Revised and edited 9th May 2024
New A/N: Before reading Chapter 8 onwards, I advise you all to go read Chapter 7.5, aka Mismatched (and Lucky for it) first. It's posted as a oneshot, but its events fall in between Chapters 7 and 8. I think it'll put some ideas in your head as you move forward reading the rest of this story :)
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Chapter 8 – Schemes Beget Schemers
09:39 am
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"Somebody call the cops! We got a missing patient 'ere!"
"He ain' missin', Ma'am! He just - maybe he went to the bathroom or somethin'.." finished Benny lamely.
The enormous redheaded nurse turned her bulky frame to glare down at the small blue cat. "Went to the bathroom, my behind!" she said in a mean, gravelly voice. "I can smell my patients from a hundred feet away, and this patient I cannot-!"
She paused mid-rant, as if struck by a bolt of understanding. In two monster steps, she had crossed the room and thrown the glass panes open. She leaned over the hedge dangerously, and pulled back with a very disheveled Top Cat in one beefy hand.
"Tryna be Super Cat, are we?! Get in your bed!" she growled, and with that, she near-slammed the yellow cat into the bed and wrapped him tight in the hospital blankets. Benny ran back to the chair, climbed up and leaned over it as far as he could, grinning.
Top Cat's messy head was the only thing poking out of the linen sheets, and the blue feline - spirits much higher than they've been after the doctor confirmed his best friend was finally out of danger - jovially commented that Top Cat looked like a burrito ("A purrito. Hahaa! Get it, T.C?"). His smile, however, faded when the yellow feline didn't react. He only glared at the offensive nurse weakly, gaze lacking its usual sharpness.
The nurse brought up her hand and gave him an aggressive I'm onto ya! motion before turning towards the door. She grabbed the knob in one hand and turned back to face him. "Tryta run away again and I'll be lockin' ya up - you don' wanna see me when I'm uncivilized," and with that, she strode out and slammed the door shut.
"Uncivilized? Uncivilized? You don' even look like a man ya damn gorilla," wheezed Top Cat through harsh breaths.
"Uh, T.C.? That's a lady nurse."
"That thing's a female?!" was his disbelieving gasp before he dissolved into painful coughs, paws flying to his throat. Benny's tentatively-rising spirits plummeted once more, and his ears drooped against his head as he dragged the chair as close as possible to the cream-colored bed. He watched his leader wheeze weakly with forlorn, anxious eyes.
oOoOoOoOoOo
🕔 03:57 pm
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"You're goin' up there now, aren't ya?"
"Uh-huh. I need ta check on T.C.," said Dibble tiredly as Mahoney gave him a sympathetic look and offered him the hot coffee mug. "An' I can't put this off any longer, we gotta talk about all this - he's got a solid alibi and I can testify ta him bein' in my precinct when the maya's girl was taken, but I can't help 'im if he won' tell me about that crack job."
"You think he'll say much? Did he ever give ya somethin' we could work with before alla this happened?"
"Hardly..an' I don' know what ta think anymore," sighed the policeman heavily. "Years livin' in the same street, Mahone - gettin' at each other's throats every other day and I'm still no closer to figurin' him out. Maybe after this mess he'll be more willin' to open up…" he shook his head and sighed into his mug. "Who am I kiddin'?"
The two policemen left the station house together. Dibble rubbed his face in exhaustion and lifted his coffee to take a sip. Coffee seemed to be working less and less on him, he realized dolefully. The sun was warm and pleasant in New York's afternoon sky.
"..Mahoney, is it really G.P. behind this?"
"I'm sure of it. His methods fit Shirley's account and what little we know about 'im."
"But kidnappin' the maya's girl is one thing - why in the world would he tryta off T.C.?"
"Sorry, Dib," said Mahoney tersely. "Ya gonna have ta add that to the list of questions T.C. probably doesn' wanna answer." Dibble groaned, and placed his palm against a forehead lined with lack of sleep.
The redhead's stance softened, and he shook his head sympathetically. "Cheer up, Dib. I know he ain' the most helpful but if there's anyone he's gonna open up to, it's you. Say, he didn't mention anythin' at all anytime you were there..?"
