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Detective Ding-a-Lings is the third part of the thirtiein episode of the series Heathcliff and Dingbat. This is based on Dingbat, rather than Heathcliff. It is followed by the fourth part of the episode: High Flying Fools.
Synopsis
The Creeps work as private detectives, trying to solve the case of the Maltese Parrot.
Plot
The Creeps are hired by a private detective to run his office during his absence. When their new employer leaves, Sparerib sets their own data container, which has been stores inside Nobody. The skeleton puts the documents to the datasheet without much dilligence, causing Nobody to sink into the storage. After brief search, the team is completed again. Sparerib sets a new desk, since the original one is missing.
The ghastly detectives get their first task quickly. A woman with covered face asks them to search for the Maltese Parrot, thus they agree. The investigation goes poorly, as the kidnapper uses falsified footprints to cheat already foppish private detectives. The criminal manages to make the Creeps literally walk upwards the building and in the air upside down, which winds up for them in difficult landing, where a hydrant is damaged in process,
Meanwhile, the criminal locks the parrot into the safe. The Creeps somehow manage to find his hideout and attempt to approach it undetected. They succeed, for the criminal slams them with the door, not being aware someone approached the hideout. When the coast is clear, the Creeps enter the room and find a safe in the middle of an untidy room. Dingbat uses bat-like gloves and one of Sparerib's bones to open the safe, where they find the searched parrot. The bird gets scared off its saviors and locks itself inside the safe. Sparerib uses his elbow bone to hack the safe and snatch the bird.
The operation is spoiled by the criminal returning to his hideaway, for he spotted intruders here. Sparerib uses his left hand bones as a boomerang to distract the crook, while Dingbat polymorphs himself into a bat, so he can put the kidnapper in stocks.
Back in the employer's office, the Creeps hand over the parrot to its owner. Unfortunately, they don't reject the rewad they expected.