Ch 7 -9

The Otter's Secret

“Carla! You’re home early.” Emily said looking surprised.

“What are you doing here and who are they? Why are you letting strangers in here? I’ve got to change the lock-” The enraged cat was cut off by Marty.

“Ahem! Allow me.” Marty began. “I am Marty Mask, private investigator, and this is David Wilkins. Emily has hired me to find your brother.”

“Huh? Wait a minute. You’re here to look for Gary?”

“Yes.”

“Okay I want both of you to listen to me. I don’t know where he is but I assure you Gary is okay.”

“But how do you know-“Emily started.

“I can’t tell you about it but I can assure you, wherever he is he doesn’t need you’re help.”

“Alright listen up Carla.” Marty said. “I have been hired to find your brother and I intend to find him. Now, you can make my job a little bit easier for me by telling me what you know.”

“I want all of you out! Now!”

Marty sighed. “Well so much for that, okay there nothing else to see here anyway let’s go.”


“What’s going on here? Did he really leave on his own?” Emily asked.

“That’s what Marty seems to think.” David replied.

“But why would he leave without telling me about it?”

“I don’t know, maybe he was blackmailed or something, but Carla seems to know something about it.”

“He promised me he’d stay out of trouble. He promised!”

They were silent for a moment and then, before he could stop himself, David blurted out. “Hey umm. . . if you want to talk about it maybe ummm . . . We could meet over dinner or something?”

“I don’t know, with Gary still missing and everything. . .”

“Well if you’re not comfortable with it then I understand.”

“It’s okay if we can go as friends can’t we? To tell you the truth, this is the third time he’s broken his promise. I don’t know if I can marry him if he’s still like this.”

“Well umm . . . how does Friday at nine o’clock sound.” He said


“That sounds nice . . . Shouldn’t you be keeping up with Marty? I don’t want to hold you up.”

It was then that David noticed that Marty was no longer with them.

“Oh! You’re right, well um later.”

He reluctantly left out onto the street and followed Marty’s scent down the block. He went around the corner and took a sharp turn down an alley where he found Marty hiding behind a dumpster.

“Hey, why’d you run off like that? I had to- mmmff!”

Marty reached out with his paw and clamped David’s muzzle shut. “Shut up! You’re blowing my cover!”

“Blowing your cover? What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to tail him.”

David looked where Marty pointed. It was the otter they had met earlier, hastily pushing a shopping cart full of junk down the alley.

“He’s moving quickly and I can’t afford to lose him. Come on if you’re coming.”

“What the heck are you following him for?” David asked as they silently followed the otter at a safe distance.

“Well while you were talking to Emily I happed to catch a glimpse of him running down the hall. So I decided to follow him because there was one strange thing that I noticed about him when we met him earlier. He is wearing rovellog, so we can’t rely on his scent so don’t lose sight of him!”


“I thought he smelled kinda strange but what’s a hobo doing wearing rovellog?”

“And how could he afford it? I bought a few bottles of that myself and let me tell you, it’s nothing on a hobo’s budget. Then there’s another thing, as he ran down the hall he dropped this.” He produced a drinking glass from his pocket. “It’s the oldest trick in the book. With one of these you can hear practically everything that’s said in the other room. This can only mean on thing, our otter friend over there was spying on us!”
David was silent for a couple of minutes as he digested the information.

“But what about Carla, wouldn’t she have wanted to know why there was an otter with a drinking glass on her apartment door when she came in?”

Marty looked thoughtful. “Hmmm, I haven’t thought of that but he probably heard her open the door. He could have easily straitened up and pretended to mind his own business or she could have already knew him. You’ve probably already figured out there's a few things she's not telling us.”

The otter took was now taking them southward down Macgregor Avenue, the biggest major street in Geltempo. They followed the otter down this street for twenty minutes. Then, about two block past Toad Hall, the came to Br’er Rabbit Park.

The otter took the first path in, next to a street vendor hawking fried cockroaches on a stick. When he came to a playground, he stopped.

