Almost a year had passed since the incident. Bentley and Murray stayed away from any criminal activity to focus on finding Sly. Carmelita cut down on her work hours to conduct her own investigation, but she was still efficient as always when it came to arresting criminals. The three met up every week to exchange any new information they found. As for Le Paradox, he was locked up after miraculously surviving a significant fall from his blimp, after which Sly was never seen again. The Inspector made sure to pay the skunk a visit every day and question him about the raccoon's whereabouts.
By then, Carmelita had already more than memorized the process she had to follow to enter the prison. First, she would show her badge and ID at the front desk. Then, the vixen would walk down an empty hallway until reaching interrogation room number five. If the fox was really quiet as she waited for the door to open, she could hear the other inmates in the courtyard. Right before the door in front of her opened, she would hear a clunking sound and a loud buzzing that let her know she could now open it.
In the interrogation room there were just a few things. In its middle, a metallic table with two chairs facing each other; above the table, a pendant lamp; and, on the wall, one of those mirrors you could look through from the other side. On one of the chairs was, of course, Cyrille Le Paradox. Handcuffed so that his hands were always on the table.
As soon as the fox walked in, she felt the unbearable stench of the skunk, which she still hadn't gotten used to.
"Inspector! You came to visit!" said Le Paradox with an irritating and sarcastic voice.
Carmelita remained quiet and silent. Then, she sat in front of the skunk and stared at him.
"Cat got your tongue, Inspector?" Le Paradox flashed his overconfident smile, which Carmelita wanted to break with her boot. "Don't worry. Lucky for you, I think I remember how the script usually goes." He cleared his throat. "Cyrille, this is your last chance! If you don't tell me where my boyfriend is, you'll never see the light of day ever again." The skunk mocked her with a terrible impression that made the fox's blood boil. "And then I'll go: But, Miss Fox, I don't know where I sent that miserable raccoon. I swear-" Carmelita interrupted Le Paradox by grabbing him by the neck of his orange jumpsuit and slamming his head against the table.
The vixen got up and lifted the skunk over the table. "Look, you worthless piece of garbage, I'm gonna lock you up in a hole and make sure you don't get any fucking food or water. So you better start running that reeking mouth of yours." She pushed him back to the chair.
"Ow, ow, ow." Le Paradox complained about the hit on the head. "Inspector, we both know you don't have the power to do that. You're even lucky that they let you come here every day. Although, I can't blame them. They see you running around desperate and depressed, looking for someone you'll never see again. The least they can do is let you come here and punish me without recess to ask me the same boring questions every day." Carmelita gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "Look, if you want to hear me say it so bad. I have absolutely no idea which part of history I sent Sly Cooper."
The fox slammed the table. "You sent him away! You must know how to bring him back!"
"It was randomized. That was the fun part." The skunk rolled his eyes. "And even if I knew, why the hell would I help you?"
The vixen grabbed him by his white hair and pulled back. "Cause if not, you are going to end up as a rug in my living room."
"Fox…" A voice behind the mirror made her keep her hands off the skunk.
Carmelita growled and sat back down. "You're gonna rot in here, Le Paradox."
"Look, Inspector, I advise you to drop this pointless investigation of yourself and face the truth… Cooper is dead." The vixen punched him right on the nose.
"Fox! That's it, get out of there!" said the voice behind the mirror.
"Ow! Putain de merde, you broke my nose!" Le Paradox covered his nose with his hands as blood started to drip. Carmelita got up and left the room.
As she walked back through the long and empty hall, the vixen tried to turn a deaf ear to the skunk's words. She was determined to not give up and keep searching, but a small part of her couldn't help to wonder if she would ever see Sly again. The fox went back to the station and finished her workday. Then, she resumed her investigation.
That day, Carmelita inspected some of the rooftops around the zone where they found the blimp's wreckage. Like every other day, the vixen hoped to find a clue to Sly's whereabouts, but she had no luck. After all those months, the only thing she came across was the picture Sly took on their first date. The fox kept it with love and always carried it with her.
After it got dark, the vixen decided to call it a day and go home, even though she didn't want to. Every time she turned her key and walked into her empty apartment where she used to live with the raccoon, it felt like her whole world came crashing down on her. Carmelita prepared some dinner and then stepped out to the balcony to get some fresh air. From the outside, she could see her apartment door. Many were the times that she dreamt Sly would randomly knock on her door in the middle of the night. But, every time, she would wake up and go back to her bitter and crude reality.
