Chapter 7
Anopia Drive:

That night Swifteye had horrible dreams that tormented him all the way through the dead hours. He woke up constantly with itches covering his body, as if flees had consumed him. He had never had flees, and never would. So he would simply lay back down, trying to forget the case just for that night so he could get some sleep. He was in the middle of a dream where he was trying to solve a case in an old abandoned watch factory. He stepped around cobwebs and shattered glass, looking helplessly through a magnifying glass, minus the lens. He searched for what seemed like hours until he stumbled upon a stone in the middle of nowhere. Arcane and foreign markings covered it. They were carved into shapes like reptiles and knives, magnifying glasses and foxes, bullets and raccoons, birds and paper. Just as he was studying them, there was a skin crawling scratching noise rapping behind him at the window. He turned slowly to it, to see a dark figure wearing black gloves and a black coat, tapping on the window. Swifteye bolted into a start and sat straight up in his bed, relieved at once that it was only a dream. As he clawed at his forehead, he gasped air in and out repeatedly, trying to calm himself. Tap! Tap !Tap! To his horror, the scraping remained. His nerves set alight, Swifteye jerked his head to the window at his right, wide eyed. Indeed there was a dark figure standing there, rapping on the glass. It’s eyes were fixed on Swifteye’s, soaking in guilt, or sorrow or something of that sort. Around its eyes appeared to be a mask. Swifteye leaped from his bed. A thief! Wait, then why was it waking him up on purpose? Just then it Swifteye all at once. He scrambled for a candle and a match, lighting the wick quickly. Then, with caution, he lifted it up to the window beside the figure. “G’day mate!” Robrile’s grinning face gleamed through the eluminated glass. He appeared to be in much pain, very cold and very afraid, but as cheery as ever. Swifteye filled with relief so quickly that his muscles relaxed into a state so feeble he could hardly stand up. He touched his claw to the window and gave his friend a comforting, relieved smile. “Thought I was a gonner didn’t ya?” Robrile asked, his voice muffled through the quasi transparent wall. Swifteye scratched his brow. “You will be if you don’t get in here.” Swifteye called quickly before dashing off to unlock the door. Robrile was there at once, shivering madly as he had left his coat by the riverside long ago. Swifteye grabbed his furry arm and pulled him inside at once. He lead him hastily to a chair and sat him down, draping his own bed sheet over his partner to keep him warm. “Sorry to give ya a fright back there.” Robrile said through chattering teeth. Swifteye shook his head and bid him not worry about it. He’d choose having nearly all his fur fly off over loosing his clumsy but trusty partner. It was times like this where Swifteye discovered how much he really cared for the raccoon, even though he’d never admit it. He bent over and began to light a fire in the brick fireplace, beside Robrile’s chair. “You tell me everything in detail, whether you know what happened to you or not.” Swifteye ordered in a friendly manner. “Oh, I know what happened, blimey do I. I got shot in the bloody arm!” Robrile answered, clutching his wounded arm gingerly. Swifteye squinted to look at it, blinking in disbelief at Robrile’s luck. It had passed right through without snapping a bone or a muscle, as it easily could have. How, he had no clue. The wound was actually fairly small for such a concept. “Yes, well tell me it all after I get you fixed up and fix a cup of tea for both of us.” Swifteye replied, whisking off to the kitchen at once. His detective instinct was strongly knowing that Robrile had some vital information to tell him. He needed to get him as comfortable as possible. He wished he had known first aid. He wouldn’t want to send for Dr. Nutbur at this hour. Swifteye hesitated. He might not have a choice, Robrile had been bandaged up somehow, but he was still in bad condition. Swifteye fumbled through the cabinets with his candle as his only source of light. Not bothering to be tidy, Swifteye through cans and bags of foods in all directions until at last he found a box of homemade tea, complements of Mr. Priskis who owned a winery, drink brewing shop a few blocks away. He had made some tea for Swifteye and Robrile as a reward for solving the case of his barrels being stolen. It turned out there had been a misunderstanding between him and a restaurant and the manager thought he had allowed them to take a barrel of whine each day if they payed him three gold coins. A mound of coins were found on a shelf in the cellar a day later. Swifteye dumped all fourteen packets of tea onto the table, picking out two into one claw and leaving the rest. Hastened, he scurried over to another cabinet and retrieved two mugs. Both were chipped and battered but carried liquid as efficiently as ever. He turned on the tap and filled them both to the brim, spilling