Following my meeting with Officer Howard, I made my way back out and that Friday's patrol with Officer Barnes. That day like so many others went fairly quietly with no calls other then what people would call "routine calls". And that was something both of us preferred. The last thing any officer ever wanted was a rash of violent or otherwise dangerous crimes. In some places they were likely, and there were times when officers could even predict relatively accurately that something big would happen. I had remembered reading magazine articles related to sports riots in Vancouver, Canada related to the loss in the Stanley Cup a few years before that the police had expected something to happen if things went wrong. And according to the article I'd read, things did go wrong and the officers were ready. But I doubted that any of those officers wanted to have to put down a riot. And I had certainly never wished to have to put down all of the violent cases that I had run into since my transformation and joining the Columbia Falls Police Department.
It was not that I didn't respect officers that had dealt with those sorts of things. Peoria wasn't the biggest city in Illinois, but things like drug deals, murders, gang violence, and other "big city crimes" occurred there fairly frequently. Some of it was from things that spilled over from Chicago and some of it was from smaller groups that set up shop there. Dealing with that was a big thing and the police officers that did deal with those things around the country would always have my respect. I had, however, wanted to do more then go from one crisis to another. And Columbia Falls had been an idea to do that. To be where an officer would be more a part of the community then he was as some image of an isolated authority.
Of course, Beauregard and R.A.M.'s racism against Molly and my reactions to it may have jeopardized a lot of that idea that I had had. The best thing to get away from that would be to have some quiet. Where we didn't have deal with violent racists and their schemes, vengeful malcontents wanting to get even against their betrayers, and then insane individuals with twisted ideas about what was just and what wasn't. Dealing with more mild cases would set things back in that direction. And of late, things had been that way. Nice and quiet. Hopefully, that would allow many things to go well and that Molly's and my cubs would be born into a peaceful and friendly world.
And thoughts of my growing family replaced the thoughts I had about my career as I made my way up to the cabin that Molly and I shared that evening. She was the love of my life, and despite all the details that being with her had brought into my life, mostly related to our respective transformations, I felt incredibly lucky to be with her. And as I entered the cabin, I knew that I ever could have gone back in time and change something in my past, I would change nothing. I loved her and wanted to make her happy, and as she moved into the early part of her third month, I knew she could not be happier. As I entered, I found Molly seated on the couch going through a set of papers and could hear and smell our dinner cooking in the kitchen.
"What are you working on?" I asked her as I came into the living room.
"For the moment going over Megan's list," Molly said looking up, "you'd be surprised but she does have some good ideas for names. I'm mostly just crossing out the names that she's put down that aren't really names you'd give a person. The things like Queenie, Beautie, Tigger, Tigress. That sort of thing."
"Some of those seem like rather cute ideas," I quipped.
"Yeah, but how many people do you know are named Queenie?" Molly answered, "they're mostly names for pets... and our cubs will be our children. Not pets... and shoot, Tigger and Tigress are the names of fictional characters, not real people."
"There are names that roughly mean the same thing as an animal..." I told her, "Leon for example... that is one of many names that mean Lion, along with Leo, Lionel, Leona, etcetera..."
"And do you know some name that means tiger?" Molly asked.
"Not off the top of my head," I shrugged, "and it's not like I'd actually want to give them a name that essentially means what they are... it'd be a bit redundant, don't you think?"
Molly nodded to that.
"Besides, aren't we still a bit early to begin going through potential names?" I wondered, "I mean, Doctor Wainwright couldn't tell what gender they were at the last appointment and isn't entirely sure as to whether or not that he would at the next appointment."
"I know," Molly answered with a shrug, "but Megan hung out with me at recess today and had all sorts of curious questions. Mostly related to my pregnancy... and well... that got me thinking. I'm just working on this because my mind happens to be focused on it."
