The mystery nugget case was rapidly expanding in Alice Springs as things turned up at Archibald Walters' ranch. It had started with a gold nugget found laying out at a corner of the ranch by an Animalian, Marla, who thought that the nugget belonged to Archibald Walters and tried to return it. From there, it was discovered that he didn't own it and it seemed as though someone mysteriously placed the nugget there to be found. For the Alice Springs police, it was to be like any standard "lost item" case, largely because they didn't have any evidence of wrongdoing. Based on what was there, they could only prove that the nugget was on Archibald Walters' land, but not how it got there. The rancher may have had his suspicions on there being a rival that was trying something, but the police couldn't just go on those sorts of hunches.
That, however, changed after Archibald Walters installed a security camera on the corner of his ranch where the gold nugget had been found. And while the police had gotten claims of ownership on the nugget, though without a convincing argument for how or why it even got on Archibald Walters' land, the security camera then presented a real possible suspect and an added twist to the mystery. The camera caught the image of a fairly lightweight man with a round face, a light scruffy beard, and the most noticeable thing being a diagonal scar going through his left eyebrow, and this was caught when Archibald Walters checked the footage and caught this man, who appeared to throw a rock at the pole that the security camera was resting on, and it seemed to hit the pole based on the vibration in the footage. This presented potential vandalism charges and a note that Archibald Walters also brought in with another surprise.
The surprise ultimately proved to be another gold nugget that Archibald Walters found after reading the note that had been wrapped around the rock. It was presented to police, though they couldn't get any handwriting from it as it appeared to be snipped from papers, books, and magazines. It read "check your other corner" and Archibald Walters reported that he found the nugget placed on the corner of his ranch on the opposite side from where Marla had found the first. It only added more to the mystery as now there were two nuggets, a potential vandalism charge that could be tried, and a continuing odd question as to why? Why would someone purposely leave gold, a precious metal, out in the open on someone else's property? The biggest clue in the video that Archibald Walters delivered to the police was the fact that the man didn't hide his face and was pretty obvious in his actions.
The big thing was that the man wasn't known to the Alice Springs police and thus he wasn't wanted for anything. Some requests had been made to the Provicial law enforcement and the Australian justice department offices to see if they had any other warrants or knowledge on who this man was, but for the moment, there wasn't going to be much of a chance of getting an immediate answer as they would need to take some time to check things, unless this guy proved to be on the "most wanted list," which wasn't the case. So, for the moment, the Alice Springs Police were left waiting for a reply on any updates on if facial recognition could be done to identify who the man was and thus get a better idea on where he may be and why he was doing something so odd around one rancher's property. In the meantime, they sent one of their detectives to check with some of the Animalians in the area...
And much of that was a guess on the patch that was noted on the suspect's shoulder that Archibald Walters' camera had caught. The patch looked like a military patch, but no Australian unit had that patch and there was no known anarchist group that used a similar patch, mostly because of the fact that the map of Australia was included in the patch. The only clue they had was that it looked like the marked dots coincided with the general areas where the Animalian colony cities in Australia were, one being near Alice Springs and the other in the northeastern part of Australia. This raised other questions on what this meant, and that brought about the need to ask local Animalians on what they knew, and that brought the detective to the zoo that Ben and Tyree ran.
"I must say this is a bit of a surprise," Ben said as he led the detective into the office that he and Tyree shared and noted his wife moving to shake the detective's hand as well.
"Well... I'm sure you've seen the papers and heard the gossip," the detective answered, "this mystery nugget and the attempted vandalism at Walters' ranch."
"We'd heard that most of the mystery was about how the nugget got there, is there something more?" Tyree wondered as she and Ben sat down.
"It's more that it's expanded beyond that... and to a point where we can report actual crimes being committed, and why we've encouraged that reporting on this be factual and tactful in a way that can allow us to get the necessary information out and not sensationalize things," the detective answered, "and things that might have some connection to Animalia... and with you two being the DeFacto leaders for the Alice Springs colony... we came to you first."
"We don't have any interest in Walters' ranch," Ben commented.
"It's not so much a question of you... or perhaps even the other Animalians here, but if you've seen this man," the detective answered as he pulled out a paper copy of the image from Walters' security camera, "or if you recognize the patch."
Ben and Tyree both looked at the picture and then looked to each other. The detective looked back with some interest, looking to see if there was some recognition, or that if this person had brought some conversation about these things before. It would be difficult, as the Animalian colony cities in Australia weren't quite like the ones in other areas that had their own jurisdiction and thus government structure, and largely only became wards and districts to the town or city they were attached to, and in this case, the town being Alice Springs. It had drawn some attention when Ben and Tyree first became Thylacine Animalians and worked with their zoo and Horizon to give older animals a new lease on life as Animalians, while the younger ones would continue to represent the zoo. The detective figured that maybe this guy caught on camera had some interest in Animalia or the Animalians, particularly the Australian ones, and might have shown up at some of the more public ceremonies. Things like when the first homes for the Animalians were built, Ben and Tyree's wedding, or some other related event.
"I don't think we've ever met the man," Tyree said slowly as she looked down at the photo, "and I know we don't know the patch..."
"Have you ever might have seen him before?" the detective asked.
"I think we might have seen him... or a face like that when Northland was first started," Tyree spoke, "like he was in the crowd of people that came in to celebrate... but never came in to convert."
"Does that happen often?" the detective asked.
"Far more often than you think," Ben commented, "there are a fair number of people that have been interested in Animalia and Animalians, but most of those that would be most interested in converting... those in the "furry" community are but a small part of the global population. Most of the rest have been those injured and wanting to heal those wounds... some of the others are older and are simply wanting another shot at youth again. Which means that the number of people who want to convert isn't as high as some people claim."
"So... this guy likes Animalia, but doesn't want to be an Animalian," the detective surmised.
"We can't say for sure," Tyree spoke, "only that I think we might have seen his face before. Beyond that we don't have much."
"Have you seen him around here?" the detective asked.
"No... but then, we're also busy here with the zoo and its work," Ben commented, "looking after the animals... keeping things clean and interacting with customers to make sure people that come here learn things about animals and nature... and that does keep us busy, among other things."
"Other things?" the detective wondered curiously, thinking it might relate to the case.
"More in terms of family planning," Tyree commented, "we aren't there yet... but when I next come into season, Ben and I will start our family. So for the moment we're waiting and preparing things... and that also includes coordinating things with Horizon and their research on Animalians..."
"But wouldn't they know on you already?" the detective blinked.
"They know, us, yes," Ben answered "but every other Animalian that has had children as an Animalian are either egg layers or placental mammals... or in the case of sharks, the egg hatches inside the mother. Thylacines are marsupials, like Kangaroos. So, Horizon would want to know and measure on whether or not Tyree would carry our joey to term like a Human..."
"Or if it will be born early and will move to my pouch and will then develop in there, like all marsupials... and if so, how long would that be, and so on," Tyree answered, "and that's another thing that we've also been trying to figure on how that would work."
"And that's what's kept you from spots where you could have seen this guy here in Alice Springs," the detective sighed, "make sense... and sorry to get into anything private. This case has expanded greatly with what we've found so far. And congratulations..."
"Oh, don't get to that yet," Tyree brought up her hands, "I'm not pregnant... and most of what we've been working on are all preparatory steps."
"I see," the detective blinked, "well... I still wish you luck."
"Thank you," Ben gave a small smile, "and we'll keep an eye on things... even look into our security personnel and see if this guy had come to the zoo and so on."
"Thank you," the detective nodded, and knowing that he'd have to carry on these sorts of interviews to see if any of the other Animalians in the area had seen the man seen on the security camera footage.