Chapter 2:
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"Nicholas Wilde, this baby shower is spiraling towards complete disaster, and only you can help me save it."
…
"I repeat," Mr Fox announced, hunkering low over his microphone. "Only you can…"
"-You know, I did hear you the first time," Nick interrupted.
"Potentially, yes," Mr Fox pondered. "Though with the length of the pause in between…"
"Pfff… It wasn't that long," the fox cop defended.
"Well, it wasn't a dramatic pause…"
…
"-That was a dramatic pause. Anyway, your pause might have felt long to some people, though maybe not to others. Maybe to some it felt like five minutes, maybe to some like a week and a bit."
"-I don't feel like I went to sleep and suffered through seven long mornings," Nick replied, finding his voice. He shook his head, clearing his mind, before speaking it. "It's just that this feels a bit overblown and dramatic; you know…" He crossed his arms, and leaned forwards a bit. "-I mean, if you have a little thing that needs fixing, most mammals who are not compensating for something tend to go for a little tap on the shoulder."
Mr Fox paused, looking back over at Nick. "I'll ignore your potential slight on the bushiness of my tail and get straight to business," he said. "It seems that my dramatic flair hasn't convinced you already of the danger we're facing, so we'll have to montage."
"Mon…" Nick began, before Mr Fox leant forwards, grabbed his chair, and swiveled them both around to face his desk. On it was a section drawing of the house, showing each and every room, many filled with markers that had been labelled with names. On the board in front of them were a variety of pinned pictures, string and noting paper ready to turn it into a fully-fledged conspiracy board. At the very centre was a sheet with four big letters drawn on it.
Dr Silverfox's present.
MISSING!
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Time seemed to rewind, back to when the fox in question had arrived. Leaving his son outside with his cousin, he walked in with Nick and Judy, holding his gift against his heart with his arm. They were immediately greeted by Mr Fox.
"I was first made aware of him carrying the gift, and gained a good view of it, on his arrival. His posture and possessive nature seemed to show that it was something of value, something he confirmed as he spoke up about it in a very high-level tone."
"Congratulations, again," he said.
"Certainly appreciated," Mr Fox smirked, before glancing over at his wife. "As it will be by her."
"Indeed," the Doctor agreed, jostling his gift up against himself. "Tonight should be a wonderful night for her."
"Of course, this was then confirmed by a conversation I overheard from afar."
"My gift is very much related to her too," he said, trailing off a little. "As I said, something very dear, and very precious."
Nick nodded in agreement while, from afar, Mr Fox spotted the gift safely nestled in the pile.
"My wife took the loss of her sister very hard," he carried on narrating. "She'd swing between holding on dearly to her own young son and staring out into the black expanse of the night, contemplating the meaning and existentially nihilistic nature of our sentient mammalian condition…"
Mr Fox walked out of his house, making his way towards a small grassy knoll. It was late at night, even the lights of the city being repulsed by the cover of darkness, and the Todd looked upon the hunched up figure of his wife. Curled up in nothing but her thin white nightie, her son, dressed in a paw-pad covered footed sleeper, was fast asleep in her chest. She slowly pet him while staring up into the inky void.
"Need any help, comfort…"
"-Strawberries," she sobbed.
"Okay then, strawberries it is…"
"-She adored them… -she once ate three punnets and was sick all over me…" She broke down into tears and lunged forwards, holding Mr Fox tight. "She's… She's gone!" she wailed, as he held her back.
"Therefore, this gift would have a high value to her, in effect being the keystone to this entire night," Mr Fox continued. "And then, fatefully, I noticed that there had been, quote-unquote… -a Larceny!"
It was the silver fox's turn to take the applause, which he did graciously. As Kris bowed, Mr Fox looked over to him, before flicking to the gift pile next to him. He paused, noticing that the present he'd seen getting put down there was now gone.
"Of course, some quick confirming was then in order."
His eyes focused on William Silverfox, who'd been standing at the other side of the room to his son. "We happen to have with us today the uncle of this new child, who I believe has a very special gift for us. You have it on you, correct?"
"Well, it's in the pile," he began.
"Fair enough," Mr Fox said quickly, buying himself some further time. "And being such a fine gift, how about we save it until last. A final high note, upon which to end these festivities."