“Okay, time for a close up. Move in as silently as you can. When I give the signal, find somewhere to hide fast.” Marty said

They crept in closer to the otter. Marty raised his paw and they each found a tree to duck behind. While this happened the otter dislodged a shovel from his shopping cart and headed for a garbage can near the playground. He shifted the can to the side and began to dig in the spot where it sat. After five minutes, he had unearthed a black contractor bag which looked as if it contained something at the bottom of it. He returned to the path and carefully buried it under all the junk in his cart. Then he pushed it down the path out of the park. “Come on!” Marty said hurrying after him. They followed him back into the city for awhile.

They were back on Macgreagor Avenue following the otter when all of a sudden there was a sharp squealling of tires and a taxi cab crashed into a blue car in front of them. The drivers were luckily unharmed but there vehicles were totaled. A very angry ferret stagger out of the blue car and started shouting at the taxi.

"What the heck! Why don't you look where you're driving!"

A penguin climbed out the taxi. "I had light, no?" He retorted in a thick Antartic accent. "You should have stopped"

"No it was changing, I saw it, and besides I was halfway across the intersection. You should have seen me and stopped instead of just plowing through me!! They shouldn't allow you stupid creatures out the North Pole until ya learn how to drive right!"

"I had light! If you no have light you stop! You imbecile! And by the way I no from North Pole, I from South Pole. Penguins don't live in the North Pole idiot!!"

By the time Marty and David had managed to make their around the comotion they had lost thier otter.

Marty cursed. "Dang! I was hoping to find out where he was staying. Oh well I'll find him later. He sleeps aruond this area so he shouldn't be to hard to find. I need a break anyways. What do you say we grab a bite at Roscoes?"


“So David, tell me you’re opinions on all of this.” Marty said, submerging a piece of donut in his coffee.
David thoughtfully bit his donut. “Well it’s certainly getting more complicated. To tell you the truth, I’m kinda interested in whatever’s in that bag.”

“Ah, yes the bag. It has to be connected with Gary’s disappearance somehow.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well think about it David, the otter had the bag perfectly hidden. Nobody would have thought to dig under a garbage can. Why would he move it?”

“Maybe he was ready for it?” David offered.

“Well that’s a possibility but I think the coincidence that he would dig it up right after he got through spying on us is too big to ignore.”

“So what’s your theory?”

“We made him sweat David. He was afraid we might find a certain item that would lead us to the location of the bag and he was afraid we might find this...”

Marty tossed a brochure on the table. David picked it up to study it. “This is just a map of Br’er Rabbit Park, what’s so special about that?”

“Look at the south western corner. Notice anything?”

“No- Waitaminute there's an x drawn with a pen here and then there’s a cylinder drawn under it.”

“Exactly, that is the mark of were the bag was buried. The cylinder tells you to look under the garbage can.”

“But what’s it doing in Gary’s house?”

“We can only guess for the moment. Maybe he was supposed to be the one to dig up the bag. Or maybe his sister was supposed to.”

Marty popped the coffee soaked donut piece into his mouth. Suddenly Roscoe, who was wiping off the counter, suddenly thumped the table.

“Oh! I knew there was something I was forgetting! Hey Murphy, I’ve got something for you!” He quickly shuffled behind the counter and ducked under it. He came back up with a business envelope and brought it too Marty.

“Skunk came by this morning, said it was real important that you got this.”

“Well, well, well.” Marty said casually ripping it open. “It’s not every day I get a note like this. Wonder why they couldn’t just mail-“ He stopped in mid sentence.

“Marvin you okay? You don’t look so good.”

Marty’s face showed several emotions. First it was shock. Then it took a dark tone of anger. “Gimmie the bill Roscoe, I got to go.”


Marty went to the payphones, dropped some change in it and dialed a number.

“Hey Max, its Marty. I need your help again. I might be needing some extra guns tonight so meet me at the Mill Pond at 11:30.” Marty hung up the phone and left the shop.

The sun was setting and it would soon be dark. Marty and David stood on the sidewalk waiting for a cab. Marty was very silent, not making a sound.

“Marty, what’s going on?” David finally ventured to ask.

“I guess there’s no point in keeping it a big secret. Here read it.” Marty handed David the note.

I have information regarding the murder of Nora Whiskers. I think you may be interested. Meet me at Macgregor’s Garden tonight at twelve o'clock. If the waiter gives you trouble, tell him Mr. Mardoff sent for you.