"Nah, an' I wouldna think of puttin' 'im through that kinda grillin' while he was fightin' for his life..I was really scared for 'im, Mahoney."
Mahoney gave him a look, and it was a look Dibble was familiar with. Several of his colleagues would wear that expression whenever he began to talk about Top Cat. "You've always been one to see the best in people, Dib. Don' let anyone use ya for it. Not even him," the younger policeman said. "I know he needs help, and I know it's our job, but you..you're too close to this.
"And if it weren't for the fact that I know you're about the only cop he trusts, I mighta taken my concerns to the Sarge. But I won' - and I mean it, you deserve better; this whole thing could be an incredible opportunity for ya."
"You too, Mahone?" groaned Dibble. "Why's everyone so worried about me? I've been settin' this beat like a clock for over fifteen years. I know how to do my job. It's a delicate balance."
"Tell me about it," said Mahoney, rolling his eyes and hiding his smirk behind his mug. "You're the only cop in the world who can handle a precinct with Top Cat in it."
"Oh come on, guys, he ain't as bad as y'all think he is. It might come across that way but honestly - sometimes I let ma temper do the talkin' when he makes me real mad-"
"No, no, I know what me an' the fellas can and can't handle," Mahoney shook his head with a knowing smile. Dibble could feel the burn crawl up his cheeks when he realized he'd gone off yet again on one of his T.C. defense rambles. "Me an' Top Cat on the same beat - someone woulda murdered the other, I'm tellin' ya. No precinct's big enough for the both of us. An' you know T.C. - he can be stubborn as sh-"
"I got it, I gooot it," sighed Dibble. He took another mouthful of the tasteless coffee. "So I'm a little too close than the rest of ya to all this. So what? You just said it - if anyone's able to get this case movin', it's me. And furthermore, I'm the one with a citizen almost murdered on my beat. Ya bet I'm gonna take it personal."
Mahoney's expression turned distant, and he seemed lost in his own thoughts. Dibble remembered, with a stab of guilt and embarrassment, that this was a very sensitive topic for his colleague. He was about to utter a soft apology, when Mahoney surprised him with his next words:
"No, you're right," he said, very carefully. "When it's personal, that sets a fire in ya. I've never been more driven to solve a case than I am since Trish."
It took a moment for Dibble's brain to catch up with Mahoney's words, and when the implication sank in, he was choking on a mouthful of coffee caught in his throat. Mahoney clapped him on the back while he honked and spluttered hot beverage on the asphalt like a drunken elephant.
"*cough* ya mean ta tell me-!" he wheezed, staring up at Mahoney with wide eyes. "Ya think *cough* G.P. murdered that lady?!"
He'd only heard the gist of Trish's story through the grapevine; turns out the puppies Fancy left with T.C. were the kids of a playful lady beagle who was murdered on Mahoney's beat. On his watch.
He couldn't even imagine what that felt like.
"One of his men," corrected Mahoney. "There's coffee comin' outta ya nose."
"Are ya sure?"
"Shirley is. An' I trust her."
He was biased, oh he knew he was, but Dibble couldn't bring himself to care for that cat. Mahoney, though, seemed to hold her in high regard.
She's a spy for the police, his inner voice reminded him. If she works for the Sarge, she's technically one of you. What're you on about?
"An' what?" asked Dibble urgently, still composing himself. "What else does she know?"
"Not much. G.P. keeps everyone at arms' length, 'cept for one cat, is what she told me. Apparently when he's on a job, he never tells any of his men the complete plan, only givin' each individual their own specific part. He - and the right hand - are the only ones on the operation who have the full picture at any given time."
That was an astonishingly difficult strategy to pull off, Dibble couldn't help but be impressed. Of course he'd be incredibly difficult to trace and pin. This G.P. character must be a mastermind.
"Well, guess that explains the dumb vegetable back at the station," said Dibble. "It explains it.. but doesn' help us none. How do we even begin trackin' someone like that?"
"T.C. of all people should know somethin'. How come you got nothin' useful from 'im?"