"And then one final emergency check."
As Nick, Judy and Jack presented their presents, Mr Fox wandered over to the gift pile and scanned through it, seeing no evidence of the critical gift. His eyes narrowed and he glanced around the room before he located Kylie. He walked up to him, tapped his shoulder, and whispered in his ear. "Down to the office. We have to do a thing."
"A thing? You mean a thing, thing?"
"That's right. A THING."
"And so," Mr Fox carried on, back in the present. "We have our situation. One important gift: taken. A variety of suspects: milling about, all with potential motives and reasons. I alone can't do this task, but I have the utmost trust in your abilities to help out. Together, we need to locate this gift and return it to the pile tonight in order to save this baby shower!"
…
"Right," Nick agreed, "Gotcha. You know, this only seems a little insane and overcompensating now. Well done, ten-out-of-ten on presentation by the way." He paused, before smiling. "You've done this kind of thing before, haven't you?"
"In my more wild and youthful days, certainly. High stakes planning for high stakes action."
"Only, oopsie, you're married and have a family, so now the scale of this stuff has gone just a biiiittt…. Downhill. Again, a tap on the shoulder and a quick request would have done the job."
"Well, there's doing the job and then there's doing the job," Mr Fox enthused, gesturing to everything. "Sure, I could have simply asked you to help out, but that might not fully sell you on the seriousness of the situation."
"Oh, don't you worry, you've sold me on something," Nick replied, smirking.
"And likewise, I could just take the expected, 'sensible', option and inform everyone and have everyone search for it. But that would mean facing a derailed party, informing everyone of the incident, while potentially causing emotional harm to those invested in the gift. In particular, one currently facing immense emotional instability. On the other paw, doing this on the sly in a highly planned and well executed operation could set things right with nobody knowing."
"So, to sum up, you want me to help you on an undercover investigation to find our gift thief, keeping everything secret until we locate the missing present."
"As sum ups go, that's certainly a cussing good one," Mr Fox agreed, turning around and grabbing Nick's paws, looking him in the eyes. "Nicholas Wilde. As I said before, the only other mammal I know with the right level of cunning, slyness and, as the younger generations know it, quote-unquote 'pizzaz', to pull this off is you. So, Nicholas Wilde, are! You! IN!?"
"I…" Nick began, his mouth trembling slightly. He paused for a second or two before sighing, his ears folding down. "Nope. I'm sorry, but I'm out."
Mr Fox cleared his throat a little, before pushing on, even bringing in the paw gestures. "Let me reiterate, you are the only one I judge to have the right skills to pull this off. I repeat, I can't do this without you!"
"Yes, I get that," Nick sighed, shaking his head a little as he rubbed it with his paw. "But here's the thing. I used to be sneaky and sly and all that and, back then, maybe I'd have been happy to help you out. Though, at the same time, I don't think I'd have really been good enough to be your friend, but that's a different story… -Anyway, that kind of thing is what I've been trying to get away from, to leave behind, and while you seem happy to revel in your past self, I'm not. I'd be more than happy to help if you make the search official, have everyone doing a look around and getting this all sorted quickly, I promise. But sneaking around and doing stuff to friends and family behind their backs? I'm sorry, but I have to say no."
…
"Very well then," Mr Fox cordially agreed, "it was very good not doing business with you."
Despite feeling down, Nick couldn't help but smile, a glint of fun in his eyes. "It's called a not-hustle, Foxy," he said, as he stood up and walked out.
"Not-Hustle…" Mr Fox pondered. "I like that term…" He paused, and looked up at Nick. "No hard feelings if you keep this a secret."
"That I can do" Nick agreed as he left, passing Kylie on the way out.
…
"Well," he noted, walking back up the stairs to the lounge. "That was something…"
Entering in, he found a place to settle down and work out everything that had just happened. He couldn't help but let his gaze linger on the present pile as he did so and, yup, the gift in question was gone. Sauntering up for a closer look, he couldn't find it anywhere. So, Mr Fox was right, but Nick still couldn't agree with his plan of action. His days as a hustler had taught him that the simplest plans were often the best ones, and doing all that secret stuff would just be inviting trouble.
