"Alright, so we have Lily as a suspect," Anna spoke as she placed a picture of the girl on the board. "She was the last truck to be seen with the recent victim,"

"That's right," Blaze nodded. "but why would she kidnap Mom?"

"Yeah," AJ agreed with a frown. "Pickle doesn't hold grudges against anyone, and his family don't seem to either,"

"We'll have to bring her in," Anna suggested as she took out her walkie-talkie. "This is Officer Anna to all officers, we have a suspect to the kidnapping case. A green female truck with blonde hair and pink tires,"

["Understood, Officer Anna!"] the other police truck's gave an affirmative before signing out.

"We should also be on the lookout," Blaze said.

"For the meantime, we need you two to keep an eye on Mr. Flame," Anna told them. "If anything, the kidnapper might go after him next. If Lily IS the suspect then we'll see for sure,"

"You're right, Officer Anna," AJ nodded in agreement. "We'll escort Dad back home and keep an eye on him,"

"Good luck, officers," Anna waved as she watched the duo leave.

Unbeknownst to them, a helicopter of red, orange and yellow with a camera and a microphone attached to it was spying on the whole thing before flying off onto the night. It soon reached the park, where a tire from a bush grabbed onto it and pulled it to hiding.

"Did you record all that, Sven?" the one holding the camera asked.

"I did, Ben," Sven nodded. "Did you send it to Tillie and Millie, Ken?"

"I sure did!" Ken gave a nod. "But we should still warn Pickle and Lily,"

"Agreed!" Ben smiled and kept the helicopter. "Come on! Let's go!"

X

"Time to go to bed, you two," Pickle chuckled as he motioned the girls into the room they shared.

"I'll tuck them in," Phoenix offered.

"Thanks, Ms. Phoenix," Pickle smiled gratefully. "I need to go anyway. My client wants me for another meeting,"

"Before you go, there's someone who wants to meet with us," Lily told him, driving to them with a solemn expression and a frown. "It's our cousins,"

"Ben, Ken and Sven?" Pickle's eyebrows raised up. "Why?"

Lily shrugged and just urged her brother to follow her. Pickle sighed and nodded before following after her. They soon made it to the living room, where Crusher was serving tea to Ben, Ken and Sven, who were in their assassin uniforms as they sat and waited for them.

"Cousins? What's going on?" Pickle asked as he and Lily joined them.

"It's the police," Ben told them.

"Are they close to finding out where Sparkle and Ms. Phoenix are?" Lily questioned as she sipped her tea.

"Yes… and no," Ken admitted.

"They already have you as a first suspect, cousin Lily," Sven winced as he held out an image of the police office. "You were the last one that the tea shop owner stated that was last seen with Ms. Phoenix,"

"Uh oh…" Crusher hissed. "That's not good,"

"We need to kidnap Mr. Flame right away," Pickle told them firmly. "If he's kidnapped while Lily's being interrogated, it'll throw off the suspicion that she did it,"

"So I need to be caught first," Lily nodded in agreement. "I think that's a good idea,"

"Maybe you can try the scheme tomorrow," Crusher yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Pickle still has something to do tonight…"

"Ken, Sven and I can kidnap Mr. Flame, so you can have your rest tomorrow, Pickle, and so that no one knows that you are the one who arranged this," Ben offered. "We also heard that your client hasn't shown his face yet, and we know how stressful it is to have a lying one,"

"Thanks, cousins," Pickle gave them all a grateful smile. "You all should have your rest tonight, tho, while I head out,"

"We will, see you tomorrow," Lily waved her brother off. "And good luck!"

"I'm gonna need it," Pickle placed on his assassin outfit and headed out the window, into the midst of the night.

He left Axle City and traveled far to where his client was living. He used his personal helicopter, covering it black in case someone with headlights tries to see it, and zipped off into the night sky. He then set it above the mansion to park it and jumped down. He landed in the garden, as instructed as he waited.