Chapter 8 The Tadpool Scandal

The cloaked figure entered the Mask Detective Agency. When he got inside the dim office, he sniffed in disdain at messy office. The desk was covered with papers, cigar butts, pizza boxes and magazines. There was a wastebasket in the corner with a few poorly aimed paper balls and soda cans lying around it.

“Why don’t you have a seat Mr. Spike.”

Geraldo almost jumped out of his quills. He had just now noticed the raccoon reclining with his feet on the desk.

“How did you know who I was?”

“First of all your quills were sticking through your coat, that clued me off that you were a porcupine. Then I’ve seen you walking on TV, last time you had a sort of limp. You came in with the same kind of limp.”
Geraldo sat down. “Sprained my ankle two nights ago, I guess you are as good as they say.”

“Please, a kit could have figured that out. So tell me, what brings Geraldo Spike into my humble office?”
“Before I say any thing, I want to make to make it clear that what I’m about to tell you is strictly confidential. You must not breathe a word to no one about this. Understand?”

”Mr. Spike, I’m a private investigator I’ve kept many secrets.”

“Okay then, well as you already know, I happen to be running for reelection.

Recently there’s been a complication that came up that could threaten not only my campaign, but my career too. About two months ago, the amphibians were complaining that the tadpools were getting over crowed.”
Tadpools were large indoor pools where amphibians dropped of their egg. The eggs were then hatched and cared for until they completed their metamorphosis.

“So I had another tadpool built in the west side. The incident came about when it came time to purchase a water purifier that would keep the pool clean. So I Umm. . well let’s see, how should I put it . . .”

“You bought the cheapest one you could find hoping you could pocket some of the money yourself and then it didn’t work like it was supposed to, causing the tadpoles to get sick.” Marty finished.
|
“. . . Well, that’s a rather rash way of putting. Only a few of the tadpoles got sick, none of them died and as soon as word got back, I quickly replaced it with the recommended one. You see, the model was meant for a pool that was a little bit smaller, but I was positive that it could still keep the tadpool clean just fine. Unfortunately the tadpool manager, who get paid by the number of healthy amphibian that come out of it, didn’t see it that way. He was about sue me, But thankfully, my lawyers were able to work out a deal and I payed them a certain amount of cash to shut up about it. I had it all in writing. That’s the problem. A reporter from the Daily Paw Print has that contract.

“You see, I was scheduled to be interviewed by a Nora Whiskers at eight o’clock yesterday but I canceled that appointment because something more important had come up. Then from there I had a stroke of bad luck. Somehow, my secretary didn’t get my note and sent her on to my office. I had forgotten to lock the door so she was able to just walk on in. To make a long story short, I wounded up having a nosy reporter alone in my office with all my information. Not too healthy for my campaign.

“As soon as I found out about it, I rushed in there check all my papers and the contract was gone. I went crazy. I called Nora but she denied taking anything. I called the Paw Print and found out where she lived then I had someone break into her apartment. They searched the place up and down but the couldn’t find it.”

“So you want me to find this contract.” Marty said.

“Yes and quickly too. It could already be too late. She could be typing up the article as we speak. If this hits the fans I’m ruined, understand? Ruined!”

“I’ll have your contract by tomorrow.”

“Really, tomorrow?”

“Just leave me her address, scent and picture, then come back tomorrow at this time and you’ll leave with your contract. I’ve already got a plan.”

“I can get you an address and picture.”

“I guess I can work with that. There’ll be an extra charge ‘cause my plans involve a few things on the illegal side.”

“If you get that contract I’ll give you any amount you ask for.”

“Good then just hand me over the address and picture and I can get started.”

“I’ll have it sent to you as soon as I get back to the office.”
Geraldo got up and hurried out the office. About a half hour later a mole delivered a folder to Marty’s office. Marty open in up to look at the content. When he saw the picture Marty raised his eyebrow in surprise. Geraldo failed to tell him that Nora was a raccoon like him and a pretty one at that. It was too bad that he’d only get to know her on a professional basis. The phone rang.

“Hello?” He heard nothing. “Hello” He said again. There was a click on the other end. Marty shrugged and hung up. “Musta been the wrong number.” he muttered to himself. He got up and took his coat from the back of the chair. He stepped out on the bustling Geltempo streets, running his clever plan over in his head.


