Chapter 10
A New Idea
Monday, June 9th, 1947. 9:00 AM
"I can't believe the Captain Seville released them!" Alvin exclaimed, kicking the wall to the precinct.
"He said it himself, apparently there was nothing to convict them for beyond a small fine," Simon said, shrugging.
"Simon, did you forget we had a fistfight with them in an alleyway? Last I checked, assaulting law enforcement is a crime."
Simon sighed. "I am not saying that I agree with the captain, but he does have more authority than us."
Alvin groaned. "We've been at this case for three days and we're still no closer to solving it than we were when we started. Is there anything from the lab about the tie-clip?"
"Nothing. They say they have a huge workload right now and they will call us when they find something."
Alvin wanted to yell, but that would not do any good. Kicking the wall had only earned him a sore foot.
"We need to talk to those thugs who —"
"Who beat us up in an alleyway?" Simon finished.
"I don't know what fight you were in, but I don't remember ever getting beaten up in an alleyway. I remember winning a fight in an alleyway… and saving your butt in the process," Alvin added in a murmur.
"Al, you cannot seriously plan on talking to those two guys," Simon said matter-of-factly.
"Why not?"
"Because you would be a dead duck. You would go deaf before Captain Seville had finished shouting at you, since odds are those guys would bring a legal harassment case against you."
"Come on, don't be such a spoil sport," Alvin replied. "We have worked with informants before. This will be just like that."
"It will not be anything like that!" Simon said.
But Alvin had stopped listening. He stepped back into the precinct where he knew that Theodore was just getting ready to go out on patrol.
"Theo, I need your help!"
"Again?" Theodore asked. "Alvin, I haven't even started on —"
"Shhhh!" Alvin put a finger to his lips as Simon caught up. "We just need you to pull some info for us."
"What sort of info?"
"Those two guys that were released."
"The ones that beat you up?"
Alvin shook his head.
"We need to talk to them."
"What about Captain Seville?" Theodore asked.
"Forget him. Any chance you could pull a string and get their file for us?"
Theodore looked horrified at the very idea. But he should not have been surprised, given Alvin's long history of fudging the rules. He looked back and forth between Alvin and Simon, then sighed.
"One second," he said finally.
Later, he returned holding a tan folder.
"Be fast. I need to put this back before I leave which is in… five minutes," he said, looking at his watch. "Say, you guys don't happen to have any lunch plans, do you?"
"Theodore, we ate breakfast an hour ago and you're already thinking about lunch?" Alvin asked, copying down some information from the file into his notebook.
"We don't have any plans," Simon said.
"Great! Do you guys want to join me? I was going to go to the diner down the street."
"That sounds great. They make a good hamburger," Alvin said, closing his notebook and passing the file back.
"Excellent," Theo said, tucking the file under his arm. "See you guys at noon!"
He left and Simon asked, "Are you happy now?"
"Yes, and no," Alvin replied.
"How come?"
"Because I just learned some very interesting information. There's good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?"
"Both of our thugs work at the same place."
"That's great! And very interesting… What's the bad news."
"A certain pink-clad chipette works there too…"
Sorry for such a long break in between chapters! Life got a little bit busy on this end! Especially with a little bit of travelling and also trying to get a head-start on some other projects. Don't worry, I'm going to work on posting a lot more regularly!
If you like this story, don't forget to follow and review! I love hearing from my readers!
Also, please let me know: Are you enjoying this story? It's been really fun to write, but is it fun to see the chipmunks in this setting?
