FILES FROM THE LEGO CITY PD

Case File #348: When Pigs Fly

Time: 12:30 P.M.

Location: Barnaby's Bistro, Festival Square

Lunch at the Lego City PD was usually a mild affair. Take a break, eat, go back to work. Although Chase McCain was a master at many things, cooking was not one of them. He wouldn't burn down the kitchen the moment he stepped in (unlike Frank) but ask him to make anything more complicated than a BLT sandwich and you'd lose him. So most days he ate at The Silver Star, the cafe across the street. Today was a little different; he'd driven partway across town to Festival Square to meet Natalia for lunch.

It was a nice cafe, one that had been recommended to them by Ellie and Officer Park. The food was good, and the view was better, in Chase's opinion. Natalia worked at the hospital as a paramedic, and was often on calls around the city dealing with kids with broken legs and old ladies who'd been scared half to death by their own reflection. Her long blond hair was tied back in its usual ponytail, her EMS badge pinned to her dark blue shirt. They chatted about work for a while, trading stories while they waited for their food. It was too good to last.

Natalia was halfway through her salad and he through his burger when both of their phones rang. Chase gave her a sheepish look as he reached for his own phone, as Natalia answered hers. "Hello?" They asked simultaneously. They looked at each other, then turned away so they could hear their caller better.

"Chase?" Ellie asked. "I know you're on your lunch break, but we need you back here. Something's come up, and you're one of the most qualified people for the job."

Chase frowned. Ellie was always careful with her words, especially when she worked around Frank. "Qualified" could mean anything from taking out three gangs at once to getting a kitten out of a tree. "It's really important." Ellie continued. "Dunby's trying to sort things out, but you're probably one of the people outside of the Bluebell Outpost who knows about this kind of stuff."

He sighed. So much for his lunch date. "All right, I'm on my way." He said, hanging up. He turned to Natalia, who was still on her call.

"...Five people stuck in a barb-wire fence?" She asked, taking notes on a napkin with a pen. "Why can't Carlos get them? ...An old lady fell down the steps in Pagoda... Fine, where are they?... The airport? Ah, alright, Have Stewie pick me up at Barnaby's Bistro on the way." She said, hanging up. She turned to Chase. "Sorry, but it looks like work waits for no woman."

"Or man." He said, holding up his own phone. "They want me back at the station, but wouldn't tell me why." He looked down at his half-finished meal. "Catch you for dinner, maybe?"

"If I can get off, sure." Natalia said, standing. "Don't worry about the bill, I'll have the waitress put it on a tab. See you later, Chase!" She called, racing out the door and into the back of a waiting ambulance before he could object, stopping only to arrange payment with the waitress for later. That girl works too hard. He thought. He asked the waitress for a to-go box for the remainder of his hamburger and stood up. Then he spied the cake in the display by the counter and got an idea.

"THIS is what you called me about?" Chase asked. Twenty minutes later, he was standing in the yard of Jethro Hayes' Farm, looking at a pigpen. One without any pigs. "Are you kidding me? Sheriff Huckleberry knows way more about this than I do!"

"I know about escaping pigs." Sheriff Huckleberry replied, tilting his hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. "I don't know about stolen ones." He pointed down at the ground. "See these tire tracks? And that broken fence? When the pigs escape, they usually have a clean break, not that splintery mess."

Chase knelt down and took a closer look. He wasn't an expert in cars by any means, but he could tell the tires wouldn't match any of the vehicles on the farm. They were too big, for starters. He pulled out his communicator and took a picture. "Ellie, can you send this to Officer Spencer? I want to know if he can figure out what kind of car these belong to." He said, sending her the photo.

"You got it, Chase." She said, then vanished from the screen. That taken care of, Chase looked at the fence. Farmer Hayes' pigs escaped on a regular basis. It was just about the only thing Sheriff Huckleberry ever had to deal with, and they escaped on such a regular basis that he could plan his schedule around them. And usually when they escaped, they just climbed out of the pen or pushed the gate open. The entire fence had been shattered, the lock on the gate hanging from a single screw. This time, they hadn't escaped on their own.

