Detective Garfield

Detective Arbuckle, P.I., Esquire

Jon had a mission.  

This wasn't his typical boring work.  Instead of finding a snack or smokes for Garfield, he was going to be an instrumental part of solving a case.  He was going to make a difference. But where to start? He thought hard, as hard as he could. He didn't know anything about dolls; he needed a way to get up to speed: fast. Then it hit him. Recently there was a huge expose on dolls, something that could teach him everything about the most famous of all dolls and really make him an expert on the subject; Greta Gerwig's 2023 blockbuster film "Barbie".

One hour and fifty-four minutes later, Jon turned off his TV.  

While he thoroughly enjoyed the film, he realized it wasn't exactly what he had thought it was. He was no closer to finding out what kind of dolls Edgar Bergen had been collecting, or why one could potentially be responsible for a crime. He did have a new found appreciation for the color pink though.

He racked his brain. "Start off simple, Jon", he whispered "If Edgar liked to collect dolls, where would he have got them from?" And again, it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Of course! " he shouted.  He ran to his closet, grabbed a coat and hat, and raced out to his car. 

"Siri! Directions to Toys-R-Us!" he said confidently.  

"Which Toys-R-Us?" she replied.

He looked at the list of results returned.  "Permanently closed" was listed next to each, along with a picture of a boarded up building.

"Oh.... Emm, it's ok. Uh, time for a new plan." he muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Siri asked inquisitively.

"Um, nevermind Siri! Thank you!" he said awkwardly. He felt a little embarassed; he hated wasting Siri's time.

He started over. This was all part of the process, he thought to himself.  He just needed to get a good lead, a good idea of who Bergen was and how he thought.  He would return to the scene of the crime.  There could be more clues or things that would be helpful to learning about Edgar.

He pulled up to Mr. Bergen's mansion and got out ouf the car. There was police tape around the front door now.  "When did that get here?" he asked himself.  Two short woo woo's of a police siren sounded off and flashing lights moved in behind him. He fell to the ground cowering.

"Hello sir. Mind to explain what you're doing here?" a police officer said with a no-nonsense tone.

"I'm sorry officer! I was just coming by to see Edgar's dolls and gain some information!" Jon exclaimed as he gathered himself and stood up.

"What?" the officer asked completely monotone.

"Um, Edgar had a large collection of dolls. I was coming by to see them."

The officer stared at him. Jon started to sweat, his heart beating out of control. "Mr. Bergen was reported missing yesterday. This is an active crime scene. No visitors. No dolls."

"Yes sir, sorry sir. I'll be leaving now" Jon said sheepeshly and walked back to his car. He got in and drove away as quickly as possible, while following all traffic regulations and going 5 miles per hour under the speed limit.

He pulled into the first empty parking lot he could find. His head drooped into his lap and he sobbed.  "What a day. How does Garfield do this?!" he said exesaperated. He grabbed his phone so he could go on Twitter and pour his heart out about his terrible, no good, very hard day. He opened the app, and like magic, there on the right panel in the list of "revelant people" was Mr. Edgar Bergen. 

Jon's heart stopped beating. 

"Oh" he said. "Ohhhhh!!!!!!!" he shouted.

He clicked on Mr. Bergen's profile, then his list of uploaded photos.  Inside were dozens of photos of Edgar. Photos of him performing, meeting celebrities, and posing with his large collection of antique dolls. He poured over them. Although creepy and kind of weird, nothing really stood out until he finally scrolled to a picture of Mr. Bergen beaming, standing next to one raggedy doll in it's own solitary case.

"Oh... That doesn't seem good." he said, starting to frown.

He texted Garfield "Found it. Will meet you at the office to go over everything."

Garfield replied almost immediately.  "Thx."

Jon started his car, and another text arrived.

"Good wrk detective"

His frown subsided. Just another day at the office for Detective Arbuckle, P.I.