Revised and edited 8th July 2017
A/N: Thank you so much for sticking with this story, everyone! Last year's been a crazy one. Political events in my country surpass any fantasy book. Harry Potter's Department of Mysteries has nothing on us. Also, problems at work took their toll.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Chapter 8 – Inner Nature
"Somebody call the cops! We have a missing patient here!"
"He's not missing, Ma'am! He just - maybe he went to the bathroom or somethin'.." finished Benny lamely.
The enormous redheaded nurse turned her bulky frame to glare down at the small blue cat. "Went to the bathroom my behind!" she said in a mean, gravelly voice. "I can smell my patients from a hundred feet away, and this patient I cannot-!"
She paused mid-rant, as if struck by a bolt of understanding. In two monster steps, she had crossed the room and thrown the glass panes open. She leaned over the hedge dangerously, and pulled back with a very disheveled yellow cat in one beefy hand.
"Tryna be Super Cat, are we?! Get in your bed!" she growled, and with that, she near-slammed Top Cat into the bed and wrapped him in its thin hospital sheets tight. Benny ran back up to his chair and leaned over it as far as he could, grinning. Top Cat's messy head was the only thing poking out of the wrapped sheets, and the blue feline jovially commented that his leader looked like a burrito ("A purrito. Hahaa! Get it, T.C? Get it?") Benny thought it was funny, but the smile quickly faded when Top Cat did not react. He only glared at the offensive nurse weakly, gaze lacking its usual sharpness.
The nurse brought up her hand and gave him an aggressive I'm onto ya! motion before turning towards the door. She grabbed the knob in one hand and turned back to face him. "Tryta run 'way again and I'll be lockin' ya up. You don' wanna see me when I'm uncivilized. Don't make me do something you'll regret." She slammed the door shut.
"Civilized? Civilized? You don't even look like a man you damn gorilla," wheezed Top Cat through harsh breaths.
"Uh, T.C.? That's a lady nurse."
"That thing's a female?!" was his disbelieving gasp before he collapsed into painful coughs, paws flying to his throat. Benny's tentatively-rising spirits plummeted once more, and his ears drooped against his head as he quickly took his seat and dragged it as close as possible to the cream-colored bed. He watched his leader wheeze weakly with forlorn, scared eyes.
oOoOoOoOoOo
"You're goin' up there now, aren't ya?"
"Uh-huh. I need ta check on T.C.," said Dibble tiredly as Mahoney gave him a sympathetic look and accepted the hot coffee offered to him. "We gotta talk about this soon. He's already got a good alibi and I can testify ta him bein' in the alley when the mayor's girl was kidnapped, but I can't help him much if he won' tell me about that crack job."
"You think he'll say much? Did he actually ever give somethin' useful before he was catnapped?"
"Not much, an' I don' know what ta think anymore," sighed the policeman heavily. "Years living in the same street, Mahone - gettin' at each other's throats every other day and I'm still no closer to figurin' him out. Maybe after this mess he'll be more willin' to help..." he shook his head and sighed into his mug."Who am I kidding?"
The two policeman left the precinct building together. Dibble rubbed his face in exhaustion and lifted his own coffee to take a sip. Coffee seemed to be working less and less effectively on him, he thought ruefully. The sun was warm and pleasant in New York's afternoon sky.
"Mahoney, was it really G.P. that did this?"
"I'm sure of it. His methods fit Shirley's descriptions and what little we know about 'im."
"Do ya think he did this 'cause Top Cat's a danger to him? But in what way? And why now?"
"Sorry, Dib. You're gonna have ta add that to the list of questions T.C. probably doesn' wanna answer." Dibble groaned, and placed his palm against a forehead lined with lack of sleep.
The young redhead shook his head. "Cheer up, Dib. I know he ain't the most helpful individual but you gotta give'im the benefit of the doubt every once in a while. You know T.C. He can jus' be stubborn as sh-"
"Mahoney, spare my ears," said Dibble tiredly. "You of all people are tellin' me this? You? People don't really change, they just don't."
"Yes, me. Exactly," said Mahoney "I'm tellin' you this because it's me tellin' ya - I know what I'm talkin' about. And things ain't always that simple you know; 'nobody truly changes' an' all that. I for one never bought it. Everybody was as soft as water once."
"Mahone.."
"Take our very own T.C," the younger policeman went on. "he ain't nearly as violent as he used to be!"
Dibble blinked. "What are ya talkin' about?"
Mahoney gave Dibble a big sideways grin. "You didn' know him far back like I did, so learn from your master."
Dibble almost laughed in his face. It was hard to envision Top Cat being anything derived from the word 'aggressive'. That guy avoided confrontation at all times if he could help it. Top Cat may look and talk like a hardened gangster, but the very sight of a gun made him scream for a cop from a mile off.
Mahoney started his story. "See..there was this thing that happened a long time ago when we were kids," he reminisced, "I was still a schoolboy, and Top Cat and Benny were the kittens that lived in the back alley behind my old elementary school. It drove me and my friends nuts; some lunchboxes would disappear every other day. And it became our new game: find the answer to the Mystery of the Missing Lunchboxes. We figured out soon enough that Top Ca - oh yeah, he was Top Kitten back then - was taking them.
