Two weeks had passed since the detectives Old Bill and Peach Fuzz began looking into the tip about High Tide given to them by their informant, Key Type. In that time, they'd unfortunately had little to nothing turn up.
An investigation into Miss Scarlett, actually named Scarlett Penn, returned a juvenile record for petty theft; Apparently, she'd been dared by some fillies at her school to try and steal a piece of costume jewelry from a street vendor. According to the record, the owner never pressed any charges, but insisted on restitution in the form of the mare running his market stall for a month. After that incident, no other record could be found.
Following up on the griffin was even less fruitful. After describing the griffin to a sketch artist and verifying what he drew was accurate, duplicates were made and sent to the various guard houses and police stations all across Equestria. Unfortunately, no leads turned up. A guard stationed in a town close to the border with the griffin nation sent a letter back stating their intention to travel there and show their law enforcement the sketch to see if something would turn up there, but that letter was received yesterday, so it would be some time before any news would be heard on that front.
In truth, there was only one thing of note that could be made about the situation: The griffin was smart. After the stakeout crew moved into position in an office across the street from the griffin's, the ponies posted there overheard conversations from some stallions going to and from the business. In one of those, there was discussion about the moving of files from the office the day before the police ponies were set up, but nothing was revealed about where those files ended up. The only things that could be done were to write down descriptions of the ponies in question and check to see if any had some sort of record, and then check the name on the deed to the office and see if there were any other properties owned by that individual.
At the moment, Old Bill sat at his desk in the police station, a cup of coffee in his magic, and the case he was trying to make headway on in his mind. He hoped that sometime today, preferably soon, that info would come back from somewhere, either from the griffin kingdom or the pony checking up on the names and descriptions.
A pony sitting down opposite him on his desk took him from his thoughts. "Hello, Peach" the stallion greeted apathetically.
"Hey", she replied,"Anything turn up yet?"
"If it did, would I be sitting here bored out of my mind chugging this stuff down?" he answered her in question.
"Guess not" she answered. She paused for a second before speaking again. "I was thinking a minute ago."
"Strain yourself?" Bill chided.
"Funny", she quipped before continuing,"Anyhow, I was thinking about some ways we could get some new leads."
"Oh?", Bill responded with curiosity,"And what have you thought up?"
"We don't know a whole lot about that place", Peach pointed out,"so why don't we send somepony to learn for us?"
"You're suggesting an undercover thing?" Bill asked.
Peach nodded, then produced a manila folder. "I thought about what you said about that griffin claiming to be a financial planner. Why don't we find out if he's legitimate?"
Bill thought it over. "I like the idea", he admitted,"but we're gonna need somepony reliable to do this; One that can play the part of a desperate pony to the T."
"Don't worry", Peach reassured Bill,"I have just the pony in mind."
"Oh sweet Celestia, why did I agree to do this?"
The exasperated remark came from a rather mundane looking mare. Her beige coat, brown mane and tail with tan highlights, and brown eyes made her very unassuming. Even her cutie mark was nothing terribly special but fit like a glove when paired with her name: a piece of baklava pastry.
With a sigh, Baklava continued walking down the street she was on. Looking at signposts and then to a sheet of paper in her hoof, the mare was searching for an address. More specifically, she was looking for the office of a finance-planning griffin.
Baklava, or Bockie as friends would call her, was a part of the VHPF's informant program. Going on information given to her by Officer Peach Fuzz, she was to approach the griffin at the address provided and seek out help with financial planning.
Of course, this was all a ruse: Bockie was to see and make note of how the griffin acted and what the griffin said, then report it back to Peach when everything was said and done. She'd been given a mock backstory, which like all good backstories, had a small amount of truth to it.
Bockie would pose as a mare that wanted to open up a bakery in the city, but was unable to secure funds from any of the banks. Her reason for approaching the griffin was to have him work on improving the plan and business model, which the detectives made sure was quite unsound and the kind of stuff that anypony studying finance management at Van Hoover University could've picked out blindfolded.
The backstory was almost identical to Bockie's actual story: She did want to open a bakery, but not in the city, and the stipend from this task would be the last bits she should need to buy the old building in nearby Maple Hill. As for her business plan? That had been ironed out a long time ago.
Bockie checked a street sign and the paper one last time. Looking down the street, she finally saw the building in question. Approaching the door, she opened it and looked inside. A staircase going to a door at the top, just as she had been told. She closed the door behind her and started to ascend the stairs.
