The Animalia Fashion Show obviously had more than a few displays that were inappropriate for all audiences to see. Considering there were several Animalians who were strutting around barely wearing anything, that was understandable. But there were also displays where the models were wearing nothing at all. Those were the ones where they were displaying temporary fur dyes. The colors of the dyes tended to be rather flamboyant. It was rather odd to see a real-life pink panther, particularly one with a very considerable rack.
But it wasn’t only Animalians who were in the buff. There were a few humans that were also performing nude, though they were ‘covering’ themselves in a different way. Their entire bodies were painted over in rather intrinsic designs, more than a few being animal-based. They also moved in slow, methodical ways, strutting and posing their bodies so that the murals on their skins were seen by everyone. It was a little hypnotic, even if some people were only focused on particular areas of the performers.
The whole thing started without warning. A model named Camille had been showing a vibrantly-colored scale pattern that been applied to her skin. She was walking back off the stage when her steps started to stagger. Before she made it to the end of the stage, she collapsed. Thankfully, there were medics ready at hand and soon Camille was rushing towards the hospital.
But when she arrived, it soon became clear that Camille didn’t simply collapse because of fatigue or heat stroke. Her lab results quickly showed a near-lethal amount of heroin in her system. This was enough to bring in the APD to investigate. Though stabilizing Camille was the top concern, there was plenty of worry that she’d have to go to jail as soon as she recovered.
Officer Shelly frowned as she looked into the ICU room where Camille was currently resting. “This isn’t adding up,” she said.
“How so?” asked Simon Truman, who was shadowing Officer Shelly as part of his training.
“After she was scrubbed, there were no puncture wounds or scars where she would have injected herself. And we’ve talked with the other performers who knew her. Camille was not the drug-abusive type. In fact, she frequently tried to talk others out of using drugs,” said Shelly, “And yet, she’s nearly OD’d on heroin. It was so much we could actually smell it on her.”
Simon thought it over and said, “Maybe it wasn’t IN her. Maybe it was literally ON her.”
“How so?” asked Shelly.
“Do they still have the rags they used to clean her?” asked Simon.
“I think so,” said Shelly.
After a bit of questioning, the bucket with dirty cleaning rags was produced. Simon took two careful sniffs in the bucket before flinching back. “Yep, just as I thought,” he said, holding his nose.
Shelly took a sniff and recoiled. A human nose might not have been able to detect anything unusual, but the two canines could smell the heroin rather strongly. “The heroin was IN the body paint?” asked Shelly, also having to hold her nose.
“Yeah, pretty strong stuff too,” said Simon, “Especially if this just diluted from washing it off of her. I think she’s really lucky it didn’t kill her.”
“Where did you learn what heroin smells like?” asked Shelly.
“I completed Part 1 of my Drug Scent Recognition Test,” said Simon, “I almost feel sorry for ordinary dogs. They don’t have the self-awareness to know what they’re actually smelling.”
“Not bad, Truman,” said Shelly, “But the question remains: what is heroin doing in body paint in the first place?”
“For that, I think we need to find out more about the body paint she was wearing. And make sure none of the other performers were wearing it,” said Simon.
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The APD had more help than they expected with this. It appears that the DEA has been trying to crack down on heroin smuggling in the Southwest for the last few years. Of course, with methods of identifying and tracking drugs becoming more advanced, dealers had to come with increasingly clever methods of transporting their cargo without suspicion. And admittedly, hiding them inside cans of body paint would be among the last places that people would look. Not to mention the heroin could be secretly administered just by putting on a dab of paint that no one would think twice about. Of course, a full-body coat like Camille had applied to herself was way more than should be handled.
As to how the body paint got into Camille’s possession in the first place, that required a bit of backtracking. Eventually, the trail led them to a FedEx deliveryman who had dropped off supplies for the Fashion Show. He admitted he might have gotten a few boxes mixed up, but as he thought all the boxes had contained identical cans of paint, he didn’t think there was any harm.
