The Good Old Days: An Animal Crossing Fan Fiction

Chapter 8 - Tom Nook

It was coming for me! I had to make a run for it before it was too late! The bridge! Yes, yes the bridge! I could make it! I dashed over as quickly as my little Racoon legs would take me. I looked back, knowing I shouldn't have. It was still hot on my trail, a giant gloved hand floating in the air, coming to steal my bells, my hard earned bells. Trying to steal my jewels, my diamonds my--"

I jolted out of bed, "--my rubies!"

It was a dream. Well, half a dream anyway. My rubies really were gone. I'd spent years collecting the precious stones from Resetti, keeping only the largest and most shiniest of them.

 I'd carried them all with me here into the city in my suitcases. How could I have carelessly left my suitcases unattended. This never would have happened back home, back in Animal Village.

I looked out the window. It was looking pretty gloomy. I wonder if Sable was looking out at the same rainclouds. Or maybe it was sunny back home. Maybe she was putting on the kettle and preparing her morning tea and toast with jam. No. It was 9 in the morning. She would have been at her shop by now preparing for the day ahead of her.

I stepped out of the room and took a peak into Redd's room. His door was all the way open and he was still sleeping, fully clothed over his bed sheets.

I helped myself to the fridge and got some breakfast, made myself a coffee and sat at the table resting my face in my palms, trying to think where the rubies could have gone. This wasn't how my trip to the city was supposed to go. Things really were different here. The coming days were going to be busy getting our establishment running before grand opening day, which was only in a few weeks.

I heard Redd walk out of his room and into the kitchen.

"Good morning Tom, how'd you sleep?" he asked with a yawn.

"I slept well, I suppose. To be honest something happened last night and it's got me all stressed out." I said taking the empty dishes to the sink.

"What's the problem, cuz'?" he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"The rubies I brought over from Animal Village, they've gone missing."

Redd almost choked on his gulp of coffee. "That's not good. That's not good at all. In fact very bad. Are you sure you checked both suitcases?"

"The last time I had them was at the restaurant, I was showing Lyle and then Gracie came over to chat and shortly after I put them away. I was unpacking last night and that's when I noticed they were missing!"

"We came straight to my apartment after the restaurant, did you open the suitcase in the taxi?"

"No, it was sealed shut before we left the restaurant."

"Well buddy this is awful timing. We've got a lot of work to do before the grand opening, Jerry's got his boys stocking the store up now and we'll be expected to help over the next few weeks. Gracie's been on my tail about getting closer with her pops and if I want her inheritan-- I mean if I want her to be happy I've got to put in the work!" Redd said dumping the rest of his coffee down the sink.

"Who else knew about the rubies?"

"You, Lyle and Gracie."

"Alright then leave it to me, I'll call Gracie and I'll give Lyle a call as well. I'll handle it, cuz'" He said with a wink.

"I'll meet you at Jerry's office when you're ready." Redd left out the door and I went back to my room to get ready.

When I arrived at Mr. Lungorio's office building I saw Gracie exiting the building. I couldn't help but remember the look on her face when she saw the ruby in my hand.

She waved at me, "hello...Tim was it?"

"It's Tom actually. Hey if you have a second I wanted to ask you a quick question."

"I don't really have a second actually, I'm quite busy, you know life of an aspiring entrepreneur." Gracie said putting on her sunglasses and getting ready to walk right passed me.

"It's about last night, those rubies I showed you and Lyle. I can't find any of them and I was wondering if you knew anything about that?"

Gracie stopped in her tracks and slowly took her sunglasses off. She turned her head to face me. "I beg your pardon?"

"I thought maybe you could help me find out what happened to--"

"Why would I know anything about your silly rubies!? You said yourself you showed them to Lyle, that sleazy lawyer of yours always sweating and looking around suspiciously, ask him! Not me! Why would I want anything to do with your foolish stones!?" She was quite offended.

"I"m sorry Gracie, I'm just trying to--"

"What you should be doing is going up to daddy's office and lifting your weight with all the daily responsibilities of your precious little business establishment! Not accusing me of such nincompoopery!" She put her sunglasses back on and strutted away angrily.

Redd was sitting in one of Jerry Lungorio's many office spaces. I didn't tell him about offending Gracie as to not upset him, so instead I sat with him and proceeded to complete some paper work. I worked on my share of duties regarding the store we'd be opening.

Redd had the crazy idea of selling pieces of art. I don't know a thing about art, and I have a hunch neither does he judging by the letters he'd written me. I figured we could make it work. We would include a gift shop and I would sell some of my rubies there. Of course, now they're all gone. The only thing we have left for the gift shop are small trinkets and knick knacks from one of Redd's suppliers. I took a look at them as we discussed the new store and they didn't look as high quality as he'd made them out to be in his letters.

After a busy day doing numerous tasks for our new business, Redd gave Lyle a call. He put him on speakerphone:

"Rubies gone missing you say? Hmm. Bad news. No idea. What I can say is it probably went missing inside Wendell's place. I had bad vibes from the moment we got there. Felt like we were being watched. Spied on. Yep. Across the bar. Couldn't tell for sure. Bloke with a pair of aviator shades and a baseball cap."

"How come you didn't mention you'd seen something strange before, Lyle?" I asked.

"Too embarrassed. He got up. I got up. We bumped right into each other. Got fizzy pop all over my shirt. Brand new too. Still can't get the stain out. I couldn't let you two ridicule me so I kept it hush hush. Just a simple accident."

Redd hung up and we went straight to Wendell's Premium Ocean Cuisine. We spoke to the restaurant's management team and after a few minutes they lead us into the security room.

That's when I saw him. The bloke with aviator shades and a baseball cap that Lyle had mentioned. Yep, they bumped into each other just like he said, except this was no simple accident. Lyle had beverage all in his face and this suspect bent down and fiddled with my suitcase! The angle was slightly off and the footage was grainy, so it would be hard to figure out who this was.

The management let us take the footage to the local police station. I thought maybe now was a good time to tell Redd about upsetting Gracie, but maybe it'd be best to apologize to her on my own without getting Redd involved.

"Well here it is" said Redd as we arrived at the Animal City Police Station.

We filled out some papers and waited a while for an officer to speak with us. I handed them the footage and went over what happened numerous times with a few different officers. They finally told me they'd give me a call if they found anything.

I pray that they do.

----- Author's Note -----

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