Driving Doctor Mayhem

[30] Doc's Secret

"There's something that neither of you know about me. And I hope it doesn't change the way that you see me, but if it does, then you can get bent."

"This sounds like a very aggressive coming out speech," I whispered. "Hey Doc, we already know you're not straight."

Gideon started giggling like I never thought a grown man could.

Doc let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not embarrassing. This is actually embarrassing."

"We're not going to judge you," Gideon said reassuringly. "We care about you."

"Which means we obviously don't scare easily," I added.

"I used to be an accountant," Doc blurted out. "Before I was all this," He motioned to the beakers and equipment strewn throughout the room. "I was a mild mannered accountant who spent most of his time in a windowless cubicle. I am fully aware that I was a walking cliche, but I was good at it. The best."

I snorted. "And you have me balance your checkbooks?"

"Don't worry, I correct your mistakes. At first, I handled smaller accounts, but word spread about how--I don't know--prolific I was, and all of the upper crust of Jiminyville started coming to me. This included Mayor Collodi when he was in the middle of his reelection campaign last year."

"Okay, I still don't see how this connects to everything else," I said, reservedly playing with the ends of my hair.

"He embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from his campaign fund."

"I'm starting to see how this connects to everything else."

"Yes," he scoffed. "Because I'm making this freeze ray; I'm going to finish it tomorrow sometime. When I pull the trigger, it's going to pause the entire world for about, say, twenty minutes. In that time, the three of us are going to go to Collodi's."

Gideon and I exchanged a worried look.

"And you get to drive us, Miss Banks!"