On her way out, April stopped briefly in her office. Dialing a familiar number on the phone on her desk, and waited impatiently to be connected. "Come on... Answerphone... Great. OK, fine... Hi, guys, it's me, I just... well, I just wanted to see if you were back yet. I guess not. It's been a while. I, uh, miss you. Call me at home, if you get this, OK...?"
On her way out again, April managed to duck past Ed once more as he was addressing the newsroom in a loud voice. "Listen up, people, for those who don't know, for the ten o'clock we are leading with that missing police car story..." He noticed April leave with irritation and shook his head.
"Stolen from right under their noses..."
"Yeah, Chief Sterns went ballistic..."
"No kidding..."
In her hurry, April hadn't quite closed her office door properly. Irma, still lingering to watch the office go about its business, helpfully stepped in to close it... or so a casual bystander would have sworn. Gauging the right moment, Irma quickly slipped into the office and hurried over to the desk.
Her eye was drawn to a sheet of paper next to the phone on which lots of numbers were scrawled, and her attention quickly went to one in particular. A long number with lots of unusual prefixes, beneath an underlined Renaissance boys.
Before anyone even noticed she was there, Irma was back in the newsroom and pulling the door shut behind her.
***
In the subway station, Splinter's head snapped round at a sudden noise. The phone installed by Donatello in the railway carriage rang once, then a click interrupted it and a voice issued from the speaker. "Hi, guys, it's me, I just... well, I just wanted to see if you guys were back yet..."
***
Pizza. Yuck. April carefully stepped over the congealed mess that had once been a wedge-shaped slice of the Turtles' favorite, and onto the sidewalk, noting all the other debris scattered around the strangely deserted street. The tipped over baby buggy gave her a moment's troubled pause. Fortunately, it was empty. Strange. This place was usually pretty busy around now.
A number of police cars arrived at the end of the street, sirens blaring - she turned to see cars arrive at the other end too. Instinct kicked in and she ducked into a doorway, concealing herself from view. "What's going on here...?"
One way to find out...
***
"What have you got?" asked an exhausted Ed, nearing the home strait at the end of a very long day.
"Well..."- started Irma, before being quickly interrupted.
-"I want you to realize, Irma, I don't normally go around spying on my staff. April is giving me very genuine concern for her safety."
"Yeah, absolutely... Understood." Irma bit her lip. "Um, has she ever talked about the... renaissance? You know, Italian art, thirteen-hundreds, fourteen-hundreds..."
"What...?" Ed looked distracted. "Uh, yeah, I suppose. She covered some kind of international art exhibition a while ago, I forget the details..."
"Oh." Whatever Irma had hoped for, this wasn't it - she felt it in her gut. "OK. Never mind, it's probably nothing. You know what, I think I'm going to need more time on this, boss. But don't worry, you can rely on me."
***
"That's it, Chief. Cordons are in place. Everything's sewn up tight." The uniformed police officer handed Police Chief Sterns a megaphone and stood well back. Today, the Chief didn't wear his usual relatively approachable look of a disappointed bulldog, but that of a disappointed bulldog chewing several pine cones. Sterns fiddled with the switch and a moment later his voice blasted out of the device and filled the street with his not so gentle tones.
YOU ARE READING
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Day of the Rat (A 90s Movies Story)
Fanfiction"Hi...!" April gasped breezily, as the Foot ninja closed in. "I think it's my friends you want... Lemme get them for 'ya!" Turtle vs Rat! Since the Turtles' public showdown with the Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze)...
