---chapter 9
“Captain Hugodrax, right this way sir.” Frevvor said gesturing to the lizard. He got out of the undercover squad car and shielded his eyes in the morning sun. He was at the two story home of the Hoffers.
“Thank you for calling me on this one.” Hugodrax said following Frevvor up to the house. He had been called at the station as the home robbery had been in the same styling as the other police reports he had been given. Now was his opportunity to see the crime scene first hand.
He stepped into the house, first taking note of the alarm on the wall. “Wasn’t this armed?” he asked.
Frevvor stopped and turned. “It was activated before they went to sleep, and still armed when they woke up.”
“We’re dealing with a pro.”
“More than likely.” He started walking through the house with Hugodrax following close behind. “There is no sign at all of forced entry anywhere. No windows appear to be tampered with, no locks busted. I think he had a key. We can’t seem to find where he broke in. And look in here…”
They entered the office where the closet door and safe both lay open. A police officer was in here with the bull who was telling him what was stolen.
“Mr. Hoffer I presume.” Hugodrax said offering his paw to shake. The bull shook back.
“Yes. Dermick Hoffer. And…”
“Captain Hugodrax of the Herdnan Police. I have taken special interest in this case as I believe it is tied in with several others.”
“Are you going to find this fur? Do you have any idea how much he took off with?” Hugodrax crossed his arms to listen. “He cleaned out both of my safes. The one in my bedroom had emergency money, and my wife’s jewelry, this one had antique firearms and swords. He also took my T.V. and my car!!!”
Hugodrax was clearly surprised. “That is a lot. Did you have your safes locked?”
“This one was… but our bedroom one was not. It was buried with shoes and things. It would be impossible to have seen it.”
Hugodrax nodded. “I’m going to look around a bit.”
The bull nodded, turning back to the police officer who was cataloguing what was stolen. Frevvor lead him through the house again and upstairs to the master bedroom.
Hugodrax looked around the room and walked over to the closet. The safe was open as well, and things slid out of the way.
“What do you think sir? It has to be someone who has been here before.”
Hugodrax grunted and looked over to the window. He cocked his head and stepped up to it and looked out.
“I found the entry point.”
Frevvor came over and looked out the glass. The screen was lying on the roof next to the window, and the lock was unlocked. Hugodrax looked over the window frame.
“There is no alarm here. Considering how well armed the house is, you would think that it would extend to the upper floors.”
He exited the room and headed back down the stairs. He slid open the sliding door in the dining room and stepped out onto the porch. He pointed it out to Frevvor. “He probably came over the fence, jumped on the hand rail and crawled right onto the roof. That’s not much of an effort.”
“I think you might be right Captain.”
They went back inside to the living room and noted where the TV was.
“How big was the television?” he asked.
“Hoffer said it was a 54 inch plasma.”
Hugodrax rubbed his chin in thought. “That wouldn’t be anything easy to take.” He continued to the garage and looked around. He saw the chain on the floor and stooped down to look at it.
“Well, this chain was clearly cut…” he said to himself. He looked up to the automatic door opener. “Frevvor- press the button to open the door.”
He pressed the door button. The motor started up, but the door didn’t move. Hugodrax looked up to see the gear moving. The motor shut itself off.
“Why would the chain be cut?” Hugodrax now asked.
“Well, Hoffer says he had a Ferrari in here. That’s what was stolen.”
“If your stealing a car, why would you take the time to cut off an automatic opener? Unless of course, you also had a big television. Might as well only open one door right?”
He walked to the door and twisted the handle and lifted it up. “What do you mean?”
“Opening the garage door with out the motor is far quieter. The chain was cut to keep noise down. It’s ingenious really and…” he stopped when he looked at the fence next to the garage wall. He quickly walked up and examined the top. A few wisps of black fur were stuck to the top. He snapped his fingers and Frevvor ran over.
He handed Hugodrax a small evidence bag and tweezers. Hugodrax took the tweezers and lifted the fur from the wooden fence. He examined it and sniffed it.
“Raccoon.” He said examining it again.
“Sir- there are at least a few thousand raccoons living in Herdnan. Do you expect to question each one?”
“Of course not Frevvor.” Hugodrax said stuffing the bit of fur into the bag. “But at least now we know what species we are dealing with and what to start looking for.”
- - - - -
Cymaenie yawned, waking from his day’s slumber. He squinted at the clock on his bedside table reading just after 7 at night.
In his freshly waken state, he wondered if all of last night was just a dream. He took a shower before he went to bed, and smelled like soap. He stretched and yawned. He felt like being lazy this night, as he had done more than enough in the last few evenings.
