Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones

© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Chapter Fifteen

“Hello Miss Richards” an official looking man in Guild colors said after entering the shop. Behind him was another man, one more muscular and mean looking. It was Spring now and travel had finally returned to normal so new people were showing up, but these two were way different than Sara’s normal clientele.

“Its Mrs.” Sara corrected as she sat aside the muddy Pokeball she was cleaning at the moment. “You are?”

“Inspector Leopold Mrs. Richards. Is your husband home?” he asked.

“My wife” Sara corrected again, “Is currently filling in for the local Librarian who has a late Winter flu right now.” She noted the pin on both mens labels and connected the dots. “This is an inspection sir?”

“It is.” Accepting an envelope from his companion Leopold waited calmly as Sara read its contents.

“Well” she said, returning the envelope and its contents. “I was warned to expect an Inspection at least yearly, your really rather late sir. Several years late in fact, I thought the Guild had forgotten all about me. So where would you like to start?”

“Your most private office, if you do not mind.”

Sara stood from her work stool, brushing her skirt down. “As long as you stay out of our underwear drawers sir, you have free access to this entire building and its property. After all sir, I only lease from the Guild I do not own. If you will allow me too...” She watched as the second man deftly locked the front door, putting up the closed sign. “I see, am I to be taken to the Constable’s now?”

Leopold shook his head. “John, put the inspection card up please? And next time let the shop owner lock the door. We aren’t Men in Green you know.”

“Sorry Dell” the John said, pulling a red card from the case he was carrying and replacing the closed sign with it.

“I apologize Mrs. Richards, I can see how it looks. This isn’t an arrest it is simply a rather badly delayed inspection. It will though be a thorough one.” He looked again at his assistant, obviously unhappy with him. “John, please go over to the Inn and find rooms for us, then arrange dinner. I don’t think I’ll be in any danger here. You can rest, I’ll be needing you and your accounting skills here tomorrow morning. Thank you.”

When John left Leopold shrugged. “My newest apprentice and he is still learning. You understand, just out of school, all eager to go by the book and now in the real world. I’m sure you were a little over eager when you got here. He’ll be helping tomorrow going over your books. No matter his shortcomings John is an absolute whiz at numbers. Now, as to why you haven’t had a visit, those are normally done in the Winter when business isn’t so... busy. I regret but it seems that this area gets a bit of snow.”

Sara glanced out the window at the towering Southern mountains that made travel to Vermillion City so difficult, they were still capped with snow and would be year around. “We do sometimes get a light dusting, now and then” she agreed. “Truth is, Penny and I were snowed in six times this winter. It makes food and coal planning rather important events, not to mention when the septic system freezes solid. Those are not fun times as the backup outhouse is at the end of the property and not heated at all. But yes I was a touch over eager when I came here, but a two month abandoned shop and home somewhat washed that out. There were also the hunters who had been waiting up to two months for their supplies or Pokeball’s plus needing to clean the place of dust, bugs and forgotten food. But I digress sir, shall we start the inspection?”

“I would be delighted” Inspector Leopold agreed, following Sara as she went towards the kitchen, then the basement access door in its pantry.

Three hours in the Storm Room and Inspector Leopold was ready to call it a day. “How many journal’s are here?” he asked as he closed an ancient tome, looking around him at the well kept shelves of green, grey, yellow and blue bound journals.

“I think Penny counted Eight hundred and eighty before she threw her hands up in defeat” Sara answered. “Probably over a thousand. She chose Red for me so that she wouldn’t get confused.”

Leopold leaned back in the chair again, lifting his arms above him in order to loosen tight muscles. “I think I’m going to suggest that every Pokeball Technician marries a Librarian” he laughed. “I’ve been here five times now, every time I came here it was piles and piles of things all stacked together. I didn’t even know that this room existed.”

“All the older stone buildings in Stonehome have storm shelters” Sara explained. “Apparently they were all built at the same time as they are all the same shape and size.” She leaned back against the oaken ‘X’, looking at the man in her chair. “I’m not sure why they are called storm shelters, because they were built to hide in during Pirate raids. Apparently they were very effective as Pirates of the day distrusted stone buildings. They wouldn’t burn and the idea of going down into a dark stone basement dug into the earth horrified them. Something from their own islands I guess.”

“These rather substantial pieces of furniture?” Leopold asked, prodding a bit.

“To get Pokemon Hunters to part with their last coins of course” Sara answered flat faced.

“Ah, well. I do know what they are for, obviously that’s private and not within my investigational authority. To get back on track though. You have an excellent collection of Pokeball’s here. From type ones to type elevens. I don’t think I’ve seen a type one outside a museum in my entire life. There are collectors that would sell their souls for one in the condition yours is in. Are they all active?”

