In Hot Pursuit

It had been a few months since Agatha had visited her hometown D’auvignon. The familiar city brought her both joy and sadness, for it was the place where she was born and raised, but it was also where the life of her parents had come to a brutal end. As safe as D’auvignon was in comparison to most other cities, it was a place of riches – and there where were riches, there was greed and jealousy. That greed could lead to murder in the most extreme cases, and to pick-pocketing in its less violent forms. The latter was the reason why Agatha was currently patrolling the large market that, as usual, was set up in the morning and was brimming with merchants and buyers from all corners of the city.

"Help! Stop the thief!" The alarming cry of the elderly woman nearby caused Agatha to immediately run towards the noise, dodging the market goers as she went along. She arrived at the scene within seconds, and there was no need for her to stop and talk to the witnesses: A distressed, rich-looking woman was screaming in the voice that had just cried for help, pointing at the only running person in the crowd who was now carrying a purse in his hand, as if he hadn’t had the time to secure it. Agatha ran after him and even though the robber had a lead start, she was still able to follow him in the crowd. "Stop, in the name of the law!" she commanded to no avail. The thief kept running and jumping to avoid the crowd, with Agatha following him at a distance of approximately 10 meters. While running she kept shouting. "Stop, stop right there!" Just when she seemed to decrease the distance between her and the culprit, they ran right into the busiest section of the market. Here the tables turned, and the wrongdoer managed to disappear into the crowd while Agatha had to stop every couple of steps to avoid running into a citizen. She kept trying to pursue the thief, but after a minute or two of not seeing a sign of him, she stopped. While she caught her breath, she looked around. From what she could see, she had lost the culprit right at a crossroads. "Oh, great," she groaned under her breath. There seemed to be no way of knowing where the thief went, except for questioning witnesses, which was likely to take as long as the culprit needed to completely blend in again. Just great.

Tamlin eerst!

The sudden commotion that started somewhere on her left caught her attention. Cheers of amazement came from there, so Agatha quickly made her way over to the source of the tumult. As she came closer, she noticed how people had gathered around one spot in the middle of the street and eventually she saw what had caught the public’s interest: One of the King’s Guards was holding down the man Agatha recognized as the thief she had just been following. Glad and somewhat relieved that the culprit was caught after all, she couldn’t stop a satisfied grin from appearing on her face while she walked onto the scene. "Well done, sir," she said while taking her pair of handcuffs off her belt. "I’ll take it from here." With a couple of quick movements that gave away her expertise, she swiftly put on the handcuffs on the thief’s wrists. "Let’s see what they have in store for you down at the department," she muttered to the captive as she pulled on his arm to make him stand up, even though his slow movements showed that he was still somewhat startled by the whole situation. Once they stood back on their feet again, Agatha nodded at her unexpected helper. "Thank you for your assistance, sir... Spring, wasn’t it?" She had spent more than enough time in D’auvignon to recognize some people, including this Kingsguard, though she couldn’t remember ever having a full conversation with him. In the same moment that she had guessed his name, she noticed that he was holding the purse that the thief had stolen from the old lady from earlier. "I’ll make sure that gets back to its rightful owner," she spoke while holding out her hand, expecting to receive the stolen item.

As Agatha handcuffed the felon, the guardsman remarked that catching thieves must be a busy job. "That’s only one of my duties, but they’re quite plentiful indeed," Agatha answered without taking her attention away from the now handcuffed thief. Catching thieves like these was relatively safe in comparison to some of her other tasks like murder investigations and tracking down heavy criminals, though she didn’t feel the need to mention that in public right now. The Kingsguard introduced himself as Tamlin Spring, meaning that Agatha had remembered at least part of his name correctly, and unsurprisingly he asked for her name in return as he seemed to remember her face as well. "Agatha Morstan," she replied while firmly holding her captive’s arm to ensure he wouldn’t try to dash off again, though this time she actually made eye contact with the Kingsguard.  "That would be correct, Sir. I’m in this city very regularly and our patrols have overlapped quite a few times." She chuckled a little for a moment. "Your uniforms stand out in the crowd more than mine, so I don’t blame you for not recognizing me immediately," she continued with no intent of mocking the guardsman. To her it was simply a logical observation, even though she could see the humour in the fact that she could identify the man more than the other way around. In the meantime the captive had mumbled something under his breath, probably annoyed by the chatter of the two authoritative persons.