Author's Preface
“Scratch, honey…I don’t like this.”
Scratch tilted his head back and sighed. “Marnie, I already told ya. Merk was my best friend growin’ up. He protected me from everything. He’s not holdin’ back any information.”
“No, I know.” Marnie sat at the edge of his desk and crossed her arms, thin rat tail flicking back and forth in the air beside her. “I just got a bad feelin’. I’m not saying he’d purposely send you into somethin’ sketchy.”
“My job is getting sent into something sketchy, baby.” Scratch looked into the mirror beside his desk as he applied the glue to an old fu manchu he hadn’t worn since his early private investigator days and pressed it just below his nose at the end of his elongated snout. “An’ your job is to get me more sketchy jobs, or did you forget we got little ratlings to feed?”
“No,” she sighed, moving over to help him with the ridiculous mustache. “I haven’t forgotten. I just worry about you.”
Scratch smile softly up at her, swinging his tail around to curl up with hers and tiled his head to nuzzle into her neck. “I’ll be fine baby, just followin’ some little girl around for a day or two. Make sure nothin’s funky, then onto the next.”
Finding Trixie on that first day wasn’t hard. He’d picked her up right outside Skaeva’s apartment building and followed her through town and into Retail Row. That’s when shit got weird. He’d seen her duck into the alley. He couldn’t have been more than five seconds behind her. When he turned that corner, though, she was gone. It took him two hours to find her again, spotting her from across the street when she started her shift at the cafe. Weird shortcut if she were on her way to work.
Outside that first day, he was beginning to think Trixie Featherstep was possibly the most boring person he’d ever followed. Which only made him all the more suspicious. Her daily routine was too ordinary. Work, Morgok’s fight club for a workout, if it were Tuesday or Thursday, she attended a class at the college, and then it was off to her apartment or Skaeva’s.
Scratch ran a claw along his narrow chin as if to satisfy an itch. In truth, after several days of not returning to the office, the glue on his fu manchu wasn’t holding as well as it should. Having gotten a little too excited about the patty melt he’d ordered from Trixie’s cafe did not help. Thankfully, it seemed to be in place.
He paid his bill and collected his things from the table, tucking the paperwork into his satchel as Trixie clocked out and headed out the door…in the opposite direction she normally would. His heart jumped. Today was the day. Whatever weird shit this little girl was into…he was going to find it. Scratch scurried out of the booth, not bothering to wait for his change. She passed the rundown apartment building she called home and headed into his old stomping grounds.
Old Baisee was a shithole, but it brought a nostalgic feeling all the same. The further they moved into his old neighborhood, the more confused he got. If he hadn’t know any better he thought she was leading him right back to his own childhood home. While that would have been incredibly disturbing, it was not his home she walked through the gate of.
Scratch pulled a small dart gun from his dimensional pocket and fired it. The dart stuck into the outside wall of the house, and he ducked into a nearby alley. His phone was already playing the audio when he put the wireless headphones into his ears.
“No, I actually came to see you, Mrs. Grommash.”
“Oh? Have a seat, Trixie. Can I get you something to drink?”
“I would love that, thank you.”
There was a long pause. Scratch timed the paces from the living room to the kitchen and back, having been familiar with the house from his youth.
“There ya go, hun. So what did you wanna talk about?”
“Well, it’s about Scaeva. I know you all had a family issue not long ago, and I don’t want to pry. She just seems a little down about it.”
“Well, Scaeva and I have always had little fights. She always comes back eventually. This time I might owe her an apology, too.”
“I uhh…”
Another long pause. Scratch peeked around the corner of the alley as if that would give him a better view of the house.
“Oh, fuck it.” Trixie’s voice filled his ears, followed by a sharp whining sound, forcing him to pull the headphones out quickly. Yellow light filled the front window of the house. Scratch ran. He jumped over the fence and was at the door in mere moments. “Mrs. Grommash! Mrs. Grommash, are you alright?” He pounded at the door, putting his ear to it.
The light had since faded, and within an acceptable amount of time; the door opened. Merkra’s stepmother stared down at him, confused. “Scratch? Scratch Shadowtail? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I…” Scratch looked up at her in confusion before gathering himself. “I was just walking by and saw a weird light. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”
Mrs. Grommash grimaced at him. “Are you still taking those mushrooms your mother warned me about?”
“N-no ma’am.” Scratch dug his hands into his pockets and hung his head. “If you’re alright, I’m just gonna..” He jerked his head back in the direction of the road
“Yeah, you probably should.” She reached out and grabbed the end of his fake mustache that hung comically long off his face. “This looks ridiculous. You should really shave it.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He nodded. “It was good to see you.” He turned and walked off.
Scratch turned the corner into the alley again and tried the earbuds but got nothing but static from his recording device. He sighed and poked his head around again, resigning himself to just wait for Trixie to come back out to continue following her.
“Hey little Ratling.”
Scratch jumped out of his skin, spinning around to see Trixie standing right behind him. She was uncomfortably close to him. He wasn’t sure how long she’d been there, but he definitely hadn’t heard her approach.
“Hi? Who are you?” In an impossible turn of events, a grin crossed her face that caused easily the most unsettling feeling he’d ever experienced.
“Scratch Shadowtail? What are you doing here?” Trixie mimicked Mrs. Grommash’s voice perfectly. Before he could react, her halfling body jerked in a blur of motion.
He hadn’t even seen the dagger that was now buried in his chest.
His lungs seized. He gasped for air, dropping to his knees and reaching out for her.
Trixie knelt down in front of him, taking one of his claws in each hand. “Shhh…Shhh..” She hushed him through a sadistic grin and helped him to the concrete. “It’ll all be over soon.” She scooted up to his side and sat a hand on his furry face, gently stroking it as his eyes closed.
###
Merkra furrowed his brow at the two officers standing outside his door. “Officers?” He set down the breast pump he was failing to put together and wiped his hands on his pants.
“Merkra Grommash?”
Merkra nodded. “Yep, that’s me.”
“We need you to come down to the station with us.” One of them held up a hand preemptively. “The detectives just need to ask you some questions.”
“Questions about what?” Merkra said, a growing look of concern on his face.
“They can tell you that at the station.”
“Look, I’ve dealt with a lot of police in my day. You tell me what it is, or I’m not going anywhere.”
Solana emerged behind him in the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“Go back inside, Solana.” Merkra instructed her, keeping his body between her and the cops.
“It’s about Scratch Shadowtail.” One of them finally gave up.
“Is he alright?” Merkra looked back at them.
“No, look, we really should not talk about it here. You need to come down to the station and talk to the detectives.”
Merkra grimaced, but nodded. “Let me get a shirt.”
Comments