Pokemon (Detective Pikachu)
A Legendary Search
31. On the Move
Tim reached Pablo's shop before Emilia and Meiko did. Pulling out one of his school notebooks, he took his recorder out as well, and put one earphone in after requesting a coffee for himself and a caramel hot chocolate for Absol. Waiting for Emilia and Meiko, Tim started copying notes from his recorded classes into the book.
Tim looked up only when he felt someone sit next to him; Emilia. Meiko sat on Emilia's other side, grinning at him.
"Hey, you know, I never asked. What's good here? I have tried the coffee, and it's pretty dang good, but is there anything else I should give a try?" She asked him.
"Oh! Well… I know Absol really likes the caramel hot chocolate." Tim gestured at his partner.
"I recommend it." Absol put in. Tim gave him a sidelong glance. Sometimes it seemed like Absol- just like Pikachu/Harry- forgot that Tim was the only one who could understand. Not that it did any harm, Tim supposed.
"Well, maybe I'll give that a try today, then. Absol's got good sense, so he'll probably have good taste, too." Meiko declared.
Tim decided it wasn't worth the trouble to point out that good sense and good taste had nothing to do with each other. Having stopped his recorder during its playback, he put his things aside.
Meiko ordered her caramel hot chocolate, Emilia got a coffee. Plusle and Minun, who had run over to jump on Absol who had mostly ignored their presence and chatter except for a greeting, shared a second cup of the caramel hot chocolate. The three humans, with Plusle and Minun tossing in the occasional exclamation that had nothing to do with the conversation, chatted about inconsequential things, mostly. Emilia and Meiko did also fill him in about how the reconstruction of GNN was going- pretty fast, apparently, but bringing Pokemon in to help always sped up the process of pretty much anything- and then, Meiko brought up her own situation.
"And, in related news, I've finally managed to get another apartment to stay in, so I can stop taking up Emilia's couch." Meiko nudged Emilia lightly with her elbow.
"Oh, you know I don't mind, Meiko."
Meiko ignored her statement.
"I'm able to move in this Saturday!"
"Oh, that's great!"
"Yep! And even better, it's going to be in walking distance of GNN, too, once it's rebuilt. I'll save on time and some gas money. I've just got one small problem. I'm going to have to move some furniture in. I was going to go shopping to get the basics that I'll need on Saturday before I move in there myself, and… I was wondering if you would be willing to help me move it all in?" Meiko gave Tim a look that was somehow both part hopeful, and part I'm-sure-that-you'll-say-yes.
"Meiko! I'm not sure you should ask him! His hand might still be healing." Emilia admonished, and a wave of shame passed over Tim. Emilia didn't think he could do it.
"Oh, no, it's fine. It's… about back to normal." He lied, then realized they had come in and most likely seen him writing with his left hand. "I mean, well, my writing with it isn't what it used to be yet, but otherwise it's fine. I can help, it's no trouble."
Emilia gave him an uncertain look. Meiko, however, smiled. "Great! I'll give you a call on Saturday when I'm ready, then. It will probably be sometime in the afternoon."
"Sounds good." Tim nodded, trying to look like it really was no big deal.
Plusle chose that moment to jump onto the counter. "Hey! It's dinner time! Dinner time!" the little Pokemon insisted, and Minun joined in.
"Yeah! You make dinner at this time!"
Tim checked his watch and realized it was almost six-thirty. "Woah! I hate to say it, but I need to get back. I'm the one that makes dinner…"
"Oh, shoot, dinner! Right, these little guys must be getting hungry." Meiko cried. "Come on, Emilia, we'd better get going."
"Oh, alright. Well, Tim, if we don't see you around the school tomorrow then we'll see you Saturday."
"Right, I'll see you then."
Tim packed up his notebook and recorder and headed outside, Absol behind him. Just before he mounted Absol, Tim shoved his right hand into his sweater pocket; it had begun trembling again.
When Tim left his last class on Friday, his search of the fifth floor turned up nothing. When he walked out of the building, however, Absol was waiting him, looking urgently at him. "Tim, follow me. Quickly." He said, and immediately turned and started trotting off. Tim blinked for a moment, startled, then started moving, catching up.
"Uh, okay. What's going on? Is there a problem?"
"I spoke to some of the Pokemon around today, and one of them told me about an unreported theft about a week ago. Sounds like the same kind of theft; someone broke into her locker. I don't know why, but it sounds like she didn't tell anyone about the theft. Her Pokemon partner is trying to delay her so that you can speak with her."
"Oh, really? Perfect!"
Picking up the pace, Tim followed Absol around the building and across the parking lot until he spotted a girl with black hair standing by a small red car, trying unsuccessfully to get a Stantler to get in the backseat.
"Come on, you haven't acted like this in months! You know what the car is for! Get in, let's go home." She said, frustrated. The Stantler shied away from the door and grabbed her sleeve in his mouth, tugging.
"Over here." Called Absol. The Stantler let go and pranced over.