"Your pigs were stolen?" Chase asked. "Who would want to steal a bunch of pigs?" He looked up at Farmer Hayes for an answer.

"They're mountain pigs." Farmer Hayes replied in an incredibly obvious voice. "Incredibly rare. They'd fetch an extremely high price on the market. I should know." He was interrupted by Chase's communicator beeping.

"Spencer! You got anything for me?"

"Sure do." Spencer said from the other end of the video call. The vehicle expert was seated at his desk back at the precinct. "Those tire tracks you found aren't going to belong to anything on the farm, I can tell you that."

"Really?" Chase asked. "They look like half the treads I can see from here."

"You'd think so, but no." Spencer said. "That tread is too big for a normal truck, too small for a tractor, and too deep for a car or small pickup. My guess just from the photo is that it's from a monster truck of some sort. I could narrow it down a little if I was out there myself. That help?"

"It sure does Quentin, thanks." Chase said, ending the call. There weren't any monster trucks on the farm; they weren't very practical for anything except getting around in the mud. That narrowed the field quite a lot; the only Monster truck driver he knew of that wasn't a crook was Officer Jenkins. (and even her truck didn't have tires that big.) That left a gang. The problem now would be figuring out which one. He looked around for any more clues. There were plenty of footprints, but they were all mashed together that it was impossible to tell one set from another. "Where could a person with a monster truck store a bunch of pigs?" He asked the sheriff as they walked back to their vehicles.

"Well, who would have a monster truck?" Huckleberry asked.

"A surprising number of crooks." Chase commented. "After Chan Chuang's gang got caught, the city seized a fair number of vehicles. Problem is, there weren't near as many as there should have been. We think a gang or two stole the rest before we could get to them."

"That doesn't narrow the field a whole lot, does it?" Huckleberry asked as he mounted his horse (He was close enough to the Bluebell outpost that driving a car wasn't worth it.)

"No, it doesn't." Chase said, climbing into his own car. "I'm headed back to the Precinct to get a list of who we think has a monster truck, and compare it to a list of who would be likely to steal pigs. Hopefully we can find an overlap before those pigs vanish for good."

The Front lobby was in Chaos by the time Chase got back. Five Criminals, all stuck in barbed wire, were seated on a bench along one wall. Rodney Baxter and Frank Honey were trying to pull them out with a pair of wire cutters and a lot of gritted teeth. Chase spotted Natalia talking to the secretary at the front desk. He waved to her but didn't interrupt, instead walking behind the desk to talk to Officer Spencer.

"Hey, would you happen to have a list of all the monster trucks currently owned in the city?" He asked. Spencer nodded and dug in a file folder.

"Here. We're doing our best to track down all the ones missing from the Chuang inventory, but it hasn't been easy." Spencer said, handing over a list. "We've taken a couple liberties with estimates on who has what, depending on what cops have seen on the street."

"Thanks." Chase said, looking at the list. A Monster truck certainly suggested a Gang. He couldn't imagine a butcher using one when a regular truck would work. "Is Officer Jenkins in? I think this is a gang-related crime."

"Nah, she just went on her lunch break. Officer Park might be able to help you find what you need though." Spencer said, pointing at the next desk over. Then he realized it was empty. "Umm... She was there a minute ago."

"I'll find her." Chase said, waving him off. "See you later."

"See ya, Chase." Spencer said, returning to his work. Chase looked around the lobby, but didn't see Officer Park's trademark Auburn hair. She was probably upstairs, then. He climbed the stairs to the second floor and spotted her trying to see into Chief Dunby's office. He dodged around the break room table and wandered across the floor to her.

"Officer Park, could you help me out with something?" He asked. Sarah park turned from the window to look at him.

"I'd love to, but I have to give this report to the Chief and his office is locked." She said, pointing to the door. "All I can hear is this low rumbling sound. I think he fell asleep again."

