𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗼 Shorts

♔ RtD x OC - 4

I was so engaged in the report that I almost missed my stop. I jabbed the red STOP button and jumped to my feet, thanking the driver before getting off.

I only had to walk for a minute before I literally bumped into Roger. I was walking so briskly that I walked into him as I rounded the corner.

"Woah," he said, grabbing my arm. He looked up and saw it was me; his nose wrinkled adorably. "Squirt? What are you doing skulking around here?"

I frowned and removed his hand from my arm. "I could say the same to you, Dodger." I glared accusingly down at the wodge of cash in his hands.

"Oh, this? It's from the weather machine."

"You sold it."

"It wasn't mine to sell. They bought the machine from Softy, and I took my twenty-five percent for brokering the deal."

"And when they realise the machine doesn't work?"

He gave me a sharp look. "You caught on quick," he said. I couldn't tell if it was shock or praise.

"You weren't exactly secretive with me. So..?"

He shrugged and pocketed the cash. "When they twig it doesn't work, that's Walter's problem, not mine."

"Hm." I ran a critical eye over him. "Where there's a dodge there's a con, but I'm still trying to work out how you managed to bring the weather to Beanotown and nowhere else."

He smirked widely. "Trade secrets, I'm afraid."

"Enough with the secrets! Don't you trust me?"

"Not as far as I can throw you."

"Want to test that out?"

He ran a hand up through his hair exasperatedly. "Fair enough. Alright. Can you keep a secret?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes!"

"Then here's how I did it." He pulled me back from the road so our backs were to the thick holly hedge. "For the first storms, I just begged a simple favour from Billy Whizz."

"Oh, I should've been able to guess that one!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry, am I going to explain or what?"

"Sorry. Continue."

He glanced around furtively and spoke quickly. "As I was saying, I begged a favour from Billy Whizz and got him to run in circles to make the hurricanes and tornadoes. For the mosquitoes, I told Minnie about an upcoming pea shooting competition and that part of it is staying out of sight. Hence the 'mosquito' stings. But to make thunder, lightning,  tidal waves and a flood required a very special team and a very special dodge."

The corner of my mouth lifted involuntarily. "Dodge 894?"

Roger nodded. "Exactly. The Reservoir Dodge, involving Min, Fatty, Billy and Calamity James."

"Let me guess," I interrupted. "Billy created a cyclone that sucked up all the water from the reservoir. That was your wind and rain."

He inclined his head. "Very good..."

"And... Fatty jumping in the sea created the tidal wave, and the flood."

"Naturally."

"But I don't understand how Minnie or James come in?"

Roger pushed his hand through his hair again. I silently wished he stop doing it, the action kept distracting me from my investigative work - I kept getting the urge to run my fingers through it myself.

"It's a little outside the box, to be sure," he said, startling me from my thoughts. "See, I got Minnie to drink a bottle of pop - then she burped into the microphone. When I played that back through the tannoy, voila! That's your thunder."

"And James?" I questioned.

He smiled. "The one and only walking Calamity. All he had to do was hold a toaster and stand in the middle of Beanotown. Lightning was sure to strike him with all Billy's storm clouds around."

I stifled a giggle and turned my smile into a vague grown. "Now that's just cruel."

"Perhaps. But it was a perfect dodge." Roger gave me a sidelong glance, daring me to say otherwise. I didn't. "Everyone's happy - except maybe Walter when they discover it doesn't work."

My eyes roved over Roger's shoulder and widened as I saw a blue jumper. "He's headed this way!"

Roger shrugged. "It's fine, I can deal with whatever Softy throws at me."

Walter was running towards us, hands in the air, waving to catch our attention. Roger span on his heel rather gracefully to face Walter.

"Hi, Walt, about your weather machine. I forgot to mention, it doesn't-"

Walter was holding a stack of money far greater than what Roger had stashed in his pocket. I cast a wary eye around for onlookers - there were none.

"Great news Roger!" Walter cried as he ran up to us. "I've sold it!"

I cut a look at Roger and hissed, "He doesn't know you sold it?"

He chose to ignore me, instead he sighed and spoke to a breathless Walter. "Yeah, I know. To the telly people. I arranged it."

Walter shook his head whilst he clutched his heaving chest. "No, no. I got a better offer at the last minute. This businessman paid ten times as much." He held out the money. "I'll count out your share."

Rogers eyes bugged. "Wow! What a dodge-tastic result!"

"Who was this businessman, anyway?" I asked dubiously.

Walter was counting notes, and didn't quite register the question. "Fifty, sixty, seventy -Oh, uh, I think his name was Finlay-something. Weren't you the girl at the science fair?"

I heard a gulp. Roger's Adam's apple was bobbing intermittently, and he seemed to be struggling to speak. His hand shot out and gripped mine, as if he needed support. "F-Finlay-something?"