"He definitely knows more than he's lettin' on…but he doesn' trust the police."
"He musta given ya somethin'," pressed the redhead. "An' if he didn' before this, he'll definitely talk now that this creep nearly ended 'im."
No, he won't. Dibble knew for a fact, but held his tongue.
Spook.
As long as T.C. thinks talking will put Spook in danger, he's never gonna talk.
"That's gonna have ta wait - right now we gotta figure out what he's gonna do about this crazy accusation. It's all over the papers, the TV channels, the tabloids..Mahone, he didn't do it."
"No, he didn't," the younger cop said simply, and Dibble was relieved to see he meant it.
"Say..do ya wanna try..talkin' to him yourself later, when he gets better? Maybe you'll have better luck."
Mahoney actually threw his head back and laughed, to Dibble's bafflement. "Hell would freeze ova twice before Top Cat talks ta me! Unless you mean with his claws. We don' exactly have the best history."
Dibble blinked. "What are ya talkin' about?"
The redhead gave Dibble a sideways grin. "You didn' know him far back like I did, so learn from your master."
Dibble almost laughed in his face. It was hard to imagine Top Cat being anything derived from 'aggressive'. That guy avoided confrontation at all times if he could help it. Top Cat may act and talk like a hardened gangster, but the very sight of a gun made him scream for a cop from a mile off.
Mahoney started his story. "Ya see..there was this - incident - that happened when we were kids. I was still a schoolboy, and Top Cat and Benny were the kittens that lived in the back alley behind my old elementary school. It drove me and my friends nuts; some lunchboxes would disappear every other day. And it became our new game: find the answer to the Mystery of the Missing Lunchboxes. I figured out soon enough that Top Ca - oh yeah, he was Top Kitten back then - was takin' 'em.
So…and before you go judgin' me, I'm not proud of what I did, okay? Jus' thought if I played a mean trick on 'em - scared 'em enough, they'd stop sneakin' into school and eatin' our sandwiches, so I went to the pet store and bought a muzzle.."
"I really don't like where this is going -"
"Lemme finish. We ambushed 'em one morning at school, cornered 'em good. Turns out they were usin' the gutters to get in and out unseen. Benny was the chubby one, so he was easier to catch, of course. My friends pinned 'im down while I snapped the muzzle on his mouth tight shut. We laughed when he started mewling. And just to scare 'im enough inta never comin' back again, one of the boys grabbed his tail and threatened to pull it out if he didn' shut up. I remember another kid mocking how tiny and ugly the tail was.
"Next thing I remember, T.C. was on Jamie's face. When Jamie shoved 'im off, his face was this spiderweb of red lines. The boys screamed – I think I did too, actually – and they all bolted and I just sat there. Poor Jamie burst into tears an' ran off with his face in his hands. I was left behind, gapin' like an idiot at a vicious-looking kitten. A smart kitten, too. He figured out how to open the little bolts on the muzzle in no time, and pulled it off. Ya know what he did after that?"
Dibble forgot to answer, because his mouth was hanging open.
"He bit down my nose till it broke."
"What?"
Mahoney roared with laughter at the look on his comrade's face, "Ya think it always looked like that?" he touched the bump on the bridge with his thumb. "Nosir. I got it for bein' an arrogant little brat. Sure, they shouldna been stealin' our food, but I wasn' any better, the way I handled it. I remember poor Benny sittin' there on his haunches, cryin' his eyes out while T.C. killed my nose and I screamed bloody murder till the teachers got there."
"That…was disturbing, to be honest. I never knew you two knew each other that far back."
Mahoney's gaze was away, watching a group of schoolkids crossing the road. "Well..that's 'bout the most interestin' thing that happened in all the years we knew each other," he was silent for a moment, then turned his eyes back to Dibble. "I'm surprised, though. You're tellin' me ya never once noticed how Top Cat hates my guts?"
He hadn't. He'd never given it much thought, always chalking it up to T.C. distrusting any representation of the law. But..the more Dibble pondered, the more he realized that Top Cat seemed to regard Mahoney with a disdain reserved just for him. How he stiffened whenever Mahoney called out to or talked to him. How he would snidely comment about the biggest 'eager beaver' on the force..