Nora Whiskers was almost to her apartment. Her arms were full of groceries she had bought from the store around the corner. She had made in to the door and was debating on whether she should attempt to open it with her foot or just put a bag down when suddenly a raccoon who appeared to be busily tinkering with his watch walk strait into her, causing her to drop her bags. Groceries spilled all over the ground.

“Hey! Why don’t you watch where you’re going!” She snapped angrily.

The raccoon quickly bent over to help her pick up the groceries while apologizing profusely. “I’m so sorry, real sorry. I was so busy trying to get the darn watch to work I didn’t see you standing there. Sorry!”

Her attitude soften towards the him. “It’s okay, just try to be more attentive went you’re walking down the street next time.”

“Here lemme carry these to your apartment.”

“Well you don’t have to-“

He held up a paw. “I insist, it’s the least I can do for knocking them down like that.”

“. . . Well okay then. I live right on the third floor.”

“So what’s your name?” She asked as they stepped on the elevator.

“Miles Furback. I work at the office building down the block. What about you?”

“Nora Whisker, I a reporter for the Daily Paw Print.”

“Oh so you’re Nora Whiskers. I read you article two months ago about the mouse who found a fossilized human skull in his backyard. I enjoyed it.”

The elevator stop and they arrived at the third floor. ”Why thank you. If you enjoy my articles then keep your eyes on the Paw Print because I expect to be writing another headliner soon.”

“Really? What about?”

“Can’t tell you about it now- Whoa! How did that happen?!.”

“What?”

“My door is wide open! I was sure I shut and locked it before I went out.”


Suddenly, they heard a crash from within the apartment.

“You live with anyone?” Miles asked.

“No, I live alone.”

They could see the the living from the doorway. A flying squirrel was in it rifling through a filing cabinet, glancing at every paper he found and then throwing it on the floor.

Miles set the groceries down and rushed in.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!” He shouted.

The squirrel spun around in surprise. Acting quickly he grabbed a pawful of papers and made a rushed for the door. Miles attempted to block his path but the squirrel was armed with a bat which he swung at Miles.

“Oh!” Nora exclaimed as the bat connected to Miles skull with a thump. He slumped to the floor. The squirrel roughly shoved past her and beat a hasty retreat down the hallway.

Nora quickly rushed in her apartment. She bent over Miles and was relieved to find that he was just knocked unconscious. She next went over in her living room to where there was a line in the carpet. She lifted the carpet up. She breathed another sigh of relief when she saw that the contract was still there. Miles began to groan. She quickly put the carpet down and smoothed it out.

“Are you okay?”

“My head is throbbing like a drum but other than that I’m fine.”

“You didn’t have to run in there like that.”

“Well someone had to confront him. I thought I could take him. Wasn’t counting on the bat though.”

“That was brave of you. Pretty stupid too.”

Miles laughed. “Heh heh, thank I guess. I wonder what that squirrel broke in for anyway, He didn’t take valuable with him.”

“You probably came in before he found what he was looking for.” She looked around. “He could have been neat about it though, the slob totally messed up my apartment. Are you sure you’re okay? It looked like he hit you’re head pretty hard. Maby you should go to the hospital- Miles?”

She turned around to look where Miles was sitting, but he was no longer there. He had vanished.


The squirrel calmly left the apartment. Without even looking at them he tossed the papers he had taken in a nearby trashcan. He caught a bus and got of a Roscoe’s Donut Shop.

Roscoe looked suspiciously at the squirrel as he came in the shop. “What are you doing here Matt?”

“For the last time the name’s Max and I’m here to meet Marty.”

“ Well you better not cause any trouble like last time!”

“Long as that loudmouth vole doesn’t come back here I’m fine.”

A half hour later Marty Mask, entered the shop.

“So did it work?” Max asked.

“Like a charm.” Marty said. “She showed me exactly where it was hidden. I wish you had went a little easier with the bat though. You almost actually did knock me out.”

“But you said it wasn’t a real bat.”

“Yeah but that don’t mean you hafta swing as hard as you can.”

“Well I guess I did get a little carried away.”

Marty handed Max a few bills. “Yeah I hate it when you get 'a little carried away' Well thank for your help anyways.”

