Sly Cooper 5: Promises Made By Thieves

Chapter 37: Carmelita

The guards treat me like quite the royalty as I walk through Heathrow again. Barkley must have ordered the ones who didn't get fired to prove their worth and at least one of them must be recognizing a renowned Interpol law enforcer.

I am welcomed back into the office. "I'm here at the agreed upon hour," I greet the warden.

"Good morning to you too. I gotta say, Inspector Fox. There's something I wanted to know that I didn't think about yesterday. What made you so sure Sir Raleigh was loose? Did you see him somewhere? Any leads on where he'd be?"

"I..." I think fast. I had a speech prepared for getting down to business today, and now I have to come up on the spot with something that can't be disproven. I'm not ready to reveal what I'm doing with the Cooper gang nor Sly's return just yet, and saying I saw him in Ancient Egypt at the basement of a now-crumpled pyramid would be a dead giveaway. Plus, I'm supposed to be off investigating a big crime ring. Deciding in the moment to leap on that, I begin speaking. "During my investigation I overheard someone mention Raleigh's name. A passerby who got a hefty bribe to transport him somewhere. When it occurred to me where I had heard the name before, they were gone."

"Hm. Well, good memory at least, if a little too late." He turns his chair back to the monitors. "Any word on Sly Cooper either?" he asks, not bothering to look back to me.

"Not yet. I mean, I'm considering some leads, but...it feels like it would be a miracle, after over three months, for him to return."

Barkley makes what sounds like a satisfactory grunt. "Anyways, I have been studying the cameras, with an emphasis on Mr. Branwell Mapperson's cell..." He shows me which camera it is. "And I can say he escaped eight days ago. This is the last time I have him on video." He shows me a screenshot he took of Branwell in the cafeteria, looking around sort of worried. There are so few prisoners his miniature size, I can't say I don't understand. It's on him, though. He really shouldn't have set that fire. "He got lost in the crowd that day after dinner. His bed sheets and pillows were reconfigured like Raleigh's to look like he was asleep but I can't figure out who moved them. I've looked and looked and I can't find anyone other than Branwell who went into or out of his cell that day, so I guess it was him. Didn't seem like, in the footage I've seen, that he was hoping to escape that day. He should have taken up acting cause he really fooled me and the guards."

"So, you have no idea where else he could have gone? Any other way he escaped so we can prevent it from happening again?"

"We've put out a press warrant and the police are now on the hunt for him. Before you came here there was a nosy reporter asking how he could've, and I decided to say that info was classified. Either way, it's a total embarrassment to us. Not since Sly Cooper have I felt so hoodwinked by thieves."

"...Me neither."

Barkley turns to me. "Yeah, you should know. He hoodwinked you most of all."

I give a half-hearted glare. "We'll find him...Both of them."

"Good. He didn't treat you well. My father would agree it'll be good to have him finally off your hands."