Chapter 2

Answers

Fievel's mind was immediately wiped of all thought processes imaginable. He vaguely remembered being told to play along a few seconds ago and tried to follow these directions to the best of his ability. Then Mr. Bodsy's lantern light flooded over them and Lorena grabbed Fievel's collar again, but this time she pushed him away.

"What the-?" started Mr. Bodsy before he was interrupted by Lorena.

"Do you mind?" she asked somewhat rudely. "Can't we have some privacy?"

"Not on my property," retorted Mr. Bodsy. "Now you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Go on, get!" Then a second person entered the alley. They heard him walk up behind Mr. Bodsy and saw him peek his head over Mr. Bodsy's shoulder. It turned out to be none other than Tony.

"So that's where ya been, Philly," said Tony. "Does this count as flirting?" Fievel didn't reply. He was in a somewhat dazed stupor as he was still covering from the shock of Lorena kissing him.

"It's okay, Mr. Bodsy," said Tony. "I'll take these two." He walked over to Lorena and Fievel and helped them both up off the ground and, unbeknownst to everyone, including Fievel who was trying to catch up with reality, gave Fievel a hidden high five of congratulations on his first kiss. He walked out of the alley with them and started walking down the street. They were all around the corner when Fievel finally caught up with reality.

"Tony, you can't tell my parents about this," burst out Fievel.

"Okay then," said Tony. "But no more smoochin' in alleys for you two. So how long were you guys back there?"

"Two minutes," said Fievel.

"Ten minutes," said Lorena.

"Well which is it?" asked Tony.

"Ten," said Lorena. Fievel looked at her with a confused look and she gave him a look that told him very clearly to shut up and agree. He listened.

"Yeah," continued Lorena. "Fievel found me after he left for off work. We talked a little, he asked me out to lunch tomorrow, we found somewhere to be alone, and the rest is history."

"You guys didn't... Uh..." said Tony. "I mean you weren't gonna..." It was silent for a moment before Lorena got what Tony meant.

"No!" she said defensively. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No way. No!"

"Okay," said Tony quickly. "Sorry. Had to ask."

"What?" asked a confused Fievel.

"Ya know, I forget how much of a sheltered child you are," said Tony with a chuckle.

"Okay, I gotta go home now," said Lorena.

"Oh, c'mon, please come to my house for dinner," said Tony. "He won't admit it, but he would be really devastated if you didn't come. He's a terribly impatient little fella and he can't wait until tomorrow for lunch." Lorena stood and thought about it for a while before she finally replied.

"Okay, fine," she said in a voice that feigned sympathy. "For you, Fievel." Tony laughed and they started walking to Tony's house. When they got there, they had milk, cheese, and some fruit. After they were done with dinner, Fievel volunteered to walk Lorena home, for which he suffered a couple annoying remarks from Tony, but Fievel wanted to get some time alone with her to ask her a couple questions.

"So what are you up to?" asked Fievel when they were out of earshot of Tony's house.

"Wow, you get straight to the point," Lorena said. "I told you. I'm investigating my brother's murder."

"Oh yeah, that's very helpful," said Fievel sarcastically. "Especially since I totally believe you."

"Well, I'm not saying you have to," said Lorena. "You can go home if you want. We both know you only did this so you can interrogate me."

"Because I think that you at least owe me an explanation," said Fievel.

"Why?" asked Lorena.

"Because in the last three hours, you managed to get us caught kissing in an alley," said Fievel. "And you set up a lunch date for us tomorrow."

"Well if you don't want to go to lunch tomorrow, you don't have to," said Lorena. "That was just to sell the deception."

"Well now I have to 'cause you told Tony," said Fievel. "If I don't go tomorrow, I won't hear the end of it from him."

"Okay, fine," said Lorena. "What do you wanna know?"

"Everything," said Fievel. "Start at the beginning with the context of your brother's murder."

"Okay," started Lorena. "My brother, Milo, was murdered in New Jersey two years ago. He was doing some freelance investigation for the police here. He was investigating potential safe houses for prisoners that were smuggled out of prison. He said he was on to a good suspect when he was visiting my family in New Jersey for a week. Then, two days into the visit, his body's found with a shard of glass through his heart. The police investigated, but I don't think they did a good enough job."

"So you took up the investigation," said Fievel.

"I found a list of suspects that my brother had made of people he thought might have run a safe house for escaped prisoners," said Lorena. "I think that he was getting close and whoever was running the safe house killed him to cover their tracks."

"Okay, so who are the suspects?" asked Fievel.

"Almost all the private business owners in town," said Lorena. "And all the private food business owners in town."

"Why are they suspects?" asked Fievel.

"Well private business owners, like owners of inns, can hide prisoners and keep them sustained for a considerable amount of time in one of their spare rooms," said Lorena. "But private food business owners can do basically the same thing, but they have an easier access to food for their prisoner and they don't have to worry about people coming and going around their hiding places because customers of food businesses don't tend to enter the owner's home very often."

Okay," said Fievel. "So we're looking for evidence of a private business owner who smuggled escaped prisoners two years ago." He sounded skeptical.

"Or evidence that puts one of them in the area of the murder at the time of the murder," said Lorena. "Or someone who is still smuggling prisoners."

"Nope," said Fievel. "We don't have prisoners anymore. Major jailbreak a year and a half ago. The city never rebuilt the jail. They just exile criminals for a certain amount of time. No trans-city passport, no ID, just the clothes on their backs. They have to fend for themselves for a set amount of time before they can come back. Some are exiled for life and that's basically a death sentence."

"Okay, so we're not looking for that," said Lorena. "But if we can find something to prove that one of them was in the area of the murder at the time of the murder, we can have the police here investigate."

"Okay," said Fievel. "So how did you convince your parents to let you come here on this insane investigation?"

"My parents have been dead for a year," said Lorena. "I live in a mansion where I'm a maid for a very rich mouse. I told him about the list and he was sympathetic to my cause and told me to take as much time as I needed. Unfortunately, I've only got enough money to live here in a small inn for a week still."

"Ah, so we're on a deadline," said Fievel.

"Yeah," said Lorena. She and Fievel walked together in silence until they reached the inn she was staying at.

"Bye, Fievel," Lorena smiled as she walked into the inn and closed the door behind her.

"Bye," whispered Fievel to the closed door with a smile. He walked to his home, greeted his parents and little sister when he arrived, explained that he had dinner at Tony's house, and went to bed. He fell asleep happy, like he knew he had found what he was looking for to get him out of his routine, but it was more than just the fact that he was helping investigate a murder. He liked something about Lorena. He didn't know what or why, he just liked her.

Fievel decided to sleep on this, so he undressed and lay down in his bed. His bedroom consisted of his bed, which was the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, and a hollowed out space in the wall next to his bed that served as a shelf where he could put all his stuff. He used to have to share a bed with his sister, Tanya, but she left home half a year ago with a group of traveling performers.

He drew the curtain that hung from the frame of the top bunk and hid his bed from sight. He then laid his head on his pillow and fell asleep feeling excited for the next day.

To Be Continued...