"No, the zoo owners didn't know the guy," the detective spoke as he came out of Ben and Tyree's zoo and listened to the reply on the phone, "they think they may have seen the face when the Northland Colony was established but didn't get any interaction with him."
"And you trust them?" came the answer.
"Have no reason not to, and they'll be looking over their security footage to see if this guy came into the zoo at any point," the detective spoke quietly into his phone, "so, it may give us some hope for finding a trail that might get us a name... unless we've gotten something back from the higher ups regarding the facial recognition stuff."
"Nothing on that front, I'm afraid," came the answer.
The detective groaned, "well... hopefully something comes back soon. I'm going to ask around. This guy clearly has some interest in the area and in the Animalians, or with them. Maybe they've seen a face and know the name. Once we get a name for this guy, we can do more about the possible vandalism charge..."
"And the trespassing charges on some of the other ranches near Walters' ranch, given what our canine unit figured," came the response, "good luck."
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The first stop that the detective then had was the gym that Khan and Marla had. Alice Springs and its attached "colony" didn't have as many Animalians as other places did, which made things relatively easy for the Alice Springs police to try and check on figuring out if anyone knew who the guy that Archibald Walters' security camera caught was. There was no suspicion that Khan or Marla were involved with the suspect, just as there wasn't any suspicion that Ben and Tyree were involved with the suspect, but given the interest in Alice Springs and Archibald Walters' ranch and the recent fact that the man had showed interest in some of the events set up to promote Animalia's colonies, that only raised questions that went beyond rivalries among ranchers. And right now, all the police had was an image, it was hoped that the other Animalians might have had more luck in providing the police with a name.
The gym wasn't too much more than a rectangular building. It looked sturdy, but really wasn't much and the box air conditioning units fitted to the windows indicated that they were aware that the building they had could collect heat, either from the outside or from the inside. There was a small outside area that was fenced in and had some weight sets there, but for the moment there was no one there and the detective figured that almost everything would be indoors. It might be late summer in Australia and fall wasn't too far away, but the continent could almost always be warm. He came in to find that the space was like a large open area and the metal clanking of weights and the related machines clicking.
There were a few people moving about and working with the weight sets, and the detective could see along the north wall, and bracketing a door that led out to the outdoor area there were all sorts of metal weights that were arranged by their weight. Going from west to east the weights progressed from rather light weights to ones that would probably be borderline heavy for even Khan and Marla. There were also matts that squeaked a little bit as people walked around and that was where those that were working out were doing so, and he also noted that there was one person working with the barbell and another was present to "spot" the person lifting. There was a small bathroom on the south wall that then opened to a row of treadmills and other aerobic equipment, which the detective guessed was for when the gym had an "aerobics day" and it was raining outside. There was also various other equipment with some Humans and Animalians, but with Khan and Marla carefully coming around the machinery.
"Is there something you need, sir?" Marla asked as she was the first to arrive and doing her best to sound polite, "most that come to work out or join the gym are more..."
"Athletically dressed?" Khan offered to his mate and then looked to the detective.
"I'm not here to work out... I'm with the local police, and I was hoping for your help in tracking the man who left the gold on Archibald Walters' ranch," the detective spoke, "we have a face and some context that he's at least interested in Animalia or Animalians. Which could mean he may have come here or that other Animalian members of your gym might have seen him."
Khan and Marla both looked over to where the Wedge Tailed Eagle was working out and doing some simple curls. Both were certain they had no connection to what happened, but if the police were still trying to track down the owner of the gold nugget, the Wedge Tailed Eagle might be the only other one who may help. Then then waived the detective forward.
"Come with us, we can talk near our business desk, and if you have pictures, we'll have everyone come by and see if they recognize the guy," Khan commented.
"Most of what we do here with the gym has everyone working together, spotting for others and often working with those with comparable strength, so that a middle-aged Human woman isn't spottin' for me," Marla explained, "and that's even with our weight days when individuals come in for their own workouts and are just using the weights. So, if your bad guy came in, I'm sure someone would have seen him."
The detective nodded and laid out the picture for Khan and Marla to see, and then explained things, "we don't think you or any of the other Animalians here in Alice Springs are involved with him... but he has shown some interest and might be using you as cover."
Khan and Marla nodded and looked at the photo. Though, as they looked to it, they found nothing familiar about the face. Marla guessed he could have been a minor and the scar was the result of something that happened in the mine, but that might be something that the police either already knew or suspected. Beyond that, they really had nothing, and the detective picked that up fairly quickly.
"Not a familiar face?" the detective asked, largely hoping for confirmation.
"No... we haven't seen that face before... though we'd remember a round face like that pretty clearly," Khan commented, "sorry..."
"We'll bring the others by, as they may have seen this guy elsewhere," Marla offered and the detective stood by as the other gym members present were called over.
The detective sighed as he got more looks of recognition from these gym members, and even the Wedge Tailed Eagle Animalian. All of it added to the puzzles of the present mystery as to why all of this was going on. After all, there were no reports of gold missing from the mines, which meant that while this man might be a former miner, himself, if he'd taken things from the mine, it'd been done legally and thus there was no trail to follow to find a name. And if he wasn't a miner and had some wealth of his own, that might explain how he'd gotten the gold in that he had the money to buy the gold nuggets, but that still left the question on why the interest in Animalia and the Animalians? Why use that gold to pull some stunt with Archibald Walters' land? All of these were things that echoed through the detective's mind as he then collected the photo and then made his way out.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The detective was tired as he came back into the offices that the Alice Springs police worked out of. It was late, and while the lights were on, he didn't expect too much. A feeling of defeat also hung over him as he came in. His main plan was just to set down the photo and set to what would ultimately be a preliminary report. From there he would head home to recharge his batteries and come in the next day with the hope that there might be some added information that might finally get them a name or some permission to try and fully track. As he sat down, he heard his superior coming along the hallway and turned to see the man come into the open doorway. His superior looked just as tired as he was.
"Find anything?" his superior asked.
"Nothing," the detective said, "this guy apparently hasn't visited the gym or the places where even the Animalians at the gym have visited... and hasn't gone to any of the other places where gaming league guys hang out. And they walk out between each other's houses and even outdoor games of their own..."
"But they haven't seen our suspect," his superior grumbled.
"It's like he wants to show up at big events where no one is looking for him," the detective said, "but when someone IS looking for him, he does his best to hid out."
His superior nodded, "which means this guy is smart... but he won't be able to avoid things forever. We'll be getting some added help in tracking him."