The Cover Says It (Shifty X Handy)

Chapter Five

The strange duo walked out from the park area once they got told the vase was in someone's hands recently. Without Pop being a witness, they would've ended the search much sooner. Shifty had said the park at that time was almost deserted. Unless he has an awful vision which could possibly explained him not noticing Pop and Cup nearby.

" Surely, that guy has no clue how to ride a bike." Shifty rant while they were walking out of the park. Handy ears were starting to hurt listening to his ramble, " It's your fault anyway. You said that place was nearly empty. But you somehow accidentally ran towards him?" Handy lastly added, " And it's Lumpy. I haven't heard you referring his name since you start opening your mouth again."

Shifty finally stopped after he heard his sensible statement. He huffed, " I don't bother remembering people's names." Handy just rolled his eyes, " Let's try to focus here, we need to talk to Lumpy." It wasn't really a shocking discovery when they found their culprit to be Lumpy. He's known to be bold of his actions. His peculiar decisions would often get people killed. Lumpy was basically a walking hazard to be around.

" Er.. Handy, this isn't the way to his trailer?" Shifty mentioned their route being completely opposite to where Lumpys trailer's at. Handy continue to walked without looking back, " I know, he's not in his trailer right now." Shifty glanced back, " How did you know? We haven't seen him around the entire day."

They both reached back to the streets of the town again. Retracing their steps as Handy was leading the way this time, " I saw him at the diner few blocks ahead." Shifty arms were getting strained from the handcuff, " The diner with the guy running out of the building with an injured eye?"

Handy abruptly stopped and just gave him a disbelief look, " You seriously need to socialise more." Shifty was instantly offended, " What does that even mean?"

-

The music of the jukebox playing was buried under the customers chattering around the diner. It's usually crowded during morning as well as evenings. Fortunately, they visited the diner right around afternoon, so there's less people for them to find their guy.

Shifty pushed the door with his weight and clumsily opened it wide enough for Handy to enter. Without these shackles on, Shifty would've done a better job at opening the entrance for him. He let go of the door once they both stepped inside the diner.

Their first sight into the diner was blood smearing across the checker floor. Shifty and Handy were a bit disturbed by it and saw someone moping what assuming to be Toothy's blood. " There's so much blood that it's ridiculous!" Giggles dumped the mop into the bucket. Soon after, she noticed another two customers had walked in. She rubbed her palms onto her apron, cleaning the blood off her hands, " Welcome to Acorn diner! Sorry for the mess, there was a bit of an accident not long ago." Giggles greeted them just like any other customers with a cheery smile.

Handy tried to imagine the blood as spilled coffee while he approached to Giggles, " We're just here to find someone." Giggles glanced at Shifty then to Handy, there was an anxious expression from her out of nowhere. Though it was subtle, he could still noticed that worried look. It was so sudden that it confused Handy for a second there. However, Shifty doesn't seem to realize this. She cleared her throat, " If you're trying to meet Petunia.. then she's in the kitchen all day. She can't deal with the sight of.. i guess you can say messy?" Giggles told them, unsure if she used the appropriate word for her friend's obsession with cleanliness.

" Petunia's on shift today?" Handy sounded surprise, then shook his head, " Oh no, we're seeing someone else." After he said that, she seemed a bit relaxed, " Who is it then?" Before Handy could leave an answer, he felt a tap on his shoulder, " We found our guy." Shifty said, looking at their culprit. Handy felt the bandaged  against his fur which made him wince. It weirded him out when he felt his touch. Simply because he hated him of course. " Thank god he's not in his officers uniform." Shifty seemed relief as he removed his palms off his shoulder.

Giggles finally noticed the condition of Shifty's hands, " Can i ask what is going on here? It's not normal to see you two together." Giggles look at the direction where Shifty was facing. Majority of the town folks know Handy and Shifty's resentment towards each other. They don't exactly loathed each other to the point where they're willing to push the other off a cliff. The bitterness between them still lingers ever since that incident they had. The one where it got them both brutally killed.

" I'll tell you the context later." Handy gave her an awkward smile. The two men bid her farewell before heading towards Lumpy. He sat at the very end of the booth, away from the other customers in the diner. He was sitting alone with his hamburger, about to take a bite out of it. " What do we say to this guy?" Shifty said as he eyed at the moose. Handy wondered as he slowed down his pace, " I actually have no clue. I've never act like a cop before."

" Well Lumpy has. We're lucky he's not in his shift today." Shifty finally referred to his name as he shivered by the thought of it. Officer Lumpy is probably the worst out of all of his work he applied. There's not many employment around Happy Tree, so Lumpy mostly took several jobs around the place all at once. There wasn't exactly a law regarding of getting more than three jobs. Laws around here are so inconsistent and just downright unfair. But they got to hand it to Lumpy, he's the back bone when it comes to occupations. And no one complains about it. Even himself.

" I guess god is on our side." Handy said with irony before actually approaching the moose. Shifty silently followed suit. Once they reached to his booth, Lumpy noticed them in an instant, " Handy! Shifty! What a great surprise." He said with his hamburger still in his grasp. Handy decided to sat on the booth across him, " How's it going Lumpy? It appears you're not working today?" He asked him the general question per usual.

Lumpy simply nodded, " Yup, been doing great! Decided to take a day off for a few days." He munched on his food afterwards. Shifty preferred to stood beside the booth Handy was in. He leaned his arm against it while listening to their conversation. The strange duo steal glances at each other as Lumpy continue devouring his hamburger. Eventually, Handy inquiry the real deal to the elephant in the room, or diner since that's where they were currently.

" Lumpy, i heard from someone you randomly took a vase from the park. Is that true?" Lumpy didn't appeared to be apprehensive about it, " I did. I saw the vase right after Shifty crashed into me." The raccoon seem displeased hearing it being mentioned twice today, Shifty chose to intervened, " Alright that's enough, Where did you left that vase?" His voice was stern.

Lumpy focused his gaze to Shifty right after he heard him spoke. He cocked his head a little, " The vase? Why would you want to know where i left it?" The jukebox was still playing at the background, still pumping songs throughout the heart of Acorn diner. Shifty replied straightforwardly, " Because it doesn't belong to you." The moose suddenly turned mute. His gaze drifted side to side to the two men. His face showed him processing what to say next, but when he gaped his mouth, no words came out.

There was no need for explanation of where the vase was anymore. It's not guaranteed if Lumpy had lost it or easily forgotten where he put it. But when someone couldn't answer a plain question like that, it can quickly raise some suspicion. That way, it's evidence something awful must've happened to Handy's heirloom.

But Handy restraint himself from accusing Lumpy for losing the vase until he confess to them. They both waited for Lumpy rather impatiently. The moose appeared to locked his lips shut and didn't seem to had the thought to open it any sooner. The more they played the waiting game, the more tiring it got. This is difficult than it needed to be, thought Handy annoyingly.

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End of Chapter.