Chapter Eleven: It'll Be Worth It, He Said!
It was funny. I did something to move the case forward, and I didn't feel anything, didn't feel any sort of joy. Accomplishment, sure, and some satisfaction. But nothing big, and what was there faded away real quick—what was happening now didn't leave much time to jump for joy. Tabby was getting put into a squad car, that was good, but her kids didn't take that sitting down. We'd been busy trying to calm them down for the past ten minutes. The youngest one, just in high school, had started crying, and the older ones had started shouting.
" You need a warrant, right?" said the eldest. Buck, I think. " You guys can't just go into our house and look through—" he glanced over at the crime scene techs heading upstairs. " That—" he went on, started tearing up once he saw Mom in cuffs, dragging her feet on the way to the car. She didn't say anything to any of her kids. Just made a big show of crying and telling us to stop hurting her. That didn't help us calm them down much.
Vicks had come in, along with that therapist Nick had started seeing—a honey badger. Vicks had wanted to question them, which didn't get anywhere, and the therapist had tried to talk to them alone. That left four of us—Me, Vicks, and two beat cops—to deal with packing Tabby away and picking out the clues.
"D'you know where the mouse went?" Vicks said, pacing the hallway. " Any chance there could be a scent trail? Maybe a bit of fabric?"
I shook my head. That mouse was fast, and the size made it hard enough to keep an eye on him with all those folk in the way. I'd lost him in the intersection—what were we supposed to do to catch them, anyway? Make a lucky grab? Fall on them?
Vicks sighed, glanced over at Laura sitting on the stairs. She'd been giving bits and pieces of info—Tabby getting drunk most of the day, talking to herself, about how she wanted to get out of town already—a real altruist.
I should've been relieved, or less stressed, at least. I still felt tense from the chase, like I had something pressing on my chest. No matter how big a breath I took, the muscles felt tight. And there wasn't anything emotionally. Just… calm. Nothing major.
"I—Well." Vicks said, " Any idea of any other leads, Judy?" he glanced at the living room door, shut so the badger could talk to the kids privately. " Did she say something useful? Let drop a name?"
I shook my head, and Vicks sighed again. He frowned, and I could see the disappointment in his eyes. "We got her, at least," he said, mostly to himself, " Maybe… But good job making some sort of progress."
I thought that Nick might've found something, so I offered to get him. Should've just meant a simple phone call and him walking his butt over. Nope.
"Nick," I said, once he picked up the call. " We're at Tabby's house. We got her, but we wanted to compare notes with you. You wanna get over here?"
Nick sniffed, and when he did speak, he sounded distracted. " Sure, Jude. Be there in—Yes, that's her…. No, she probably-"
" Nick?" I said, " You still with her?"
Nick's voice became distant for a bit, and I heard the phone adjust. " Should be done soon. Be right there, okay?"
Nick didn't take a taxi right up to us, though. I saw him climb out of a taxi at the end of the block. He didn't walk straight up to me, taking his sweet time chatting someone up, instead.
A vixen dragged herself out the taxi, sidled up all close to him, listening intently. I thought they were going to give it up and Nick was going to walk over here, but they stood chatting there for a good while. Enough to get me walking over there.
" Nick!" I called, " We need-"
Nick was talking at a good pace with that girl, staring at her and running his mouth a mile a minute. Their talk was deep enough that he didn't even notice me calling or pedestrians bumping into him.
" –not something I really remember fondly," he was saying, " All of those guys had a bunch of dumb ideas, and look where it got them, huh? They either got in jail or, uh, y'know, off doing something stupid." The vixen nodded, smiling, trying to grab at his paws. Nick was too busy wringing them.
" Nick-" I called. Still no answer. The girl glanced at me, smiled, and turned back to him.
" Well, they haven't worked as hard as you," she said, " And it's taken its toll on you, but I guarantee you that it'll pay off, okay?"
"Thank you, Carol," Nick said, voice warm. "I'll talk to you-" He caught me out the corner of his eye, flinched a little. " Um, I'll call you soon. Okay?" He hurriedly stepped back, almost walking into a group of guys walking by, and made his way towards me.
We had a very heated talk on the walk back.
