🗂️ Intelligence Report #001

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It was the beginning of the Bank Holiday weekend in St Annes.

The town was getting ready for three days of music, entertainment and crowds.

Most people were rather excited about it.

Mushu was not.

Mushu — better known to Cat Crimes HQ as The Archivist — prefers his surroundings a little quieter.

Books.
Records.
Important documents.
The occasional whispered conversation.

These are acceptable.

Thousands of people, live music and an entire Bank Holiday weekend of activity?

Absolutely not.

By Saturday morning, Mushu had become increasingly concerned about what was about to happen to his normally peaceful corner of St Annes.

There would be people everywhere.
There would be noise.
There would be music.

There was even the possibility of people enjoying themselves loudly.

Mushu was getting flustered just thinking about it.

Then, at Fable Book Café, he encountered Detective Croft.

And Mushu discovered something extremely interesting.

Detective Croft had a campervan.

More importantly, Detective Croft was leaving St Annes.

Where were they going?

Mushu didn't particularly care.

The important word was:

Leaving.

A decision was made.

Not necessarily by Detective Croft.

Mushu gathered together the books he considered essential for the journey.

Then he gathered several more.

Then a few reference books.

An atlas.

Some light reading.

And one particularly enormous volume that nobody remembered seeing before.

Detective Croft may have believed they were simply setting off on a campervan holiday.

They were mistaken.

They were now travelling with Mushu — a cat very much on the large side — and enough books to open a small branch library.

Space in the campervan was becoming limited.

Mushu considered this to be everybody else's problem.

And so, while St Annes prepared for a weekend of music and festivities, The Archivist quietly made his escape.

Mushu was going on a campervan adventure.

He had absolutely no intention of solving any crimes.

Unfortunately, the holiday had barely begun before the first case presented itself.

It began with a disturbing discovery.

A very squashed shrew.

Mushu immediately opened an investigation.

The exact circumstances surrounding the unfortunate creature were unclear, although attention quickly turned towards Mushu's travelling archive.

There were, after all, quite a lot of books.

Had one of the piles toppled?

Had the unfortunate shrew simply been in the wrong place at a very unfortunate time?

Mushu prepared to examine the evidence.

Then Detective Croft noticed the dog.

The dog was standing suspiciously close to the shrew.

Sniffing.

Very enthusiastically.

Detective Croft shouted at the dog.

The dog turned around.

For one brief, horrifying moment, all Detective Croft could see were two tiny back legs and a tail hanging out of the dog's mouth.

There was just enough time to realise what was happening.

And then—

Gone.

The dog looked extremely pleased with himself.

Mushu did not.

The principal piece of evidence in the Case of the Squashed Shrew had just been eaten.

Whether Mushu's travelling library had anything to do with the original squashing could now never be established.

Mushu made an immediate addition to his travelling archive:

It was advice that would become important remarkably soon.

Somewhere further along the journey, another incident occurred.

A biscuit disappeared.

Mushu slowly looked up from his books.

An investigation was opened.

There were several possible suspects.

Detective Croft was considered.

Insufficient evidence.

Other members of the travelling party were considered.

Again, insufficient evidence.

Then Mushu looked at the dog.

The dog looked at Mushu.

Mushu looked at his recently written Investigative Note #001.

The dog looked away.

It did not take The Archivist long to crack this particular case.

The dog had eaten the biscuit.

Again.

Unlike the shrew incident, there was little mystery surrounding the fate of the missing item.

Mushu updated his records.

Despite the criminal behaviour of one member of the travelling party, Mushu settled rather nicely into campervan life.

He had his books.

He had peace and quiet.

He had escaped the Bank Holiday commotion in St Annes.

And, completely unintentionally, he had acquired his own collection of travelling case files.

Eventually, the campervan reached Durham.

And this time, Detective Croft had a decision to make.

Mushu could return to St Annes.

Back to Fable.

Back to his familiar surroundings.

Back to the archive.

Or...

The adventure could continue.

Mushu had travelled all this way.

He had investigated a squashed shrew.

He had witnessed the destruction of evidence.

He had successfully solved the Mystery of the Missing Biscuit.

And somewhere beyond the campervan there were undoubtedly more stories waiting to be recorded.

So Detective Croft left Mushu somewhere new in Durham, ready for another investigator to discover him.

Detective Croft's part in the journey had come to an end.

Mushu's hadn't.

Somewhere in Durham, The Archivist is waiting.

Hopefully somewhere quiet.

Probably with a book.

And definitely keeping any future evidence well away from dogs.

This is not the end of Mushu's file.

It is simply the beginning of a new volume.