===
As Bockie ascended the stairs, she kept going over the story and reminding herself of what things to pay attention for. With any luck, her efforts would prove fruitful and the griffin and mare running this place would be brought in and any ponies that they'd hurt would be compensated for their losses. Bockie had reached the top of the steps and pushed the door open to step inside.
The very first thing she noticed was how unwelcoming the office was. There was nothing in the way of decoration in the small office. Several chairs and a water dispenser against one wall, a wall with windows opposite that one, the wall opposite the door she just came through that had a single door and several filing cabinets against it, and just in front of that wall was a desk which had a mare sitting pecking away at a typewriter. In truth, the most attractive thing in the room was the mare. At least, what Bockie would say if she were a stallion; she tried being with a mare once, but it just wasn't her thing.
Speaking of the mare, she stopped her pecking to look up at Bockie. "Something I can help you with, miss?"
Bockie stepped inside and closed the door. "Yes", she answered,"I was wondering if I could get an appointment to discuss some business planning advice?"
The mare sitting at the desk smiled. "You're lucky", she told Bockie,"The boss has an appointment in about a half hour, but I think he might be able to go over a few things with you before then. Let me check."
"Okay" Bockie replied as the mare stood up and walked over to the other door. That was definitely another red flag for the mare; She'd never met a financial planner that wasn't so busy as to take walk in clients, much less any that did take walk in clients. The mare opened the door and spoke to "the boss" for a moment, before turning back to Bockie and gesturing her over. Bockie complied and stepped through the door.
The office behind the door was just as spartan as the other one, with only a few filing cabinets behind a desk which only had a quill and ink set, candle powered desk lamp, and a box of cigars alongside an ashtray. Sitting behind said desk was a griffin, looking just a bit past middle age and puffing away at a cigar. Bockie had heard once that cigars put age on ponies, so maybe the griffin was a bit younger than he appeared.
The griffin removed the cigar from his beak and greeted her. "Good day, ma'am. Mint Eagle, financial planner. Won't you please have a seat?"
Bockie accepted the invitation and took a seat across from the griffin in a chair on her side of the desk. The griffin trimmed the tail of his cigar into the ashtray and replaced it in his beak. "Now, my secretary told me you'd like some business planning advice?"
Bockie nodded. "Yes. I've been planning to open a bakery here in the city, but I've been having trouble getting the financing to get started, so I was hoping you could help me work out my proposal and financial plans so I have a better chance with the banks in regards to securing a loan."
The griffin smirked as he took another drag of his cigar. "I think we might be able to work something out", he told her as he stretched one of his claws out,"Let me see your proposal."
The mare nodded, getting out the proposal and business model and giving them to the griffin. He then leaned back into his chair and began looking over the papers, puffing at his cigar as he did so. After a minute or so of reading and then pausing to tap the ash off his stogie, he looked over at the mare with a smirk.
"Well, I've seen worse proposals", the griffin told her,"but I can tell why you didn't get your loan approved. Not to sound insulting, but math wasn't exactly a strong subject for you in school?"
The mare just gave a smirk and pointed to her flank. "Never had a problem with fractions" she joked, referring to her cutie mark in baking. The griffin smiled and gave a short laugh. Once he stopped, he began going over the proposal.
"I can see here that you are estimating a break even at under three months. I can appreciate ambition, but even I haven't seen many businesses break even that fast. In fact, I haven't even seen many that break even after a year. I think the first place to begin would be to adjust your expected break even point for at least a year. It'll give you the opportunity to adjust your business model to compensate for unexpected issues such as material shortages."
Bockie gave a nod at his suggestions. The one positive so far was that the griffin did seem to have a grasp of finances, at least what she'd been shown so far. Perhaps this was just a wild goose chase.
"I see some other things that don't completely add up, but I believe I can iron out these kinks and get you in a good place for the banks to approve a loan." He paused to trim his cigar's tail again. "However, if you're interested, I may know a pony that would be willing to set up a private loan."
"Big red flag" Bockie thought to herself. Her finance pony warned her against private loans; While there was protection against loss, you were subject to the terms, which meant a pony taking one could be at the mercy of a loan shark. Though the practice of loan sharking was illegal in principle, there were still ways around the law if one understood where to find the loopholes.