"I kept her here! She got mad, but this is her! I did good?"
"Very good. Hopefully we will be able to track down whoever took your partner's things with her help."
"Yeah! That will make her happy!"
Tim tuned out the conversation between the Pokemon and looked at the girl, who looked startled. Tim cast around for ideas on how to bring up the theft without telling her the Pokemon had told him she'd been stolen from. He figured that first, he'd better just start a conversation in general, and work his way to the thefts.
"A Stantler, huh? Those are pretty rare, aren't they?"
"They… yeah, I guess so. My uncle gave him to me after finding him separated from his herd, barely a couple days old. We raised him and we've been together since. I worked all summer on getting him used to my car, and he's been fine going along for the ride… until today." She sighed.
"Maybe it's not the car? Maybe he just wanted to play?" Tim suggested. Both of them glanced over at Stantler and Absol, the former of which was prancing around the latter. Absol didn't look like he would be joining in the bouncing any time soon, but he seemed to be humoring the Big Horn Pokemon by making the occasional, slow swipe of a paw for the Stantler to prance away from.
Tim decided then to take a bit of an indirect approach while still diving into the issue.
"This might seem like an odd question, but have you seen anything strange lately? I've heard that a few people have had things go missing, and I've been thinking about looking into it to find out what's going on."
"I… wait, a few people?"
"Yeah, I've heard a few people have had their lockers broken into." Tim glanced back over at her to see her looking at him, eyes wide in surprise.
"I… I didn't know… so there were more…" she mumbled.
"What?" Tim prompted.
"I… oh. Actually, it's funny you should say that… my locker was broken into as well."
Tim widened his eyes. "What? Really?"
"Yes…"
Tim turned his whole body to face her and pulled out his notebook and a pen.
"In that case, can I ask a few questions? As I said, I've been thinking about investigating, but I just heard about the thefts in passing so I haven't had much to go on. Anything you can tell me would be a huge help."
"I… sure. I guess there's no reason not to."
"Thank you. So, you had something stolen as well? What was taken?"
"That's what's weird… they stole my hairbrush."
Tim blinked. "Your hairbrush?"
"Yes… I kept it in my locker. But when I came back after my Civil Procedure's class Wednesday last week, I found my locker open when I knew I had locked it. I looked inside and searched for everything inside, and I found everything except my hairbrush. I can't imagine anyone that want to take it, but… well, it's gone."
"That is strange. Did you report it?"
"No… telling the school staff that my hairbrush was stolen feels like it would have been really silly. I just… cleaned out my locker and stopped using it. I don't feel like I could trust it anymore."
"Okay. Did the lock still work?" Tim asked. "From what I do know about the other thefts, the locks were badly damaged and didn't work anymore."
"Oh… I actually don't know. I didn't try." The girl admitted.
"Alright. So, about the hairbrush itself. I know you said you couldn't think of anyone who would want it, but is it maybe special in some way? Or expensive?"
"No, not at all. It's just a hairbrush. The handle and back of it is silvery and shiny, which is why I like it, but it's just plastic. I got it at a dollar store."
"I see." Tim added the brush's description to the notes he was making. "And when were you last certain that the brush was in there?"
"Right before my Civil Procedure's class. I was speaking with some of my classmates for that class, because we'd formed a study group. My locker was near the classroom so we stopped there on the way, and I know the brush was there because I used it before I locked up my locker. I keep, or rather kept, it in there because Hoofie likes to tug on my hair as well as clothing." She admitted sheepishly.
"So it disappeared during that class, then?"
"Yes."
"And did you notice anything unusual at all before you left or after you came back? Anything? Even if it's small." Tim asked.
The girl thought hard. "No… everything seemed pretty normal. Nothing out of place or odd… oh! Except Jane's Pokemon, I guess… although, I'm not so sure that's an odd occurrence." The girl giggled a little.
"I'm sorry… a Pokemon?"
"My friend Jane, who's also in the group, has a tricky partner Pokemon that keeps sneaking inside the school. It's done it about two dozen times in the last month. Comes in, runs around, and leaves. It's so fast that no one can catch it. It showed up before our Civil Procedures class, and Jane was late to class chasing it out of the building. I'd forgotten that that had happened. But Jane took it out of the building, scolded it, and came back to class. When Jane met up with it later, it looked apologetic, I think, but it's happened a lot before and will probably happen again. It's not actually all that unusual."
"I see. So a Pokemon keeps sneaking inside. That's all you can think of?"
"Yes. No one else around who shouldn't be, or anyone acting strange." She hesitated, then asked, "Do you think I should report the theft after all?"
"I think you should. I'll be investigating, but the teachers and administrators should know everything going on, too. I've got just two more questions, though. Do you know of anyone else who's had anything go missing, and what is your locker number? I'd like to take a quick look at it."
"Oh, um… I don't know anyone else whose things went missing. And my locker number is 4286."