He expected Mr Fox to come up and start asking around publicly sooner than later.
In the meantime, he could keep an eye out and enjoy the party. Looking over, he saw Skye moving up to Mrs Fox with two gifts. He didn't know how exactly the vixen knew the family, but this could be a way to learn.
"And these are from me," she said, as she handed over her presents. Mrs Fox opened the first one and smiled as she brought out a pretty dream catcher mobile. "My mother said that it's supposed to keep bad dreams and the Thunderbird away," Skye explained.
"Thank you," Felicity replied, before turning to the other gift; opening it up before humming slightly, intrigued as she pulled out an old-style polaroid camera.
"Complete with plenty of film supplies, it'll let you easily assemble a physical album with all your kit's pictures in it."
Mrs Fox smiled. "I had one of these which I used when Ash was young, but I lost it ages ago. Thanks so much."
"You're welcome," she said, as Jack wandered up next to her. He looked excited.
"Idea!"
Nick couldn't help himself. "No, it's a camera."
Jack glanced at him and smirked, before gesturing to Mrs Fox's camera. Handing it over, the jackrabbit stepped back and took a picture, smiling as he saw the little picture print out. "A before picture!"
"Thanks again," she said smiling, taking them back. Skye gave Jack a proud look, before she handed over another gift.
"This is Sweetie's," she explained, as Mrs Fox looked pulled out a golden ring. "It's supposed to be a Korean tradition, the child can use it to pay for their education later."
The pregnant vixen nodded as Kris and his father meandered over. "Who's Sweetie?" the younger fox asked.
Mrs Fox looked over at her nephew and smiled. "She's my friend and Skye's sister," she explained, before sighing. "Remember the story I told you, about why I left the Rangers?"
"Someone you trained with was picked off by an eagle, wasn't he?"
Felicity nodded slowly and sadly, looking away as she did so. "Yes, Sweetie was his partner. She… -She tried to find his body, but all they ever got was an eye. We met at the funeral and became friends…" There was a pause, then a slight huff. "You know, I still think about poor Bright Eyes even now."
The somber mood carried through the room, only broken off as Dr Silverfox stepped forwards. "Bright Eyes?"
"It was his nickname," she explained.
The silver fox nodded. "Was his name Hyhayuhl, by any chance?"
Felicity looked up, a shocked look on her face. "How did you…"
"He was a hare, or rather an Efrafan hare, wasn't he?" he continued, as she nodded. "Hyhayuhl translates to bright eyes, or thereabouts. When I was a student doing my research into their culture and history in Cappadocia and Greater Armyeenia, it was one of the most common names you'd stumble across."
"So, you're a doctor of archeology?" Skye asked.
"Well, languages and linguistics," he explained, smiling contently as he thought back. "Back then, I was part of a team investigating a temple complex called Nildelienes, buried in the foothills of Mt Ararat itself. The iron curtain had finally fallen, and we could travel to Armyeenia to look at the site, finally giving it the care that it deserved."
"What had happened to it before?" Kris asked, curiously.
"Despite having a strong connection to Efrafa, their people despised it. They'd tried to destroy and bury it when they could, succeeding after the repulse of Gabrielli the Thunderer's Cossack invaders by the war hero Thlayli. The Efrafans say that it was built by death worshipers. It venerates 'Kehaar', their version of the devil, so I can't really fault them there. Centuries later the Tsar's forces made an entranceway to it, thinking it might be Noah's Ark, and when it wasn't they took most of the precious valuables before sealing it again. We were the first to try and fully catalogue everything, and they needed me as it seemed to have its own language. It turned out to be Efrafan in a different script though." There was a pause, and then a chuckle. "It turned out that 'Bright Eyes' was the secret to unlocking it all."
"How come?" Felicity asked.
"Well, the name comes from a popular and ancient Efrafan folk song. It's a mother's lament about her strong son going off to war, called by visions, and how he, whose bright eyes, which once burned brightly, could just fade and die." He paused, and cleared his throat slightly, before singing out.
"Is it a kind of dream, floating down on the tide,
Following the river of death downstream,
Ohhh-oh, is it a dream?
