"I'm right to go, Ray," Fraser said as he finished getting dressed. "I'll help anyway I can. Just need to swing by my apartment and get changed," Fraser straightened his tie.
"You still don't look well enough to go. You look pale," Mrs. Vecchio said.
"I am," Fraser said.
"If he says he's good to go then he's good to go, Ma," Ray interrupted. "It's a Canadian Mountie thing. They're not allowed to lie. It's like the law over there. Permanently written in their code of conduct thing," Ray added.
Fraser shook his head. "Actually it's not law, Ray. It's more of guidelines and ethical. Now if it were to become law that would make Mounties indis -," he began explaining.
"Frasier," Ray interrupted.
"Yes, Ray?" Fraser asked.
"Shut up," Ray ordered. Sometimes he had to be direct to stop Fraser from going into in depth explanations to things. Fortunately, Fraser never took offense to this and things just went unsaid.
"Of course," Fraser responded as they walked outside.
"Make sure he takes these," Mrs. Vecchio placed the flu tablets into her son's hand. "You make sure he takes them," she ordered.
Ray nodded. He did remember how hard it was to get his friend to take painkillers when that man stabbed his leg. He was always worried about what the side effects when he considered him self on duty. "Should swing by so I can change," Fraser coughed a couple of times. It felt like he had swallowed a tennis ball.
"Alright, Frasier," Ray responded.
Ray waited impatiently for Fraser to come back out of the apartment complex. He wondered if he should be worried about the amount of time he was taking. At times, Fraser could come late due to being easily distracted along the way.
Ray straightened up when he saw the unmistakable figure of the Mountie approach. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Ray," Fraser simply said. As soon as he opened the door of the car, Diefenbaker jumped right in and made himself at home on the backseat.
"We've actually got a group of armed robberies across town," Ray began explaining. "The Lieutenant thinks that re canvassing the area and speaking to the people around the areas as well as pawn-," Ray was interrupted by a coughing fit from Fraser.
"Sorry... Go ahead, Ray," Fraser apologized.
Ray reached into his pocket and pulled out the tablets that his mother had forced him to take. "Here," Ray handed him one.
"I do appreciate that. But there are a lot of side effects and I can't perform my duties to the fullest of my ability," Fraser managed to say.
Ray rolled his eyes. Of course Fraser was going to make things difficult. "My Ma only allowed you out of the house if I made you take these regularly," Ray reminded him.
"I'll take full responsibility," Fraser told his friend.
"You know my Ma... She'll lecture me. So just take the damn pills Fraser," Ray's impatience was growing. He thought about putting Fraser's annoyance as one of the Flu symptoms but Fraser annoyed him at the best of times.
"Alright, Ray," Fraser said as he downed the recommended dosage. Ray wasn't surprised that the Mountie could swallow pills without water considering the kind of things he'd put to his tongue. "So where are we headed to?" Fraser said.
"There's a pawnbroker's just around the corner from Gayle's Jewelers where the first robbery took place," Ray took out the sheet that showed the pictures of an assortment of rings and necklaces. "Now, say if you were a thief Frasier... It might that the logical thing to do would be to actually do exactly what the law wouldn't be expecting because it'd be too simple," Ray said.
"So the logically, by doing the illogical, the perpetrators will defeat the logic of the Police thus confusing them by something so simple," Fraser said in a way that made more sense to him.
"Yes," Ray responded as the car came to a squealing halt.
People on the street watched the bright clothed Mountie and Ray exit the vehicle and approached the Pawnbrokers. "What are you doing?" Ray asked.
"Feeding the meter, Ray," Fraser answered. He watched Ray enter and slowly followed behind. It was getting bad when he couldn't keep up with things.
Ray saw Fraser open the door to let someone out and in. It was common practice for him to do this and Ray had given up getting annoyed by it.
"Can I help you?" The assistant asked as soon as he noticed Ray standing around. He saw the ID that was flashed in his eyes. "Can I help you... Detective Ray Vecchio?" The assistant asked while reading the ID carefully.
Ray showed him the pictures of the jewelery. "Has anybody came in trying to fence these stolen beauties?" Ray made sure that the young man got a real good look at the pictures before answering the question.
"They look really nice," the man said while closely observing the pictures. Everyday he was here and oversaw all the jewelery pawning since that seemed the easiest and most popular item that people wanted to get rid of. Most of the time it was because of a failed relationship but on other occasions it was just to get their hands on some extra cash.
"So you haven't seen these?" Ray asked distinctly.
"I know that Gayle's down the block sell this kind of upmarket stuff," The man responded to Ray's questioning. "But we never sold anything like those."
"Hey, dude," a teenager grabbed Ray's attention. "Didn't I see you walk from your car to here with a Mountie?" He asked.
Ray looked around and was surprised that the unmistakable outfit was nowhere to be seen. "Here call me if anybody pawns off anything that looks anything like these," Ray said as he began looking around for his friend. Fortunately, he didn't have to look far.
Holding the door open by leaning on it was an odd way even for Fraser. Ray looked around and while there were some curious onlookers there was nobody showing any interest in walking through the open door. "Okay, Frasier. Let's go," Ray walked by him. There was no movement. "Frasier!" He raised his voice.
"Yes, Ray," Fraser seemed shocked at him self. "Must have taken one of those five second naps," he said. His voice sounded all stuffy and weak.
"Well if that's the case...I think you caught up on a whole year of those naps," Ray said as he began walking to his car.
"Aren't we going to question the shopkeeper, Ray?" Fraser looked confused. They had gone there to seek some answers.
"I did... Nothing," Ray answered. He opened the door and waited for the lackadaisical Fraser to get to the car.
Fraser felt sick, confused and tried to keep going like he said he would. "Did we?" Fraser asked. Perhaps his fever was too high and he was suffering from fever induced hallucinations or something similar.
"No... I did. You had a nap," Ray said with a smile.
"Help... He stole my purse," An old lady called with an outstretched hand.
"Frasier! Frasier!" Ray called out. It fell on deaf ears. "Dief!" He shouted as the wolf leaped out from the backseat and followed its companion. Ray followed the wolf who was following Fraser who was following a perpetrator.
Ray was surprised that Fraser just seemed to keep running. Even while sick, Fraser seemed to have unlimited stamina. He saw him round the corner into an alleyway. Ray picked up his pace. When he entered the alleyway he saw Fraser down on one knee holding his side and breathing unevenly.