“Anytime bro, anytime.”


Marty was beginning to feel uneasy. This was all going all too easy for him. He had absolutely no difficulty at all breaking in Nora’s apartment. He was readyto stakeout Nora’s apartment all night to see for her to leave. If it looked like she would be staying home that night, he was prepared to sneak in silently and grab the contract as she slept.

But almost five minutes after he parked his car across the street, she stepped out the building and hailed a cab. He had brought his lock pick with him but he didn’t need it. Her apartment was already unlocked. This puzzled him. How could she have been so careless. Everyone knew it was not wise to leave you door unlocked in Geltempo and it seemed that she would be extra careful after what happened earlier that day.

He didn’t even need his flashlight because she had left the lights on. He went over to the section on carpet he saw her lift up while feigning unconsciousness. He felt around the carpet until he was able to slide a paw under it. He grabbed the paper that laid under it and stood up to inspect it.

His cigar tumbled out of his mouth as his jaw dropped in shock. This was not the contract he expected to find. Instead he held in his paw a blank piece of paper with only three words neatly written in pen.

Nice try Marty

ch 9 The human conspiracy

About an hour later Nora got home. She took some nut bread out the fridge and heated up some soup to dip it in.

Without turning she said “You know, it isn’t very professional to hang around the scene after you break in someone’s place.”

Marty was still there, sitting on the couch. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”

“Well I smelled your scent as I came in.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Well yes. I recognized you from the start. I was curious to see what kind of plan you cooked up so I decided to play along.”

“But how? You’ve never even smelled me before.”

“True, but I recognized your voice. Earlier this morning I was walking down Bobtail Street. Imagine my surprise when I saw a cab dropped Geraldo Spike wearing a terrible, tacky disguise in front of your detective agency. Well, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was there for. I figured I’d be meeting you soon so I looked you up in the phone book and called you. You said hello twice and I made a mental note on what your voice sounded like. I’m pretty good at recognizing voices.”

“So that was you that made that call earlier then. You know this is the first time I’ve been- . . . outsmarted. You’re pretty good”

“Thanks, you’re not to bad yourself, after that episode earlier it took me awhile to figure out what you were up to. I was impressed.”

The soup was boiling on the stove.

“Well” Marty said getting up. “I guess I’ll be going now. I’m gonna have one pissed porcupine in my office tomorrow.”

“Bye Marty. I hope we cross paths again; that was fun.”

Marty got up but he paused at the door. “Then why don’t we cross paths tomorrow, eight o’clock at the dinner down the street?”

“You do realize you’re not getting the contract. The article will be published tomorrow anyways.”

Marty laughed. “I know better than to try to match my wit against yours. Geraldo will have to sit in the stew for this one. You’re too smart for me. I was hoping maybe we could get to know each other a little better.”

Nora smiled. “In that case I’d be delighted, Marty”



“It all worked out in the end.” Marty drain the rest of the liquor in his shot glass. He and David sat in the dim, hazy Mill Pond drinking scotch and nibbling slightly stale pretzels. “As I left I called Geraldo and told him simply that an unforeseen complication had come up and I wouldn’t be able to get the contract. I got to hear the side of his vocabulary that he didn’t use on TV that night. He then called Nora and offered her a considerable amount of money for the contract. It was twice as much as she would make if the article got published so she accepted and Geraldo’s little tadpool scandal never made it to the light. Me, I didn’t care, I had found something a whole lot more valuable then any amount of money he could have paid me. Nora, she was the best thing that ever happened to me in my hard life. I loved her David.”

“Then. . . She died?”

“No, she was murdered.” Marty said. David was taken aback by the dark tone of anger in Marty’s voice.

“Who killed her?”

“If I knew that the scum would be long dead by now.” The shot glass cracked in
Marty’s paw.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Dat aint no mustard bottle.” Swamper snapped

Some of the tension oozed out of Marty. He released the glass which was now in pieces. “Sorry about that Swamper.” Marty said wiping the blood from his paw with a napkin.

“Well you gonna pay for it? I don’t get dese things offa tree ya know.”

“How much?”

“Gwaa, dang flies, Gimmie six amminas!”

That was about as twice as much as the shot glass had probably cost but Marty didn’t seem to care. He took out his wallet and handed Swamper the money. He was about to put it back in his pocket but he paused. “You want to see a picture of her?”

