For those wanting to catch up, chapter 140 is the fluff before this story arc.

Jane and Frost spent an unpleasant day checking up on all the private exotic animal owners in the greater Boston area, getting stuck in traffic twice and being roared at by a tiger once.

"You might try McFadden. He's closed up shop, but I think he had to sell off the rest of his stock. If you're not getting anything from the importers, he might be able to help you out, since he was planning on selling in-state," Logan Falkirk told them, yawning along with the panther that sprawled across his lap like a kitten. Jane was tempted to try to rub the fluffy tummy, but she valued her hands too highly.

"McFadden, Thank you," Frost said, making a note on his tablet. He and Jane got to their feet and saw themselves out; neither of them wanted to know what happened if someone got up before the panther on their lap was ready for them to get up.

"Was McFadden on our list?"

"No, and all his licenses seem to be expired too. He doesn't have a resell license associated with his prior license either, so he should have gone through one of the dealers we spoke to."

"Well, we can get the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries on board, see if they know of any black market buyers that know McFadden."

"They gave us the run-around last time," Frost groaned.

"Then we run faster," Jane said, starting the car and pulling into traffic.

"Hey, Detective Rizzoli, I'm here to -"

"Oh! Detective Rizzoli, from the goose case?"

Jane groaned. Still, it was better than what BPD were calling that case - the zombie case.

"Hey, Tilly. You got anything on McFadden? His licenses are out of date, and we can't find anyone that would have sold for him."

"Sure. Let me check the system." Tilly tapped at her keyboard for a few minutes. "Nope, nothing here. Sorry."

"Any known associates, anyone turned down for a license recently?"

"Might help me if you told me what you were looking for."

"Cats. Big cats," Frost said, leaning on the counter a little too casually. Good for him - Tilly was nice enough out of all their contacts at the DWF, and Frost had been single for a while. She typed quickly, cross-referencing the known contacts of McFadden and his previous sales through dealers.

"Doug Blight," Tilly said. "He's sold for McFadden before, but not recently."

"Thanks." Jane looked over at Frost, a smitten look on his face.

"Yeah, thanks, Tilly," Jane said, snagging Frost by his jacket and dragging him out with her. He looked up the home address of Blight on the system and Jane drove, wanting to rub her forehead. It felt like they were going in circles, chasing their own tails.

Notes:

Wow it has been a while. Finishing editing a second book and partway through a third, and writing the bones of a detective series, so I have been a little busy.

As you can tell, I took a little dalliance with one-shots because I had a lot of ideas that didn't fit in the BMG world, and as someone commented yesterday, they are incredibly divergent.

You can keep emus without a license in Massachusetts which is wild to me.

So this won't be daily. It might not even be weekly. I also stopped crossposting to this site after the death threats so this might be the last time this is available here. If you are interested in reading check Archive of Our Own as I posted this a few days ago over there, along with a backlog of at least a few months of fics. I have a serious case of anxiety even posting this here now but as it's unfinished this is just information about where it is being updated.

So just. I suppose. Keep calm and Rizzles on?