Discussions of Justice

"Toby, right?" Robert asked. "That puppy who detained Mousigan until you could make the arrest was Toby."

"Indeed," I responded.

Mrs. Judson sighed. "There was no living with Mr. Basil after the great human detective, Sherlock Holmes, started working cases with Toby. Mr. Basil was so proud to have been the one who trained the dog Mr. Holmes always borrowed!"

"I thought Holmes owned Toby," put in Bill.

"He does now," Fidget explained, "but Toby used to belong to a different human, who loaned him to Holmes when necessary."

"Do you ever have any hard feelings?" inquired Henry. "I know Toby tracked you down during the Flaversham Failure."

"Why should I have hard feelings?" Fidget replied. "I'm not a criminal anymore."

Hearing applause, he turned his attention to an open window. Toby and Felicia, who were standing just outside, had overheard his speech and were tapping their paws together.

"Who taught them how to clap?!" Lewis demanded.

Fidget smiled. "I suppose they've always known. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew how to speak."

Bill sighed. "Be reasonable, Fidget! You were Ratigan's first henchman. You served him longer than any of the rest of us. Surely you know after all those years with him that Felicia can't talk."

"Everyone thought Tirade couldn't talk either," Fidget replied.

"Tirade wasn't a cat; Felicia is," Lewis argued.

"Who's Tirade?" Dawson whispered.

"I shall elucidate later, Doctor," I answered, knowing perfectly well it would be a sweltering day in January before I explained all my former cases to my associate.

"Whatever happened to Mousigan?" Robert queried.

Henry rolled his eyes. "Don't you remember? He got capital punishment!"

"He was hanged?"

"Not exactly. He escaped from prison and returned to the boss's lair, but Felicia had finally made the transition from adorable kitten to mouse killer. Do you honestly have no memory of the day when the professor said, 'My Felicia has malevolence in her heart! She's not so compassionate anymore! Her heart is as dark as mine!'?"

Robert cringed. "And then the boss made us all stand before Felicia so she could take her pick of her first two live victims!"

"Mousigan was the first one chosen."

"It isn't fair!" Lewis protested. "Everyone we know has either been arrested, reformed, or killed!"

"Is there a fourth option?" Bill asked.

"Fidget's guilty of kidnapping, but right now, he's acting like a philosophical gentleman, and he's regained full use of his wing! Is that justice? Bartholomew wasn't guilty of any felonies, but right now, he's…well, I'm not sure where he is since he never had a funeral, but he's dead! Is that justice? Robert's committed more crimes than I have, but his sentence is almost over while mine has barely begun! Is that justice?"

"The way I see it, you've got two choices," Henry answered. "You can get by with malice for a while, but in the end, you've either got to change your ways or take what you've got coming. Your fate is either undeserved mercy or deserved punishment. We had our chances to leave Ratigan's gang, but we didn't, so now we're getting what we deserve."

"Did Bartholomew deserve what he got?!" Bill demanded.

"No, but it was his choice to get drunk."

"Henry!" Lewis exclaimed. "It wasn't entirely his fault, even if he was drunk! We're the ones who ended the line of the song with 'You're tops, and that's that!' Considering the professor's last name, that was probably the only rhyme Bartholomew could think of! Besides, it may have been his choice to drink, but it was Ratigan's choice to take offense to everything! It was Felicia's choice to eat him!"

"Felicia's choice to eat Ratigan?" Robert joked. "You left a dangling modifier."

Lewis rolled his eyes. "We're all guilty of Bartholomew's death!" After a pause, he added, "And Ratigan's. Perhaps if we had helped him embrace his rathood instead of using it as an excuse to make him the object of ridicule, he would have…"

"It was his choice to become a criminal!" Henry stated. "We didn't force him!"

"Perhaps not directly, but…"

"Give it a rest!" interrupted Fidget. "This is Basil's day to share his story, not ours."