Then it came back to him suddenly – a forgotten memory, so brief one can easily write it off as insignificant. How Top Cat had practically crossed the road in two leaps and pulled Benny (who just happened to be standing unintentionally close) away from the policeman, glaring at him in unconcealed disgust.
Dibble remembered that his colleague had had a dark blue muzzle dangling from his hand then; it had been a gift accessory for his cousin's new bulldog. Apparently T.C. had a different theory.
The redhead cop flicked a tear of mirth from his eye. "I guess you can say T.C. thinks of me as some kind of cat-torturin' pervert with a muzzle fetish. I shouldn' be laughin' I know but aw Dibble, don' gimme that look!" and Mahoney nearly spilled his coffee onto his uniform again as his hands shook with laughter. Dibble shook his head and fought off a smile. Reminding himself that no, it's not funny you are a grown man, he said: "Ya know, maybe if you apologize for what ya did to Benny, T.C. will accept ya within twenty feet of 'em."
"Eh. I tried."
"Mahoney," said Dibble after a few minutes of silence. "I've been thinkin' on somethin' for some time now, but without any kinda confirmation from that T.C, I can't act on it. Everytime I tryta form an image of G.P., I keep thinkin' he looks a great deal like T.C."
Mahoney gave him a strange look.
"What?"
Mahoney seemed to consider for a moment, then began carefully. "You know I trust Shirley. Most of our colleagues don't. The old rule is ya never trust a double agent. But I've known her for a long time. And I've known Trish, her best friend - even longer. I ain't gonna be a hypocrite an' tell ya I'm not as close to this as you are.
"Shirley may be G.P.'s best nincat, but like I said, he's suspicious by nature. And he's made it clear he wouldn' hesitate to kill her should he get the slightest clue she said anythin' more than what he deems enough for the police to not suspect her. But..she did tell me a few more things."
"Did she say what G.P. looks like?" asked Dibble in a hushed voice.
"Not really. She didn't need to – I knew from the look on her face when she saw Top Cat for the first time."
oOoOoOoOoOo
Dibble very softly opened the door to Top Cat's hospital room, and was about to call a greeting when he saw the two still lumps under the blankets. So he slipped in as soundlessly as he could, and set the gift apple basket on the table by Top Cat's bed and took a moment to watch.
Both cats were asleep. Top Cat's breathing was definitely improving, much to the policeman's relief. Benny was curled against his side, purring faintly. Dibble sighed and sat in the empty chair. He reached a hand and began to pet the yellow cat's head, not bothering to contain his smirk when Top Cat's eyes dazedly opened, and slowly focused in the policeman's face.
"..What have I told you about touchin' ma head, Dibble?"
His voice was very weak, but hearing it was enough to make some peace in Dibble's heart. He smiled warmly at the cat. It wasn't lost on him after years of dealing with the little delinquent, that Top Cat didn't like being pet by people - human people, unless he was the one to initiate it. Then again, a lot of the cats Dibble knew were like that. It was an alley cat thing, apparently.
Benny was an exception to a lot of the rules, though. The blue feline's love language was physical touch; he let anybody pet him. And as the policeman shifted to pet him as he slept, he relaxed and the purring grew unhalted and content.
Dibble reckoned he'd pulled Benny out of the arms of as many phsycopaths, street rats and hillbillies as Top Cat did himself. The little guy was like a walking purr motor. In fact, the thought crept up on the policeman, Benny would follow anybody who offered him affection or food...
Top Cat being particularly watchful of Benny was actually starting to make more and more sense to Dibble.
"Leave Benny's head alone, Dibble."
"Will ya stop actin' like a three-year old?"
"If ya stop this creepy human tendency to see every breathin' creature as a potential fur coat."
