{{AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Tad story line is currently running slightly ahead of the main Moon Lake thread, with most of our cast there still enjoying a peaceful and romantic Saturday night, blissfully unaware of what might lie in store for the future of Moon Lake and were society with the arrest of Lionel Ulysses in this thread.—tmw.}}
Agent Theodore Green of the Federal Bureau of Investigation hated lying to fellow officers, especially when they were good people who just wanted to see justice done.
Yet there was a bigger priority at stake.
"Look," he began, in conference with representatives of the Seattle Police Department, "for whatever reason, Ulysses and his associates liked to call themselves The Rat Pack; but I certainly wouldn't hold them in the same esteem as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and those other famous celebrities from the Las Vegas strip. Yet, based upon what the vest cameras recorded, only Ulysses seems to have ever taken the name literally with that stupid attempt at a costume. After all, among his other crimes, he is a known drug dealer. For all we know, he may have sampled his own product too much. My suggestion is to just let it go and get on with things. As soon as Ulysses is out of surgery and pronounced fit enough, we take him to a judge and start the judicial proceedings accordingly."
Where I hope he gets the death penalty, instead of anyone discovering how long lived weres are if he only receives a life sentence.
Green hoped those around him would take his advice, not only for the sake of his wife Marci, who also happened to be a werecat; but also for every were in the world as well as those in Moon Lake, some of which he was starting to think of as friends.
It was his fondest wish that in time, the Greens could move to Moon Lake and he could become a were too, in order to make his married life complete.
"None of us here are disagreeing with you Agent Green," began Detective Smith, speaking on behalf of the other veteran officers in the room. "But considering some of the relationships that other police departments across the country currently find themselves in at the moment, we went ahead and released the vest cam video footage as is to show everything in the apprehension was legal and above board, especially in light of the fact that the rest of Ulysses' crew died during our raid of their hide out. But whether because it's been a slow news day for them or something else, the media's been running with the tail footage and we'll have to tell them something soon. Otherwise, the longer we delay, the more they'll think we have something to hide."
Which would not be good for those of the furry persuasion, realized Green. I can't claim National Security or use my governmental authority to try to cover this up directly at the moment. Then both the Seattle PD and MY superiors will wonder what I'm trying to hide.
"So what do you suggest?" he finally asked.
"We were talking it over while you were on the phone with your office," said Detective Smith, indicating the other officers with her. "Our best thought is to go ahead and have the post-action press conference, and if the tail issue comes up, just tell the media what you told us and leave it at that."
Green realized that they had decided on their own what he was trying to convince them to do. Downplay the situation, and if the media remained nosy, hope that Moon Lake and weres everywhere were prepared for whatever might happen next.
"After all," began another officer, "none of us here actually believe the suspect really had a tail, and we'd be foolish to ever publicly say so. Although the fact that we haven't been able to find any shred of the costume is a bit puzzling."
It was like discussing "little green men" or Big Foot. The FBI agent realized that while no one present wanted to risk confronting the truth of the matter and possibly have their world turned upside down in the process; as seasoned police officers and investigators, the fact that there was no evidence to support an alternate theory still troubled them.
"Who knows what his fake tail was made of?" asked Green in return, thinking fast to down play any further suspicions and get them securely on his side quickly. "It probably broke apart when it fell out of his pants and hit the ground while fleeing us, before being scattered by the wind."
It was all Agent Green could do to not breathe a sigh of relief when he saw every head in the room silently nod in agreement with him.
Now let's hope this works with the media! he prayed.