a lot over his paw fur. He wanted to get back to Robrile as soon as possible. Shoving in the tea bags into the mugs, and then the mugs onto the burner, Swifteye wiped his paw on his night shirt and forgot about it. With a strike of a match, the burner coals were lit and it was time to send a telegram to Dr. Nutbur. The fox stumbled up the stairs and into the message tower. This was a small fireplace sort of structure that Camdom would light and send a certain form of smoke into the air above the house. In the very edge of Camdom stood a hill, and on that hill was the Postal Office. This office was run by pigeons, humming birds, robins and other fast flighted animals. They were the mail carriers. There was always at least one bird on watch for this smoke signal, no matter where in Camdom it might be. With such a perfect downward view, the watch birds could easily see anyone’s signal. Once it is sighted, a messenger bird is sent at once to fly down into the city and to the house that sent the signal. Usually the animals then give them a written letter, addressed to whomever. The birds then fly off to that address and deliver the mail. That is how Camdom’s postal service worked. Swifteye lit the message tower and turned to his desk which was littered with parchment and pencils. He sat to write and urgent letter. Selecting the sharpest of the pencils, Swifteye scribbled on a random parchment sheet: Dr. Nutbur, Rob’s hurt, come quick and bring all your supplies. He was shot if you need to know. It’s bad. Swifteye The Sleuth With that, he folded it up, scratched down the doctors address and set it on the window sill. The Post Birds were used to this and in most occasions just took it and delivered it. Nearly forgetting, Swifteye pivoted his walk to the stairs and grabbed for some coins on the desk. gently, he dropped them atop the letter and whisked off once again. The Post Birds did not work for free. When Swifteye returned to the downstairs, the tea was already heated. Quickly, he took off the mugs, blew out the burner and removed the tea bags. He hoped Robrile was okay, a strong anxiety was nagging at him. With the two mugs in each paw, and his nerves twitching, Swifteye stepped into the entry room (which was also the bedroom , the living room and the study). “Now, I expect it in detail Rob-” Swifteye started, stopping abruptly when he let the scene soak it. Robrile was laying down on the soft carpeting, his arm unbandaged. Furtandra stood over him examining his wound and appearing to be medically aiding him. “What the heck- how did you-?” Swifteye stammered at the ferret as he set the mugs down onto the coffee table with fury and confusion combined. Furta turned to face him with a smile. “Good morning Swift. I was just helping Robrile here, the bullet seemed to pass right through his arm. He is a lucky little bloke.” she said cheerfully, then turning back to him to rub more alcohol upon the wound. Robrile flinched for a second, and then relaxed. Swifteye stood baffled. “Rob, what are you- why are you letting her-?” he muttered. Robrile shrugged through clenched teeth. “She promised she wouldn’t try anythin’ sneaky. She seemed innocent enough Swift, ‘sides I can’t take the pain much longer. She’s done wonders to stop it.”he said flinching occasionally. It was true, he did appear to be looking better after Furta had worked on him. No longer was he pale under his smoky brown fur. Swifteye sighed a bit that he was okay, but still was agitated with Furta and her utter nerve. She had always been this rebellious. Swifteye decided to return the sneaky favor. “Now just keep it still for a little longer, Rob and it probably be better if you don’t look at it. By the way Swift I sure could go for a glass of tea as well if you don’t mind-”as she talked she was cut off at once. Swifteye had used his recently neglected but not forgotten stealth skill to approach her. Before she had heard him, he had snapped another pair of handcuffs around her slim wrists. “Hey!” she cried. Swifteye grabbed her by the collar and looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how you escaped and why your doing this, but right now, all I want to know is what happened to my partner tonight. So keep quite and don’t try anything again!” he said slyly and threw her into a soft armchair. “C’mon Swift she was helping.” Robrile said pleadingly. “I’m sorry for both of you, but Furta’s a suspect, I can’t risk anything. And like I said, all that is important now is what happened to you.” Swifteye said, sitting down in another chair and handing Robrile’s tea to him. The raccoon glanced briefly at Furta who appeared quite disgruntled. Then, keeping his arm as motionless as possible, he stood up to face Swifteye. The fox leaned to retrieve his notepad from his desk, flipped to an empty page and sat back. “Tell me all of it. I can see in your eyes you have plenty to tell.” he said. This was true, Swifteye was excellent at telling if animals were lying, afraid, guilty, or hiding something. Robrile’s brow was furrowed so deeply that