" But it's so easy to open up to her, right?" Judy snapped, " You've known her for five minutes and you're pouring your heart out."
" Because she's a lead," he said, " I gotta get her to trust me, and I think she knows that kind of life, so that was the best way forward." He waited for me to say something, sighed when I didn't. "Judy," he said, " Listen, it's- it's not you, alright? I just have a hard time getting stuff like this off my chest. Okay? I..." I heard him take a deep breath. " I feel... scared, sometimes, nervous. I feel like you'll see me differently, and I don't want that."
Great, so now he wanted to be all sensitive. How many months have we been going back and forth about this? How often have I had to sit there getting random bits and pieces and no follow-up? Am I supposed to just look past that again, just smile and say it's okay?
" Every week. Nick," I said, " You tell me how hard it can be to talk about it, and I sit there and let you ramble, and—and do you know how it feels when I see you spilling your guts to some random girl? How pissed off that makes me?"
" Listen," he said defensively. " It'll pay off in a bit. Just watch." I waved him off, and I could see him flinch. He kept quiet, though.
We talked to Vicks for twenty minutes, helped take notes. Despite dozens of questions that everyone asked him, and him giving out ideas, he didn't add anything, just gave out more promises. So much for a good lead.
Vicks let us go for now, after we promised to turn in any new info as it came in. Back home then, for now.
I think we got more than a few stares on the walk towards home. Not like I was the one causing it, though.
"Aw, come on, Jude." He pleaded, as we walked out the door. " It's not like I'm going around blabbing to everyone. I had to get her to trust me, okay?" He sighed, following me down the steps and onto the sidewalk.
I wasn't going to answer, wasn't any point in that. He can't open up to me, then he can go without hearing me talk for a bit. I wasted how many months trying to get him to open up, and then that girl walks in and it's so easy? Liar. Liar!
"Judy, please," he said, from behind me, " She's giving me bits and pieces, alright? The uni students are getting all worked up, and I think that might be part of-"
"Write it down so I don't forget it then," I said sharply, " Okay, big talker? Focus on remembering those details, since they're so important."
"Are you really gonna-" he snapped, sighed, and went quiet. I could hear him pacing behind me, stomping a little. Not that it lasted long, because a few seconds later he started hollering again.
" Jude," he said, voice raised. " Judy! Watch it!"
I felt something hit my side, pull on my shirt. I glanced down to see a mouse hanging off, covered in dirt and panting. Nick was yelling behind me, and the folk trailing behind us started up too. I heard a loud thud behind me, someone rolling around on the ground.
The mouse on me dug his claws in, started crawling up my shirt. I grabbed at him, got a good grip on his shirt. He wiggled, and I could feel him twist around, his teeth digging into my paw. He bit hard enough that the skin broke. I shouted, lost my grip, and the mouse ran up my shirt, fur darkened. I tried to grab at him again, got a handful of sticky, clotted fur, and he bit at my paws again, scratching at me with sharp claws.
My palms burned, and I felt the left one bleeding. I brought them up, squeezed them together, and brushed down my shirt. The mouse shouted, fell off. He hit the concrete, splayed out.
Marcus stared, mouth agape. I told him he shouldn't have insisted on coming along.
He watched as Ben fell of the rabbit, landed on the concrete and squirmed around, arms flailing. Nathan and Sam were still trying to get a good hit on the fox, trying to dodge flailing arms and kicking feet. It was all a mess, though—more foot traffic that I thought, and Judy didn't seem too upset at seeing her own blood. Still, had to look at the positives
Marcus shook his head as Sam dropped off the fox's leg, onto one of the pedestrians he had nicked accidentally. Sam shook his head clear, balanced himself on their gut, and waited for another chance to jump. Nathan got a grip on his shoulder, tried to reach to his side to grab his needle, and found himself being slammed into a nearby car window, thanks to the fox trying to shake him off. He fell of, dropped out of sight into the street.
" This'll end out good no matter what happens," I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder, " You'll see."
Marcus winced as Sam fell again, falling headfirst this time. He twitched, head hitting hard enough to bounce back off the concrete, and started screaming. I couldn't tell if that was his blood or not, though, on his face.
Patience. It'll all pay off soon.
