For Denny Miles and Miles Lukasky, the past few weeks had been ones that betrayed a lot of the frustration that came with certain cases and even certain people. It started with Alice Decrux, who had had a great reputation of being a man user, and her latest line of antics had involved messing with a family of a father and daughter who'd just moved to Moon Lake, with the father having the same name as a Moon Lake normal who'd recently become a werefox to be with his love, who'd been scratched by a rogue werefox vixen. These antics then in turn saw the father, Harold Jenkins, become a weretiger when he'd been at the center of a fight between Decrux and another neighbor that was a weretiger. That section ultimately ended with Decrux then pulling a stunt with the Halloween dance that led to a series unplanned inductions of normal humans into were society, and there was some suspicion that Moon Lake's mayor had also been drugged. But Decrux could not be formally charged with that for when she apparently learned her trick had worked, actually moved to flee Moon Lake and saw her car roll down a cliff north of the town, killing Decrux as well.
In a fair world, that would have been the end of it. For Alice Decrux would no longer be capable of using men as a means to milk for child support and potentially violating statute 1A in the process, but things weren't always fair and it appeared that one of the children that Decrux had had, or one of the men she had wronged, now seemed to be on a path of vengeance and had turned their sights on the one child that Alice Decrux had that didn't take some other surname. This was a daughter who worked in the college bookstore, Megan Decrux, and one who had often argued with her mother and tried to get Alice Decrux to change her ways for years. Yet, someone made a threatening call to Megan Decrux in the dark of night and then left a bomb in Megan's car that could have killed Megan if she'd been closer to the car, and it was only a miracle that the bomb wasn't set off by Megan's neighbors leaving for work. The two detectives were now having to piece things together to try and pin down who the threat was, which based on security footage from the apartment complex was a male wereraccoon, which confirmed the two detectives' base suspicions, and helped clear possible motivations for the attack based on Alice Decrux's will.
Now the two were going over their list of suspects and trying to get answers on them and identify the wereraccoon that had placed the bomb. It would be a mystery that would be tough to solve, as the security footage they had they couldn't use because the one who placed the bomb had been in his fursona at the time, and protecting the were secret remained critical. Though, that wasn't entirely what they had to worry about, as they had enough other evidence that could be used and a list of the most probable suspects to interview. These included George Leprue, Maxwell Veers, Bernard Irmington, Marshall Lemming, Marshall's son Michael Decrux, Alexander Mason, Thomas Decrux, son of Elton Pyre, a Paul Decrux, son of Ryan Manx, Vernon Decrux, son of Miles Washington, and Nelson Decrux, the son of Ulysses Thule. It was a fairly lengthy list of people who were either children of Alice Decrux or men that Alice Decrux had wronged. All were people who were suspected to have given a late-night threat call and tried to bomb Megan Decrux.
"So... Who do we start with?" Denny Miles as he looked to his partner.
"I would think that we actually start with George Leprue," Miles Lukasky spoke, "we already know that his brother... Officer Leprue has had it in for Decrux over what Decrux did to his brother and tried to do regarding his now niece, Jessica. Officer Leprue has said he wouldn't that far... though his record on looking to be there when Alice Decrux has been in legal trouble has made it pretty clear that he's not exactly staying within protocol with what a basic patrol officer should be doing in these cases..."
"But the suspect isn't Officer Leprue," Detective Miles warned, "he isn't a wereraccoon."
"Yes, but he is related to George," Detective Lukasky spoke as the two finished filling up their travel mugs and then moved to the car they shared, "from there, we can even move on to Marshall Lemming, who teaches at the elementary school where Jessica goes to school. We'd actually cover two of those on our list in one go... and to a degree, with his daughter to look after, we can probably easily cross George off the list. We just need to ask him to make sure we've crossed off all the boxes and make sure there isn't anything more to deal with."
Detective Miles nodded and they made their way through the station before coming out of it and to the parking lot outside the station. As they were detectives for the Moon Lake PD, they didn't have to use a standard police cruiser and could use their own vehicles, but in doing so, they had to have a portable light and siren they could deploy to show when they were on duty and in case of running into a pursuit. Detective Lukasky was quick to climb into the driver's seat while Detective Miles got into the passenger seat to his right and the two were still off. It was early enough that many may not actually be at work yet, and the school day hadn't started, which would mean that George Leprue was likely still at home, but late enough that they wouldn't be waking anyone up. They could conduct their interview with George quickly and then move on to the school to hopefully handle Marshall Lemming before he got too involved with anything in his schoolwork... and might even get some questions regarding Marshall's son, Michael.
