The Case of the Black Arrow (A Great Mouse Detective Fanfic) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 2

Unfortunately, the search of the smugglers' headquarters yielded no clues save for blood splatter and broken teeth, and we retreated back to our flat with no leads on the mysterious vigilante. Basil returned to Scotland Yard to, again, ask Pine to allow him to run tests on the letter, and again Pine refused him. Having come to a dead end, Basil got in touch with his various contacts throughout the city and requested they keep their eyes and ears out for a black mouse possibly named Archer. Then, having exhausted our possibilities, there was nothing left to do but wait for word on our quarry.

The vigilante didn't resurface until several weeks later, when Pine made another late night visit to our flat to inform us that in the time following the smugglers' arrest, three more men had turned up badly beaten, each for a different offense committed against children (revealing the type of criminals he was targeting). Letters outlining their crimes had been planted on each of the men, signed with the same black bow and arrow drawing as the smuggling case.

"It's a shame," Pine lamented, "there aren't any laws against abusing children, so there wasn't much I could do besides tell them if they didn't want be beaten by a mysterious man, they shouldn't hurt children. It was quite a mess".

Basil, who was leaning against his work table and rubbing his temple like he was fending off a headache, angrily asked, "Why didn't you tell us about this sooner, Pine? You know Dawson and I are looking for this man".

"I'm telling you now," Pine replied with an eyeroll.

"How generous of you," said Basil sardonically. "Why are you telling us now?"

The inspector pulled a small notebook out of his right coat pocket and flipped a few pages in, "Because the third victim, a Mr. Albert Hawthorne, has made it abundantly clear that he wants to have our man charged with assault and battery. Under the circumstances, we are obligated to comply, but we have to find the vigilante first, which is where you come in. As much as I hate to admit it, you could probably find him faster than we can".

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Pine, but unless you have new evidence, then I'm afraid Dawson and I are currently at a dead end".

Pine's eyes widened a bit at Basil's admission, but he covered it up with a smirk, "A dead end? My, my, Detective, you must be losing you touch," he flipped another page in his notebook, "I might have something to help you".

Basil glared at the inspector, "Then out with it. The sooner we catch this fellow, the better".

"It's not much, just testimony from the victims. It's only slightly better than what we got from Whitmore. All three victims claim that the vigilante is tall. Mr. Donald Selby, the second victim, was certain our man has brown eyes. His clothes are black: jumper, trousers, coat with a hood, and shiny, black boots that laced up all the way to the knee".

Basil's head shot up at that, but he didn't remark on the epiphany I could tell he'd suddenly had. Instead he said, "Well, Inspector, that is not much to go on, but it may help. I must think on it".

Pine shoved the notebook back in his pocket with a sniff, "Just as I thought. If you don't mind, gentlemen, I think I'm going to take my leave".

I showed Inspector Pine to the door. Once he left, I closed the door with a sigh, "It's too bad Pine couldn't give us something useful".

Basil chuckled, "Of course he did, old fellow. Weren't you listening?"

My eyes shot to Basil, who had a gleam in his own green ones, "Of course I was, but I don't know what you're talking about".

Basil smiled at me, "The boots".

I arched a brow in response, "The boots?"

"Pine said the vigilante was wearing black, knee-high boots that laced all the way up".