There's a fog on the horizon,
A strange glow in the sky,
And nobody seems to know where it goes,
Or what does it mean…
Ohhh-oh, is it a dream?"
He stopped, shrugging. "I'm afraid my translation doesn't quite live up to the original. Anyhow, the most common prayer in Nildelienes turned out to be a straight up translation, albeit with a few very small tweaks to the chorus. Instead of: Bright eyes, how can you close and fail? it's: Bright eyes, you shall never close and fail. Then, instead of How can the light that burned so brightly, suddenly burn so pale, they swapped the suddenly for 'furiously' and the pale for a word we don't have in English, but it means 'corpse pale' or 'deathly pale'. It changes the whole meaning of the song, making it a hymn to Kehaar and death… Regardless, once I worked that out, it was very easy to translate everything else."
Nick walked forwards, smiling. "That's certainly interesting. Any other stories and such from back then?"
William paused, thinking. "Oh, plenty… -Though, I think the favorite one is what I did with my English translation of the original 'Bright eyes' about ten years later." He paused, turning to Felicity and smiling. "I'd translated it and worked out how to play it on my guitar, and we were back in Canidea on this big ski trip organized by the department. We were in the lodge, it was a loud night with everyone else drinking and laughing and I just felt a little overwhelmed. There was some Karaoke going on, most mammals belting out Bryan A'Dams or such, and I'd made the mistake of not letting go of my guitar. So, soon enough, I was egged on to the stage and I was up there, with no idea what exactly to sing out as this seemed to definitely be an electric crowd, not acoustic. But… -Well, I don't know why, but I sung out my translation of 'Bright Eyes', and by the end I think you could hear a pin drop. Then everyone was clapping and, as I knew 'Who by Fire' and 'Wish You Were Here', I did those too. Then, off I went, feeling a bit flustered. I was sat outside, in the snow, getting cold and just trying to recover from that when I felt someone slip a ski jacket onto me." He paused, sighing a little, before gently holding Felicity's paw. "She stammered out, half gushed praise at my singing and half scolding me for being out in the cold, and she managed to take me back inside… And that was how I met your sister."
The vixen choked up a little. "I remember her calling after. She'd always been a very female-leaning Bi before, but she was gushing over this todd that she'd just met and his voice, and about whether she loved him or not…"
"She did," Dr Silverfox said, his voice full of melancholy. "She always liked it when I sung to her… -Kris did too!"
"I remember that," the younger fox said, smiling.
"Yeah, but 'Bright Eyes' never was your favorite," he said, chuckling a little. "There was always one song that would cheer you and make you laugh, and I had to stop singing it or playing the CD at night because you'd just be bouncing up and down to it."
Kris nodded. "I only remember it roughly," he said. "Haven't heard it for years."
By the time he realized his terrible mistake, it was already far too late, as Dr Silverfox began singing.
"Where the road runs down by the butternut grove, to old Bill Skinner's stream.
Do tell at the noonday bell it's time for a summertime dream."
He smiled, before leaning in and cradling Kris's muzzle with his finger.
"In a lunch pail town in a one-horse way, you can live like a king or queen.
Let's steal away in the noonday sun, it's time for a summertime dream."
Kris looked around, his ears folding back, and a hint of redness in them growing stronger.
"Birds in all creation will be twitterin' in the trees, and down below's a pond I know, you can swim in it if you please.
And if you come 'round when the mill shuts down, you can see what chivalry means.
Let's steal away in the noonday sun, it's time for a summertime dream."
He broke off and laughed, looking at the flustered look on his son. "You know, I didn't think you were one to get embarrassed."
"Uhhh," he began to reply, just as Ash turned up, looking at William.
"You did that? To him? That's possible?" he asked, not quite believing it himself.
Kris broke down into a little guffaw, walking forwards to hug his father. "I remember it now," he said, a happy mood in his voice. A mood shared by all, until a soft sniff broke through. Everyone turned, looking at Mrs Fox.
"Mom?" Ash asked, walking forwards, as she tried to wipe away a tear.
