I spun around madly, my eyes searching the snow.
But it was gone.
The footprint that I had spent so much time thinking about, wondering about, had simply vanished.
When I spotted it the previous day, I'd left a stone beside to mark the position. And the stone was the only thing left, sitting down on the snow in the forest.
The witness.
Now, if stones could talk, I'd have had this one in my office by now, asking it some serious questions.
See? My office was going to waste. I'd lost the footprint. And the stone was blandly sitting there, not giving up any of its secrets, just like a hardened criminal.
I really didn't like days like these.
---
You may be wondering: what will Henrietta Hammer do now?
I really had no idea myself.
So, like all the days I have no idea what to do, I waddled along to the Coffee Shop.
The waitress that always served me was there, and I sent her a nod of my fedora to tell her I was having the usual. Then I sat down on one of the red sofas and picked up the newspaper.
But it wasn't there. It was being read by a penguin on the other sofa.
I could tell she was EPF just by the type of pony tail she wore. High, out of the way, without a single hair misplaced. Of course, the headset she wore was also a clue.
She would be perfect to help me with the lost footprint.
I hopped along the sofa. "Hello, have you heard of abominable snowmen?"
"Yes," she said, not even sparing me a glance.
Tsk. Typical.
"Well I think I've found one. Or a footprint of one, at least."
This caught her attention. "Oh, really? Where is it?"
"Um. I've kind of lost it."
She frowned. "How?"
"Well I put a stone next to it to remind me where it was, but by morning it was gone."
"The stone?"
"No," I said. "The footprint."
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry, then." She turned back to the newspaper. "I can't help you there."
And so, without ever being able to read the newspaper, I drank my hot chocolate and left the Coffee Shop to go to my office.
It was a fairly plain igloo, just a couple of floors, with a reception desk on the lower floor along with a few uncomfortable chairs, a table and a fake potted plant. Up some steps was my armchair behind my mahogany desk, surrounded by pictures on the wall and a few more fake potted plants.
All in all, you get the feeling it was empty and bland. No receptionist, no clients. Just me.
Which was what I was trying to change.
With a dramatic sigh, I walked up the steps, to my desk, and sat down on the armchair. The only good thing about my office was that my armchair was much better than those in the reception.
And the window. I had a lovely window with a lovely view of the thick, snowy forest and mountains in the distance. It was lovely. If I haven't said that enough. But it was.
I stayed for a while by the window, mulling over my current case, admiring the view and so on. It was calming, sort of.
If you ignored the great big white creature walking past my igloo.
The moment I saw it, I thought: aha! My abominable snowman! The launch-pad of my career!
Then my second thoughts were: oh, no. Do abominable snowmen eat penguins?
What I would've done, in a different scenario, would be to head to the library that one of my great-aunts owned to start researching. But for this scenario?
There was no time.
What was I going to do?
Before I could head outside or say something, a group of three EPF penguins ran past, chasing the abominable snowman.
I could tell by their hairstyles.
Deciding it was a little safer, I pushed open the window and hopped out into the snow. One of them turned around and recognized me: she was the agent from the Coffee Shop. After shooting me an incredulous look, she ran off after the others.
In a few seconds, though, they headed back.
"He's... gone," panted one of the agents.
Another snapped at him. "Well, of course he's gone! I could see that for myself!"
"Why didn't you see the snow trekker, then?"
"Because! Duh! It was behind a tree!"
"How can you hide a snow trekker behind a tree? It was bright yellow! If you're supposed to be our team leader, shouldn't you take responsibility for not seeing it?"
"Oh, puh-leese!" said the agent from the Coffee Shop. "Is it possible for you two to not argue during the day?"
The second agent shot a venomous look at the first. "Well, if he'd stop going on at me-"
"I was not going on at you! You started the argument!"
"Hey! I said stop it!"
"Yeah? You're the team leader now? Nobody told me?"
I decided to step in before this got out of hand. "Hey, I'm Detective Henrietta Hammer. What's going on? Where's my abominable snowman?"
The agent from the Coffee Shop stared at me. "You're police?"
"I'm a private detective, actually."
"Oh, well isn't that marvellous?" said the second agent. "Look what you've done now."
"I'm searching for an abominable snowman."
The first agent rolled his eyes. "An abominable snowman? You mean Her-"
"SHH!"
"-bert?"
I tilted my head. "Who's Herbert?"
The second agent and the Coffee Shop agent looked at me as if I were a ticking time bomb.
"Uh, um, well, he's nobody."
"Nobody?"
"Yeah, nobody. Just an annoying herbert. That's all."
"But who's the annoying herbert? My abominable snowman?"
"There's no abominable snowman," said the Coffee Shop agent. "It's just-"
"He's Herbert. A polar bear," said the first agent. When confronted with glares from his colleagues, he shrugged. "She's a detective. We might need her on the case."
"But she goes around searching for abominable snowmen as a job!"
"So?"
"There's no such thing as abominable snowmen!"
"Well, sure, you can say that." He turned to me. "Are you gonna help?"
I nodded, and held out my flipper. "Private Detective Henrietta Hammer, at your service." After introducing myself, I headed into the forest. "Now let's go find my abominable snowman."
"He's called Herbert!" came a far-off cry. "And there's no such thing as abominable snowmen!"
