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Running a detective agency as two birds in a human city was hard enough, and being new fathers didn't help. In a corner of the fishy-smelling warehouse Steve tried soothing the restless ducklings back to sleep while Duck-Tective interrogated the man who'd been caught with his bizarre theft from the London Zoo.
"How did you know where to find him, Duck-Tective?" Steve asked his partner before returning to making "coo coo ka choo" sounds to the kids.
"Elementary, penguin." Duck-Tective swept a wing around the warehouse. "This room contains cases of cornflakes and sacks of semolina. Why the fishy smell if no fish is stored here? Not so much as a pilchard, nothing for a fishwife. The smell had to be coming from Vanderbilt here."
The enormous brown mountain of blubber and bristles blew its fishy breath at them in irritation.
"All right, all right, you damned duck," snapped the fellow. "No need to send the pretty little policemen in a row. It was just a prank."
"You would have sold the beast to a travelling circus that would be gone the next day. That is not a prank but theft and smuggling. And it's not your usual crime, either." The deerstalker-clad waterfowl raised his voice to be heard while Steve vainly tried to quiet the ducklings. "You're McLennan the safecracker."
"Whoo!" the ducklings squealed, and Steve shushed them.
McLennan nodded. "Yes. I am the yeggman."
"Whoo!"
"I am the yeggman!" McLennan shouted louder.
"Whoo!"
Vanderbilt the walrus said nothing.