"Y-You were too young," she said, looking at him. "But she… Roz… She sung that over the phone to me once… We were sharing lullabies, and… and…" She never finished her sentence, breaking off as the tears began flowing. Whimpering and sobbing, she bent over, cradling her bump. "You… you… you'll never know her…" she cried. "Your… your spunky Auntie, you'll… You'll never hear her laugh, or… or… play with her, or…"
Ash went to her side, as did Kris and Skye, who asked Jack to help steadier her as she dropped both crutches, letting her put both paws on the distraught vixen. However, it was her brother-in-law that that got through to her.
"There, there," he said. "I miss her too. But whoever is in there will get to know Auntie Rozie, I promise."
"You… You do?"
"Yes," he replied, smiling. "I've got just the gift to help with that."
"Y-you do?" she asked.
"Well, I'd be like you are now if I didn't… Well, I wouldn't know what I'd do," he said, laughing a bit. "But I do have something precious, I promise…"
The scene went quiet, as everyone looked on.
Including Nick.
He looked away, ears folding back, and rubbed his foot paw onto the floor. A wave of conflicting feelings and emotions ran through him, before he sighed, silently dismissing himself. Down into the stairway he went, walking through the kitchen and into the back rooms and basements, before opening the door to Mr Fox's study. "Right. I'll do it!"
"-I repeat, I can't do this without you!"
Everyone froze, as Nick looked on to see Mr Fox, in chair with microphone, giving his opossum friend the low down.
"-And you too," he carried on, greeting Nick and waving him in. "Nick Wilde, Kylie O'Possum. Kylie O'Possum, Nick Wilde."
"You know," the fox cop warned. "This is already looking more and more like the kind of British comedy where we just dig ourselves a deeper and deeper hole and end up humiliating ourselves."
"Well, I've been thoroughly Americanized so I can proudly confirm that we'll still come out on top," Mr Fox replied. "Anyway, you in?"
"Before I regret it, yes." Nick said, grabbing a seat and sitting next to Mr Fox. He gave a brief glance to Kylie as well, noting that the marsupial wore a beige fisherman's hat with a few hooks and lures attached, a white shirt mostly covered by a beige fisherman's vest with large outside pockets and a matching pair of shorts.
"Very well," Foxy began. "First step, we each pick two potential suspects and interview them, trying to figure out if they're up to something."
"Sounds fair," Nick replied. "So, who are they and what are their profiles?"
Mr Fox snapped his fingers, before winking. "Montage time!"
.
.
"Suspect one. Badger Badgerson," Mr Fox announced, a picture of a grumpy badger in a green woolen suit, white shirt and salmon tie getting pinned up to the wall.
"What's the MO?" Nick asked.
"He's my lawyer, and…"
"-Yeah, that'll do it. Next."
.
.
"Suspect two, our mysterious visitor: Jack Savage." A picture of the striped buck in a blue shirt and tan shorts went up on the wall.
"Yeaaaahhhhhnnoooooo," Nick countered, shaking his head. "How much do you know him?"
"Well, from our brief encounter it's clear that he's a thespian with a flair for showing off, and one who can get quite competitive when the time arises."
"Which is odd," the fox cop pointed out. "From what I've known of him, he's a theatre-lover and performer, but other than that he's a lazy bone, a messy slob, and a mammal who's trying to change that and do good. Why would he steal this gift?"
"Well, what is the gift?" Mr Fox asked.
"Something to do with your late sister-in-law," Nick pondered. "-Might have something to do with Efrafan culture or something, I don't…" He trailed off a bit, his eyes widening as he walked over to the board, closing them again and beating out his finger to the tune of his thoughts. "Some ancient script? A collection of stuff? He's a Tehuantepec Jackrabbit, which might have a relation to Efrafans, I don't know…"
"Kylie," Mr Fox announced, before looking down at the opossum. "Zoogle geographic positions of Tehuantepecs, Efrafans, their relations to each other and any long-lost tomes that might be present."
He nodded, before pausing. "I know you said Zoogle, but I prefer Zing… Is Zinging it okay?"
"You can Zong it for all I care," Mr Fox added, before turning back to Nick. "What was that about trying to do good?"
"He's trying to improve himself, get less lazy and such. It's why he came and gave your wife a baby box."
"Hmmm…" Mr Fox pondered. "Could he be taking the book only to give it back later? Some long-winded plot to make an even happier ending, but building up tension before-paw I wonder."