"Ah-ha," I commented, "Well, I'm going to get changed. I'll be back down in a little bit."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our weekend also went quietly. I managed to help where I could, but of course being back on patrol duty meant I was still working during the weekend and wasn't at home for much of the day. Much of what Molly did at home related to various baby preparation. Much of it was related to figuring out what would need to be bought to prepare for the birth of our cubs. Some of it was related to the discussion Molly had had with Megan that had gotten her thinking about appropriate names. And as a result, on our desk in our bedroom were a series of lists that included various names that Megan had suggested, and then lists of things we would need once Molly gave birth. Things like baby cribs, diapers, and other things of that nature.
The other big thing that had gone on at home was related to the Animal Tales series on NBC. The show on Animal People was still doing remarkably well and Molly and I watched it whenever we could. Even with my longer shifts when doing patrol duty, I was able to get home on time to see the series when it was on. Of course, the Saturday episode was a rerun of the episode that had aired on Wednesday. But the coming Wednesday had an episode that did attract Molly's and my attention a bit more then some of the others. While the series had shown couples involved romantically with each other, for the most part they were childless or in case of Clemens and Jenny, their relationship hadn't been physically consummated yet.
The next episode, however, involved an family of Animal People. A young married couple living in Nebraska had apparently become Cheetahs, and given that that cat species could mate at any time of the year, the female became pregnant after they had transformed. The two were now the proud parents of four cubs, according to what the series advertisement spoke.
"They're a family," Molly said with some surprise as the rerun episode ended.
"So it would seem," I nodded, "and hopefully they're happy."
Molly slowly nodded, "Hopefully... though I think that episode might be helpful for us."
"For us?" I wondered.
"Cheetahs are cats, just like tigers are," Molly answered, "maybe they'll have some information that might be helpful in relation our cubs' development."
"Cheetahs aren't that closely related to Tigers and Lions," I commented, "they are cats, yes, but they are not "Big Cats". There may be some differences in her pregnancy from yours or Jacki's."
"Maybe... but I'd assume that mundane Cheetah cubs are born blind and helpless just as mundane Tiger cubs are," Molly commented, "and so... when combining that with Animatrix Serum I'd assume that her pregnancy was shortened to around six months or so. Perhaps a little bit longer. We'll have to wait and see."
I nodded in agreement with that. I was no expert on every animal species and certainly not an expert on all of the details related to how a lot of things changed as a result of the Animatrix Serum besides the obvious. Watching the episode when it came out wouldn't hurt. It wasn't like we wouldn't try to watch the show anyway.
"It may not have all of the details on what we can expect, but it may give us some clue as to what to expect," Molly continued, "Things like when we can expect to know the genders of our twins... etcetera, etcetera."
"I suppose," I said with a sigh, "I suppose."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The quietness that we had largely had in Columbia Falls came to an end the following Monday. It was late afternoon and Officer Barnes and I had been on our afternoon patrol and it was about two o'clock or so. Maybe a little bit after that. The morning had been fairly quiet with little real incidents to mention, but as we moved into the late afternoon, something did come up as the radio in our patrol car came to life.
"Officer Barnes, Officer Wayne, come in," the dispatch officer spoke.
Officer Barnes was the one to answer, as he always did. There wasn't a radio in the backseat where I was. That hadn't changed.
"Officer Barnes, here, go ahead," Officer Barnes answered as he rounded a corner only a section of the city that we patrolled.
"We have a break in case for you and Officer Wayne," the dispatch officer answered, "guy got home from work to find that someone had broken in and got away with some stuff. Couldn't entirely make out what he said the guy got away with."
"Did he see the guy make his getaway?" I wondered.
That didn't always happen in burglary cases, but it did happen on occasion. There were even a few interesting cases where burglars walked by, in front of, and around web-cams, and personal security cameras and essentially revealed their identity to police officers because they failed to take the cameras or realize there even was a camera there. So, the idea that the home owner would have caught the burglar in the act or when he was leaving the scene.
Officer Barnes repeated my question to the dispatch officer.
"Not that he's said," the dispatch officer answered, "and from what we've been able to figure out, he doesn't have anything that might have caught the burglar on camera."
"Ouch..." Officer Barnes sighed, "We'll be on our way. What is the address that we're go to?"
