A/N: I am open to debate on any of my historical extrapolations on the origins of Darkwing Duck.
A/N: I have done a lot of work to get ALL my posted chapters as worthy of third party reading as I am able. I assure you that the attention I have given Darkwing Duck over the last 6+ months is copious.
The Contract
At S.H.U.S.H. headquarters Hooter sat at his desk, calmly watching as Grizlykoff paced a wide circle in his office.
"I am the terror that ..."
"Zo, it is Darkvink Duck at last."
"... Agent Grizlykoff, if you don't mind ..." Darkwing replied in an annoyed voice. "I am the terror that flaps in the night."
"Yah, we is knowink this! Stop wastink time!"
Somewhat disconcerted, Darkwing appeared out of the vapour cloud and let his black and grey cape fall back to his sides. He advanced on Grizlykoff, charged and ready to take on whatever the bear had for him. "For your information it is not a waste of time! Not even half as much as your paperwork is!"
"Hello, Darkwing." Hooter interrupted in his usual friendly tone. Darkwing backed off from the growling Grizlykoff and faced the impervious S.H.U.S.H. director. "Are you using a different smoke cartridge? Didn't it use to be blue smoke?"
"I'm just doing my bit for the environment." Darkwing ad-libbed and stepped towards the desk.
"You said it was urgent, chief?"
"Yes, we're having a bit of trouble with our investigation into a homicide."
"That's no problem, for this master of mystery!" Darkwing announced confidently. "I'll find ..."
"Already is we knowink ze suspect, yah!" Grizlykoff interrupted yet again before Darkwing could speak any more words of alliteration. "The matter only is we have not enough evidence that we can incinerate him."
"Uh, don't you mean incarcerate him?" Darkwing had a nervous twinge in his chest. When it came to Grizlykoff, either word was probably appropriate. "So who is he?" Darkwing looked back at Hooter, sitting forever calm in his office chair.
"The suspect is Drake Mallard."
There was a split second delay as internally Darkwing fought back his shock, reassessing the predicament he was in. "... Okay, that's quite a long list to go through," he applied the same aloofness that came with the Darkwing persona; "why him?"
Hooter handed a manila file to Darkwing and he glanced in at the first page.
Drake Mallard, Senior
Case status: cold
Case status: reopened
"I don't do cold cases, sir." He put the file back on the table. Then he glanced at Grizlykoff. "Actually, I didn't think S.H.U.S.H. handled cold cases either. Why are you reopening the case on someone who died so many years ago?"
"Are you familiar with the facts in that case?"
"I remember reading something about it when I was a teenager." Darkwing crossed his arms. "Twenty years is a long time."
"It was the mysterious death of a firefighter with an outstanding reputation as an able-bodied, sound of mind and quick thinking individual."
Darkwing felt a private swell of pride.
"We've reopened the case because there's been another homicide that's identical to that one." Darkwing's mind turned back to being attentive.
"You mean the fire on Playhouse Avenue? Are you suggesting someone used the cover of a fire to hide another murder? Was this one a firefighter too?" Darkwing hadn't seen anyone suspicious when he went in there. They must have already left.
"No; the victim is Curtis Mane. Are you familiar with this person?"
Darkwing checked his memory. "He's the new executive officer of Mackerel & Co, isn't he?" Unfortunately that was all Darkwing knew, because his pristine memory only went back as far as his friendship with Elmo Sputterspark. Before that it was incredibly blotchy; Darkwing was flat out remembering Drake Mallard Senior's face, let alone any of his friends.
"It might also interest you to know that Curtis Mane attended Drake Mallard Senior's funeral. Other than the original killer, only one other person could know the two victims, the specific details of the crime and who has the potential capability for committing such an act."
"You mean the boy in the photograph?" Darkwing scowled. "Not even Megavolt has such loose connections. Where's the motive? What about the cannery guy's people?"
"He only just moved back to St Canard. He left his ex-wife three states away. He didn't have a chance to make any new friends or enemies before he was killed."
"Well, when you put it like that, it does seem likely to be a twenty year vendetta." Darkwing admitted.
"Sir, zis is a waste of time. I can handle zis assignment. We do not need zis ... Duck."
"Until we have more solid evidence to offer the Attorney's office, your theory is just that. I think a little discretion is in order, agent Grizlykoff."
"Sir! A clown costume I do not think is discretion!"
Darkwing tsked, folding his arms. The Midnight Mallard was an act well polished and this was the enemy right here and now. "We all know how you deal with your suspects, Grizlykoff. You're like a natural disaster. It doesn't matter to you whether they're innocent or not."
"Steady on, Darkwing. Agent Grizlykoff just follows procedures. We're all on the same side after all."
