Irregular Days

Chapter Three: Enter Tulock

In the exceedingly brief time it took Shere to consume her meal fit for a king, gray clouds had blocked out the sky and a light rain began to fall upon the city. The duo proceeded on foot towards a certain street-corner where Mr. Pry was said to spend his afternoons. An umbrella-toting Shere skipped along, happily splashing her boots into the newly formed puddles. Cold drops pelted Mignon’s forehead as she stared unblinkingly at her distorting reflection in a freshly disturbed pool of water. She pondered her new partner’s eating habits. How was Shere so spry after intaking enough food to feed a small family for a week? Such a meal would debilitate Mignon for days. Perhaps Shere’s stomach was a hidden example of non-euclidean geometry and the food was simply traveling a path much longer than the space of her insides would logically allow. Perhaps she simply had a tape-worm. Mignon brushed aside such thoughts as she sped up to keep pace with Shere who had an oddly quick skipping speed. Shere had stopped her pursuit of Mignon’s friendship for the time being. Her new partner had proven to be an odd case in a town such as this, but Shere knew it was only a matter of time. Everyone had always warmed up to Shere eventually. She was just too loveable. For now though, she had decided to focus on the true matter at hand.

The streets in this area were oddly devoid of life, but in the distance a single top-hat clad figure could be seen juggling alone. The slim man wore a purple dress shirt with a bow tie. At a glance his outfit was that of a proper gentleman, but upon inspection the colors were dulled and many threads had been restitched. This was a man who made every effort to look suave and respectable, but was likely none of these things himself. A grifter, Mignon assumed. Was this Tulock Pry? As the two detectives approached him he grinned a grin that only a truly despicable being could perform. It seemed as if he had been expecting the pair to arrive. Despite it being bad practice, Mignon became sure he was the killer. It was him, he did it, punch him in the face and lock him up.

Shere stepped up to Tulock first.

“We must speak with you, Mr. Pry.” she stated with a polite smile.

Tulock chuckled to himself before replying.

“Aha!” He began as he batted his eyelashes at the girls in front of him. “The great Tulock isn’t used to ‘entertaining’ only two ladies at night, but yes, I will make an exception for you!”

Both Mignon and Shere’s expressions fell flat as they pulled out heir badges in unison. Mr. Pry merely shrugged and continued juggling. Police asking questions must have been the norm for this man.

“QCPD!” Shere exclaimed with as forcefully as a girl like her could muster. “You are wanted for questioning, please come with us.”

Tulock smirked whilst he ceased his juggling act. He presented forth the last ball to be caught in his right hand. A round black bomb with a lit fuse that looked like it was ripped straight out of a cartoon rested upon his palm. Tulock dropped the bomb at Shere’s feet and sprinted off down a nearby alleyway. Mignon and Shere backpedaled as fast as they could to avoid the inevitable blast.

“boom” read the words on a small flag that had raised out of the plastic bomb now laying harmlessly on the street. Mignon scowled in unbridled fury. How dare that man make a fool of her. Any reservations she had before about his innocence had vanished. She would make him pay.

“Are you kidding me?!” Mignon yelled out. “After him!”

The detectives gave chase, and lucky for them their mark wasn’t very bright. Mr. Pry quickly found himself cornered in a trash-strewn dead end alleyway.

“End of the line, Mr. Pry!” Mignon called out as she hastily stomped towards Tulock, gun in hand.

“It would be, if…” began Tulock as a sly grin grew upon his smug and oh-so-punchable face. “I didn’t have rocket shoes!”

A jet of flames spewed out of the soles of Tulock’s shoes and he launched into the sky. Shere couldn’t help but smile as she watched on with childlike wonderment. With a face devoid of any happiness that only those who have witnessed an event this ridiculous could make, Mignon lowered her gun as she watched him take to they sky.

“What.”

“Oh gods how do I control these!” screamed Tulock as he spiraled out of control, creating random patters of smoke in the sky. With a dramatic thud, the street magician crashed back in to the ground. If his shows were half as entertaining as this, Shere thought, he must have quite the following!

“Any more tricks?” Mignon asked as a clearly pained Tulock got back to his feet.

“Just one..” Tulock replied as he reached into his sleeve.

With a clearly exaggerated smile Tulock produced a lovely bouquet of flowers from his sleeve and presented them to Mignon. Still deadpan, Mignon stared directly at Tulock as she snatched the flowers from him and quickly tossed them to her side.

“Bang!”

With the sound of a bargain bin firework, the bouquet burst into flames and quickly burned to ash. The detectives instinctively jumped back in surprise. Tulock simply shrugged once more.

“As impressive as all that was,” Shere said as she regained her composure. “Can we please get to questioning you now?”

Tulock slouched over in utter defeat.

“Yeah….”

As the two brought the rogue magician back to the station, they both surely realized one as stupid as he could not be the killer. Shere simply hoped he could help point them in the right direction, while an annoyed Mignon was hoping to implicate him for anything she could make stick. A man like him probably had a plethora of reasons to be jailed anyway.

Filed under:
Mignon and Shere by Tawny