INVESTIGATORS: TOYHOUSE TROUBLES

Roxy's

Mango and Brash had been walking around the outskirts of town for a few minutes, looking for where they were meant to be.

"Hey, Mango, look." Brash shook Mango's shoulder and pointed to a large store wedged in between two apartment buildings. There was a small yellow sign hanging above the entrance that read 'Roxy's.'

"Was expecting the store to be smaller.. well, let's just get this over with.. I wanna get back to my kandi." Mango said.

The two walked into the store. It was empty, but the stairs to the attic had been pulled down.  Mango saw a small stage close to the back of the store with a puppet on a stand in the center of it. The puppet had a pastel pink dress and brown pigtails. He walked over to it and picked it up. It looked familiar to him, he felt like he had seen it before.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Brash called out.

"Ah! One minute!" A voice called back from the attic. A woman who seemed to be in her mid-20's climbed down the stairs. She had long orange hair and a bright purple vest on.

"Hey! Please don't touch that puppet!" She called out to Mango.

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" Mango set the puppet down and stood beside Brash.

"Anyways, you're the owner of this place, correct? What's your name?" Brash asked.

"Roxxane. Roxxane Finiccks. But please, just call me Roxy." Roxy said.

"Mhm.. okay, Roxy, what's been happening at your store? You reported that your money has been stolen?" Brash asked, pulling out a pen and notepad.

"Yes! It's been happening every night for two weeks! All the money I make from customers during the day is gone by next morning!" Roxy began. "I'm starting to lose a LOT of money! I can barely keep up with my rent! I've tried everything to keep my money secure! Locking the register, putting the money in a mini safe, stuff like that, and NOTHING works! It's like the thief's spying on me!"

Brash took notes of everything she was saying, but Mango was barely paying attention. He was so focused on the puppet. He couldn't understand why it looked like something he had seen before.

"That's odd. Well, do you have any cameras in the store?" Brash asked.

"I did put one up the first time it had happened, but it was smashed to bits the next day!"

"Well, me and my partner here could maybe do a stakeout, if that's fine with you. What time does your store close?"

"I close a bit earlier than most shops.. around 8 PM." Brash wrote the time down and glanced at Mango.

"Uh.. Mango? Are you even listening?"

Mango snapped back to reality and looked at Brash and Roxy.

"Uhm.. sorry, just kinda interested in that puppet on the stage over there.." Mango pointed at the puppet.

"Oh, that's Anni Strings. I used to do puppet shows, but I stopped a while ago. Anni was the main attraction of my store, but over time I just got.. worse at doing puppet shows." Roxy told him as she walked to the stage and patted Anni on her little wooden head.

"Anni Strings? Certainly rings a bell.. I think my cousin had one.." Mango replied.

"Well, good for your cousin I suppose. Now, you two can do a stakeout if you'd wish. You can also check out the basement. I must warn you though, I think there's rats down there." 

"Oh, trust me, we've dealt with much worse." Brash mumbled.

"Alright, well, you two will be here by closing time, correct?"

The two nodded in unison and Brash put his notebook away.

"Yep. 8 PM, like you said. We'll spend the afternoon preparing for our stakeout and whatnot. It was nice meeting you, Roxy. Farewell." Brash said. He shook Roxy's hand before turning around and gesturing for Mango to follow him out of the store.

"Can we please go back to S.U.I.T now? Just for a little bit?" Mango pleaded as the two walked out into the street. Brash let out a sigh.

"Ffffine," He dragged. "You can finish your kandi."

"Yippee! Let's go!"

Mango began making a dash to the nearest manhole. Brash ran after him, trying to keep up.

"Jesus, Mango! Slow down!"