"Don't worry, I'm on it." Chase said, looking around. The Chief has a rather irritating habit of locking himself in his office to get a few minutes of sleep. Which wasn't bad, except those few minutes usually turned into a few hours. Chase wandered over to the game consoles (which they had, for some reason) and reached behind one. Since the Chief (Or most of the department, for that matter) never used the consoles, it had never been discovered that Chase made a spare key for the Chief's office a long time ago. He walked back to the door and put the key in the lock, listening for that subtle, satisfying click. Sure, it didn't look cool, but it was better than taking a crowbar to the door.

"Thanks, Chase." Officer Park said. "Now what are you up to?"

"Trying to track down some stolen pigs." Chase said as they walked into the Chief's office. "Yeah, stolen this time. They could be anywhere- King's Court, Fresco-"

"The Chief's office?" Sarah asked. They looked over at the desk in surprise to find a sleeping pig, instead of a sleeping Dunby. The pig was even wearing the Chief's hat. The window was open and the doughnut box on the desk was empty.

"MCCAIN!" Chief Dunby shouted, storming into his office. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY OFFICE?"

"Looking for you, sir." Chase said, dumbfounded. "Well, I was looking for Officer Park, and she was looking for you." He said, pointing to the equally dumbfounded Officer.

Chief Dunby looked at them suspiciously, then spotted the pig at his desk. "WHY IS THERE A PIG IN MY OFFICE?" He yelled. "HOW CAN I GET ANY WORK DONE WITH A BUNCH OF FARMYARD ANIMALS LOOSE IN MY OFFICE! GET OUT!" And shoved Chase and Officer Park out the door. "AND TAKE THIS THING WITH YOU!" He continued, throwing the pig out with them. "AND GIVE ME THAT!" He shouted, grabbing his hat off the pig and the report from Officer Park. He slammed the door behind him, and the usual sound of his snoring could be heard not three minutes later.

Chase and Park looked at each other, then at the pig, who was sniffing around for another treat. Then they heard loud, clumsy footsteps as Frank Honey ran up the stairs.

"What's going on up here, guys?" Frank asked. Then he spotted the pig. "Oh hey, you found one!"

"Yes, we found-wait, how did you even know they were missing? We got the report half an hour ago!" Chase asked in surprise.

"Those guys downstairs in the barbed wire claimed they were chasing down the pigs they stole when they got stuck in some fence at the airport." Frank said, oblivious to the fact that he just solved a case that would have taken days normally. "They're also worried that their monster truck is going to get stolen because they left it in a bad spot."

"...That's rather convenient." Chase said. "Thanks Officer Park, but I don't think I'm going to need your help any more." He turned back to Frank. "Now where are these guys?"

"Downstairs!" Frank said. Chase peered over the railing to see the five criminals from before freed from the barbed wire, but now stuck in five pairs of handcuffs. Natalia was busy patching them up for a night in the jail cells. Chase ran down the stairs and over to the group.

"So I hear you boys stole some pigs." Chase started off, as Natalia pushed another band-aid on a crook's shoulder.

"It was his idea!" One of them squealed, gesturing to the one next to him with his arm. "He said we'd be in hog heaven if we sold off those pigs. We didn't think they'd escape on us!"

"Quiet, Porkchop! Don't forget about our rights!" The supposed leader said, nudging him back.

"They escaped on you?" Chase asked, interested and dreading the answer.

"Yeah! We got all the way to the airport before we realized they were all gone." Porkchop continued. "We were tryin' to catch one of them when we got stuck in the fence."

Chase sighed. They were all over the city by now probably. The last time that had happened, he'd spent a week catching them all. But Not this time. "Frank, can you round up the pig upstairs into a truck? Get it back to farmer Hayes' farm, then tell him to round up all his farmhands and meet me back here. We're going on a hog hunt."

The plan was simple. Split up into groups, One Cop and one farmer in each group, and canvas the city for the remaining 21 pigs. The Cops would look for the pigs using the scanners in their communicators, and the farmers would able to wangle into the pig cannons to get them back to the farm. The only trick was...

