, we don't want to add any fuel to the fire and make her even more upset, so we need to not only be caring but diplomatic too, you will also need to be very attentive, that is what I hope will set us apart from just your average private dick who only cares about the money."

Trip just nods to let me know that he has understood what I have said and we both then climb from the truck, we arrive at the front door and I gently knock it.

The door opens to reveal a bleary eyed Vixen, she has clearly been crying for some time and so now I know that we need to turn our diplomacy and tact up to the max.

"Mrs. Harcourt I presume?"

The Vixen just nods her head; she then takes a handkerchief from her pocket and begins to gently dab her eyes.

"Hello, my name is Wolfie Steel, founder of Steel Investigations, and this is my colleague Trip La Tain, I understand that you require our services to investigate a delicate matter?"

The Vixen again nods her head and stands off to one side to allow us to enter, once inside it is plain to see that money will not be a problem, but it is now time to get professional.

The Vixen asks if we would like something to drink which we both politely decline, she then motions for us to take a seat which we do without question. With the three of us now seated I begin.

"With your permission Mrs. Harcourt young Trip here is in training to become a Private Eye and so I will hand the case over to him, I will merely be here for support."

Trip takes out his notepad and pen; he opens the pad to the page that holds the details of the case.

"Now then Mrs. Harcourt, I am sorry that we are meeting under these circumstances but I need to get the rest of the details so that I may begin the task of investigating your husband, rest assured that if at any time you need to take a break I will understand completely, we will take things at your pace."

I nod gently in appreciation of the professionalism that Trip is showing towards the client, Trip then continues with his fact finding.

"So Mrs. Harcourt what has made you suspicious of your husband?"

The Vixen sniffs back a few tears and then begins to outline her suspicions.

"It all started about three weeks ago, Gerald, that is my husband's name of course, started going out at around 7pm stating that he was going to get some things from the local grocery store which is about a five minute drive away from here, well the first night he did not arrive back until 10.30pm, when I asked where he had been he just claimed that he had had car trouble, well the car had been acting up a little of late and so I took his explanation as the truth."

She takes a shaky breath and then continues.

"He started doing the same thing every other night, leaving at 7pm and arriving home at between 10.30pm and 10.45pm, sometimes with the same excuse or he would simply say that he met a friend and had a drink with them."

The bitterest part of the story is obviously next as tears begin to dribble from her eyes, again she dabs them away with her handkerchief.

"And then last week after one of his nights out with his so called friend I noticed the smell of perfume and a slight lipstick mark on his left cheek."

She finally breaks down into floods of tears and Trip goes into overdrive, he stands from his seat and then sits next to the Vixen and gently wraps an arm around her, in a show of support. Once the Vixen manages to get her emotions back under control a weak smile spreads across her muzzle.

"Thank you Mr. La Tain."

Trip moves back to his original seat and completes his note taking by taking the details of the car.

"Well Mrs. Harcourt I have everything I need for now, unfortunately now I have to tell you the costs involved, it will be One Hundred Pounds per day the first part of which I will need to take from you today, but rest assured once I leave here today I will begin my investigations, and you will get photographic proof of what I find, plus I will give you the receipts for everything that we need to use to see the case through to its completion and please do not worry, Steel Investigations prides itself on being discreet at all times."

The Vixen gently nods and heads upstairs to collect the payment; while she is out of the room I take the time to appraise Trip's performance.

"I'm impressed Trip, you handled that pretty well, though I wouldn't have hit her with the bill in quite that way, what did impress me to no end was your show of support and sympathy when Mrs. Harcourt broke down, that was a really nice touch, if I had to give you a score out of 10 it would be a solid 8."

We are both shocked by Mrs. Harcourt's voice.

"Mr. Steel, I think that you are being a little mean with that, I would give young Mr. La Tain a 9."

Trip gives a slight nervous chuckle as we both look towards the Vixen. Once everything is sorted out with the details and the payment we both stand and follow the Vixen to the door, Trip leaves first but before I leave I turn to face the Vixen.

"Please don't worry Mrs. Harcourt, Trip and I will find out exactly what is going on and we will give you regular updates, it would be advantageous if you have your own mobile phone because then we will know that you are the only one that is getting this sensitive information."

