FSE

Furry search engine

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Jace was sprawled on a sofa in his living room watching the TV. He was not really interested in the news though. It was the usual stuff: civil unrest, demonstrations and all around chaos over the city. As it has been for quite a while. Slowly turning around Jace turned off the TV and let the remote fall on the ground. With no decent job for the last few weeks there was nothing for him to do, at least not in this district. As he was slowly drifting asleep somebody at the front door rang the bell. He hated that infernal device with a passion. Its old, sharp ringing always got on his nerves. It was also damn effective, as he was sitting straight up in no time. Still a bit sleepy he quickly searched the floor for a pair of socks. He found some from yesterday and calmly proceeded to put them on, completely disregarding the person waiting outside. After a minute or two the bell rang again. "Just a minute, I'll be right there!" Jace yelled, as he stumbled out of the living room, towards the front door in almost complete darkness, not even bothering to turn on the lights. Untill he got there the bell rang another two times, somebody was getting impatient.

"Jesus fuckin' christ, hold on a second!" Jace was loud even when he was so close to the door, so whomever woke him up knew exactly how he felt about them. He unlocked the door and opened it just a bit, to see who it is.

"Well, this is new." Was all he managed to spit out at eleven in the evening, as he was leaning on the doorframe.

"All I care about Nicole are results. So far you have nothing and you have been on this case for how long, three weeks?" Words of the police chief resonated in her head. He was right though, it has been the third week she has been in his office and she feared it was also the last.

"Don't even try those eyes of yours, not going to work on me. Look, I am willing to give you another week, but that's it. Unless you show me some progress on that case I'm going to hand it to somebody else." The chief leaned back in his chair. The current situation was really giving him a lot of problems and he was obviously loosing his patience.

"I understand sir. I promise, I will solve this case." Nicole promised, but somehow it sounded hollow. Maybe it was because she had already said the same thing before, or because she did not believe it herself. Judging from chief's expression he most definitely did not. She walked out of the office with a tail bethween her legs yet again. Literaly. Having a human police chief was not that bad, and she was pretty sure he had nothing against anthros, but today was really a bad day. As she walked down the hall somebody else stopped her. At least it was a pleasant company. It was Emily from the forensics. Nicole's eyes sparked with hope for a moment, but it was quickly extinguished.

"I went over the evidence you brought. I'm sorry but there was no match in the database. The boss gave you a hard time again, huh?"

Nicole sighed heavily and nodded.

"Don't tell me you are giving up. Besides, I think I found someone who might be able to help you out. Some sort of private detective. He's down in C district, so I guess he is one of yours." Emily said as she pushed a piece of paper into Nicole's paws. She gave it a brief glance. There was an adress. Nicole would never even think of asking a private detective for help, but she was getting pretty desperate and even the bad ideas were becoming possibilities.

"Uh, thanks Emily, I'll give it a shot I guess. How do you know about this guy anyway?"

"I just asked around a little bit. He is really good though from what I heard. That's the word around C anyways, so don't take it too seriously." With those words Emily walked past Nicole, having work of her own to finish. Nicole just shrugged and decided to pay him a visit after work.

Jace was was staring at the person outside. Under the umbrella was standing a german shepherd anthro, about a head taller than him. Female, he guessed. She was staring back at him, looking completely confused. She took some paper out of the pocket of her jacket and looked at it, then back at Jace, then back at the paper again. It took her a good minute before she spoke.

"Um, excuse me sir, I was told an detective, Jace Pemblake lives here." She passed him a piece of paper. He took it and looked at it. It was the correct adress allright, and under it was his name. He gave her the paper back.

"Huh, right, so who are you and what do you want?" He answered with a low voice and yawned.

"Nicole Sutherland, ACPD. So is mister Pemblake here?"

Jace sighed heavily, and opened the door. "Yeah, he is here, come on in." He turned the lights on and let her in. "Have a seat." He motioned towards the sofa and walked to the kitchen. Nicole folded her umbrella, putting it aside. She sat on the sofa, looking around the room. One wall had a whiteboard on it. It was not cleaned and there were writings all over, overlaping one another, arrows pointing at some drawing that could pass as both a face and a map at the same time. It was a mess. In fact the whole appartment was a mess. On the table in front of her was an empty box of pizza and various cans of soft drinks. The garbage can nearby was full. She could also smell all of it. Like an aftermath of a really long party. At least there were no passed out people on the floor. The human was back in a minute with a can of energy drink. He sat next to her and started drinking. Nicole sat as far from him as the sofa allowed.

"Is, uh where is the detective?" She asked with a notable eagerness to meet him and get rid of this guy.

Jace paid her no attention and instead focused on enjoying his drink. At least it seemed to wake him up. He leaned ovet the table and started to rummage through the mess. He managed to somehow find a notepad and a pen in the pile. He again asumed a comfortable position. "Now we can get started. So what's the job?"

Nicole stared at the human for a good while. "Oh, you are like his, uh secretary or something?" At that point the human almost bursed into tears laughing, which caught her completely off guard. "Wh-what is so funny?"

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't keep a straight face anymore. I'm the detective. So what's the job?" Jace finally regained a serious face.

"What? How? But you're human!" Nicole exlaimed in one breath.

"Wow, you are very perceptive. Are you sure you need my help?"

It was a bit surprising for Nicole to say the least. Somehow she naturally assumed the detective would be anthro. It was only natural, since almost all humans lived in districts A or B and then she meets this guy in district C, a place with lowest human population in the whole Atlantic city.

"Y-yeah, sure I need help, that's why I came in the first place."

"So me being human is not a problem?"

"No, no, not at all!" Nicole quickly replied, but it did not came out very convincing.

"Great. But tell me, and I do have to know why would a police officer of all people needs my help?" Jace was getting genuinely interested.

Nicole spent the next half an hour explaining the case she was working on. Jace was paying attention, mostly. He set the price at five hundred credits, which Nicole didn't find very thrilling, especially once she found it's non negotiable. Naturally it had to be from her pocket. She left a bit conflicted about the whole thing. On one side she got the help, but on the other not as she imagined it. They would have to go to the crime scene tomorrow.