ds_flashfiction | "Lie" challenge

Okay, this is silly and pointless, but it involves a lie of sorts, so I guess it fits. :-) It's somewhere around 300 words.

Ray stopped in mid-sentence and looked around the bullpen at his colleages, all of whom were staring at him oddly. Frannie was blinking rapidly. Huey's eyes were bugging out. Dewey was frozen in a wisecrack. Even the Lieutenant had paused, sandwich halfway up to his mouth.

"What?" Ray asked in confusion.

"Um... What was that you just said?" Huey asked in a strangely strangled voice.

Ray cast his mind back. "I was telling you about Fraser and me's trip up north. There was one really dark night, cloudy, no moon, there was this rustling noise and I just about jumped outta my skin, and Fraser told me not to worry, that it was just a..."

Frannie made a noise halfway between a cough and a giggle. "He told you that's what it was?"

Ray glared at her. "Yeah. There's supposedly a big herd of them up in the Yukon. Little furry bodies, big antlers, any of this ringing a bell?"

By now his so-called friends were all snorting and laughing, sounding like a herd of wild beasts themselves. "What the hell is wrong with you people?" Ray demanded.

Welsh wiped a tear from his eye. "So it's, what, a cross between a caribou and a rabbit?"

"A jackrabbit, yeah. That's what Fraser said!" Ray retorted hotly. "You know? Fraser? Big guy? Red suit? Never tells a lie?"

"Ray, my man," said Dewey, draping an arm around Ray's shoulders. "You've been had, buddy."

Ray's eyes narrowed.

*************

A short time later a wild-eyed Detective burst into the Canadian Consulate.

"FRASER!" the Detective shouted furiously, severely startling the hapless junior constable on desk duty. "THERE'S NO SUCH FUCKING THING AS A JACKIBOU!"

From the small office in the rear of the building came a hastily suppressed snicker, and a murmured, 'Oh, dear."