It wasn't too far to get to the house that George Leprue lived in, and it really wasn't much. One floor and older as it sat in one of the rings that made the middle part of Moon Lake. The one thing that could be suspicious was that it wasn't too far away from the apartment that Megan Decrux lived in. But to a great extent, because George Leprue had been inducted in high school, with the induction coming more from what was judged to be an accidental dosing of Love Potion Number 9, and the fact that he was the last one that Alice Decrux had gone after before Harold and Melissa Jenkins came to Moon Lake, they didn't see him as a truly likely suspect. Though, because of the proximity to where Megan Decrux lived, they might actually get a witness to the wereraccoon that did try to kill Megan Decrux. Noting the car parked beside the house on the driveway, they parked on the street in front of the house and moved to approach the door.
"Here goes nothing," Detective Miles said slowly and pressed the doorbell.
It wasn't long before a young man, who couldn't be too old, likely somewhere in his college years or just out of college. He looked a bit like Officer Leprue, but younger. The two detectives could hear some chewing from the kitchen inside the house, which gave some sense that young Jessica Leprue was getting ready for school.
"Can I help you, sirs? Or ask that you come back around five PM after I'm off work and my daughter is not in a rush to get to school?" George Leprue asked.
"I'm afraid we don't really have the time for that," Detective Lukasky answered, "as I'm sure you've heard from your older brother that police work really can't provide for much in the way of free time in a major investigation." He paused to look down at his watch and noted that it was only seven O-one and knew that they wouldn't have too much trouble in handling things.
"Did something happen to my brother?!" George Leprue's eyes bulged as a look of shock went over his face and his voice getting a bit louder.
"No, nothing happened to him," Detective Miles, "I'm Detective Miles, this is my partner, Detective Lukasky... and we're presently investigating some incidents that include a threatening phone call and a car bombing that targeted Megan Decrux."
George Leprue frowned heavily, "The one who drugged me was Alice Decrux. That witch with some kind of vengeance streak and hatred of men everywhere... and likely would have forced this on my Jessica as well."
"And she's met her end," Detective Lukasky answered, "she was behind the stunt at the Halloween dance and ended up going down a mountain the hard way when trying to flee. We're here more because of some threats made to her daughter, Megan Decrux, your daughter's half-sister."
They watched as one of George's eyebrows raised up and his face looked a bit blank, like he was trying to picture the woman the two detectives had mentioned and failing.
"She doesn't live too far away... in an apartment building," Detective Miles explained, "a couple of nights ago, someone called her in the night and seemed to make something of a threat to her... and then, as we began investigating that call, her car was blown up when she hit her key fab button."
"And you think I did it?" George asked, holding his calm, "come on... I have a young daughter to raise, I'm barely making minimum wage at the Local Diner. I can't afford to get involved in something that would deprive my daughter of a responsible parent."
"We know that the perpetrator is a male wereraccoon, as he was in his fursona when the bomb was placed," Detective Lukasky answered, "but we're not focused in on anyone at this moment. We're just trying to make sure that all our boxes are crossed off."
"And to a degree, from what we know about you from your brother... we don't think you'd actually be the sort to go out for vengeance, and particularly by hurting someone who's actually innocent of anything Alice Decrux did to you," Detective Miles said slowly, "in fact... by motivation, your brother would have more reason to do something like this... but he isn't a wereraccoon... and to a degree, his focus has been more on Alice. But we need to make sure you have an alibi for the past few nights... and potentially if you might have seen anyone not from this part of town in the area. A male wereraccoon that doesn't live in the area."
"Well... following trick or treating on Halloween... we stayed with my parents, as Jessica loves her paternal grandparents," George answered, "though on the nights after... I've been here. Jessica is too young to transform, and without a babysitter... I really don't have time for a night out, and my work shift keeps me pretty busy. I wouldn't have been out when this bomb you mention was placed... though, I think I did hear the explosion while I was at work."
"Would you have seen anyone strange about?" Detective Miles asked.
"Not that I remember... though given how close a lot of people are in Moon Lake, it could be possible that someone may have come through on their way to see a friend on the other side of town..." George answered again, "though, outside of that, I'm afraid my responsibilities have kept me fairly busy, that someone could have come by, but I didn't notice the movement... or if I did... just thought it was part of normal nighttime activity here."
Both detectives sighed heavily and looked down.
"Well... we thank you for your help, if you can keep an eye out for any unusual activity from any male wereraccoons, don't hesitate to report it in," Detective Lukasky instructed, "it might finally help us get some hints as to who could have engaged in these threats.