"Whatever you're thinking, he won't be thinking it," Nick countered. "Him doing this as part of some experimental field improv is more likely. And that was sarcasm, by the way."
"But there's still a chance," Mr Fox returned, as Kylie finished.
"Efrafans are a warrior culture of otherwise normal Eurasian hares from Pawasia Minor. Tehuantepec Jackrabbits are an endangered species of lagomorphs from a small Isthmus on the pacific coast of Mexicat, a place with no notable Efrafan communities."
"So, unlikely," Foxy continued. "Though a slim chance is still a chance, so I'd class him as a wildcard."
"Yup," Nick admitted. "Might as well see if we can clear him, even though I can't see him doing this. Next!"
.
.
Mr Fox pinned the picture of the scruffy red fox kit, in this case still dressed in his unusual 'white pj's with a cape and the trousers tucked into socks' combo, to the wall, before turning to see Nick looking at him, his eyelids half lidded.
"That's cold."
"Just keeping all options open," he defended, before pulling out another photograph and placing it alongside Ash's. "In any case, no favoritism, they're both there." He pointed at the picture of Kris, in the usual dusty blue button up shirt and tan shorts combo that he was wearing tonight, and gave a double whistle, two tongue clicks and a wink.
"Well," Nick said with a sigh. "I suppose both of them could be trying to do the 'increased yield' hustle you thought Jack might be up to."
"See," Mr Fox said, nodding. "And, though both seemed to have patched everything up, there might still be a bit of inter-cousin rivalry going on."
"Ash seemed too concerned about his mother to try and steal the gift. Besides, why not go for Kris' gift, unless… -Unless he wants to find the book later to be seen as the hero."
Mr Fox nodded. "Though he's already given up the full limelight, sharing some with Kris when it was due."
Nick smirked, looking at Foxy. "My, my… Acknowledging your boy. I'm proud of you, great progress!"
"Fantastic, if you will," Mr Fox said, scanning over the pictures. "But he might see this as a 'nobody loses thing', I don't know. As for Kris, maybe it's some attempt to frame Ash, and let me just stop you right there, Nick. I know it's super unlikely for both of them, given their ultimately very high moral fiber. I'm simply following the same 'don't rule it out' principle that we, primarily I, have previously established."
"Yeah, okay," Nick replied, nodding his head a little. "Anyway, who's next?"
.
.
A sandy colored swift fox vixen, in a dusty red t-shirt with black bands on the sleeves and camo cargo pants down below, went up onto the board. "Skye Autumn."
"Well, if it weren't for the fact that I've seen really dodgy mammals hiding behind a helpful and ditzy veneer, I'd completely dismiss Miss High-and-mighty," Nick replied. "But, as it is, she might have a secret dark side that none of us know about."
"Yes," Mr Fox said, pondering. "So the perfect reason to list her as a subject then."
Nick blinked a bit. "You know, my job does take me places and might give me ideas above my station," he said, walking over. "But you can't really put someone up there without having evidence linking them, or a motive. With Skye, from you at least, nil-pwa!'"
"And from you?" Foxy countered, a smirk growing on his muzzle.
Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay. Besides doing the same 'be the hero' hustle, there is a potential strong motive here which I can think of. Skye's sister was a ranger. Her partner was 'Bright Eyes', an Efrafan Hare who was killed by an eagle. Said sister then met your wife at the funeral. Maybe she knew of something or other that was taken from him, or his family, or his people, and ended up in William's paws? I don't know how, I'm not sure how she'd know. Maybe she just suspects that it's something related, but asked Skye to take it regardless. Maybe not to steal, just to check, and then steal if it is the thing…"
Mr Fox looked on proud. "Nick Wilde, that is some pure A-grade motive analysis. You are a great cop."
"I… -Thanks, I guess," he replied, before looking back at the picture and frowning. "However, if Skye is our suspect, then there's a slight mobility issue."
Mr Fox nodded. "Though maybe that's why Jack is here?" he said, "To do the legwork – pun not intended."
"Wittingly or unwittingly?" Nick carried on. He was broken off though by Kylie.
"What if it's a fake cast?"
