CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“What about Bueno Excellente?” Nightbeat asked.
Cat laughed long and hard. “You really don’t remember what happened to him, do you?”
Nightbeat thought back. Bueno had been with them for several years, but he couldn’t quite remember what happened to him. One day he was there, the next day he was gone.
“Joey happened to him,” Cat said. “He was angry with his mother, something about not letting him watch TV past his bedtime, so he took it out on Bueno. Unstuffed the poor bastard. There wasn’t a shred of him left that was recognizable.”
“What does that have to do with my investigation? You’re not making sense.”
“You’re so dense for a detective. Joey was killed out of revenge. Sweet, sweet revenge.”
Nightbeat tried to put the pieces together, but they just wouldn’t stick. “How so?”
“Who was best friends with Bueno? Who did he hang out with the most? Who would want to kill Joey for unstuffing Bueno?”
Goddammit. Cat really did know who killed Joey. He knew all this time, and he didn’t do anything about it. Nightbeat wondered if he could get Cat unstuffed as an accomplice or for withholding evidence or something.
“Don Snowy,” Cat said. “They were best friends. They worked together sometimes. But Don Snowy only ordered the hit. Someone else followed through.”
Something flashed in Nightbeat’s mind, and he felt sickened by his lack of intuition. “The goombas.”
“Finally! It thinks! How does it feel to have solved the mystery?”
Nightbeat’s stomach turned. How could he have been so blind? He didn’t get anywhere with the interviews because the goombas were the guilty ones, and all they could say was “yo.” But Don Snowy? Sure, he did some shady things, but murder? And now that he knew, what could he do about it? The only one bigger than Don Snowy was Bunny, and he wouldn’t be able to hold Don Snowy down for his unstuffing, not even if he was in Jack Bunnyson mode. Angel and Spike might be able to together, but would they? Angel distinctly didn’t want to get involved, and Spike was a bit too whimsical.
Another thought occurred to him: he would have a huge fight on his hands. The goombas wouldn’t idly sit by while they tried to unstuff their master. The situation seemed more impossible than ever.
“Have you figured out why the goombas tried to kill you?” Cat asked.
Nightbeat hadn’t thought about it, but now that Cat mentioned it, he had an idea. “Because I refused to let my investigation die.”
“Very good, boy. And now you realize the fight you’re in for?”
Nightbeat nodded.
“Ooh, this is so exciting!” Cat shivered with delight.
It made Nightbeat feel even more nauseous. “How do I get the hell out of here?”
“Follow me,” Cat said.
Nightbeat followed Cat back up the stairs. He glanced down to see Man-E-Faces standing sentinel over the dead toys. His faces spun at a much slower pace, like he was maybe powering down. He stared at Nightbeat the whole time.
At the top of the stairs, they approached where they had both entered the Catacombs. The air burned for a moment, and the path back to Joey’s room opened up. “After you,” Cat said. He gestured with his mittened hand.
Nightbeat jumped through the portal and found himself back under Joey’s bed. Cat joined him after a moment, now looking like the stuffed animal he was in this world, and they both moved out into the rest of the room.
Directly into the midst of the goombas.
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