"Drake Mallard Junior is the only suspect we have found."
Darkwing opened out the file on the table, spreading out the photographs, including the picture of the Mallard family; the mother, the father and the son together for the last time before the camera. So this was where that photo had disappeared to.
"Do you realise you're proposing a six year old killed his own father by firing a gun with perfect accuracy at the back of his head from four metres away and from what would be an elevated position for him and then he covered it up by burning down a three storey apartment block miles away from his own home?"
"No, but we do think Mallard may have copycatted the original crime."
"He is a clearly unstable individual." Grizlykoff interjected. "All evidence shows this."
"It doesn't mention here any pyromaniacal tendencies in the child psychologist's report."
"No. We think he may have done it in revenge on the first killer."
That was too much. "Revenge?" Darkwing repeated, dismayed. "Sir, surely you can see this is a daisy chain theory?"
"It's the only theory we have to go on at the moment. That's why we've brought you in. You're not the only one unconvinced. Rex Euston wasn't either."
"Oh, I bet." Darkwing wasn't relieved, however, as he stood beside Grizlykoff who was nearly foaming at the bit on this inconvenient turnout for his one and only suspect.
"How could Mallard possibly have found the killer, when all the kings and horses of St Canard couldn't?"
"Drake Mallard Junior is a disturbed and troubled individual. Before he was even eight years old he stormed out of a counseling session and refused to return for any more visits. There's basically no telling to what lengths a mind this deviant may go to achieve what he wants." Hooter lifted another file from his stack beside him on the table and began rifling through it. He began quoting off a page. " 'An aggressive temperament combined with a hair-trigger over-reactive response to minor infractions.' "
"It sounds like you've already had him in for questioning. Where'd that report come from?"
"That was his entrance exam to St Canard police academy about nine years ago." Hooter put the son's file down on top of the father's one. He opened the file to the psychology report page for Darkwing to look at.
Darkwing stared at his alter ego's file sitting there in front of Hooter in total dismay. It was just as if he'd walked in on his own autopsy.
"Did Mallard get in to the academy with those results?"
"Nein, he most certainly did not!" Grizlykoff was appalled at even the suggestion. "A person like that is a criminal in ze makink."
Darkwing glared at the bear agent. "Good, then he'll have a long list of felonious activities for the last ten years and it'll be easy to bring him in under the cover of some other legitimate charge." He rubbed his hands together as if to clean them of the case. "Another destructive force taken off the street; well done."
Hooter cleared his throat.
"Mallard's been on the St Canard voting roll for only the last two years and there's only one incident on his record. He was cleared of that when you presented evidence of Bushroot's money counterfeiting trees. Besides, it may well have taken him twenty years to find his father's killer. A person who's after revenge doesn't have to be out there committing other crimes. He might have been waiting for his opportunity to strike."
"You are talking about a six year old child."
"He iz not beink zix any more." Grizlykoff countered. "He iz tventy zix."
Darkwing flicked to the next page in his alter ego's file and gazed down at the dismal test scores from his graduate year. He knew they'd be here too. "Grizz, even you must have trouble believing a student who scrape-passed high school could locate someone twenty years after the highly trained and qualified police detective force of St Canard from-which-he-was-denied-entrance-to gave up?"
"If mind is focus, anything can do."
Darkwing gaped at Grizlykoff in disbelief. That was the single most intelligent thing the agent had ever said around Darkwing and he was intent to bury Darkwing's alter ego with it? "According to this EQ report, Mallard's emotional turmoil wouldn't let him focus his mind through a six lane tunnel." He closed the file.
"Exactly; he's just the sort of person who might end up killing someone." To Darkwing's private horror, Hooter continued to support Grizlykoff's argument.
Darkwing frowned, casting his eyes away. "Persecution and witch hunting is what turned three of the Fearsome Five into criminals in the first place. Nine years later, and Elmo Sputterspark's still taking revenge on society. I don't know about you, but I think that it's bad enough out there with a Fearsome Five. I don't want to be responsible for creating a Sadistic Six."
"But that's entirely the reason why we've requested you to look into this matter. The fact of the matter is that we don't have any more leads and the one that we have is not substantial enough as both you and Attorney Euston have pointed out."
"I'll certainly look into it." Darkwing picked up the three case files: Curtis Mane, Drake Mallard Junior and Senior and tucked them into his breast pocket.
"Darkwing, skeptical as you may be on the idea, be careful around Drake Mallard. No one knows what a person like that is capable of, and the reports in that file are nine years out of date."
"That's one fact you don't have to remind me of, chief." He picked up the edge of his cape and disapparated.