Mrs. Harcourt nods slightly and furnishes me with her cell phone number; I type it into my phone and save it to my contacts list. With the final piece of information gained I head to the truck where Trip is patiently waiting.

We climb back into the truck but before I fire up the engine I turn to face Trip.

"Well Trip how would you like to play this?"

Trip looks at me with slight confusion and so I clarify my question.

"Well do you want to handle this one on your own or would you like me to do some of the tailing work?"

The young Wolf considers his options thoroughly.

"We said that we would start today right, and so with that in mind Wolfie I would like us both to do the tailing today so that I can learn from you, and then maybe we can take it in turns, with you using the truck one day, I will hire a vehicle for a few days and then I can use that on other days."

A smile greets my muzzle, without Trip even realizing it he has learned a very good trick, if the same vehicle is seen on consecutive days then people are going to get suspicious, using the vehicles on alternate days hopefully means that they won't be noticed.

I realize that for Trip to hire a vehicle will cost quite a lot and will eat into whatever money we get out of this case, not only that but if I am going to give Trip a few more cases in the future then he needs a vehicle of his own and so I make my reply to Trip.

"Hiring a car is an option but it will be a costly one, why don't we head to a car lot and get you your very own car, that way when I give you future jobs you won't need to think about hiring a car."

The tip of Trip's tail begins to beat against the back of his seat; I let out a slight chuckle.

"Oh don't get too ahead of yourself pup, you won't be getting a flash car just one that is reliable, and there are two reasons for that, firstly you are just 21 and so car insurance is going to be a nightmare especially as you will have to insure it as a company car, secondly, if you follow someone in a flash car you will eventually be noticed."

The tail tip cadence slows a little but then I see a look of acceptance on Trip's muzzle. I fire up the truck and we head to our first port of call, a local car lot. I decide upon using the place where I have purchased all of my vehicles in the past.

After a half hour drive we pull up onto the forecourt of Hilton Road Motors, instantly Trip's eyes lock onto a 2009 Ford Lightning, I giggle a little as I bust his balloon.

"Not gonna happen Trip, if we see a slightly older truck then I will consider it."

I park the truck in the customer parking lot and we both climb out and head towards the main showroom, once inside we find the always well suited Husky that I was looking for, Aspen Carter. Aspen's eyes light up as he sees us walking towards him.

"When I woke up this morning and came into work I did not realize that my pokey and humble garage would be visited by greatness, Mr. Wolfie Steel as I live and breathe, now what brings you to Hilton Road Motors on this fine day?"

Yeah, that is Aspen, always blowing up his customers egos, but still it is nice to be appreciated.

"Morning Aspen, flattery will get you everywhere, now I am looking for a vehicle for my colleague Trip, obviously now that I own a PI business it means that we need something understated and yet reliable, you know something like a Mini."

Without even looking I KNOW that Trip is throwing virtual daggers into my body, Aspen has seen the look on Trip's muzzle but decides to play along.

"Damn Wolfie, good Mini's are hard to come by unless you are talking about the BMW version but then those can be pretty pricey, I do however have an old Ford Van out the back, sure the bodywork is shot on it but the engine is still sound."

Trip turns around and begins to storm out of the showroom, both Aspen and I let out a huge belly laugh, Aspen then calls Trip back.

"Relax Trip, we were just yanking your tail, I pride myself on matching my customers to a vehicle and with a 95 per cent success rate I would say that I do quite well, now I would put you in a truck of some description and we do have a few on the lot, I'm pretty sure that you would look good in that Ford Lightning, but that would be a little too flash for the job that you are going to be doing, so, I do have a GMC that had been imported, it has been converted to right hand drive by the previous owner, it was first registered in September 2000, it is in pretty good shape too, both body and engine wise, it has done 70,000 miles but it is very reliable and has been well maintained and I can let you drive it away today for two grand."

Trip rejoins us and considers what he has just been told, he then looks at me for confirmation, I just gently nod and so Trip makes his reply.

"Can I see it first please?"

The Husky rubs his hand paws together, he always was one to thrill in selling cars, I believe that he has the distinction of having one of the highest visit-to-sale ratios in the business; he could probably sell ice and snow to an Eskimo.

