Pete, Jeff, Fred, and Larry, the four wereraccoon boys that Alice Decrux had recruited as part of her scheme were all surprised to find themselves staring down Officer Leprune's service pistol. However, surprise did not mean they were going to fight a cop, particularly one who was armed and with his weapon aimed at them. They all quickly raised their hands above their heads and the silent realization that Alice Decrux wouldn't be coming out to play with them hit them.
"We give up!" Jeff said to Officer Leprune quickly, "We give up!"
Officer Leprune watched all four carefully. They were the same four wereraccoon boys that had been seen on the security footage talking with Harold Jenkins and Virginia McCoy, and with all that he already had reason to suspect that they were involved with Decrux on some level, but that didn't mean he expected to find all of them at HER house... well... her backyard. He was already a bit nervous as he arrived as he found that the garage door had been left open and there was no sign of Alice Dexcrux's vehicle, though he also had to note that the regular officer who was essentially assigned to monitor her and make sure she didn't leave town before her court date also wasn't in sight. That could well mean that if Decrux ran, there would already be a unit in "hot pursuit" of her, which would be about the only thing that would allow Moon Lake to grab her and make the arrest. There might be some hoops to jump through with regard to jurisdiction and bringing Decrux back to Moon Lake, but with the main charges being in Moon Lake, Officer Leprune saw no major issues there. The thing that had drawn him out of his car was the fact that he hears these four boys talking in the backyard, and thus came to investigate.
"We didn't take anything, I swear!" Pete added as he held his hands high, and his arousal rapidly going away at the sight of Leprune's gun.
"I'm not looking into thievery," Officer Leprune answered, "what is your business with Alice Decrux?"
"Huh?" Pete wondered, wondering why the officer would want to know about the orgy they'd planned to have with a hot older were, an orgy that likely wasn't going to happen at all now.
"What is your business with Alice Decrux?" Officer Leprune asked again, "this is HER backyard and I already have it on good evidence that she's drugged several people at the Halloween Dance with Love Potion Number Nine and nearly lead to a Statute 1A violation. I also have security footage of you four interacting with the father of one of the victims. Now, what is your business with Alice Decrux?"
The four boys practically paled at the mention of the drug, which Officer Leprune guessed meant that they didn't know about the drug's involvement. It didn't remove them from Decrux's plot, but it did imply that these four were likely duped. Of course, the only to know for sure would be to get answers.
"Ms. Decrux wanted us to give some punch to a girl at the dance... Metilda..." Fred began, "no Melinda..."
"Melissa Jenkins," Officer Leprune corrected.
"That's the name!" Fred answered as the other three protested to him. Officer Leprune watched as Fred turned to the others and then chittered angrily, "Hey... we ain't going to get what she promised us anyway. I'm not going to jail for Love Potion Number Nine... especially when no one told any of us that we'd essentially be drugging someone."
The other three wereraccoons then looked down and were quiet for a moment.
"Decrux didn't tell you about the drug?" Officer Leprune asked.
"All she told us was to give the Jenkins girl the punch," Pete spoke, fully realizing the jig was up and essentially coming to agree with Fred, "She promised us she'd make it worth our while. Or at least make it worth the while of whoever got her the punch. So... we planned to stage a mock gun fight with our water pistols, we'd all squirt her and then claim the reward."
Officer Leprune sighed at that. It appeared the only thing these four were after was sex, and not with Melissa Jenkins but with Decrux as part of a reward for their role in Decrux's prank. That left him wondering a bit why they were here, even though they'd failed on their part of the bargain. It also made him wonder on why would Decrux have left, or did she simply flee as trick or treating started on the assumption that Melissa Jenkins would be drugged.
"But the two weretigers were guarding the punch bowl like it was a kill and wouldn't let us get close enough to fill our water pistols," Larry added, "Said something about there being something in it... but we didn't know what."
"And eventually little miss "I gotta imitate my grandma" came and took the punch bowl away, leaving us rather defeated," Jeff nodded in agreement, "Not that the male weretiger was content with that victory..."
"Yeah," Pete nodded, "the male was rather... irritated with Decrux or something. As he said we were to tell her that they were on to her or something like that. We didn't know about any drugs... and really NEITHER should he have known about any drugs, unless he was in on it... but yet... he knew something and was guarding that punchbowl like a kill."
Officer Leprune slowly nodded at that. While the boys didn't know about the drugs, their description of events seemed to fit what he'd seen on the security footage, that Harold Jenkins and Virginia McCoy were preventing people from drinking the tainted punch. He wouldn't have described it as "guarding a kill," but then, many large weres, usually including werewolves, wereleopards/panthers, werejaguars, werelions, weretigers, and werebears that could kill deer and even did so at times would exhibit guarding behaviors to protect what they'd killed for themselves, their pride, or their pack. That was pretty standard, and to weres that were based off of potential prey species or simply smaller predators, those guarding behaviors could come off as threatening to them.
"While I can't say how they knew... from what I've seen, they were trying to protect people from the drugged punch," Officer Leprune answered in a calmer voice, "and I assume you came here to relay the message to Decrux?"
"We came to get our reward," Pete answered, "we'd tell her that we'd had our fake gun fight and she'd give us our reward... Since she didn't go to the dance... or stay there... she didn't know the tigers were guarding the punch bowl."
"But she said she had to take her birth control pill and we were to wait out here," Jeff continued.
"And then you showed up," Larry finished.
That confirmed that all these four wanted was sex and that they weren't really aware of the fact that Decrux was bringing drugs into play. It also confirmed that Decrux had only recently left, and hopefully the officer assigned to monitor her home had still been on duty and pursued. The sex issue was hard to deal with. Because of were's heightened libidos, Moon Lake often looked the other way with regard to were/were interaction, but at times warnings could be given when those actions violated either state or federal law regarding the age of consent. With these four, at best all Leprune could really give them was a warning, as they didn't actually drug anyone at the dance and Decrux had apparently stood them up.
"It's probably a good thing you missed out on her," Officer Leprune spoke, "despite how pretty she may be on the outside... her inside is rotten. Even if she hadn't drugged a bunch of people and gave you want you wanted... she likely would get herself pregnant and all of you would face lawsuits for child-support. She's DONE that before, with both weres and normals alike."
Officer Leprune watched as four sets of solid black eyes practically bulged in surprise at that. From there, Officer Leprune managed to collect names and addresses as quickly as he could. Once done he sent all four of them home, as that was about all he could do with the four boys. The only thing left was finding out if anyone was on Decrux's tail.