They began outside the Oasis. Nick had gone for tan slacks and a blue shirt with a faint check whose top two buttons were open, quite a bit of chest fluff spilling out, and a cloth bag hung from his shoulder. Judy wore pastel yellow shorts and a white sports top, a long sweep of her midriff uncovered. Both sported sunglasses and broad-brimmed hats.

"Brindle left the Oasis at dusk," the rabbit related, "and headed in this direction." She indicated it. "Toward home."

"Twenty minutes away via the main road," Nick noted, as they started to walk, "or fifteen if he took the back road."

"Which he apparently never did, as it's dark and deserted and mostly abandoned, while the main street's brightly lit, with lots of people and cameras. Much safer, especially for a small mammal."

"And yet, he must have taken it that evening, because there's no sign of him on those cameras, and no-one saw him. Why?"

They stopped at the entrance to the back road, staring down it. Even in the daytime it was bathed in shadow, thanks to the ragged canopies stretching across most of it. Equally frayed curtains covered openings in worn sandstone walls along both sides, and dust and stale scents lay as thickly as the silence that filled it.

"Forced down it?" Judy theorised. "Though how..."

"Can't see Silverson using multiple heavies to vanish a single meerkat, so blocking him off is out. Maybe threatened a loved one?"

"Doubtful. Brindle was unusually solitary for a meerkat." Judy's head slowly cocked. "But a loved thing might work."

Nick looked unconvinced. "Come here or the TV gets it?"

"No." Judy pulled out her phone, loaded an image of Brindle. "Look at his neck."

"A chain. Thin. Silver."

"With a locket on it, one he never took off. Imagine someone stealing that, ripping it from his neck and running. He'd give chase, right?"

Nick nodded. "Maybe even if the thief took a dangerous back road."

"Then once they were far enough in, the thief turned on him, and..."

"I think we have a working hypothesis. Let's test it."

Side by side they paced into the back road, studying everything, from the walls to the dirt under their feet. Forty feet in, Nick brought them to a halt, pivoting to look back.

"Think this is far enough in. No-one could see, hard to hear. I can see our hypothetical thief ducking into one of these alcoves, and pouncing when Brindle caught up with them. Except..."

"The thief has to have been a small mammal or Brindle wouldn't have gone after them, so what could they have done with his body?"

"Exactly. Wasn't hidden here, or the searches would have discovered it, and they couldn't have taken it out without being seen, so..." Nick's muzzle wrinkled. "Hypothesis faltering. And what's that smell?"

"Smell?" Judy sniffed. "Can't pick it up."

"Very faint, but frustratingly familiar." Nick's frown deepened, and he started casting around. "Maybe one of the alcoves..."

Following his nose, the fox started checking the openings, a bemused rabbit trailing after him. After a good three minutes he finally stopped by one, expression grim.

"Strongest here, and I've a horrible feeling I know what it is, now..."

Judy squared her shoulders. "Let's see."

The rabbit eased back the curtain just enough for them to peer into a long, bare, oblong space with a slightly uneven flagstone floor, looking just as abandoned as the road. Nick stared, intently, then entered, his nose leading him towards the back of the alcove. Judy took two steps after him, then her ears snapped vertical.

"Someone's coming. Fast."

Nick hastened to retreat. "Then lets..."

"No time."

Nick grimaced. "I've an idea, but you'll hate it."

"Try me."

Fifteen seconds later a hare's face poked through the curtains, took in a rabbit splayed against the wall on tiptoes with her shorts around her ankles as a fox whose slacks were undone pounded his hips against her upturned rear, twisted in a grimace of disgust, and vanished. Nick and Judy froze, the latter's ears perked.

"They're gone," she soon reported.

Nick stepped back, doing up his slacks, reddened ears low. "Well, that was mortifying. If you want to punch me, I fully understand. I want to punch me. In the nose. With feeling."

Judy sighed, then started laughing. She pushed from the wall, turned and embraced the fox. "You're fine; I just...never, ever expected to find myself pulling that stunt again."

"Wait. Again?"

"Story for another time." Judy stepped back, tugging up her shorts.

Nick chuckled softly. "Fair enough. We're still clear?"

"Yes." Judy looked to the far end of the alcove. "Is it just me, or is one of those slabs more askew than the rest?"

"Not just you." Nick crossed to it, crouched, and sniffed. "We need to look under it."

Judy used her phone to light the slab while the fox used his to take a picture of it. Then, after donning gloves, the pair gripped either end of the slab and eased it aside. There was a hollow beneath which, at first glance, seemed to contain only dust, but when a light was shone on it, something glinted faintly.

Nick took a second photo, very carefully cleaned the object off with a gloved finger, slowly revealing a silver chain with a locket on it, took a third picture, then gently lifted the little case.

"It's Brindle's," Judy confirmed.

The fox opened it, took in the miniature photograph it contained, of a smiling silver fox, and his eyebrows rose. "Curiouser and curiouser."