"Oh for God's sake!" he threw up his hands in exasperation, startling poor Benny awake. "You're unbelievable! Why is it that ya always-"
"Keep it down!" rasped the cat as he clutched his head, and Dibble felt a stab of guilt at the genuine pained look on his face. The blanket shifted with the cat's movement and the heavy bandaging around his neck came into clearer view. "I got enough goin' on without ya givin' me a concussion with your lovely baritone."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I wouldn' talk about this now if it weren't important. Then I'll leave ya to yer rest, I promise. Look, I even got ya apples!"
"What're we talkin' about?"
"Okay, listen to me very carefully,T.C.. Ya listenin'? You're bein' accused of kidnappin' Miss Reese Kinsay. You know - the mayor 's eldest daughter?"
"Ya don' say."
Dibble stared in utter incredulousness. "You know?"
"I have a talent fer gettin' news firsthand." A paw went up to massage his throat, his eyes no longer meeting Dibble's.
"Then explain to me what the heck's goin' on! What do ya know about this?"
The cat lifted his irises to look at Dibble. "Ya don' believe I'd do somethin' like this, do ya?"
"No, I don't. But ya know somethin'. And furthermore, you couldna been anywhere near when it happened to begin with. But how do ya know what happened? And why did G.P. try ta kill ya?"
Top Cat's expression was closing more and more as the conversation progressed. "..I know 'cos he told me, sick person that he is. As for why he tried ta off me..well we're not exactly on the friendliest of terms if ya haven't caught up. Why wouldn' he?"
"That's not a reason! People can hate each other but nothing excuses murder! What's it between you two that has him so angry he wants ta get rid of ya?"
"Ya think this is about me?" Top Cat said incredulously. "He 's the murderin' bastard! I don' want anythin' ta do with 'im nor do I ever wanna see his face again! All I care about is gettin' Spook outta that hellhole - "
The rest of his words dissolved into a bout of coughing. Dibble reached for the pitcher and poured a glass of water. It was more warm than cold, but he expected the nurses to know the technicalities of their job.
T.C. drank the water in wheezing gulps and put the glass back sloppily onto the side table. He curled back into his bed and almost looked small, like a kitten. Benny looked up at him for a moment before he wrapped his short arms around his leader's middle, the tips of his ears only just reaching Top Cat's nose.
"You're not alone in this. I want Spook back, too. I dunno what mighta happened in the past between you an' G.P. that you don' wanna talk about, but now we're in crazy territory, T.C. The maya's daughter has been kidnapped, the world's on fire outside and you're looking at life without parole for a crime you didn' do. The two biggest holes in this picture are where his hideout is, and what he looks like."
"I have no idea where the slime stays," said Top Cat. "He moves around a lot. I ain' even sure he has a place to call headquarters."
"Probably," he said, making sure to take on a softer tone for his next words. He felt like he was about to step into a minefield. "What I still don' understand is why ya didn' see the point of gracin' me with the information that you two look very similar."
Top Cat averted his eyes to the paw tightly gripping the bed sheets, the forced calm expression on his face slipping. It was Benny who spoke.
"He didn' because it hurt, Officer Dibble."
"Benny. Stay out of this," warned Top Cat.
"..T.C, you idiot," said Benny, his face still pressed against yellow fur, looking more like a kitten than ever before. Top Cat looked down at him in surprise. "You never ask for help. And look where we are now! You almost died!" he could feel a wetness against his fur.
"Benny, I –" began Top Cat, looking for once anxious in Dibble's eyes.
"At least trust Officer Dibble. He's never stirred us wrong before. I wanna get Spook back too, but I don' wanna lose you or any of the fellas along the way! You're the one who always said ta never do anythin' reckless that would put us in danger."
The look on Top Cat's face Dibble could only describe as guilty, pained. The yellow cat looked down on his best friend's head. His expression was sad, but affectionate. And for one breathless moment, Dibble thought he was going to give in - thought he was going to give him that affirmation that would make him cease to grope blindly in the dark.
But Top Cat laid his head on top of Benny's and said nothing.
oOoOoOoOoOo
(Original A/N: Thank you so much for sticking with this story, everyone! Last year's been a crazy one. Political events in my country surpass any fantasy book. Harry Potter's Department of Mysteries has nothing on us. Also, problems at work took their toll.)