“They are all fully serviceable” Sara admitted. “But I drained all their batteries and it would take a full day to recharge them, so no Sir. I wouldn’t call them active, just capable. When Penny and I cleaned out the basement and this room we found boxes and boxes of parts, pieces and still packed balls. I’m selling the serviced type nines for almost scrap rates and running out fast. It was the thinner aluminum casings that were their downfall.”

“Yes, we’ve noted that brand new type nines were popping up around here. If you hadn’t been paying your Guild fees on the sales several of our people would be tearing their hair out still.” Leopold grinned. “They’re thirty years old so who buys them?”

“The local Pokeball Hall uses them for training new students” Sara said. “Some of the kids get attached to them, that’s one I’m cleaning upstairs. Poor girl was chasing a Squirtle and it trapped her in a mud pool. They learn, and the nines are pretty good for that use. If they ruin one it is a cheap loss, not like a new type eleven.”

“I see, but where is your own collection of pokemon” he asked, looking around at the books and boxes.

“I don’t hunt” Sara admitted. “I really don’t have the interest. I have a brother and sister that hunt and they are rather good at it. Maybe one day they will drop by.” She pointed at the Pokeball collection. “Maybe the type twelve will come out before I retire, then I can have a round dozen of them but capture animals? No thank you.”

Standing Leopold looked around him. “I was going to be a week here” he admitted. “I think I can get out of here three days easy only because your wife has everything so darn organized so I can find everything. Have you really read all these journals yet?”

Sara shook her head no, her long red hair moving fluidly in an attractive way. “I’m up to Caderman, he retired about three Technicians back. Say eighty years or so. Between my work, my study of the ball code and reading these things I really don’t have much free time yet. That, and Penny’s tastes in private entertainment.”

Sputtering the investigator bent down to grab his case. “Yes. Well. That isn’t something I’m authorized to investigate” he managed. “I’d like to look through your live stocks, verify them against your inventory, the returned Capture Screens log and such.”

“Live stocks?” Sara asked, confused. “I just told you I don’t hunt.”

“Live stocks is an investigators term, it means the things that are still legal to sell or trade” Leopold explained with a laugh. “Pokeballs below a nine are illegal to sell if still active. You can own them, give them away or even use them but they can’t be sold or traded except on the Guild Auction Market so they are dead stock. The same for older Pokedex’s, parts and such but in those cases they are just too much out of date.”

“Ah, this way then.” Sara led him to the basement and several wooden shelves (recently sanded and repainted) that held her stock. “Over there is what you call dead stock” she explained, pointing across the room. “A couple of ones, a two, some three’s, all the way up to eights. No fives though, I had to build the one I have from spare parts. I might get another five built but why? Anyway, all left forgotten in the disaster than was this lower part of the building. There should be a good six unopened boxes of Type Elevens here, plus seven loose ones. That’s 151 balls. Thirteen type tens and, counting the unopened box and loose balls, twenty-six type nines.”

“You keep up with your stock well” the investigator noted.

“Not really.” Sara pointed just off to his right were a blackboard was mounted to the wall. “Penny keeps up. She’s almost a nutcase about keeping things in order. As you can see we should have a dozen new capture screens still in their shipping boxes. At least I’ve only had to replace two so far. One because an idiot kept trying to capture his wife until finally the screen finally melted. They were both drunk as Squirtle’s at the time. I really don’t understand the obsession with capturing women in Pokeball’s. As far as I know it can’t be done so you are just going to burn up good equipment for nothing. Rope and tape work a lot better Penny has shown me.”

“Why did you have to replace the other capture screen” Leopold asked.

“Hunter tried to capture a Charizard taking a swim” Sara explained. “He really wasn’t ready for that level of conflict.”

“He’s lucky he only lost the capture screen, or did you have to reload the software too?”

Sara looked at the inspector. “It’s all in my reports and my log but I will save you the time and tell you. His capture sub-program was corrupted. So I erased the entire program, reformatted and reloaded from scratch. No charge, it was a really slow day and his problem, along with the damage to his clothing gave me a chuckle.”

“Kinda what I expected” Leopold admitted. “Mrs Richards, I really don’t have the time to read all the reports. I just skim the top, except for those two licence revocations. You handled both rather well and I saw that you still had the missing poster up in your shop. Any luck with that girl?”

Sara shook her head no. “No one has seen her. Maybe she moved to a different country like she threatened, one that doesn’t allow Pokemon hunts. Or maybe she just changed her name and became a fisher woman. I don’t expect that I will ever know.”

