Chapter 4- Cornering the animal.

Kane and Matt ventured through the hallways in search of Dave Batista, yet along the way they saw Festus and Jesse. Kane briefly talked to them as Jesse told Kane to thank the Undertaker for him. "It really brought out a new side to Festus, can you tell?" he asked.

Kane stared into the blank eyes of the odd, strange man. "Yeah… I see that" the only thing he saw was the drool getting thicker. Kane had seen dogs drool less over food than that guy. "I'll pass the message along" in his mind that eliminated those two, yet this was all for nothing. Kane figured that, however Matt was enjoying himself and felt good about doing something 'important' so the Big Red Machine just followed along.

The spotted Dave in the work out gym that was within the arena, the Animal was pushing himself hard on the treadmill as Matt and Kane walked in. He looked up briefly at the two of them before turning back to the speed on the mill. "Dave, can we ask you a few questions?" Matt asked.

No response. Matt tried time and time again to get Dave to respond, yet nothing worked. Kane however rolled his eyes. "Hardy… he's wearing ear buds. This is how you get his attention" Kane reached to the controls and jacked up the speed forcing Batista to react the way he always does… pissed.

"What the hell Kane!" he demanded taking out the ear buds. "You trying to kill me?"

"Do I really have to answer that?"

Batista growled lowly as he turned to Matt. "What the hell do you two want?"

"It's about Taker's missing hat. We have been told that you had entered his locker room when he left to speak with Vince, care to explain?" Matt asked.

"We're in the same locker room, so? Is that a crime?"

"It is if you took something…"

"What the hell are you getting at? Are you calling me a thief! I had my watch stolen at Wrestlemaina! A 60,000 dollar watch!" he yelled.

"That will teach you for buying it and leaving it in your bag" Kane muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing" Kane replied with a rather stunned look on his face. "We just wanted to know if perhaps you may have wanted to take the Undertaker's lucky hat… for personal reasons."

Dave smirked to the though, Matt for a moment thought they had their man, yet Batista was only laughing at the idea of a lucky hat. "And you think it was ridiculous for me to have a 60,000 dollar watch?" he laughed.

Kane didn't share in the laughter. "Just answer the question"

Dave only smiled. "I didn't touch the damn thing, not like I would anyway. Besides, what good is a hat? He wears it to the ring, that's it. Is it really that hard for him to walk down without a damn hat?" he growled, he put the ear buds back in and restarted his workout.

Matt turned to Kane after writing down notes. Kane however was more focused at Dave's feet. Something was off about them.

"You see something?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, let's go scare the crap out of the purple ranger, then bring everyone together, I think I have this case solved" Kane announced.

Matt was confused. "They why are we going to interrogated MVP?"

"Because, we can, second, it's also fun!" Kane said with a grin.

Matt couldn't argue with that.

Yet Kane did have another suspect in mind, the Edgeheads. "Why are they a single suspect?" Matt asked him as he noticed Kane's list. They just emerged from MVP's locker room, scaring the preverbal crap out of him. Kane explained since the Edgeheads do everything together, they seemed to share a brain. "It saves on paper too."

They didn't have to go very far, the Edgeheads and Chavo found them! "What the hell are you doing picking on Edge?" demanded Zack.

"How dare you insult Vicky!" Chavo growled.

"We have orders from Vince to find a missing item" Matt explained aloud.

The three men smirked. "Taker's missing 'lucky' hat huh? Well whoever did it, is a genius! Who knew Taker had a weakness, and it was a simple hat?" Chavo laughed.

"You have your traditions the Deadman has his, watch what you save Chavo" growled Kane. "Question is though, where any of you dumb enough to take it?"

The three men looked to one another and back at Kane. "I would like to see you prove if we did" Curt smirked.

Kane looked down at their feet and nodded. "Well… I can certainly prove something. Taker's locker room, five minutes, don't make me come find you" Kane warned.

As Kane stormed off, Matt was in quick pursuit. "Kane… what's going on?"

"We are catching a thief. I need to make a call first" Kane pulled out his cellphone and dialed and old friend…