The dispatch officer gave us the address, and Officer Barnes was quick to turn on the lights and began to move our car toward the address we were given. It was in a relatively decent neighborhood on the west side of town, and was still within the city limits. We arrived as quickly as we could to find the man looking toward his house and looking somewhat flustered. He was quick to notice Officer Barnes and I as we got out, or at least he seemed to notice me.
"Hello, sir, you wished to report a burglary?" Officer Barnes asked.
"They sent him with you?" the man asked nervously.
"We are the officers assigned to the case," Officer Barnes answered, "now, you wished to report a burglary?"
"Yeah," the man sighed after a moment, "I get home from work and find that someone's hijacked a whole bunch of my stuff."
"Can we ask what was taken?" I asked.
"They took my son's piggy bank, two winning lotto tickets for a total prize money of twenty five dollars, some of my wife's jewelry, and a DVD player," the man answered, "not the biggest of scores, maybe, but the stuff is mine."
"Do you know where the thief came in?" Officer Barnes questioned.
"No... not really," the man sighed, "No door was knocked in, no window forced open or shattered... but both my front and back doors were unlocked, and I am one hundred percent sure I'd locked them before I left for the day."
"Would you mind if we take a look through?" I asked, "see if he left anything behind?"
"Go ahead," the man sighed, "anything to get my stuff back."
"We'll do our best there..." Officer Barnes said slowly, "but unless the thief personally needs a DVD player, or has some "love" that he wants to give the jewelry too... most of it will be pawned for additional money. At best you're likely to only get your son's piggy bank back..."
"Minus the money," I added.
The man grumbled something I didn't care to repeat and then showed us through the house showing us where the things that had been stolen were in the house. Both of us glanced around to see if there would be any fingerprints. I didn't know about Officer Barnes, but I couldn't see any sign of prints left behind in those places. We'd probably end up checking things like the door handles with the basic methods to dust for prints later. The thing that I did notice was a scent that came up in every spot where something had been missing. I immediately found that it was two sets of scents and that neither scent smelled human, and that they smelled somewhat familiar. It smelled sort of like the Fancy Brown Rat woman, named Michelle,that Molly and I had met when we visited the Gen-U-Tech facility, but it wasn't exactly like her scent...
"I think whoever did this was an Animal Person," I said quietly to Officer Barnes, "I'm getting an Animal Person's scent."
"Can you identify the species?" Officer Barnes then wondered.
"Some rodent species, beyond that, no," I sighed.
"I thought you all said that you Animal People wouldn't harm anyone!?" the man questioned.
"In terms of Animal People being dangerous because of their instincts, yes," I nodded, "you have no need to fear that I would snap and eat you. That will never happen."
"But I've been robbed, and you just sad a rat did it!" the man pointed out.
"Burglaries were committed before the Animatrix Serum was invented," I answered, "there is no Animal instinct that leads to burglary... and even if there was, the Animal Person would have full control over that instinct and can resist it. That does not mean, however, that someone who would engage in some crime already would not take the Animatrix Serum if he thought it'd give him an advantage."
"Then crooks should get to take the serum!" the man protested.
"Maybe... that's not something I'm capable of solving," I sighed, "I can help try to bring these thieves to justice and hopefully recover what was stolen. You may wish to write the Congressman in Washington or one of the state representatives in Helena about things related to who can receive the Serum or not."
"You'd better find them!" the man said firmly.
"We intend to do our best," Officer Barnes answered, "let's check the back door. If he came in through there, he might have left some tracks in the snow."
I nodded, and Officer Barnes and I made our way to the back door. As the man had said, it had been unbolted as if it had been unlocked and thus, giving no indication of forced entry. However, the thieves had stepped through the snow that was in the man's backyard and Officer Barnes and I were quick to look over the footprints that were left. They walked in a bipedal stance, the way Animal People did in most situations, but there were some things that betrayed what they were. The footprints were rat-like and there was a narrow line in the snow where it's tail had been drug through the snow. This narrowed down what animal it was fairly considerably.
"I think I smell a rat," I commented as I looked down at the prints left behind.