Both foxes turned to face him, Foxy flashing a smile. "Excellent concept. A fake disability to throw us off the trail. Well done for contributing, and reminding us that you're there, noted friend and partner."
"Still, unless she can remove that cast, it'll still slow her down," Nick pointed out, as he thought things through. "Could she have a removable one?"
"We'd have to check it," Foxy said, nodding his head in agreement. "But how?"
"Does it have any signatures on it?" Kylie asked. "I could go in and try to sign it, getting a closer look."
Mr Fox couldn't help but clap his paws in excitement. "Kylie, you are on fire tonight. Right then, only one more suspect to deal with."
.
.
Nick glowered at the wall. "No."
"It's just as likely as the others."
"Nope."
"We're trying to keep ourselves open here, aren't we?"
"The answer is still null. Void. Nada. Zero."
"I understand that this might be a bit sensitive to you…"
"No. It's in the realms of impossibility," Nick said, speaking up. "Judy Hopps is NOT our gift thief." He looked over to the newspaper clipping of her (in her ZPD dress blues no less) that Mr Fox had put up on the wall and pulled it down.
"And how do you know that?" Mr Fox asked.
"Because I know her."
"Or do you now," he pondered. "Because maybe you don't. Maybe you…"
"Why would she even do it?" he asked.
"The same motive that Ash might have – or Jack. Manufacture a crisis and be seen as the hero who fixes it. Being the big hero for every mammal is her modus operandi, isn't it?"
"If I were a sucker for glory and respect, musing from an armchair like moi, then potentially I could agree with that sentiment," Nick countered, closing his eyes and holding himself astutely as he did so. "But am I one of those? No, no I am not. I am in fact her police partner and her boyfriend, and thus know that she's dedicated to making the world a better place. Something that theft, oddly enough, doesn't do."
"And what if it was part of some covert mission to recover secretly stolen artifacts? Would she do such a thing for the greater good?"
"No, she'd end up tying herself in knots as she tried to figure out a way for everyone to win, sink into emotional squalor and ruin before crying into her foxy lover's chest fur."
"And if she's forbidden from going to you?"
Nick sighed, leaning forwards and rubbing his forehead. "Then Bun dot E-X-E encounters an error and can't continue. Listen, it's not Judy. Heck, from a policemammal point of view, none of these even have a shred of evidence behind them. Some of those, no -all of them, are ridiculous. Heck, maybe even the lawyer guy too? I mean, what's his problem?"
"Sowing internal strife in my family, attempting to formulate a divorce, in order to be the recipient of a mortgage on this property once we split, with the aim of ultimately repossessing it for himself."
…
"Okay, so maybe we have one, semi-plausible, suspect." Nick reasoned.
"Have you seen the way he looks at this house?" Mr Fox said, smiling a little before turning back to the suspect list. "Besides. Do you have any better ideas?"
…
Nick groaned, before shaking his head. "Right then. I guess we can run with it. The worst we'll do is make fools of ourselves."
"That's the spirit!" Mr Fox agreed, gesturing them over to the schematic of his house, turning to Kylie as he did so. "Right. You talk to Kris, then perform your signing hustle thing on Skye, talking to her too. Both should be laying low in the lounge or outside, giving you easy access. While you're doing that, I'll make myself busy with Judy Hopps, in the same place, before then moving on to our prime suspect. I can take him up to show the expansion to the top room, while maybe discussing the possibilities of a further extension upwards or the potential for an external tree house annex. There's already an escape hatch there, giving me a potential evacuation route."
"-Your house has an escape hatch?" Nick asked.
"Multiple," Mr Fox boasted proudly. "This was once a fine front for bootlegging into the Nocturnal District. There's a tunnel linking up here to down there located right under this desk. A few years back Ash went through a phase of trying to clear it out. Anyhow, Nick Wilde, you get to take on Jack Savage, and then my son."
Nick nodded. "Okay then…"
"I think this is a bit too important for just an okay," Foxy noted. "Maybe try something a bit more enthusiastic?"
Kylie, stepping up, saluted. "Ready for action."
"That's the spirit," Mr Fox replied, saluting back before turning to Nick.
Nick rolled his eyes, before giving a lazy salute too. "Ready to hustle."
"That's the spirit!" he said, and off the three went.
