Socks 2: F
#2 of Socks: The Novel
Chapter Two: F
Stockings once more plucked the nametag from the table. It was the most interesting by far, and he rubbed it as if it were a lamp, half-hoping a genie would pop out and say, "Three Wishes!" and Stockings could go "The criminal, a perfect body, bigger cock!" and all would be so and laughs would be had by all.
Yet, it was just a nametag...a nametag and a letter. "F..." Stockings said very thoughtfully, like it would somehow relate to him the secret of the universe. "F." He rubbed the funny piece of fur in his pocket, and it soothed him somewhat. "F...Fur?" Not a good idea, but did he have anything else to go on? He took the patch out of his pocket again and let it cascade between his fingers, feeling the smoothness, watching it gleam in the dim light of the cloudy sky through his window. It fell in two and Stockings, not so deftly, snatched the other piece out of the air and grumbled, stuffing both pieces in his pocket yet again. Gina's note stabbed his mind like a freshly forged ice pick. "Sorry for what? What, Gina?"
Swiping at the air, he let out a frustrated grunt, scooping up the nametag. He headed down the hall, to the right, to the le...no, to the right, then the left, and opened the door to the Forensics Lab. "Stocks!" yelled Doctor Leo Cullings, running up to him and hugging him so hard he thought his head would pop off. She was almost as great a bombshell as Gina, except Leo could have stood to lose 10 pounds or so. Stockings didn't care. Pudge is totally hot on the right people. About 5'8", she wasn't very tall, but only a couple inches shorter than Stockings, who was the shortest in his family...yet another disadvantage. But enough about how she looks, poor Stockings is running out of air!
"Hey Leo..." he said, struggling to breathe, and handed her the nametag. "Could you take a look at this?" "A nametag?" Leo asked, the cute little inflection at the end making Stockings smile. "That's exactly the way I acted when I first saw it," Stockings explained, chuckling. "That's why I'm here. You see, it has an 'F' on top. The rest is colored out with marker."
Leo picked at the nametag with her nails, and some of it flaked off, floating to the floor on the invisible sea called air. "Its dried blood, stupid!" she yelled, a little louder than she should have, throwing it at Stockings, who fumbled it between hands before grabbing it. She sure liked it when she was right. "Let me get this checked right away!" She snatched the nametag away, leaving poor Stockings utterly confused, and skittered into the room adjacent. She slammed the door and the lights inside that room dimmed, leaving nothing but the reflection from her ever-so-slightly oversized glasses. Stockings sighed and walked over to a lone microscope, dropping the chunks of fur in his pocket onto the viewing area and focusing the little lens.
The furry little hairs got fuzzy then clear then fuzzy then clear, the little hairs now like towering Redwoods. "What?" Stockings whispered. He started reading the nanoscopic letters etched into whatever material the tiny patch was made of. "S...T...I...C...K. Stick?" He shook his head and took a mental picture of the chunks. The word "Stick" was repeated multiple times in a diagonal fashion until it ran off the patch in a weird pattern, like it was torn from a much larger piece. Bending down, Stockings eyed the pieces one last time.
That's when Leo burst through the door.
Stockings gasped hard. If anything else, he was a jumpy guy. The sudden intake of air swept the small pieces of fuzz into his throat, and he hacked part of the fur into Leo's mouth, which was an amazing feat of its own. Anyway, they both rushed to the bubbling water cooler, and downed cups of water,
"The hell, Stocks?!" Leo screamed, hitting him on the chest. "I must have...it was an accident! Maybe if you didn't scare me like that," Stockings huffed, "Then we wouldn't be coughing up lungs! I think I swallowed it, did you?" Leo steadied herself and looked up, nodding. "Yeah, gross. But I see dead bodies every day. Whatever. Anyways, I have something important to ask you. Did...did Gina...um...ever own a tiger?"
"A tiger? Why?" Stockings was simply stumped. "Well, the blood on the badge was from a...tiger. Everyone knows there are no tigers in Arizona!" Leo said, poking Stockings' forehead, as if to check if anything was still in there. "Well, the farthest she went was somewhere in Nevada. The only animals I know from there are card sharks." He laughed, but she didn't. She just studied the nametag. "Yes," she said, "Ha. Ha. Anyhow, the nametag belongs to Gina. Sorry if it was supposed to be a lead." Now it was Stockings' turn to be smart. This is what he was good at. "No, Leo. It's very important! This means that in Nevada, the Clock Killer has tigers somewhere! It shouldn't be very hard to find a tiger in all that glitz and glam."