"Possibly", she elected to tell the griffin,"if I don't hear anything positive from the banks." Bockie knew better than to agree, but also figured it was probably a good idea to keep the door open for that avenue; She reasoned that the detectives might be able to turn that into a sting operation.
The griffin chewed on his cigar, now a stub, before taking it out and snuffing the embers and throwing it in the trash can. "I'd like to keep this proposal and work on it when I have spare time. Do you have a way I can contact you?"
"I do", Bockie replied as she hoofed over a piece of paper,"This is the address of a bakery I currently work at. I'd give you a home address, but I'm in between apartments and getting ready to move into the new one, so I'm staying with a friend. I don't feel comfortable giving out her address to random ponies, since I'm her guest."
"That's fine", the griffin responded,"As long as I can reach you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some other ponies that wish to speak with me about their finances."
Bockie nodded and stood up. "Thank you, sir, and enjoy the rest of your day" she said to him as she walked out the door. The griffin followed her to the door and watched her walk out. Once she was gone and the door was closed, the griffin turned to the secretary. "Have that mare tailed", he told her,"I got a bad feeling about her."
The secretary nodded and then stepped out of the office.
Bockie made her way to the police station, moving as quickly and inconspicuously as she could. Every now and then, she would look behind her and skyward to make sure she wasn't followed; Peach had warned her that the griffin may send a pony to tail her, and she should try to shake them before coming to her. As far as Bockie could tell, there was nopony following her.
Unfortunately, there was a pony following her. More specifically, it was a unicorn mare, with a sky blue coat, pale blue mane and tail, and crimson eyes. The mare was teleporting from rooftop to rooftop, being careful to keep the sound and flash of her magic away from the pony on the streets below. Her task was to follow the pony until they got wherever they were going and report back. Going by the direction she was going in, the unicorn mare had a feeling in her gut she knew where the pony was going.
Bockie started to relax more as she got closer to the police station. Though Peach warned her to lay low for at least a day before coming to the station, Bockie felt the information was too important to sit on. In her mind, the griffin was a shady customer, and sitting on the info was going to give him that much more time to make a move and be gone before anypony at the police station could do anything to stop him.
A block away, Bockie stopped looking behind her and broke into a trot, going up the steps and into the building. The unicorn mare on the roof swallowed a breath and let out a sigh. "The claw ain't gonna like this" she said to herself as she teleported off the roof and headed back towards the griffin's office.
Inside the police station, Bockie approached the desk and said she wanted to speak privately to Peach Fuzz. Nodding, the desk pony led her to an empty interrogation room and offered her a cup of coffee. Bockie declined, having learned once before not to sample the station's coffee; It would keep you awake, but murder your tongue in the process.
After sitting alone for a few minutes, the door to the room opened and in walked Peach, who was smiling. "Bockie!", she said cheerfully,"What a pleasant surprise."
"Hello Peach", Bockie returned the greeting,"Good to see you two."
Peach cleared her throat. "Yes, well", she began as she took a seat with a pad and paper,"I'm pretty sure you aren't here to shoot the breeze, right?"
"Yeah", Bockie answered,"I have some info about that address you asked me to check out."
"The griffin?" Peach asked, to which Bockie nodded. "What can you tell me?"
"Well, for one, he's bad news from what I could tell" Bockie said as she began to talk about her experience. "The first thing I saw about the place was how sparse the furniture was. You said before that some criminals did that to make 'bugging out' that much easier."
"Mhm" Peach said as she wrote down the info. "What else?"
"I was taken as a walk in client", Bockie told Peach,"I've never heard of a pony being taken as a walk in client by a financial planner. All the ones I've dealt with have you either call them or give your info to their secretary and set up an appointment to discuss your particulars at a later time."
"Yes, that is weird" Peach admitted as she wrote down the info. "Anything else?"
"Well, the griffin knew enough about that business proposal to point out some of the flaws, so he at least has some experience with finances", Bockie said,"but then he offered to speak with a pony and set up a private loan."
"Bingo" Peach thought to herself as she wrote down the words "Offered Private Loan" and underlined them. That was going to help them greatly as they investigated; Nearly all of the loan sharks worked with private loans. The ones that didn't were protected as creditors, but had to clearly state how bad the loans would be for the borrowers when offering them. Failing to provide proof that the pony was made aware of the terms and agreed to them would lose them the protection and they would be subject to either fines or jail time.