When she started to get cold, Carmelita went back inside and prepared to go to bed, looking forward to meeting Bentley and Murray the next day. Just before getting into bed, the vixen opened her closet, where she still kept Sly's clothes. The fox took one of his shirts and held it close to her. The faint scent that still remained on it made her recall one of those evenings when she would come home to snuggle up on the couch with the raccoon. Carmelita got into bed with the shirt and tried to fall asleep as she held back tears and felt how guilt ate her up.
The next morning, after waking up to an empty bed, the fox got up, stretched her body, and put Sly's shirt back in the closet before taking a quick shower and getting ready for the day. As she made some coffee, Carmelita put all the evidence she had found the past week inside a folder and got ready to set off for the Cooper's Gang hideout. She put on her coat, went down the street, and began to walk through the streets of Paris. Soon, she arrived at the square where Le Théâtre Formidable, Dimitri's nightclub, was located, which, at this hour, was obviously closed. The hideout was nearby. Once she got to the door, the vixen made sure that nobody that could recognize her was around and knocked. A few seconds later, Murray answered the door.
"Oh. Hi, Carmelita." said the hippo with a big smile.
"Hello, Murray. Can I come in?" Carmelita smiled back.
"Sure." He stepped aside and closed the door behind the fox. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Some tea would be nice, thanks."
"Tea coming right up!" Murray walked into the kitchen, and Carmelita went to the living room, where Bentley was.
"Hi, Bentley." said the vixen as she took off his coat.
"Good morning, Inspector." The turtle adjusted his glasses and closed his laptop. "How are things?"
"Could be better. How about you, guys?"
"Well, we are hanging in there. Still no luck in finding Sly."
"Same. Here's everything I found in the past week. Most of them are pictures of pieces of scrap, I know they're probably from Le Paradox's blimp, but I thought you could take a look at them. Maybe they can give us a clue to find him." She handed him the folder.
"Sure. And how about Le Paradox? Is he still not talking?" he asked while looking at the pictures.
"That gray-haired rat knows nothing. Talking to him starts to look like a waste of time."
"Just give me five minutes with him, and I'll have him talking!" said Murray as he came back from the kitchen. "Here's your tea, Carmelita."
"Thanks, Murray." The vixen took a sip of her drink and looked around the hideout. It was not very organized, but it was cozy.
She let Bentley and Murray look at the evidence she had recollected while she took a look inside Sly's room. She had done it before, but the fox couldn't help getting a little emotional when she looked at the raccoon's things. After he decided to give up his criminal life, his friends didn't want to change anything from his room, so it was practically the same as when he was living there. The first thing that Carmelita saw was his cane and mask, which he left behind on Kaine Island. The fox sat on his bed and looked around before spotting something on his bedside table. The Thievius Raccoonus. The vixen had never seen it before.
"Is this the book Sly was always talking about?" she asked Bentley and Murray in the other room.
"Oh, yeah. I guess I must have left it there after I cleaned up yesterday..." said Murray.
"And I suppose you have already checked it." The vixen walked back to the living room.
"I read it from top to bottom twice every week. No page has changed since Sly went missing. It seems like the easiest and most logical way for him to communicate with us, but if he hasn't done it by now, he may be stuck in time before the book was created."
"And when was that?" she asked.
"Sometime before 1300 BC," said Bentley. Carmelita raised her eyebrows and stared at the book.
"Can I take a look at it?"
"Sure," said the turtle and the hippo in unison.
While they kept going through the folder the vixen brought, she sat on the couch next to them and opened the Thievius Raccoonus. Apart from a chapter dedicated to each Cooper, the book contained many other things she found interesting, like a manual on how to pick locks and attack with a cane and the things that Sly and Bentley wrote on it. She paid special attention to the latter. It was clear who wrote which parts. Bentley's calligraphy was flawless, and most of his inputs focused on the technical side of their adventure. As for Sly, he preferred to write about his many encounters with the fox inspector he was in love with.
"...tonight we managed to steal this weird sculpture from the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Since we knew that Carmelita was most likely to be around, our plan was that I swapped the sculpture for a fake and let Carmelita chase me for a while to give Murray and Bentley some time to escape. When we finally met outside the museum, she tried to handcuff me as always and kicked me in the ribs. It was a pretty hard kick, but I know she didn't really mean it. I mean, it's her job, but it could have been worse. She could have used her shock gun, but I know she misses on purpose. Carmelita's the person with the best aim I know, and it's always a funny coincidence that she misses every time she shoots at me. Well, not every time. There was that time in the Kunlun Mountains. Although I technically let her shoot me by not dodging or jumping…"
Carmelita's eyes began to tear up, and her lips drew a small smile. Even if it was the last thing she would do, she was going to bring Sly back.