"Okay, thank you. If you don't mind, I'm going to take a look at that locker… could you give me a few minutes to do that before you report what happened?"
"I can do you one better… I'll show it to you. Once you're done looking at it, then I'll go report it to the office." She offered.
"Oh, that would be great! Thank you very much!"
A look at the girl's locker and lock showed exactly the same thing as the other two Tim had taken a look at, with a destroyed lock. Nothing else was there to indicate anything else. Once Tim was finished looking at the locker and lock, he started walking the girl he'd learned was named Tiffany back down to the administrator's office so she could report the theft. Just before the end of the hall, though, Tim stopped, noticing another locker hanging open.
"One moment." He told Tiffany, and approached the locker, wondering if he'd just found the fourth one by accident.
It seemed that he had. It was in the same shape as the other three he'd taken a look at; nothing to see except the scratches in the lock, and the destroyed lock mechanism. Still, Tim got out his notebook to mark down where the final locker had been.
Pleased that the day had yielded some results, Tim finished walking Tiffany to the office and asked her to let him know if she found out who the other people who'd been stolen from were. Once she'd promised that she would, Tim left the building again, and it was only when he reached Absol that it occurred to him.
"Ah, no!"
"What? What's wrong?"
"I can't believe it… I completely forgot to ask what Jane's Pokemon is! If it's snuck into the school buildings a few times, there's a chance it might have seen something. We should ask it some questions, too…"
"Ah, yes. Well, you can try to track this girl down on Monday, or perhaps even ask Jane. I'm fairly sure she means the Jane in a couple of your classes. I have seen them speaking together, now that I'm thinking about it, though… I'm afraid I don't remember if I saw any Pokemon with them other than Stantler. I don't think so…"
Tim sighed. "Well, let's keep our mistakes here to ourselves, ok please? If my dad somehow gets ahold of that, I'll never hear the end of it for sloppy detective work."
Absol chuckled. "Your secret is safe with me. That's what partners are for. For now, though, we've done all we can, so we'd best put the case aside until Monday. If Tiffany isn't able to tell us who the other victims are, we'll have to figure out a way to find out who they are on our own. And we probably won't find out anything out before then."
"Most likely not." Tim conceded. "So… I guess to Pablo's?"
"Certainly. Get on."
Tim sucked in a breath as his hand spasmed with pain. He nearly dropped the edge of the mattress he was holding… he would have, too, if Absol hadn't suddenly surged underneath his corner, holding almost all of the weight.
"I told you this was a bad idea." Absol told him sternly.
It had taken Tim almost half an hour to convince Absol to bring him here to help Meiko move in. Absol, like Emilia, hadn't thought Tim was up to it. Tim had ended up having to tell Absol that if riding him was out of the question, Tim would take the car, before Absol finally agreed.
"This is the third time today that's happened. You're straining it too much." The Disaster Pokemon admonished.
It was the truth; Tim's hand had acted up when he'd helped carry up a table, a television, and now the mattress. The only good thing was that by now, after having several "episodes" of pain during class over the last month, Tim had gotten better at hiding it. Gritting his teeth and setting his expression hard so that it didn't give him away, he waited for the worst of it to pass.
"Are you alright?" Meiko called, and Tim ground out an answer.
"Yeah… just a moment. Losing my grip."
"Maybe this was a bad idea, after all." Meiko sounded worried.
"No... It's alright. Absol's helping me get it." Tim sucked in another breath, and finally the pain subsided a little. "Besides, we're almost done."
"That's true." Meiko conceded.
Together, Tim, Meiko, and Absol wrestled the mattress into her new apartment. Emilia, Tim knew, had gone back down already for a few smaller boxes along with the two Cheering Pokemon.
Almost everything had been moved in now. A few small boxes were all that was left.
"Why don't you go down to help Emilia with the rest of it, and I'll start unpacking and putting things together? Maybe we can take a break once everything's in and order a pizza or something." Meiko offered, and Tim nodded.
"Alright, sounds good."
Tim and Emilia finished moving the boxes in, then ended up helping Meiko set up the bed frame and mattress before ordering the pizza. Waiting for it to arrive, they helped set up part of her kitchen, then finished the kitchen set up after eating. Tim offered to stay longer and help unpack more things, but Meiko declined.
"Everything that I need to have up right away is done now," she told him, "And I can handle the rest on my own tomorrow. But thanks."
With that, helping Meiko move was done. He hadn't mentioned the thefts at school to them; it wasn't that big an issue, and he didn't really want Meiko's enthusiasm for filming incidents to lead to her trying to cover his investigation into it. Tim left, privately relieved. His hand had acted up twice more when they were assembling things, and was trembling quite badly now.
Mounting Absol, he ignored his partner's "I told you," as he shoved his hand into his pocket.
Tim would just… not use his hand tomorrow. It would recover. It had to.
A/N: A strange theft indeed. What in the world is going on... other than Tim hiding his trouble with his hand from his friends, that is. Sigh. Tim, Tim, Tim...