Swifteye barely needed this skill to tell that something was being held back at the moment. Robrile scratched his chin hesitantly, then began to tell his story of the earlier night (Swifteye realized at this point that Furta had been right, it was already becoming morning). Robrile sighed deeply as he thought back to the recent night, perhaps even only minutes go. The raccoon had a look so troubled that even Furta looked concerned. Slowly, Robrile began to tell his tale of that night. Swifteye listened intently and wrote hysterically in his note book as Robrile spoke of how he was waiting by Kimsi when he had heard the gunshot, an instant before he felt a sharp pain in his arm. He stumbled to the ground and passed out from the pain. Then he awoke to find himself in the alley, where he met the dark figure and the otter. Robrile went into great detail to describe the figure, as he knew Swifteye wanted him. When Swifteye heard about the otter and what he had done for his partner, he was more than surprised. That twisted everything around once again. Normally, that event would erase his title as a suspect. But Swifteye had experienced this sort of situation before. Whether it makes sense or not, Swifteye wrote down in his book exactly this: Otter’s chances of suspicion enhanced by a great deal. Possibility of redemption to his crime. In other words, the otter may have saved his life so they would think him innocent and have gratitude toward him. Swifteye scowled at the water mammal in disgust. So far, he was the most likely of all of them, besides maybe Furta. As his partner talked, he turned to Furta and studied her for clues. She appeared very frustrated, very sinister, but not an ounce of guilt was marked on her face. But Swifteye was skeptical. She was talented in fields of this. When she tried she could easily hide her emotions. In Swifteye’s world, he was skeptical to everything. As a sleuth, one must to make every position likely. More than often the cases turned out like no one expected, except Swifteye of course. He can’t remember a single case he hadn’t at least figured what the cause was at least once. As he recalled, only two cases had stumped him. He tried to ignore those moments. Luckily, Robrile was only there for one and had forgotten about it, so Swifteye’s record had never been tarnished in the coon’s eyes. Robrile ended his story with him sluggishly stumbling into view of their house, hidden behind two large shops. Swifteye nodded gently as he added his last few bits of notes and set down his pencil. With a frown, he then cradled his head in his hands and though silently to himself, leaving Robrile and Furta to do as they please (in a manner of speaking). Swifteye pondered deeply about what he had just heard and linked it cautiously to what he had witnessed earlier. A dark figure was still about somewhere in Camdom. So instantly, Furta wasn’t the star suspect. She wouldn’t have had time to shoot Robrile and take him off to an alley and then come meet Swifteye. But, it was quite possible that she was working along with the figure. And perhaps the otter as well. The otter easily could have heard of Swifteye’s and Robrile's arrival at the bank just before the terrier had been shot. He could have been sent to do them in before they did too much. They arrived a split second after the dog was killed, and most likely they knew it. It could have scared them so badly that they sent an assassin out to kill them at once so they could continue their rampage of killings. But their motive was still unexpressed. Why were they doing this? Why take the life of an innocent mouse? Speaking of which, Swifteye cursed himself for not checking the body close enough. It had not been there seconds later. Had he still been alive? Was Kimsi alive at this moment? With all those suspects running around that night, he felt pained to say, he doubted it. But then, why had Kimsi been out that late at night. Surely either his mother would have been with him or he would have been sleeping soundly in his house. They had not been near the Mice house that night at all. He prayed that it hadn’t been ransacked by criminals and both Kimsi and his mother had been taken to separate locations before shot with that strange weapon. But again, why? And Furta had been right there, wearing the young mouses’ jacket. Whether she had killed him or not, she had some casual manor to the situation, which meant she had known it was going to happen, without a doubt. He would interrogate her later. But he had to keep a swift eye on her, for she was tricky. Swifteye thought hard, thinking of every possibility. He remembered every detail of his moments with Kimsi. The mouses’ face had been troubled, most said it was because he had seen a floating body in the river. But no, Swifteye thought otherwise. The child was young, would he even had recognized it? After the lollipop, he seemed very casual to the situation. Swifteye somehow doubted it was the sighting that bothered him. He knew more, more about the case and who had done what. Like