“Sure”

It was a picture of Marty and Nora. Nora was indeed a pretty raccoon. Her smile seemed to light at up the whole picture. He also noticed that there was something different about Marty in the picture. At first he couldn’t but his paw on it but then he realized what it was Marty’s smile. He seemed so much happier in the picture. He had never seen Marty grinning like that before. Marty look like a whole different person.

“You’ve been the New York City ruins?” He asked seeing the vine infested remains of the great torch human in the background.

“Yeah she was going there on official business but she happened to have two tickets there so we decided to make it a date. . . . That was the last date we had together.”

“Do you know why she was killed?”

“Well I think it had something to do with what she found in the ruins. On the way back she was really excited. She said she had found out what happened to the humans”

“Really? But that’s impossible!” For years, homosapologist had pored all kinds ancient artifacts recovered from the human age. DVDs, video, books, ipods, were all studied carefully. But there were very few of them that were recovered and nothing, not one hint could be found explaining the humans’ disappearance. It was a bit hard to believe that one reported could just stumble across the answer in less than a week.

“Yeah I that’s what I said at first. She swore she had proof but she wouldn’t say
anything else about it. She was very protective about her scoops, she wouldn’t even tell me about them. About two days after we got back in Geltempo, she was . . . murdered.” Marty paused for awhile silently staring at the picture. He didn’t bother to wipe up the tear off his cheek this time.

“That terrible night has been always haunting me. She called me on the phone at two in the morning . . . Sounded real scared . . . She was begging me to come over . . . I got dressed, put on a coat and caught a cab to her place . . . But I was too slow. . . I was too slow . . . When I got there; the place looked like a tornado hit it. There were broken chairs and turned over on the floor and blood everywhere . . . and Nora . . . she-she was up against the wall . . . dead. Someone very strong had slammed her in the wall real hard. . . She had died from a severe concussion”

“. . . But what did the New York ruins have to do with it?”

“I found that out the next night. The place was filled with dogs the next day but I was able to sneak in during the night and conduct an investigation of my own. I never did find out what she brought back from New York, the murderer probably took it, but I did find an interesting note balled up in the trash can. It didn’t have any signature or name on it, all it said was ‘We know what you brought from New York. You have one day to give it to us, or you will die a painful death.’

“I made it up in my mind to return to the ruins to find out exactly what she found there but . . . that’s when the government shut it down.”

David remembered the incident. Five years ago, the New York ruins were suddenly closed to tourist. It soon became clear that the government did not want any beast near it. Twelve thousand mile of ten feet high electric razor wire fence soon surrounded the ancient human city. Many guards patrolled this fence with orders to shoot on the spot anyone found on the wrong side of it. The coastline was also guarded by large orcas and patrol boats. The government refused to give any explanation for this surprising action.

“You think that had something to do with what Nora found there.”

“Had to be those two things happen too close together to be a coincidence.”

“So what happen to the detective agency?”

“I closed it down. After Nora was killed I just stopped doing cases for two or three years. My brother Max, you’ll meet him in a few minutes, encouraged me to get back in the business two years ago. I still haven’t got enough money to open the agency back up though so I had to do business from the apartment.”


Another minute of silence passed. “Max is always late.” Marty grumbled.

“I wonder what Baldy has to do with all this.”

“I’m a bit surprised myself to find out he knows something about this.”

“You know him?”

“Not personally but I heard his name more than once in a few of my past cases. He’s
one of the most powerful beasts in organized crime in Geltempo.”

“No way, he’s in organized crime? But I hear about him in the news all the time, giving money to charity and stuff!”

“That’s all just a front, he’s as crooked as a rat’s tail and he won’t think twice about killing you if you get in his way. Very careful about keeping his snout clean though. That’s how he’s been in the business for so long; he attends to even the tiniest of details. What puzzles me is not so much that he knows something about this but that he would share the information with me. He will never do anything that doesn’t benefit him.”

Marty looked down at the blood stained pieces of his glass which still lay on the
counter.

“I know one thing for certain though, if I find out that he was the one that had Nora killed-” He took out his gun and made sure it was loaded. “I’ll kill him, right on the spot.”