“Allright, that’s all I need. Thanks, Karen!” Faye concluded her interview with Karen Murphy, the nightguard-turned-rookie-cop mouse and one of the ferret reporter’s close friends and contacts. It was Karen who suggested the interview, hoping that a small story about her first year on the force might help inspire a few new recruits. “Oh, don’t mention it! Just doing my duty.” The mouse quipped in response. “I need to get back to my reports though, you can find your way back yourself?” “Of course! But ehm…” Faye smiled embarrassedly “If you can point me to the closest ladies’ room first?” The duo shared a giggle. “No problem, although they did kinda hide it away on this floor. Go left, then right and then it’s at the end of the hallway, across from the evidence locker.” “Right, thanks! Good luck with your reports!” The ferret waved goodbye and hurried out the door.
Once she had refreshed herself, Faye thought she could simply head back to her own office and work out her notes. If only her life could be that simple. Emerging from the evidence locker just as the ferret stepped out of the rest room was a quite conspicuous lion gentleman in a maroon suit, which one wouldn’t need a reporter’s instincts for (although it certainly helps) to tell he had no business being there. “Hey you! What do you think you’re up to?!” The young mustelid confronted the suspicious lion, who gave her a brief glance from under his hat. “My, how unexpected.” He spoke in a deep, suave voice that sounded much more amused than the alarm his words should’ve implied.
In an impossibly swift and fluid motion, he lunged at Faye, clamped his gloved paw over her mouth, dragged her back into the evidence room and closing the door behind them. “Mmmph!?!” Quickly, the lion produced a bundle of ropes from his suit jacket and began binding her arms. With her lips now free, the ferret turned to demand answers from her captor. “Hey! What do you think you’re playing at! Let me go, you dandy je-rmmgrph!!” But instead she got a big handkerchief crammed into her mouth. “Hush, dear~ We would not want to disturb the good officers of our city, would we~?” The gentleman thief spoke while further gagging his prisoner with a soft scarf he bound over her face. He then lowered Faye onto the floor and roped up her legs into a tight hogtie. “But to satisfy your curiosity, word has gone ‘round of a lesser competent burglar having been caught stealing valuable jewellery. It was my intention to steal them for myself from under the police’s nose and make a tidy profit, rather than see them returned to their rightful owner~” The crimson-clad burglar seemed quite satisfied with his scheme. And when he appeared to be satisfied with his rope work, he made began to make his exit. “But worry not, my dear~ I am certain one of our kind officers will come free you soon. Farewell~!” “Nmmph! Hmmmff!” Helpless, Faye watched the door fall shut and leave her in the dark evidence room.
As she struggled in her bondage, the ferret wondered how she kept getting into this messes. And most of all, she feared that she hadn’t seen the last of this mysterious gentleman burglar…
