Lock Picking Lawyer

The next day after talking with Misty about what little they found at the Bunnery, Jackal and Starlington ponder over what they can do. Jackal restlessly fidgets as she sits in the armchair and then starts standing to shake out the frenetic energy.

“Did you see how Mercy acted back there at the Bunnery, Starlington?” Jackal had a look of concentration on her face, “She was so surprised to see the feather. Then in a flash her smile was pasted back on. There is something suspicious going on.” 

“There could be a conspiracy or it could be that Mercy really was surprised. I saw Mercy's face, but didn’t we act the same way when we saw the feather? It’s just so unlike anything that an imp would drop, but do I really care to do anything about that right now? Could I get back to you in an hour? Running all over town is making me sleepy.” Starlington’s expression drooped, Vesta the Stellaram settled down on his head, making it ever heavier. 

“No! C’mon Star, Mercy took the feather and now we have to chase down books in the library? It’s been a week and I’m tired of flipping through the same books to get a hint. Mercy has files and she definitely isn’t going to show us even if she gives us the feather back.” Jackal crosses her arms and paces back and forth. “Let’s just break in and take a look at the files.”

“Okay sure, let’s take the situation into our own hands. Jackal, why don’t you go get some supplies and we can meet back here to practice picking the lock?” Starlington suggests and he settles down on the couch. 

“Yeah, yeah okay. You enjoy your nap, I can tell you aren’t going to move for a while.” Jackal grabs her keys and runs out to think about a plan away from this sluggish energy. Starlington and Vesta curl up together and have a restful nap while Jackal is out. 

They both wake up refreshed. Vesta stretches her wings and loops a few laps around the chandelier. “Alright Vesta, I know what tools Jackal will get but I know the perfect fail safe, lets go muck around for them.” Starlington pokes into the closet to find a tool box, the first item is ebay to locate, a small bag of rubber washers and a screwdriver. 

“You think I can run back home and come back before Jackal can notice that we left?” Vesta trills in approval. Just like that Starlington and Vesta ran back  home for a set of keys. They both caught their breath when they busted into Jackal’s home and settled back down on the couch. Jackal made a cool entrance a while after. She had a box of tools and a fake lock. 

“Alright lazybones, I’ve got everything we need to practice.” Starlington rolls over to face Jackal, Vesta makes a grand showing over stretching her legs. 

Jackal sets everything down on the table and grabs a pick and a torque lever. She inserts them into the practice lock and applies a bit of pressure. She moved the pick forward and back, up and down. “The first pin is in place… the second one seems good now …” Jackal continued through all the pins by feel. The lock suddenly turned when the last one was set. “Ahahah! Got it! Just need to practice a few times and we can break in.” Vesta clapped her hooves to get with Jackal’s ecstatic victory. 

Starlington slinked over to show his skill less lock picking method. “Great job Jackal! You can definitely get into Mercy’s office with that. We can shut the door behind us and use this on the filing cabinet.” Starlington holds out his small group of goodies. The washer is slipped onto a short key fit for a cabinet with all the keyways filed down to the lowest set and a screwdriver to bash it. “I know there isn’t a filing cabinet handy so here is a go with your own doors.” He proceeded to lock the bathroom, then Starlington grabbed a larger bump key with a ring and stuck it into the locked bathroom door. He took the handle of the screw driver and thumped it against the key while applying torque and opened it with a few taps.  

“Voila! The lazy way to pick a lock! It makes a sound but that’s no problem if you break us into her office.” It took another handful of hours for Jackal to quickly and silently pick a lock, while Starlington came up with a list of cabinet locations to search. “Secret file” would be too much to hope for, but they could probably get away with skimming the files for mentions of a feather, bird, unusual events. 

Jackal and Starlington shook hands, this is an easy plan in the works. Next hit, Mercy’s office!