Sidekicks ~9~
Take away the illegal exotic animal business and Felipe Souza did not actually lead a particularly exciting life. The names that Marian had neatly put into a list for the two wannabe heroes to work through were mostly the names of rather harmless places. Between very specific pet shops, various schools and universities, there were only few bars listed that Flavio had requested to avoid until later. He had not fully agreed to get involved again until he had seen the actual list. It began to feel like merely a ridiculous game. Especially because Flavio was convinced that Marian’s father was long dead. To him, this was only a half-hearted attempt to ease her way into that realisation and the resulting acceptance. Frankly, he felt bad for her and even though he preferred to stay out of the big business, spending their day off asking people about the man in the picture was somehow the least they could do. Marian had offered them money too, although Celio had claimed that heroes don’t get paid. No one should get paid for something as useless as this, Flavio had thought, but he was no hero and Marian had insisted on paying them anyway. Easy money. It was no more than that.
“Can I help you with anything?” The friendly female voice belonged to a ginger haired girl in a red vest approaching them from behind. Her name tag, the logo on her vest and her casual question clearly identified her as a saleswoman. Flavio was about to politely decline, when Celio chimed in.
“Oh, maybe you can” He grinned mischievously. “I was just thinking…I really like those bunnies that you have. Can I maybe hold one of them?”
After they had gotten not a single interesting piece of information from the various schools and universities they had been to all day yesterday and all morning today, the list had taken them to a rather small, very cosy looking pet shop. Much to Flavio’s liking. They had spent the first half an hour looking at guinea pigs and hamsters while Celio had made great conversations with a red parrot sitting on his twig right by the entrance of the shop. The parrot was eager to greet every single customer that came in through the door and when there were no costumers to greet, he was happy talking to himself too. Celio had desperately tried to teach the parrot some interesting words while Flavio had wondered if the cat food with special vitamins would make his tiger’s fur shinier and their teeth stronger too. Eventually they had come to a halt at a cage filled with at least a dozen bunnies of all kinds and colour. The animals were rather entertaining to watch and the saleswoman must have taken notice of their interest in them.
“Did you have any specific one in mind?” She proceeded and Celio was already smiling from ear to ear, just thinking about petting one of these little creatures. He did not have to think long, immediately pointing at the only white bunny in the cage. Of course, that particular bunny also seemed to be the weirdest of the bunch, from its behaviour alone. It had been running around the cage, jumping over its brothers and sisters and occasionally even just randomly sitting on top of them.
The woman seemed surprised about this decision, but she was still smiling. “Well, let me see if I can catch it” she laughed, already setting one foot into the cage, careful not to step on any of the bunnies. Some of the animals were frightened by the human invading their terrain, but others were completely unfazed by it, calmly nibbling on some pieces of straw. This definitely wasn’t the first time the woman was doing this and Flavio could observe a very well developed technique that eventually allowed her to catch the white bunny after only one failed attempt. With the unexpected change of scenery, the bunny suddenly became very still, rather than struggling his way out of her arms. Her grip was gentle but tight and she kept petting the small animal in order to calm it down. It seemed to be working, as far as Flavio could tell.
“Have you ever held a bunny before?” The woman asked. She seemed to genuinely care for those animals.
Celio just laughed and nodded. “I occasionally pull one out of my hat” He was already opening up his arms for the bunny when the woman hesitated for a moment. She obviously did not get the joke until Flavio explained it to her. “He’s a magician” That made a little more sense and she was willing to hand her precious animal over to a man that was apparently willing to stuff it into a hat…if required. “Then please just don’t make him disappear” She was smiling now too.
The bunny was a little startled by Celio’s laugh, but he fit right into the magician’s arms, making himself cosy and warm. Celio proceeded to pet him gently, the way the woman had done it before and even Flavio stepped forward to take a closer look.
“So, are you thinking about getting a new one for your show?” She asked while stepping out of the cage. Neither of the two boys was actually looking at the woman. By now the bunny had captured all of their attention. Or so it seemed until Celio casually replied: “Well, since he fed the last one to his tigers”
“Yeah, because he was already dead”
“How do I know you didn’t kill him?”
Flavio lifted his gaze to meet the woman’s disconcerted smile, probably seriously worried about her life choices. “That’s not…he’s just messing. I’d never kill a bunny” He mumbled, unable to keep eye contact. Although the frown between his brows didn’t make him look any less like an alleged bunny-murderer.
