"Sheriff Cooper is not here?" asked Tachibana no Akane, genuinely surprised at this news.
"Well, at the very least, he's not in this courtroom," said Brett Smithson, pointing out the obvious.
"Please locate him," Tachibana ordered a couple of Council guards, who immediately left the courtroom to comply with their instructions.
"If it helps," began Frieda Knight, standing up proudly displaying her gray furred with russet highlights werepanthress form, "the Sheriff interrupted Eric, Spencer, and myself in the Reading Room to use the computer there."
"Do you know why, or recall what he used the computer for?" asked Tachibana, her werevixen fur bristling at the delays, lack of proper decorum, and the fact that justice wasn't being properly served.
"Something about somebody in Seattle, from what I remember seeing on the computer display screen," volunteered Eric Anderson, a white furred werepanther with a hint of brown on top of his head.
"A new witness to the proceedings that still lay before us?" Andrew Curtis, the were-merman representative asked Tachibana, who just shrugged her furry shoulders in uncertainty.
"He's probably going after the bitch who turned me and Alyssa in to the Luna Brotherhood, which caused her death in the first place," suggested Julie Stovall, as her lawyer tried to admonish her for crude language. "Now where's my breakfast?"
Sheriff Cooper, having defurred and now in his regular uniform, was driving his official police cruiser to Seattle, thinking things over.
Okay. From what I can gather, despite Stovall's slanted perspective on things, this Betty Van Rosenberg probably got the Were Alert over her phone like everyone else. Then, when Stovall and Alyssa miraculously showed up on her doorstep, Van Rosenberg did the right thing and contacted the Luna Brotherhood, who arrested the fugitive and my cousin, he thought to himself, trying to figure things out.
So this Betty didn't know the Brotherhood would go hunting, let alone kill Alyssa. It makes sense that my cousin would go to someone she trusted, so this Betty has to be the same one who shacked up with Alyssa and Brian Walker that night in the motel room, but why would Walker lie to me about Van Rosenberg? Was he scared and just didn't want to get into any more trouble? Does he really still hope to become a gigolo? Considering what I know of the Walker family's financial situation, Brian probably hopes to earn big bucks having sex professionally, yet that's illegal, even within Moon Lake's town limits. No point dragging his mother into this without actual hard evidence, for even if the two Bettys ARE the same werecat, I still have no proof money exchanged paws to support a prostitution charge. Yet I saw the kid's name on the volunteer list for clean up duty today, so me and Brian Walker will have a long private talk later this afternoon.
Then the dispatcher came over the police radio. "Sheriff Cooper, what's your 20*? Over."
"I'm on my way to Seattle to interview and collect a witness in my cousin's murder. Why?" asked the Sheriff in return.
"I have Tachibana no Akane on Line 1, who says it's urgent she speak to you at once," revealed the dispatcher.
"Please tell Mrs. Tachibana what I said and—"
"You can tell me yourself Douglas," began Akane, coming over the radio.
"Then you know why I'm not there. I'll collect the witness and be back after lunch at the latest," replied the Sheriff.
"Douglas, I know this has been a trying time for you, but you will not be back in time to greet Darrell when he arrives in Moon Lake," pointed out the werevixen over the radio. "The Burbank chapter of the Luna Brotherhood is flying him and his caretaker, who happens to be a weretigress, here to Moon Lake. There will be a private car meeting them at a private air field within the hour, so they should arrive here by noon."
"Damn," cursed the Sheriff under his breath. "There's no point in me turning back now, since I'm well on my way as it is. Give the caretaker my apologies, and I'll make Darrell my top priority as soon as I return and turn the witness over to you for safe keeping," he promised, before breaking radio contact by turning off his unit.
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*Request for current location/status.—tmw.