From the diary of Carmelita Montoya Fox Cooper, Inspector

Penelope and I came back from our shopping and dinner trip to find Bentley asleep in his wheelchair with the twins in his lap, Sly asleep with Moses and Angelina in his lap, and Murray asleep with Sylvia in his lap- the Cooper gang, domesticated. I wanted to get pictures but Sly woke up and ruined my chance before I could get the camera focused.

Once those three were the only family they had; all of them were alone, with no one else. When one was caught, the other two dropped everything and risked anything to get the captured one loose. When Sly came with me, I knew there were times when he badly missed his friends; when we were threatened by my brother Pierre, they stood behind him even though he told them not to, thinking they would be in trouble if his plan failed. Now, since Bentley and Sly had families, they were like a normal family where the children grew up and keep in touch regularly. They were straight, as far as Sly and I knew, because all of them had other sources of excitement now- Sly had his job, Bentley was building a time machine, and Murray was a racecar driver- and none of them had money worries. I could not believe it when I discovered that those two had shoved Sly's share of the Cooper vault into a storage space and left it. I couldn't believe they left him a share. If anything else, that tells me how close those three were.

It was a week later that the first copycat crime happened.

Sly was at a board member's meeting for the orphanage. Sometime after the matter with Pierre was over, but before I had Angelina, Mom and I were contacted about Pierre's estate. He had no will, and Mom had foolishly signed away all rights to him when she and his father divorced, so I was his heir. I didn't want any of his damned money. I knew where it came from. Mom didn't want it either. My father left her comfortable if not rich. Sly listened to both of us, and finally suggested that we give the money to the orphanage, seeing that it was what Pierre wanted to destroy. Well, not long after, I got a note inviting us to a reception given for those who supported the orphanage with donations. I was curious enough to insist that we go. Once there, I got away from Sly and talked to the sweet, shrewd lady who handles the donations, and found that Sly donated money regularly, and they had been trying to get him to be a member of the board for ages. She knew that Sly checked on occasion, to be sure the money was being used for the children. They had managed to change with the times, and were a major source of family services as well as an orphanage. I informed Sly that if I could leave them Pierre's money, he could make sure it was being used right, and grumbling, he finally agreed. The law firm that had handled all of Sly's business for him was more than glad to handle the matter for us. I still remember meeting them, as I had to sign papers. They were typical lawyers, and they laid out papers and explained all of them, and I signed. Over and over they asked me was I sure, didn't I want the money for my unborn child instead, until Sly, coming to see what took me so long, reminded them mildly that I had made my mind up, gentlemen, now leave my wife alone. They backed off.

"Why didn't they want me to sign over the trust?" I asked.

"They're greedy bastards," he said, driving us away-I was big enough by that time that he insisted on driving. "If they handle the trust, they get paid for it. The orphanage has their own attorney, who does their work at a reduced fee."

"What do they do for you? And why did they back off so fast?"

"Bentley dug up some dirt on them some time ago, when they handled the trust I had from my father. They'd lose their reputation if it came out. I don't hold it over them, but they know I know about it." He was quiet for the rest of the trip. Then, when we got home, he went over a lot of stuff with me, including his will, his bank accounts, and the fact that he had the loot from the Cooper vault, which he was quietly liquidating through Bentley. I had been fretting a little about money, even knowing something about his "business." I stopped worrying.

Anyway, Sly was in one of their board meetings when the word came that one of the local crime lords had been cleaned out. I found out when the Captain asked me where Sly was. I told them, and he sent a man to check. Sure enough, they confirmed he was in front of about twelve board members, two orphanage representatives, and an attorney when the crime occurred. It was a brilliant crime, and left behind in the safe was a small card, of a stylized raccoon head. The buzz in the lower office was that the Cooper gang had resurfaced. I went to check it out, and it was similar to the crimes I investigated for Sly's gang, except that the thief seemed to be working alone. The one glimpse anyone got was of a raccoon. On a hunch, I looked to see if the Cooper Gang case file was still in the records. It was gone. The matron who handled that part of the files had fits. By that time, Sly had arrived, and the Captain swept him and me into his office. "All right," he said, looking tired. "Inspector, report." I reported, while they listened. Sly had that dark look on his face.

"Why?" he wondered out loud.

"They got one hell of a lot of money," I said sourly.

"That's a good reason to break into the safe, but why use the Cooper card? The word out is that Sly Cooper's dead, and the gang is busted. We've done our best to make that stick." He started fidgeting.

"Copycats are trying to imitate, to be as good as the original," the Captain mused.

"With that stunt he was trying to copy Sly Cooper," Sly agreed. "In being dead. He took the devil's own risk, more than I would- and even I admit I was reckless. I had backup if I needed it, and that saved my neck more times than I can count."

"But we didn't know that for some time," I told him. "And this time we don't know he didn't have backup, just that they weren't seen."

"And most other thieves thought I was a damn fool, not someone to copy-the professional thieves, that is, not that I cared. Outside the professionals and the police, who knows about the Cooper gang? The only reason I can think of for someone to copycat is to throw blame on me."

"The colors are different," I said, looking at the picture of the card. "Yours was blue and white. This one is blue and black." I showed it to him. He looked at it and agreed, but frowned at it as if it reminded him of something. I resolved to ask why later. The captain sighed.

"Speculation is getting us nowhere," he said. "Inspector, I know this will hurt your team, but Syl needs to be out of this. I'm loaning him to search and rescue for three months or until this matter is settled." I nodded, relieved. Sly sat up as if he couldn't believe his ears. "You got lucky today," the captain went on, looking hard at Sly. "Search and rescue has requested your help before and you never objected."

"I don't object to helping but I need to –"

"Will you be able to help if you're shot at by other cops? That description fits you too damn well! "When the Captain raises his voice, everyone listens. Sly shut up. He was mad as hell, but he shut up. "If there's anything you can contribute outside the field, feed it to Carmelita. I don't object to that. Otherwise you report to search and rescue. I know the old dog who heads that department and he tries to get you transferred every time you help them out." I knew that; Sly told me humorously of all the times he had been coaxed to transfer when they happened, and I always told him he couldn't go, and we'd pretend to argue.

"It's not permanent," I said, "Right?"

"Hell, no." Sly relaxed just a bit. "Something about this bothers me. Something I'm not seeing but I know it's there. All right? I'll talk to you later, Cooper." Sly left. "Obstacle course?" he asked me. I nodded. When Sly is really pissed and not where he could take some action, he would go run the obstacle course to vent his spleen. We talked a while longer, and I left to review what we had and make arrangements. Some time later, I heard a shot, and went to see what was going on. Another rang out, and I began to run, shoving others out of the way. The sounds were coming from the obstacle course.