"How'd he get all the way up there?" Frank Honey asked. The Pig in question was standing on top of a billboard in Uptown.

"They're mountain Pigs." Farmer Hayes Replied. "They do that. Come on, there's a power line we can use to get close to it."

"They sure do like to climb, don't they?" Officer Park asked as she scanned the Downtown bank. The pig they had found was standing all the way on the very top. "Any ideas on how to get up..." She asked, only to turn around and realize that her partner was gone.

"WAHOO!" A voice cried. Park looked up to see Jethro's wife, Patty Hayes, flying from a nearby apartment building. With a chicken. Despite all the laws of physics, she made it to the top of the bank with nary a problem. After that, she rode the pig down like she had been doing it all her life. "That's how you catch a pig!" She called happily as she rode it all the way to the pig cannon.

Park Sighed. "And this is why I live in the city."

"Okay, we caught the pig. Now what?" Officer Spencer asked as he and Old Bucky got the pig to the pig cannon in Pagoda.

Bucky Laughed. "Now we launch her." He said, shoving the pig into the cannon rear-first. "You might want to cover your ears." He continued, pulling out a chicken.

"Why would I want to..." Spencer asked as the farmhand used the chicken to wind up the pig cannon. There was a sudden loud BANG as the cannon went off, sending the pig back to the farm and the two young men to their rears.

"YEE-HAW!" Bucky cheered from his position on the ground. "That's my favorite part!"

"Ugh..." Spencer moaned.

It took all afternoon, but eventually the mis-matched teams were able to track down and return every single pig. Well, almost all of them. Chase was still trying to track down the last one, which was supposedly somewhere near the airport. He scanned another building and sighed. No pig. This was starting to get annoying.

"Any luck Chase?" Ellie asked, popping up on his communicator.

"None." Chase replied, looking around the airport. "If this pig is around here, he's hiding really well."

"Hm... Hey, why don't you take a helicopter and fly around a bit?" Ellie suggested. "Maybe you'll spot him from the air."

"Good idea. Thanks Ellie." Chase said, stowing his communicator away. He immediately headed for the helipad on the airport's roof. It took a little climbing, but he made it up there eventually. He requested a small chopper from the console next to the helipad-he didn't plan on flying for that long. As he waiting for the chopper to appear, he heard someone call his name from below.

"HEY! CHASE!" Frank yelled from the parking lot. "You find that pig yet?"

"Not yet, Frank." Chase called back, turning away from the helipad. "I'm gonna grab a helicopter and fly around, see if I can find him that way."

"Um, don't look Chase, but you're helicopter's leaving without you." Frank shouted, pointing. Chase turned around to see the helicopter leave the pad, with a now-familiar looking hog at the controls.

"HEY!" Chase shouted. Thinking fast, he pulled his grapple gun from his belt and aimed for the skid, hoping to hold the copter steady until someone could get it down. He caught the skids all right, but he wasn't heavy enough to hold the copter down, and ended up getting dragged into the air. "WAAGH!"

"Chase! Don't let go!" Frank said, running back to his car. "Just hang on!"

"It's a little late to let go!" Chase yelled back. He was dangling from the bottom of the helicopter, which was now several dozen feet in the air. He looked up at the cockpit. if he could get up there, he'd be able to get the copter down and catch the pig. Or just fly it all the way back to Fort Meadows. He wasn't going to be picky. He started climbing up the cable of the grapple gun when the copter banked steeply, nearly causing him to lose his grip.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Chase yelled, hanging on for dear life. Contrary to what most people would believe, pigs can fly helicopters. Just not very well. Chase spent the scariest half-hour of his life dangling from a helicopter as it flew harp-hazardly around Lego City, with no apparent direction in mind. Finally, a small miracle (or disaster, depending on your point of view) happened as they flew over Fort Meadows.

The Copter ran out of fuel.

