Challenge The Proud

Fish City Detective

"However, from the evidence, it was the dolphin that killed him in the garden." - Challenge No.1

IT WASN'T EASY being on the job for as long as he had and still having to deal with 'the looks'. You know the ones - the looks telling you that you don't belong there and that you're in over your head. Detective Bricks knew how to deal with those looks better than anybody - ignore them.

"What do we have here, Sal?" Detective Bricks asked, swimming to the coroner - a blow fish with an explosive temper to match his nature.

The victim was a shark, middle-aged, a local business owner in Fish City, quite successful and popular - great! There will be a lot of press on this one and Detective Bricks and the press got along like catfish and dogfish.

"My clams are on this being your murder weapon," Sal said and pointed at a knife in the shark's back.

"Yep, that would do the trick," Detective Bricks agreed.

There were plenty of curious fish gathering outside the big coral house and Detective Bricks could see them trying to catch a glimpse of the victim that laid right on the threshold between the garden porch and the back door. But most of all, they were trying to see the murderer - a stingray, Denny Tooth, the shark's step-son and constant source of shame - the boy was notorious for his drinking and ocean current riding under the influence.

Detective Bricks swam toward the suspect almost bumping into a dolphin.

"Anything I can do to help, detective?" the dolphin asked fidgeting with his fins.

"And you are?" the detective wanted to know, peering at the tall, nervous-looking fellow.

"Raymond, sir. I am ... well, I was Mr. Tooth's assistant."

"Raymond, eh?" the detective mumbled as he took notice of the jittery Raymond and the jagged cut on his fin.

"Cut yourself on somethin' there?"

"Oh? This? It's nothing. No."

"Looks like a scratch," Sal pointed out and then addressed Detective Bricks with a jaded expression and a tilt toward the body, "Got everything, Bricks?"

"Yeah, yeah. Take the poor bastard," Detective Bricks approved and swam away toward Denny, the stingray step-son.

He didn't look to good and by the bubbles around him he was still intoxicated and if it weren't for the cops holding him steady on that shell couch, Denny would have probably been licking the floor. In that state, that boy couldn't have managed to stab a big ass whale if he wanted to, let alone an agile, sneaky old shark like his step-father.

"Heard anything son?" He asked the stingray and received only more bubbles of stinky booze as a response.

"He practically confessed to it just moments ago," a cop said with a shrug.

"The dolphin even saw him do it," another cop added.

Well, that was interesting - they should have led with that when they had called him in. He had a witness.

"You saw his step-son do it?" Detective Bricks asked Raymond.

"Yes. I was at the door, ringing the bell and there was no answer so I looked in and saw Denny running into the kitchen with a knife. I got worried, had a bad feeling, you know, and I came in. Right as I was stepping inside the kitchen, Denny stabbed his father. I ran, of course, and called you people to sort out this thing."

It all sounded nice and dandy, but didn't add up and his gut told him that the dolphin's story was a little fishy. He stepped out onto the porch and looked at the garden then back to the kitchen door where a hammerhead shark was lifting Mr. Tooth's body, struggling to set it on the stretcher - he needed help from another coroner assistant to succeed. Not a one fish job then, not even for a big fellow like that hammerhead ...

Detective Bricks stepped out into the garden and looked at the coral statues and algae decorations, glancing back at the big house from time to time. There were signs of a struggle, marks in the sand, and a lot of blood on the long tip of a coral statue.

Detective Bricks entered the house again and looked at the nervous dolphin more attentively, noticing Raymond had quite a few more scratch marks on his back and fins.

The other cops were carrying Denny across the room to the door.

"You done with the stingray, detective? We're taking him in now," said the cops as they swam by Detective Bricks.

"Actually, I'd rather you didn't," Bricks spoke up and louder than usual to make sure that everyone roaming the house had heard him, including the dolphin. "You people may think it was the step-son and even I believed it to be so. It sounds credible, right? A disgruntled step-son, drunk and unhinged, killed his step-father, Mr. Tooth. However, from the evidence, it was the dolphin that killed him in the garden."

The coppers mumbled, gasped and blinked in confusion - what was that clown fish talking about? The dolphin did it?!

Yeah, it wasn't easy being on the job for as long as he had and still having to deal with 'the looks'. You know the ones, telling you that you don't belong there and that you're in over your head. But the first clown fish to work as a Fish City PD Detective knew how to deal with those looks - ignore them and do your job better than anyone else.