He picked up a book he had been meaning to read and cracked it open. He didn’t get very far into it, only twenty or so pages before the silence of his house was broken by a ring tone. He sighed, set the book aside and picked up his cell.
It was a number that he did not recognize. He yawned as he answered. “Hello?”
“Oh, hello. Is this… Cymaenie?” the smooth voice asked.
He shot up in bed. It was Sargaris. The night wasn’t a dream after all! “Yes. Of course. What’s up?”
“Well I was thinking maybe we could get together and do something.”
His heart was pounding now. He had just been asked on a date! His mind fumbled for words. “Uh… sure. Just let me...what did you have in mind?”
“What say you head over this way and pick me up? We can decide what we want to do from there.”
“Sounds great. I’ll leave right away!”
“Alright. See you soon.”
It was one of the rare instances that raccoons do actually fly. He was out of his bed, into clothes and backing down his driveway all without touching the ground. Inside of a short few minutes, he was rolling up outside of the husky’s apartment complex.
Here he stopped the car and looked out the window to see Sargaris heading down the stairs towards the car. He smiled as he opened the passenger side door and sat.
“Well hello. That was fast.” Sargaris said looking at his wrist watch.
“You could say I was rather excited to see you.”
Sargaris leaned in and kissed his muzzle. “Well, I’m excited to see you too.”
Cymaenie chirred a little and smiled. He sat back in the seat. “So what did you want to do?”
“Lets go grab a bite somewhere.”
Cymaenie nodded and they motored off to a local burger dive; Double Cow Burger. It wasn’t the most romantic place, but it was a first date.
They ordered a couple of burgers and fries. Both were rather hungry and the food quickly vanished. Afterwards, they headed back to Sargaris’ apartment to save a little money and watch a movie there.
Cymaenie had to stifle a laugh at this as he was now quite loaded, but didn’t say anything. He parked out front of the building and got out of the car.
He followed Sargaris almost drooling over his curled tail bouncing back and forth as he followed. Cymaenie took all of his will power, but was able to remove his eyes off the butt clearly outlined in the tight jeans Sargaris was wearing.
They stopped outside of his door and he unlocked it. They entered and Sargaris closed the door. His apartment was fairly small, consisting of a single bedroom, a living area and kitchen/dining room.
Sargaris gestured to the couch. “Have a seat. Did you want something to drink?”
Cymaenie shook his head. “No, that’s alright.”
Sargaris smiled and turned on his television and kicked the power button on his DVD player. He sat next to Cymaenie and started the movie. It was some cheesy B- rated movie that he had already seen, and by the look of it, so had Sargaris. But, it was not the intent. Sargaris slid closer to the raccoon and put his arm around him.
He snuck a kiss and stroked his cheek ruff. Cymaenie smiled, turning and kissing him back. Sargaris murred and gently pushed him back against the pillows by the arm and started kissing him deeply. He took one of his paws and ran it under Cymaenie’s shirt. He squeezed his nipple and scratched his chest while under the shirt.
Cymaenie kept kissing, putting his hand around Sargaris and bringing him close. He felt his tail wag and put his other arm around him in a warm embrace.
Cymaenie was enjoying the moment a lot, but it seemed different than what he felt in the car. Things seemed rushed. The movie hadn’t even been on five minutes. He thought about this for a moment, trying to move this thought out of his head.
However, it came back in full force when the husky’s paw slid to the fly on his shorts and started unzipping it. A warning flag went off and he pushed Sargaris back.
“What’s wrong?” the husky asked.
“I dunno. Things seem a little fast. This is the first date.”
Sargaris looked slightly annoyed. “I’m sorry. It’s just your really attractive and I can’t keep my paws off of you.”
Cymaenie sat upright again. “Well, I just feel rushed. You seemed a lot more tender the other night. Don’t you even want to get to know me first?”
Sargaris sat back himself scratching the back of his head in thought. Cymaenie looked around the room, and wished he had done so earlier. Scattered on the coffee table were several phone numbers with names written above them. In these numbers he saw his with a check mark next to it.
A glance to the bedroom showed him opened condom wrappers scattered on the floor. A rather large bottle of lube was sitting on the bedside table next to a whole BOX of condoms. He zipped back up his fly and pushed himself to the other end of the couch.
“I’m not just someone special am I Sargaris? Rather I’m just another notch on your headboard.”
“No. Of course not. I…” he said fumbling for words.
There was a moment of silence. “I’m going to go.” Cymaenie said getting up. He brushed past the husky and opened the door and let himself out.