The revelation about the drug in the paints wasn’t announced immediately. While Camille was saved, there was still the matter of the drug-trafficking ring that produced these tainted paints. So a very calculated sting operation was taken place. Leaving the box of laced paints alone, the APD and DEA waited for someone to come and claim it. Eventually, a man snuck in and grabbed the box, unaware that security cameras caught him in the act. As soon as he was back at his van, he drove off.
The driver was apparently so confident that no one suspected him, that he only glanced backwards to see if he was followed. He should have been looking up. Morty was a Turkey Vulture that had been uplifted during the initial outbreak. Understandably, few people wanted to have anything to do with Turkey Vultures, considering that they were scavengers at best and pests at worst. But Morty was intent to do as much good as he could for the community. And it was a well-known fact that vultures could glide almost indefinitely and had very keen eyesight for looking for carrion below. Of course, there were other Skye-Eye units that were other kinds of birds of prey, but the one factor that worked best in Morty’s favor was that buzzards like him were so common, no one paid attention to him. And at this height, most people would think he was just an ordinary buzzard.
Morty followed the van a pretty long way, almost all the way to the Arizona border. Finally, it stopped at a warehouse that had apparently been abandoned for some time. Still, Morty transmitted the coordinates and before long, the EDA, backed by the APD, arrived on the scene. The heroin production inside the warehouse was more extensive than had been anticipated, but there were more than enough officers there to arrest everyone involved. The current estimate was that this was the 4th biggest source for imported heroin in the United States.
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Needless to say, this was quite a victory for the EDA and Animalia got a lot of good publicity as well. Several of the individual Animalians involved were recognized for their efforts. Even Morty’s standing in the community has rose up considerably, making the vultures not as unpopular as they were before.
But credit did not pass by the young cadet-in-training who cracked the case open in the first place. Shelly soon had Simon summoned to her office. “Truman, that was brilliant deductive work you’ve displayed,” she said.
“It was nothing, really,” said Simon, “Anyone would have sniffed out the heroin eventually.”
“But it might have taken them longer to realize it was in the paint itself,” said Shelly, “This saved a lot of possible lives, including Camille’s.”
“How is she?” asked Simon with concern.
“She’s recovering, but the heroin was a bad shock to her system. Even experienced users might have taken down by that dosage. It’s thanks to you that her career hasn’t been destroyed,” said Shelly.
“Her career?” asked Simon.
“If she was believed to have been a heroin abuser, no one would hire her. She might not even be accepted into Animalia if we thought she was one,” said Shelly.
“She’ll be joining us?” asked Simon.
“Partially to completely detoxify herself, but I think she also has her own reasons,” said Shelly.
“Oh, you know what she will be?” asked Simon.
“A crested chameleon is what I heard,” said Shelly, “Apparently a horned chameleon was her first choice, but then she learned that only males have horns.” She set aside her paperwork and said, “As much of a relief it is that you’re concerned about Camille, we’re here to discuss you.”
“Was there anything I did wrong?” asked Simon.
“Not a single thing,” said Shelly, “If you weren’t still in training, I’d promote you on the spot. But I’ve been thinking over your current status as a student. Have you decided which specialty you’d like to pursue?”
“Well, just being a police officer is enough for me,” said Simon.
“I know that you’ve also help bust two capers in Mieni Atoll and in Costa Rica,” observed Shelly.
“I had help,” said Simon.
“Well, it seems to me that detective work might be your call of duty,” said Shelly.
“You think so?” asked Simon.
“I think you’ve proven your mind is as sharp as your nose and ears,” said Shelly, “Whether your eyes match, we’ll have to see. But I could see you being honed into that line of work. Therefore, I’m going to give you a recommendation to start you a detective training course. If you feel this isn’t the right specialty for you, you can always change it.”
“Thank you very much, ma’am,” said Simon.
“Keep honing those deductive skills and I think you’ll be on the fast track to a detective’s badge in no time,” said Shelly.