said earlier, Swifteye Doxar could read faces. Kimsi’s had been troubled because of other causes. He had seen or heard something else. But he felt fine about speaking of things he had accidentally saw. Yes, he may have seen the body, but something else happened afterwards, and someone told him not to speak a word of it. Kimsi had kept his mouth shut and was hiding something without a doubt. If only he were still alive! Why hadn’t Swifteye thought of this sooner? Perhaps Kimsi never would have been lured out into the depths of the night. Swifteye froze in his thoughts, ignoring Robrile’s uneasy weight shift. Lured. Lured! That was it! He had not come out at midnight exactly by choice. Someone had told him to. No, not told, threatened him to. Perhaps they had threatened to kill him or his mother (or both) if he didn’t meet them somewhere in Camdom at exactly midnight. Swifteye toiled his skills to come up with a reason why, once again. His best guess would be, they had realized that he had spotted them throwing the body into the river (there was another possibility. Had he seen them throw it in? The mouse had stumbled on his words when he said he had “heard a splash”. Or had he just seen it all?) and made him swear never to tell a soul and to meet him at midnight at some place to tell them everything he saw. Or...or they’d kill him and his mother. Swifteye frowned. A bit rough but it seemed about right. Silently he congratulated himself for his thoughts. That poor mouse. Swifteye promised himself that if he ever caught the hooligans who were doing this, he’d personally cuff them and throw them into the city prison and personally turn the key. Hooligans? Perhaps not. Right now it seemed more like, villains. He only hoped that title would not soon change into; criminal mastermind. But what was the reason for all this, for the shootings. Yes, shootings. About that peculiar weapon and the bullets it shot. Swifteye stood from his chair and over to his desk to where the bag holding the thorned bullet lay. He picked it up, dumped out the projectile and sat back down to look at it. As he studied its creative and efficient design he thought further. A fine design, made by only the finest of hand crafters. He only knew one beast who created solid objects this unbelievably, this imaginative, this flawless. Scaliger Shellviss, Camdom’s blacksmith. He was a turtle, and a very intelligent one at that. He made basically anything useful you could think of and sold it in his tiny little shop called the Ironshell. Scaliger was very old at this time, about fifty-five, but acted as if he were a newly hatched sea turtle. Fifty-five is dead for a fox, but only about middle aged for a painted turtle such as Mr. Shellviss. He never called himself old, not once. Swifteye supposed he never thought of himself as it. But Scaliger could easily have created a bullet such as this, and easily from such a devestating weapon that could shoot it. But Scaliger had a heart of gold and would never do it, even under a threat. The old reptile loved life dearly but would give up his own in an instant if it meant others. But still, he would talk to him, he would bring up things about the bullet Swifteye would have never thought of. But he doubted he could figure out the reason for the creation of such a merciful gun. From Swifteye’s experience, he would have guessed it to be a magnum, from the sound of its fire and the dynamics of its bullet. Just to have this tiny thorned horror fit into the gun and let alone be shot out with a pull of a trigger must take a genius mind to design. And why would they come to make it just to shoot helpless animals. Were they doing it as a test for their new creation? Where they doing it just for mere pleasure. Not yet had Swifteye had a criminal that twisted, that sick minded to simply kill for thrill. No, he thought, they always had a motive. Moving on, after glancing at Robrile, who appeared to be pondering as well while drinking his tea, Swifteye set the bullet down. The raccoon was doing wonders to ignore the pain of his arm, Swifteye hoped for his sake that Dr. Nutbur would arrive soon. He only lived a few blocks away, which was two from Anopia Drive, which was sort of the city meeting place. No beast in Camdom didn’t know where Anopia Drive was, even a creature as young as Kimsi could find his way there in case he was lost from his mother- Swifteye stopped dead. Anopia Drive. Kimsi could find his way to Anopia Drive easily! “Robrile!” Swifteye exclaimed, making both the raccoon and Furta jump. Furta had been working laboriously at her cuffs to free herself, just to prove that she could do it. She appeared to be wanting to speak her opinion strongly any second now, to show that she was innocent. “What street were we on where we found Kimsi’s body?” Swifteye asked. Robrile frowned for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Furs Circle, I believe.” he said, then giving a frown. “Why?” Swifteye gave a half smile. “And how far is Furs Circle from Anopia Drive?” he asked slyly. Robrile shrugged, knowing