Chapter 4
Meanwhile, a certain boss was having troubles of his own.
Earlier in the morning, Benson had called Mr Maellard to tell him the news. Maellard hadn't let him talk, instead ordering him to have a meeting in his office. Benson had agreed, feeling it would be easier to talk to him face to face instead of by phone.
Now here they were, both upstairs in the office, Maellard flipping through some papers, outlining Bensons progress as 'park manager', while the gumball machine sat nervously, waiting for Maellard to give his final comment.
Maellard looked up after reading through an employee comment paper. "What is this Beenteen?" His eyes narrowed as he held the paper up.
Benson sat forward in his chair. "What is what Sir?"
"Don't play stupid with me. This is that birds comment paper"
"You mean Mordecai Sir?"
"Yes, yes, Mordecai" He turned the paper round to face Benson. The page was blank. "Why has Mordecais comment sheet have no writing on it Beancan?"
Benson avoided his gaze as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "That's what I called this meeting for Sir"
Maellard slowly lowered the paper, waiting for what amazing excuse his employee had managed to come up with. "Oh?"
Benson shifted his gaze from the carpet to the old mans eyes. "You see-"
"Spit it out!" He slammed his hands on the desk.
"Mordecai's in a coma"
Maellard relaxed, settling back in his seats. His brow raised at the gumball machines words sunk in. "Coma?"
Benson nodded. "Yes Sir"
"How exactly did he get in a coma?"
He told him what Margaret had told the rest of them, watching as the old mans face twitched into concern.
"If the bird is going to be in a coma for weeks then, then we must get a new employee. We can't have this park dying on us"
Benson agreed with the man, though inside, he felt like slapping the man for his selfish attitude. "I'll get right to it Sir"
Maellard stood, walking to the door. "Keep up the good work Ballbucket"
Benson waited for him to leave before leaning back in his chair, sighing. He was such a selfish old man, Benson could hardly believe he still had his job by the amount of times Mordecai and Rigby had stuffed up. Mordecai.
He sat up at the name. How long had the doctor said he could be in a coma? Weeks? Geez, that was a long time. But what if he never woke up? What if he died without anyone knowing? Benson shook his head. Why was he so concerned for the blue jay? It wasn't like Mordecai meant anything to him. He was just an employee at the park, not a friend. Shaking his head again, he stood and walked to the door, opened it, and went downstairs. But he stopped when he noticed something...odd. Walking into the lounge, he realized two employees were missing. Margaret and Rigby
Margaret lead Rigby over to the park, the place her and Mordecai had walked before the shooting. Rigby knelt down at the dried patch of blood leading into the cracks of the concrete, while Margaret stood near him, waiting for the raccoon to work his 'charm' as he called it.
He finally straightened, hands on hips. "Yip, there's blood here all right"
"Well duh. That's what you've been looking at for the past 5 minutes"
He ignored her and began to run down the path, Margaret following. He soon stopped in his tracks. "Is this where you jumped at the shooter?"
She nodded. "Yeah. They just...disappeared."
He looked up at the sky, but all he could see were clouds. Turning around, he shrugged. "Yeah, I got nothing"
Margaret began to pace the concrete, thinking hard. She stopped, looking at Rigby. "Maybe we can go to the hospital"
Rigby raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because" She smiled now. "If we go, we'll see Mordecai"
"So we can wake him?" Rigby tried to continue.
Margaret shook her head and sighed. "No. You know how Mordecai got shot?"
"Yeah...?"
"The doctors must have removed the bullet from his chest"
"And maybe if we check the bullet-" Rigby suddenly caught on
"We can find out which gun the bullet belongs to-" Margaret said, smiling
"And we'll catch the criminal" They both said, grinning
Margaret turned and ran back to the park. Luckily, it wasn't a short walk, only about two blocks down. She ran up to her car, Rigby jumping in the passengers seat.
"Margaret, Rigby, what are you two doing?"
Margaret whipped her head around to see Benson standing in front of them, hands on hips. Her eyes widened, thinking she was going to get in trouble. "We...uh.."
"Don't worry Margaret, I got this" Rigby jumped down, standing in front of his boss. "We were just going to the hospital"
"Why? To wake Mordecai?" Benson asked sarcastically.
Rigby smiled. "Hey, that's what I said. Great minds think alike!" He saw Margaret frown at him out of the corner of his eye and regained his serious posture. "Actually, we thought of some evidence to capture the criminal"
Benson snorted. "Really? Ok, what'd you get?"
"Well, you know how Mordecai got shot?"
Benson nodded.
"When the doctors performed surgery on him, they must of taken out the bullet. All we need to do is ask for it, then go from house to house to find out who shot him"
Benson shook his head. "You can't go from door to door, asking random people if they shot a blue jay"
Rigbys heart sunk. "Why not?"
"Because they'll be freaked out. And with the bullet, the police probably already took it for evidence"
"Why would they do that? They don't even know who the killer is!"
Benson frowned. "They're police Rigby. They'll find out who did it"
Rigby chuckled then turned to the car. "Whatever Benson. We're the detectives here. We'll find out who did it"
"Good luck" Benson called as they drove away. "Idiots"