So…and before you go judging me, I'm not proud of what I did, okay? Jus' thought if I played a mean trick on them - scared them enough, they would stop sneaking into the school and eating our sandwiches, so I went to the pet store and bought a muzzle.."
"I really don't like where this is going -"
"Lemme finish. We ambushed them one morning at school. Turns out they were using the gutters to get in and out unseen. Benny was the chubby one, so he was easier to catch, of course. My friends pinned him down while I snapped the muzzle on his mouth tight shut. We laughed when he started mewling. And just to scare him enough into never coming back again, one of the boys grabbed his tail and threatened to pull it out if he didn't stop it from trembling. I remember another kid mocking how tiny and ugly the tail was.
"Next thing I remember, T.C. was on Jamie's face. When Jamie shoved him off, his face was this spiderweb of red lines. The boys screamed – I think I did too, actually – and they all bolted and I just sat there. Poor Jamie just burst into tears and ran off, hiding his face in his hands. I was the only one who stayed behind, gaping like an idiot at a vicious-looking kitten. A smart kitten, too. He figured out quickly how to open the little bolts on the muzzle and pulled it off of Benny. You know what he did after that?"
Dibble forgot to answer, because his mouth was hanging open.
"He bit down my nose till it broke."
"What?"
Mahoney roared with laughter at the look on his comrade's face, "You think it always looked like that?" he touched the bump on the bridge with his thumb. "Nosir. I got it for being an arrogant little brat. Sure, they should not have been stealing our food, but I wasn't any better, the way I handled it. I also remember Benny sitting there on his haunches, crying his eyes out while T.C. killed my nose and I screamed bloody murder. "
"That…was disturbing, to be honest. I never knew you two knew each other that far back."
"Well, that's 'bout the most interesting thing that happened in all the years of our acquaintanceship. Come on, Dib; haven't you ever wondered why Top Cat hates my guts?"
He hadn't. He never noticed, and the more Dibble pondered it, the more he realized that Top Cat always seemed to regard Mahoney with a disdain reserved just for him. How he stiffened whenever Mahoney called out to or talked to him. Then it came back to him suddenly – a forgotten memory, so brief one can easily write it off as insignificant. How Top Cat had practically crossed the road in two leaps and pulled Benny (who just happened to be standing unintentionally close) away from the policeman, glaring at him in unconcealed disgust.
Dibble remembered that his colleague had been holding a dark blue muzzle then. It had been a gift accessory; for his cousin's new bulldog. Apparently T.C. had a different theory.
The redhead cop flicked a tear of mirth from his eye. "I guess you can say T.C. thinks of me as some kind of cat-torturing pervert with a muzzle fetish. I shouldn't be laughin' I know but aw Dibble don' gimme that look!" and Mahoney nearly spilled his coffee onto his uniform again as his hand shook with laughter. Dibble shook his head and fought off a smile. Reminding himself that no, it is not funny you are a grown man, he said: "Ya know, maybe if you apologize for what ya did to Benny, T.C. will accept ya within twenty feet of 'em."
"Eh. I tried."
"Mahoney," said Dibble after a few minutes of silence. "I've been thinking somethin' for some time now, but without any proof or confirmation from that T.C, I can't act upon it. Everytime I tryta form an image of G.P, I keep thinkin' he looks a great deal like T.C."
Mahoney gave him a strange look.
"What?"
Mahoney seemed lost in his own thoughts for just a moment, then began carefully. "Ya know I trust Shirley. Most of the our colleagues don't. The old belief is held that you never trust a double agent. But I've known her for a long time. I've known Trish, her best friend - for a long time, too.
"She was the most wonderful dog, and her death was terrible news for all of us. She lived in my precinct, ya know," he smiled sadly at the memory. "I saw her everyday like ya see T.C.'s gang. Except she was the most intuitive, most generous soul you could meet. Even if she chatted yer ear off. Beagles are like that.
"When you are someone as intuitive as Trish, you wouldn' be best friends with someone who is a liar or a murderer. And if there is one thing no one can ever change my mind about is how much Shirley loves Trish's kids."
Dibble remained silent so the redheaded cop went on:"Shirley told me a few things about G.P. Not much more than what you already know because it would put her in too much danger. Shirley may be his best nincat, but he is suspicious by nature, and she's made it clear that he wouldn' hesistate to kill her should she say anything more that what he deems enough for the police."
"Did she say what G.P. looks like?" asked Dibble in a hushed voice.
"Not really. She didn't need to – I knew from the way she saw Top Cat for the first time."
oOoOoOoOoOo
Dibble opened the door to Top Cat's hospital room very softly and was about to call a greeting when he saw the two still lumps under the blankets. Slipping in as soundlessly as he could (he always felt too big and too clumsy compared to his coworkers), he set the gift apple basket on the plain table by Top Cat's bed and took a moment to watch.