"Good" Peach said to Bockie as she finished writing down the notes on her pad. "This will definitely help us out a great deal. I'll make sure you get your stipend in a few days. Now, did you lay low before coming here?"
Bockie fidgeted nervously. "Um, no" she admitted. Peach slapped a hoof to her face.
"Were you tailed here?" she asked, an edge of annoyance in her voice.
"No!", Bockie said a touch defensively,"I kept an eye out for any ponies following me, on the ground or in the air."
Peach let out a breath. "Good", she responded,"because if there was a pony tailing you from the griffin's office, they're gonna go back and tip him off, and we could lose him for good if he skips out of town."
The blue unicorn returned to the griffin's office a few minutes after leaving the mare going to the police station. She paused for a second to catch her breath; chaining several teleportations together was tiring, even for experienced unicorns. Once composed, she made her way into the building and up the stairs to the office.
Stepping inside, she saw Scarlett sitting at her typewriter and quickly made her way over to her.
"Scarlett, I need-"
The unicorn was silenced by Scarlett putting a hoof to her muzzle and glaring daggers at her.
"Be quiet!", she scolded in a whisper,"He's with a mark right now!"
Nodding in understanding, the mare took a seat off in one of the chairs and waited her turn to see the griffin. A few minutes later, and the griffin exited the office with a stallion, the poor fool having a look of dread across his face.
"Now remember", the griffin said in a friendly but most certainly not friendly manner,"Payments are due at the beginning of each month, and don't question the interest. We've calculated it correctly."
The stallion gulped and nodded, making a very quick exit from the building. Satisfied that he'd flexed his muscles well enough to keep the stallion in line, he turned his attention to the blue mare sitting across the room from him. He said nothing beyond "In my office", and turned to go back in, the mare following close behind.
Going back around his desk, the griffin elected to satisfy his other vice, and produced a glass decanter full of an amber liquid and an old fashioned glass. Pouring some of the liquid, he asked the mare "What's the story with that mare I tasked you with tailing?" and proceeded to take a drink.
"You were right", the mare told him,"She went straight to the police station after coming here."
The griffin spit his drink and slammed the glass on the desk, shattering it in his claw and causing the remainder of the liquid to spill onto the desk and floor. "Dammit!", he swore,"I knew she was a probe! Why did I even humor her story?"
The unicorn mare flinched and reflexively prepared to bolt. She couldn't be blamed for that response; Griffins could be a tad unpredictable when angered.
Sharpclaw took a breath and looked down at the mess on his desk and floor. At this point, Scarlett had heard the commotion and poked her head in. "Is there a problem sir?" she asked.
"Huge", he replied,"That mare was a probe by the police. They're gonna be watching us, and quite possibly start tailing us as soon as the end of the day to figure out our patterns and the best way to nab us." He paused to retrieve a new drinking glass and poured himself a new drink.
"What should we do then?" Scarlett asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
Sharpclaw took a drink and placed this glass gently on the desk. "We do what every good pirate about to have their ship taken does: We scuttle this place."
The blue unicorn looked at Sharpclaw with confusion. "But sir, what about all of the stuff?" she asked while gesturing to the filing cabinets around the room. Sharpclaw's response was to open the drawer to a cabinet and lean it forward, revealing the emptiness of it.
"I had two other ponies move the files elsewhere", he told her,"There's very little we'll need to take." He then pointed a claw at Scarlett. "I want you to get a pair of unicorns and a cart and have them come here tonight. They're gonna load the rest of our things into a cart and take it to the other location."
Scarlett looked at him with confusion. "Tonight?" she asked.
Sharpclaw nodded. "Yes", he said in confirmation,"They're to use invisibility spells and load everything from the back. I'll make and leave a map on how they should go to avoid other ponies and being seen as much as possible. I know I said to use invisibility spells, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong."
Scarlett thought it over and gave a nod, then walked out of the office. Sharpclaw turned to the blue unicorn mare. "Crimson, I want you to go back to the police station and follow any ponies that come traveling in this direction", he told her,"Those flat hooves are going to stake us out if they haven't already, and when they do, I want to know."
Crimson nodded and disappeared in a flash of magic. Sharpclaw took another sip of his drink and slouched back into his chair. This wasn't his first foray into avoid Equestrian authorities, but that didn't make things any easier. "Should've went with my gut feeling" he lamented as he polished off his drink and poured himself another one. Tonight was going to be a long and sleepless one.