Chapter 3:

In which our heroes consider a new client.

“Honestly,” said the civet, “you people were not my first choice of detectives.”

Flopsy was deeply offended and wondered if now was a good time to knock over the desk. “How can you say such a thing?” she asked.

“Hold on, hold on,” said Mopsy. “What they say is that the customer is alright right. We should hear what this gentleman has to say for himself.”

“No,” said Flopsy, “that's not right. Ironically. What they say is that they customer is always writing. You don't understand anything. I have been to business school.”

“What would it mean that the customer is always writing?” asked Mopsy. “That doesn't even make any sense.”

“Because what you would know if you knew anything about business is that customers always have to fill out forms. Like these ones.”

Flopsy, glad that she had not knocked over the desk when she had thought of it earlier, opened the desk drawer. Previously it had has a dead bird in it, and the signs that Mopsy had failed to put up. But now it was empty.

“Where are all the forms that were in here this morning?” Flopsy demanded of Mopsy. “Those were our customer forms.”

Mopsy looked embarrassed.

“We ran out of toilet paper,” he said quietly. “I put them in the litter box.”

“You put them in the litter box!” bellowed Flopsy.

She turned to the civet, who had been a little surprised by all of this.

“Listen, who did you say you were going to go to instead of us? Maybe you should go to them. My partner is demonstrating an embarrassing lack of professionalism here. We won't be upset. I won't be upset. Who were you going to go to?”

“Oh. I was going to go to that Nancy Drawers that everyone always talks about—”

“Nancy Drawers?” asked Flopsy.

“Yes, Nancy Drawers, she is a lady detective and she solves all of the crimes for the people, she–”

“Nancy Drawers,” said Flopsy.

“Yes, Nancy Drawers,” said the civet. “Do you know her?”

“Nancy Drawers, ” said Flopsy again.

“You keep saying that,” said the civet. “I don't understand why you keep saying that.”

Flopsy flipped over the desk. All the drawers went flying. Mopsy, who had fallen asleep, woke up.

“GET OUT OF HERE!” screamed Flopsy. “We do not need business from the likes of you!”

The civet was astounded. He put his hat back on and cautiously backed out of the door. Flopsy and Mopsy were left alone in their office with a turned-ober desk.

“What did you do that for?” asked Mopsy. “That was a customer. You were just saying that the customer always writes. Why did you get rid of that one before he even had a chance to write?”

“First of all,” said Flopsy, “you should not fall asleep while we have customers here. Second of all, we do not have anything for the customers to write on. As you can see from the empty desk drawers. So how were we supposed to have a customer?”

“I guess you're right,” said Mopsy. And he went back to sleep.