None of that had actually answered the question and the woman appeared to still be a little distressed about this little bickering she had just witnessed. There was no way of telling if any of that had been true, but the part about the tigers sure seemed a little excessive. She was eager to change the topic of the conversation and — more importantly — get her bunny away from those strangers and back to the safety of his cage. Even though the little fella was visibly happy in the arms of the magician. “Why don’t you get a cat instead? We have a lot of young couples coming in, getting cats” She giggled awkwardly. “Sometimes it’s like they’re adopting an actual baby”
Obviously, Celio was long past the point of correcting the woman and Flavio’s protest was far too quiet to actually be understood. “No cats, please. We already have four of those” He sighed dramatically. “And sometimes I think he cares more for them than he does for me”
Much to the woman’s relief, it was Flavio now, who finally rose to speak — and appeared to be actually serious about it. “Yeah, we’re not here to buy a bunny or a cat…” He seemed momentarily distracted while his eyes were searching the rest of the shop for the spark of an idea. So far they had somehow managed to improvise all of their covers during previous wannabe interrogations, but he had not quite come up with anything yet until his eyes spotted a cage full of mice, excitedly running around or piling up in the corners of the cage. Marian had told them beforehand what her father had come here for. Maybe they had not been completely off topic after all. “We work for the circus, you see. And we just recently introduced a new act including snakes. They’re one of the larger breeds and I’m afraid their hunger is not satisfied with a box of crickets or cockroaches. Long story short, we need a rather large amount of mice and we were told that you could help us out with that”
The woman was shocked at this blunt question. Her gaze went back and forth between the two boys, eventually coming to a rest on the bunny in Celio’s arms. She put out her hands, demanding the bunny back. Reluctantly, Celio obeyed. He seemed offended, though, immediately blaming Flavio for the loss of his precious bunny.
“Our mice aren’t for consumption…of any kind” She announced while she put the bunny back into the cage. It was easy to see how much it took for her to compose herself and remain calm and polite towards her costumers. “In fact, we have a strict policy not to sell more than 3 mice to one costumer”
Flavio knew that she was either lying, or completely unaware of the secret affairs going on in this shop. Either way, it was probably best to be more careful about the subject. This should have been Celio’s turn to charm the girl in his very natural manner and it didn’t take long for him to catch on. “I apologise for my friend…We might be mistaken. It’s just that…my uncle, Felipe Souza, he’s a regular here-“
The woman cut him off sharply, much to the magician’s surprise. “The manager handles our regular customers by himself”
“I’d like to speak to him, then” Flavio felt wrong just saying that. He had never been the kind of costumer to demand to speak to the manager and he did not want to start now.
“You’re not a regular”
The two boys shot each other a quick glance, estimating whether it was even worth trying. This girl obviously knew something. Or maybe she was just really protective of her mice. Whereas Flavio was not the one for gut feelings, but rather a rational thinker, Celio gave a brief nod, indicating that he felt it was worth another shot.
“Fair enough” Flavio muttered calmly. “Would you mind me asking…how do I become a regular?”
Ah. Just the question the girl had been waiting for. Her triumphant smile gave that one away. “You gotta come here…” She insisted on that pause between her words. “…regularly”
Usually this would have been the right time to check the area for some hidden cameras, but Flavio refrained from doing so, but the glance he shot the girl was worth a thousand words.
Somehow she felt inclined to continue. “Well, your uncle is a regular, isn’t he? Why don’t you ask him?”
Of course, Celio was quick enough to react. He sighed, then shook his head. “I can’t” He admitted and his eyes were genuinely sad. Even Flavio was impressed, but would not let it show. “Here’s the thing:” He was rubbing the back of his head, now convincingly looking remorseful and awkward. That caught the woman’s interest — she had been about to leave.
“There are no snakes…well, there are, but I think they’re being fed sufficiently. It was a bad lie” He paused to throw a quick, scolding glance at Flavio. “Felipe Souza is very real, though. Unfortunately, he went missing a couple of weeks ago. And we’ve been trying to find connections that would maybe make sense of it all”
The woman’s face dropped immediately underneath the weight of that information. She turned another shade of white and the freckles crumpled between her worried brows. “Mr. Souza went missing?”
Until now they had refrained from telling anyone about the crime they were pretending to be investigating. They had never directly asked for any knowledge of Felipe Souza’s whereabouts, assuming that it was probably for the best if people would not be able to make the connection between the two boys and the crime. They might be talking to someone who was somehow involved in the kidnapping or the actual murder. Now that Celio had spilled the beans, Flavio was still rather sceptical about it. Only the woman’s sudden and genuine concern had him relax a little. To be fair, she did look trustworthy, even though she had not particularly acted that way. But how the hell were they supposed to know?
“I had not seen him in a while…I’ve been wondering…He is good friends with my boss. I think they’re friendship goes way back to even before the opening of this little shop here. It is true that Mr. Souza got small animals from us to feed them to his snakes, but they were friends first. But we never officially sold them to him here in the shop. He never actually came here unless he wanted to speak to my boss. I don’t know about any of the things they were discussing but they always had a lot to say. My boss breeds a lot of the pets we offer here at his own house” She knew what Celio’s next question would be and quickly added: “He’s not here today. In fact, he got the whole week off”
Flavio proceeded with a different question. “So, when they met up to…talk, did they meet up somewhere specific? Here in the shop, an office maybe? Or somewhere else entirely?”
It was fascinating how willing she now was to answer. “As far as I know, they often went for a drink into that new pub around the corner. What’s the name- Ah, Puzzles”