“I think your right” Leopold agreed. “At least a dozen hunters vanish every year. Some are found later, dead of accidents, injured or ill. A few are just never seen again. At least two thousand people vanish every year in our nation. Falling through the cracks, ending up in the lowest rung of society. Murdered and their bodies hidden away. Hoping that one girl who’s world was ruined by a simple thoughtless act can be found after this many years is a fools errand. She’s probably buried somewhere in a Jane Doe grave or as you said, happily spending the rest of her life as a fisherman’s wife. I think that you should take that poster down Mrs. Richards, its depressing to the Hunters who come by. It reminds them that they are not immortal after all, but its your call. Okay, enough of that, lets start counting.”

Three days passed quickly. A few minor errors had been found, all easily correctable so the Inspector only noted them as acceptable errors. His assistant John really was a whiz with numbers. All of the errors he found were simply transposed serial numbers. Considering each serial number had twenty four digits and no letters it was rather easy to understand the mistakes. With how organized Penny kept their stocks John soon found himself down in the Storm Shelter reading the really old Journals, something he seemed to get great enjoyment doing.

“What about your wife” Leopold asked on the second day. “Your records indicate she helps you. Does she have a licence?”

“Hunters License? Yes” Sara answered. “She got her’s last year when I realized that I needed help in the workshop. Legally she couldn’t touch the equipment without a license and myself as her Mentor. But she’s not a very good Huntress, that’s her muddy Pokeball I was working on.” Sara giggled a moment. “So far her collection of Pokemon is zero but she keeps trying.”

“Not everyone can be Master Pokehunters like your family” Leopold agreed. “There are always those who just don’t quite have the talent. But with you as her Mentor she should soon be catching something.”

“Oh she will” Sara agreed, pushing down the image of four Pokeballs now hidden safely away in a seldom used area of her home. “She will.”

Finally near the end of the third day Leopold pulled his red card from the shop window, returning Sara to her business. There had already been a few inquires but while a Guild Inspection was going on no business could be conducted unless in an emergency. “Mrs. Richards I wish every shop was as organized as this one” Leopold said as he prepared to leave. “I usually take a week and here I am left with four days left to do nothing.”

“The Rose Festival starts tomorrow” Sara reminded him. “Good food, dancing and enough alcohol to loosen even the tightest skirts.” She smiled at the man’s slight blush. “Or you could just watch the little parade, enjoy the food and there is a killer Chess tournament. I usually get bounced out the third hour and your assistant can spend more time reading dusty old journals.”

“I might go for the chess tournament” Leopold admitted. “I used to be pretty good.”

“So did I, I thought” Sara agreed. “Until I found out these guys spend the Winter months practicing.”

“Oh that does sound like a challenge” Leopold agreed with a laugh. “And I’m certain that John will appreciate the loosened skirts. All right you made your point, I think that we will spend a few days enjoying ourselves. And Mrs. Richards, I do believe that I will make your little town a yearly Spring stop from now on.” He left then, his assistant in tow as the two talked with each other.

Penny came in from the house after the two men left. She had been home this last day supplying drinks and nibbles to the two men. “I’m glad you thought to hide those balls in one of the winter chests” she whispered as the first customers came in.

“So am I” Sara agreed. “Please go check that they are all right, but don’t bring them out again until Sunday.” She turned her attention to her first customer, the Pokemon Hall Owner. “More number nines Mr. Winston? And just how is Lars doing at school, I expect him back soon on break.”

“Five, if you have them” the plump older man answered. “Lars? Not too well. I would talk to you, later please?”

Glancing at the clock Sara thought a minute. “I close at seven, I’ll have Penny delay dinner. Come by around Seven fifteen to Seven thirty. We’ll have coffee and chat, I hope that there is not a problem.”

“I will tell you. At seven fifteen.” He waited silently until Penny returned with the five type nines.

“There are only twenty-one type nines left Sara” she reported, her voice loud enough for Mr. Winston to hear but probably few others as well.

“Ah, then tomorrow I will come to relieve you of those” Lars father announced. “Or maybe not, money is tight right now.”

“Its tight everywhere sir” Sara agreed. “Being closed three days for a Guild Inspection didn’t help and they don’t pay for my lost business either. Here you are, that will be eight hundred P sir.”

“A good price. They are almost out of date but you do not gorge.” He smiled at Sara as he paid. “I like you, you are honest. Not so much as...” He looked around. “Later. I will talk later.” Taking the paper bag holding his type nines the Pokemon Hall Master made his way out.

“What was that about?” Penny asked as the next customer stepped up.

“Later Penny, delay dinner and make your best coffee will you?” She swatted her wife’s buttocks lightly as the Brunette turned to leave, eliciting a twitter of laughter from one of her customers. Turning to the small line Sara simply ignored the giggle, dealing with one customer at a time. Three days closed had taken a bite out of their profits after all.