that Swifteye already knew the answer but bothering to say it anyway. “It’s the next street to the left, mate.” he answered. Swifteye slapped himself on the knee. “And Kimsi was facing toward that street, face down. Thus he was shot from behind by an unseen stalker and fell forward without even realizing who had shot him! He was heading toward Anopia Dive, Rob!” Swifteye replied loudly, causing Furta to stop and listen curiously, and was that a bit of nervously as well? “Good thinking, mate, but what does that tell us?” Robrile asked. “Well not only that he was shot from behind, which means that the criminal was coming from the Coyotfang Alleys when he arrived, but, someone had told him to meet at Anopia Dive, and we all know everyone knows where Anopia Dive is, even.....even a young mouse.” Swifteye added in a whisper. Robrile was thinking hard to think what Swifteye was. “Which means-” “Which means! somebeast had threatened him to go to Anopia Dive at exactly midnight for whatever the reason! He was not alone when he saw the body being dropped into the river, that’s right saw, someone saw him see it and told him to meet them at Anopia Dive. Before he got there, the criminal shot him! Now all we need to do is find out who was near Ms. Gooses’ shop at that time and what Kimsi had been told to do. They wanted to get rid of him before he told anything more-” Swifteye stopped again as he came onto something else. “Which means someone found out about Kimsi and our’s meeting, which means someone was right there listening to our every word. Now they know that we know to much. Which means, you, I and Kimsi’s mother are in grave danger.” Swifteye concluded with a deep breath. He saw it light up in Robrile’s head all at once. “Krikey, boss, you’re probably right!” Robrile said in disbelief. “Of course I am!” Swifteye said excitedly, very glad that his sleuthing skills were back in tact again. Fur standing on end from anxiety to discover more, Swifteye scribbled down in his notebook: Places to investigate: Kimsi’s house, outside Riverside once again Anopia Drive Furs Circle Animals to interrogate: Furta Scaliger Ms. Goose At last he was finally on to something. One thing was for sure, the criminal feared for their exposure and would do anything to stop their actions from being revealed publically. Why they were doing it was, of course, still a mystery. But, Swifteye thought, that’s the fun part. He stripped off his night gown and pulled on his trench coat and dashed for the door. “Come along Rob, we’ve got lots to do.” he said, forgetting about Robrile’s injury. Furta looked very angry at this point. “And what the heck am I supposed to do?” she asked defiantly. “Ah, yes, you are coming with us as well.” the fox said grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up by the door. He reached down to turn the doorknob, but it was already turning by itself. Swifteye stepped back in surprise as the door opened to reveal Dr. Nutbur. The old squirrel looked taken aback by the sight. “Oh, sorry did I read the name wrong?” he asked, reading Swifteye’s baffled look. Furta squirmed free of his grasp and began biting furiously at the handcuffs, trying to pick the lock with her teeth. Swifteye blinked away his blank look and shook his head. “No, not at all. I should be the one apologizing. I forgot all about your coming. The patient is right over there. It’s Robrile, he was shot.” Swifteye said hurriedly, stepping back and guiding the doctor in. Dr. Nutbur smiled and nodded as he stepped forward, flinging his tool box onto a desk as he immediately saw how bad the wound was. Robrile gave Swifteye an odd look that was quite sarcastic. Swifteye took it as; “Thanks for remembering about me.”The squirrel doctor studied the wound for a long long time, frowning and wincing in several locations. At length, he sighed. “Well, it’s bad. But it has been mended well already and it’s nothing I can’t fix. Just give me an hour, and it’ll be ready for healing, which will take about a month to heal entirely.” he said slowly. He at once saw Robrile’s worried expression and quickly added. “But, it is your upper arm, and if you must, you still may assume your duties, though I don’t recommend it. Just keep it protected.” Robrile nodded with relief. “Well, then I’ll just leave you to here. I’ve got business to do and a suspect to turn in to a safer jail cell.” Swifteye said, making Furta gasp with fury. Swifteye clamped his paw over her mouth and went on. “Rob, whenever your finished here, you can meet me at the riverside. In an hour, that’s where I’ll be sure to be.” he said. Robrile nodded, looking disappointed that he was forced to stay with Dr. Nutbur. “Doctor, Robrile will deal with the fees. Thank you and do your best. I can’t loose him of all partners.” Swifteye said. Furta did not know whether to take that as an insult or not. But before she could say anything, Swifteye had tipped his hat and whisked her and himself out the door to resume his sleuthing duties.

© Copyright 2002
All written material is under portection