Croaktown P.D. — Known Associates File · Exhibit I (Cross-Water)
Sterling Frobisher
'The Dry Cleaner'
Rival fixer, works the far bank
The other one's fixer. Sterling Frobisher works the clean bank across the water, tidying up for the upstanding twin — the one who cries on the paperwork — and he is very, very good at making nothing ever look like it happened. Which is the problem: over here, we want it to look like it happened. Loudly. On Page One.
How he crossed PooPee
Frobisher and PooPee have never worked the same job, only opposite ends of it. When the frog across the water gets into a scrape — and for a clean frog, he gets into a surprising number — Frobisher is the newt who makes it vanish before the Gazette can spell it. Spotless. Silent. Unreadable. PooPee considers this the single greatest waste of talent in the whole swamp.
The two of them met once, on the bridge over the middle water, each carrying a bag the other pretended not to see. Frobisher offered a handshake and a business card. PooPee offered a job. Frobisher said he preferred to keep his hands clean. PooPee said that was exactly his point, and walked off grinning. The card is still pinned to the crew board, marked 'pending.'
Why he's in our file at all
A rival is still an associate. Frobisher belongs to the far bank, but he shows up in PooPee's file the way a rival always does — as a measuring stick. Everything Frobisher hides, PooPee publishes. Everything Frobisher tidies away, PooPee frames and hangs on the wall. The soft twin pays a fixer to make him look like nothing happened. PooPee pays a press cricket to make sure everyone knows it did.
The standing offer remains open. PooPee is patient about this in a way he is patient about nothing else. He figures a fixer that good gets bored keeping a clean frog clean, and one damp night Frobisher crosses the water for the only work in this swamp worth doing — the kind you want people to see. Until then, he's filed here under 'rival,' which in Croaktown is just a slower word for 'recruit.'
I keep my client's name out of the papers. That's the job. Over here they don't have that problem — over here they buy extra papers.
Where this name turns up in the file
- The feud — the tale of two tadpolesOne bank hires a fixer to hide; the other hires a paper to shout.
- Trench-coat Toad — our fixer, on our bankThe Fixer who finds things, versus the Cleaner who hides them.
- The glossary — swamp terms, definedLook up 'fixer,' 'the far bank,' and 'pending recruit.'
- The whole crew, one line eachEvery toad, cricket, and skeeter on the payroll — and one pending across the water.