"We meet again," said the two-headed police detective, coming up to the secretary's desk, his pen and notepad already out. He flipped back a few pages and read what he'd written, mostly out of curiosity it seemed. "Let's see, last time I was here it was on occasion of Mister Fadda Bing's death. That was a strange one. Still working on that, in case you're wondering."
He pushed back the fedora on his left head while the right one continued eyeing the notes. "And now you say Mister Hoot Gaas, entertainment boss, has gone missing? Since when?"
"Since yesterday afternoon," replied the secretary robot.
"Yesterday afternoon, eh? Hang on a sec, it hasn't been twenty-four hours. Yet it was reported ten minutes ago - by you. You know what that tells me? Huh? You overrode your civic code base! I could report you for that. You know that, don't you?"
The robot's head bent down. "I know that, Inspector. I am sorry. But things are in a state of severe mess around here, if you only knew. I felt I had no choice. It will not happen again, I promise."
She looked up at him, her artificial eyes softly pleading. "Please don't report me."
The police detective looked at her with one head while scratching the nose on the other.
"Okay I won't," he said. "It'll leave me with one less pile of pain-in-the-ass paperwork, but I guess I'll manage." He kind of liked his own wittiness there and smiled.
The secretary missed it.
"Did you speak with Marlin?"
"Yes, I was down at casino control," replied the detective, straightening. "Curious fella, that. Something very fishy about him but I can't put my finger on it."
"Did Marlin mention that our resident artists, the Blonde Plutoz, might well have been the last people to see him?"
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