SPK69 said that he would be showing his face at that meeting. He had PROMISED that he would. They had argued about it through the messages, up to the point where Pickle threatened to not give Sparkle (not that he was planning to, anyway) and even said that he'd expose his location to the police.

SPK69 tried to turn it around to get HIM into trouble if he did so, but since Pickle had a license, the backfire failed, so the client had no choice but to agree with the arrangement.

The backdoor of the mansion soon opened, and Pickle glanced up to see a white race car to drive out, with maroon hair that had a yellow streak. The green truck narrowed his eyes at how the race car looked slightly familiar…

"So… you're SPK69,"

"Yep, that's me," the guy smirked. "but others call me… Speedrick,"

X

Blaze yawned as he woke up right at the light of sunrise. He got his cup of coffee and glanced over at the window to watch the sun rise.

He barely had any sleep that night. I mean, if anyone was in his tires, how could they…?

First his little sister was taken by an unknown kidnapper. Then… it was his mom.

And the harshest part of it is that despite being a police officer, he couldn't do anything to get them back until he knew for sure who had taken them.

And honestly? He wasn't sure at all.

Now, he was never close to Pickle nor his family. All he had seen of them was how they cared for each other and how they loved to do chores, but that was enough to convince him that neither of them would do anything to hurt them.

Right?

"You're never up this early,"

Blaze turned to see AJ walking over, still in his pajamas. He sighed and set his coffee mug down on the nearest table.

"Couldn't sleep last night,"

"Neither could I," AJ admitted. "I miss Mom and Sparkle,"

"I just… I wish I could find out what happened to them…" Blaze sighed and let out a hiss. "I don't think Lily would do something like this, though,"

"Yeah, neither would I," AJ agreed with a nod. "but the evidence pointed to her, so she is a suspect,"

"Maybe we should get in contact with Pickle before we head to the police station to see if we can get any information about his sister's whereabouts," Blaze suggested.

"But what if Pickle is in on it too?"

"AJ… would he really?" Blaze frowned. "I don't want to think any of our friends bad, you know,"

"I know, I know, but what if he does know something about this, and us telling him could warn them out?" AJ suggested with a wince.

"…alright, alright," Blaze sighed. "As much as I don't want to think about it, you're right. We can't be bias based on what we know. It could all be an act,"

"Good morning, boys," the duo turned to see Flame drive out with a yawn. "You both are up so early,"

"Sorry, Dad, just… I don't know how this case will go," Blaze let out another sigh.

"Blaze, as Police Officers, we can't be bias," AJ reminded. "If they didn't do it then we can apologize for the accusation,"

"Is it because it is your friend's sister who's being accused?" Flame questioned.

"Yeah…" Blaze nodded. "It's just… this is Pickle we're talking about. He's done nothing wrong in his life,"

"Yeah… you've got a point…" AJ agreed with a sigh. "If anything, it would be more of Crusher who would do this… but then again, kidnapping wouldn't be something he would do. He'd steal and cheat, but kidnapping doesn't seem like something he'd do,"

"And if he DID try, Pickle would've stopped him," Blaze pointed out.

"Then who could've kidnapped Phoenix and Sparkle?" Flame wondered. "It's all so confusing…"

RING! RING!

"I'll get it!" Blaze went over to the phone to pick it up. "Hello?"

["Blaze, it's Officer Anna,"] their colleague's voice rang through. ["We've got Lily in custody, but now we need you and AJ to help us with the interrogation,"]

"You've got Lily?" Blaze's eyebrows raised up. "Did she… surrender?"

["No, I was out with some of the other officers in our morning shift when we spotted her at the park, playing with the frogs in the fountain. We asked her to come with us for an investigation, and she just went with us. Now, we need help on interrogating her, so we know she speaks truth,"]

"We're on our way," AJ said.

["Good. See you two here,"]

"That's our cue to go," Blaze sighed. "Stay here, Dad, and lock the doors to make sure no one gets in,"

"Will do. Good luck," Flame nodded and watched as the two slipped into their police officer uniforms and headed out.

As they did, they all failed to notice three figures waiting for them to leave from the open window…