Chase looked up as the engine sputtered. "Oh No." He said. Then the helicopter began to drop, ending up in a steep dive aimed straight at Hayes' Farm. No one was quite sure what happened next, but there was a spectacularly loud CRASH from behind the barn. Farmer Hayes, Sheriff Huckleberry and Chief Dunby ran around the corner to find the Helicopter in a haystack, the pig safely back in its pen, and Chase face-first in a rather large mud puddle.

"Well, there you go, Farmer Hayes. All your pigs are back safe and sound. And Chase," He said, looking at the muddy cop pulling himself out of the puddle. "When you're done playing in the mud, there's paperwork waiting for you back at the station." And Dunby climbed into his car and drove away, just like that.

Sheriff Huckleberry laughed and tossed a towel over to Chase, who was climbing over the fence. "go ahead and get some of that mud off your face. I already called Ellie, she said the paperwork wasn't anything that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Go home and take a shower, Chase."

"Thanks, Sheriff Huckleberry." Chase moaned, wiping the mud off his face with the towel.

Chase was tired, sore, and covered in mud, and that was putting it lightly. He was also completely taken by surprise when he saw Natalia sitting by his apartment door when he finally got home. "Natalia? What are you doing here?" He asked, trying to dig his key out of his pocket."

"Waiting for you, silly. We were going out for dinner, remember?" Natalia laughed, standing up. "Don't you look a mess? Have fun wrestling with the pigs?"

"Don't ask." Chase said, leaning into the door as it opened. "And I don't think I'm up to going out tonight."

"I thought so. That's why I ordered it to go." Natalia replied, holding up a bag of Chinese take-out. "You go take a shower and get changed. I'll get dinner re-heated."

Twenty minutes later, Chase emerged from the bathroom wearing a red sweatshirt and blue pants, leaving his dirty uniform in the laundry bin for later. The flak jacket was going to need a hit with the hose before he started work tomorrow. He hoped there would be a spare at the precinct he could use until his dried off.

Natalia had set the boxes out on the coffee table, allowing them to eat on his relatively comfortable couch rather than the relatively-uncomfortable table. Chase flopped onto the couch, letting his exhausted limbs sink into the cushions as he relaxed for the first time since lunch.

"One order of Sweet-and-sour Chicken." Natalia said, handing over a box with a pair of chopsticks stuck in it. Chase accepted it gladly, taking several bites out of the box in a matter of seconds. "Thanks for the cake, by the way. It made my afternoon." Natalia said, between bites of Chow Mein.

Chase smiled. He'd arranged with the cafe to have a piece of cake sent to her at work during the afternoon, to make up for their interrupted lunch. "Glad you liked it." he muttered quietly.

"Hey, if you're not busy next week, Patti said there was a new movie opening at the theatre. I think it's some sort of action movie. Would you be interested in-" Natalia said, until she looked over and realized that Chase had fallen asleep with the chopsticks halfway to his mouth. She smiled. He must have been exhausted. Her thought process was interrupted when Chase's communicator beeped on the coffee table. She scooped it up answered it before it could wake him. "Hey Ellie, what's up?" She asked as she answered the call."

"Oh hi Natalia. Is Chase around?" Ellie asked.

"Kind of. He's out like a light right now. Flying around under a helicopter and catching pigs really took it out of him today." Natalia said, holding the communicator so that the camera could see Chase passed out on the couch.

"Well, that's what I was calling him about. Farmer Hayes' pigs escaped again." Ellie said. "Think we should wake him?"

Natalia looked over at her sleeping boyfriend. "I think we should let the night shift deal with it." She said with a smug grin. "Aren't they always complaining they never get any fun anyway?"

Ellie laughed. "They sure are. Well, I'll let them know. And if you happen to spot any of those pigs, give me a call."

"Can do. Good night, Ellie." Natalia said, and ended the call. Then she sat back down on the couch, gently took the to-go box from Chase and set it on the coffee table, then snuggled up against him. Sure, he worked to hard. But he cared about her. And sometimes that was all that mattered.

She was so content that she didn't even hear the distant oink of a pig on the rooftop.