Aspen quickly dashes off to get the keys to the truck, he arrives back 30 seconds later and then leads us out to the rear lot, and there in the corner is a navy blue GMC truck, Aspen begins to lead us toward it.

"I brought the keys because I dare say that you would like to give it a test run?"

Trip just gently nods his head.

We take a look all around the truck, sure it has a few little dents here and there but nothing to get worked up about, Aspen lifts the bonnet and then climbs into the truck and fires it up, it is slow to turn over at first but the engine finally fires and is soon purring like a kitten.

Aspen leaves the engine running while he heads back to the showroom so that he can retrieve his trade plates so that we can take it out onto the road for a road test. With the trade plates in place and the bonnet closed the three of us climb into the cab of the truck, Aspen drives it for the first part of the test while he shows Trip where all the instruments and switches are and what they do, most of this stuff flies straight over my head though, I never was very technically minded when it comes to cars or trucks, I know where to put the fuel, I know to check the oil and tires occasionally and I know to keep it maintained that's about it.

Eventually Aspen pulls over to the side of the road and allows Trip to get into the driver's seat, we then complete the road test and head back to the forecourt. As we pull onto the forecourt Trip's tail tip begins to wag again, it looks like we have found the vehicle for him.

To say that Trip was now acting like a puppy at Christmas would not even come close, and so we all head into Aspen's office to complete the paperwork.

With the paperwork complete Trip and I walk out of the office, I head to my truck and Trip heads to his new acquisition, we head back to the house so that I can transfer myself from my truck to Trip's, well we might as well make it work.

We drive to the Vixen's address and wait for two hours, then a car pulls up at the curb and a well dressed Fox exits the vehicle, he heads up to the front door of the house and enters, our waiting vigil continues for another hour and a half when we finally get lucky and watch as the Fox leaves the house and climbs back into his car.

Trip fires up his truck and begins to pull away so that he can turn the truck around so that he can follow the Fox. With us now facing the same way as the Fox we head back down the road and pick up our mark as he has driven half way down the road.

"Okay Trip your next lesson is tailing 101, keep a fair distance between yourself and the vehicle that you are tailing, but try and keep the target vehicle in sight."

Trip silently nods his head as we continue tailing the Fox's car, after a thirty minute drive we turn into a side street.

"Okay Trip slow down, we don't want the Fox to get wind of the fact that he is being followed."

The Fox's car pulls into a driveway and so we find a parking space where we can get a good view of what is happening, I pick up my camera and begin firing off some shots, the Fox arrives at the front door of the house and knocks upon it, again I get photos of him knocking the door, a few seconds later the door is opened by a male German Shepherd, the Shepherd kisses the Fox passionately and then invites him into the house.

"Well Trip, I don't know about you but I was so not expecting that."

Trip just sits there for a while, his muzzle slightly agape, and then suddenly he finds his voice again.

"What a total douche bag?"

I nod a little as I check the pictures that I have taken to make sure that you can see everything, after all I don't want there to be any doubt about what is going on because if Trip and I get things wrong then it will do serious damage to our reputation as private investigators.

I check my watch again about two hours later and see that it is 9:15pm, Trip and I are about to call it a day when the front door of the house opens again, I quickly grab the camera and take a few more photos of the Fox kissing the Shepherd as he leaves and heads back towards his car.

We wait for the Fox to reverse out of the driveway and then begin his journey home. I check the passenger side wing mirror to make sure that there is no sign of the Fox's break lights; once I am certain that he is out of sight I give Trip the all clear so that we can head home for the night.

When we arrive home I head into my study where the computer is and I print off the photos that I have taken, once the photos have been printed I store them inside the file.

"Well Trip it is your call, we can go back to the Vixen with what we have or we can continue for a while longer just to make sure that her husband has no other skeletons in his closet."

Trip gives my question some consideration and then makes his reply.

"We'll do another two nights of surveillance and then we'll take what we have to Mrs. Harcourt."

I nod my head gently and give out a slight yawn.

"Okay Trip, let's call it a night, we are going to need every ounce of energy that we have to get through the next couple of days."

Trip yawns too and heads up to his room, wishing me a goodnight as he goes.

I head to my own room and take my phone with me, hopefully I will get some messages from a certain sexy assed Doberman.