Both cats were asleep. Top Cat was breathing easily enough. Benny was curled against his side, purring faintly; a primal attempt at comfort. Dibble sighed and sat on the now-empty chair. He reached a hand and patted the yellow cat's head, and did not bother to contain his smirk when Top Cat's eyes dazedly opened, and slowly focused in the policeman's face.
"..What have I told you about touchin' ma head, Dibble?"
His voice was very weak, but hearing it was enough to make some peace in Dibble's heart. He smiled warmly at the cat. It wasn't lost on him after years of dealing with the little delinquent, that Top Cat did not like being petted by people - human people, unless he was the one to initiate it. Then again, a lot of the cats Dibble knew were like that. It was an alley cat thing, apparently.
Benny was an exception to a lot of the rules, though. He let anybody pet him, and as the policeman shifted to pet the small blue cat as he slept, he relaxed and the purring grew unhalted and content.
Dibble reckoned he had pulled Benny out of the arms of as many phsycopaths, street rats and hillbillies as Top Cat did himself. The little guy was like a walking purr motor. In fact, the thought crept up on the policeman, Benny would follow anybody who offered him affection or food...
Top Cat being particularly watchful of Benny was actually starting to make more and more sense to Dibble.
"Leave Benny's head alone, Dibble."
"Will ya stop actin' like a three-year old?"
"If ya stop this creepy human tendency to see every breathin' creature as a potential fur coat."
"Oh for God's sake!" he threw up his arms, startling poor Benny awake. "You are unbelievable! I have never in my life - "
"Keep it down!" rasped the cat as he clutched his head, and Dibble felt a stab of guilt at the genuine pained look on his face. The blanket shifted with the cat's movement and the heavy bandaging around his neck came into clearer view. "I got enough goin' on without ya givin' me a concussion with your lovely baritone."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I wouldn' talk about this now if it weren't important. Then I'll leave ya to yer rest, I promise. Look, I even got ya apples!"
"What're we talkin' about?"
"Okay, listen to me very carefully,T.C. Ya listenin'? You are accused of kidnappin' Miss Reese Kinsay. Ya know - the mayor's eldest daughter?"
"Ya don' say."
Dibble stared in utter incredulousness. "You know?"
"I have a talent fer gettin' news firsthand." A paw went up to massage his throat, his eyes no longer meeting Dibble's.
"Then explain to me what the heck's goin' on! What do ya know about this?"
The cat lifted his irises to look at Dibble. "Ya don' believe I'd do a thing like this, do ya?"
"No, I don't. But ya know somethin'. And furthermore, you couldn't have been anywhere near when it happened to begin with. But how do ya know what happened? And why did G.P. try ta kill ya?"
Top Cat's expression was closing more and more as the conversation progressed. "..I know because he told me, sick person that he is. As for why he tried ta off me..well we're not exactly on the friendliest of terms if ya haven't caught up. Why wouldn' he?"
"That's not a reason! People can hate each other but nothing excuses murder! What is it between you two that has him so angry he wants ta get rid of ya?"
"Ya think this is about me?" Top Cat said with an incredulous glare. "He's the murderin' bastard! I don' wanna have anythin' to do with'im nor do I ever wanna see his face again! All I care about is getting' Spook outta that hellhole - "
The rest of his words dissolved in pained coughing. Dibble reached for the pitcher and poured a glass of water. It was more warm than cold, but he expected the nurses to know the technicalities of their job.
T.C. drank the water in a few wheezing gulps and put the glass back sloppily onto the side table. He curled back into his bed and almost looked small, like a kitten. Benny looked up at him for a moment before he wrapped his short arms around his leader's middle, the tips of his ears only just reaching Top Cat's nose.
"You're not alone in this. I want Spook back, too. The two holes missin' in this picture is where his hideout is, and his physical description."
"I have no idea where the slime stays," said Top Cat. "He moves around a lot. I ain' even sure if he has a place to call headquarters."
"Probably. What I still don' understand is why ya didn' see the point of gracing me with the information that you two look very similar."
Top Cat averted his eyes to the paw tightly gripping the bed sheets, the forced calm expression on his face slipping. It was Benny who spoke.
"He didn' because it hurt, Officer Dibble."
"Benny. Stay out of this," warned Top Cat.
"..T.C, you idiot," said Benny, his face still pressed against yellow fur, looking more like a kitten than ever before. Top Cat looked down at him in surprise. "You never ask for help. And look where we are now! You almost died!" he could feel a wetness against his fur.
"Benny, I –" began Top Cat, looking for once anxious in Dibble's eyes.
"At least trust Officer Dibble. He's never stirred us wrong before. I wanna get Spook back, but I don' wanna lose you or any of the guys for that. You're the one who always said ta never do anythin' reckless that would put us in danger."
The look on Top Cat's face Dibble could only describe as guilty, pained. The yellow cat looked down on his best friend's head. His expression was sad, affectionate. And for one desperate moment, Dibble thought he was going to give in. Thought he was about to give him that affirmation that would make him cease to grope blindly in the dark.
But Top Cat buried his nose into Benny's soft head and said nothing.