CHAPTER 3: Savin me

Nickelback

- Present Time -

-Nick's POV-

Today's the day that Judy should be coming to visit me for the week. Thank god too, because I've been bored as hell the last couple days.

I did see a fight out in the yard yesterday for the first time in awhile. One guy stole something the other guy had I guess, not too sure. I wasn't going to get close enough to find out.

Anyway, as I said earlier, Judy's coming today. At this point I've pretty much given up hoping that shes found something new. I mean it's been a year and still nothing has come up, so why would today be any different?

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"You have a visitor," the guard says knocking on my cell door.

I get off the bed and put my hands through small window in the door while the guard puts the cuffs on me. He then opens the door and motions for me to step out into the hall.

He closes the cell door and escorts me down the hall, down the stairs and then towards the room where Judy will meet me. It is a long walk to the room but it is definitely worth it.

One thing I like most about Judy visiting is that she can call it an " investigation" for the case and we can have a whole interrogation room to ourselves. No stupid phones and glass between us.

We get to the room and the guard opens the door for me, and we walk inside.

One bad thing I don't like about the interrogation room is that since it's an "interrogation" my hands are handcuffed to the table the whole time. This annoys me when I try to explain things, because I can't use hand motions. But it is a room all to ourselves so I guess I can't really complain.

The guard takes my hands and puts them in the cuffs stuck to the table. Once stuck to the table he walks out, leaving me here. Judy isn't in the room yet, so for a few minutes I have the room completely to myself.

There really isn't anything interesting in the interrogation room. Just a clock and the table, and a few chairs.

I've been in here enough that this should just make this my cell instead of the other one, at least it's a different color of grey.

Suddenly the door on the opposite side of the room opens and Judy walks in with her usual briefcase in hand.

She looks like she always does in her standard police uniform. There was something off about her though, maybe it was how she walked faster or how she seemed like she was thinking about something. Nervous or excited? I'm not sure what it was but was definitely something was off.

"Hey Nick." She says quickly and sits down across the table from me.

"Hey Carrots, you found anything new yet?" I ask, shrugging off the weird walk, expecting to hear the same old answer I've been hearing for the last year.

She gives me this look that she always does when I call her carrots.

"Well actually, there is something new I found alittle weird, and thought you might want to see it."

I'm surprised to hear this, so I just stay quite and wait for her to continue. She opens her case and pulls out a piece of paper, then slides it over to me.

I look down at the picture and realize what it is.

"Wait, this is the one! How did you find this?"

"Well, I was finding nothing on him in our department, I started asking around in different departments and eventually I got something. Apparently he was caught trying to steal pc hardware a few years ago. He's been caught a few times doing that actually by the looks of it. He got into pretty big trouble the last time he was caught but someone posted his bale so he didn't end up in jail for it. "

"Well this is definitely the one." I said looking at the mug shot. Judy had brought in pictures of other jaguars before but none of them had ever been the right one.

The jaguar had a big scar across his jaw, this was one of the biggest things Nick remembered about him. He was pretty large in muscle stature, and looked like he wanted to break something…. or someone.

I look at the picture, remembering that night. There's finally some evidence of my innocence, maybe he will finally be brought to justice for the shit he did to me and my friends.

"So this guy steals electronics and probably makes the collars for big money. The animal that posted his bail is probably working with him I would assume?" I ask.

"That's another thing, I couldn't find anything on who posted his bail. All of the files on that were gone from the system by the time I got to it. Makes it awfully suspicious don't you think? Oh and something else you'll find interesting, you remember that one fox in the jury at your trial that said you weren't guilty?"

"Yea I remember, why?" I said half paying attention while studying the picture.

"Well shortly after the trail, he disappeared. Everyone thought he had just moved and that's why the police weren't informed until now. His name was Jacob Frost, and only 20 years old. It wasn't until his landlord didn't get payed for the year and he went to check on him, that's when we found out."

"What? Wait, there wasn't anything left behind from him?"

"No, he left EVERYTHING behind and that's what makes it even more strange. He had a promising future in the medical field, and lived in a nice place. When they checked his apartment, nothing had seemed to be touched at all in a very long time. Not sure why he would want to leave all of that. Now it's almost like he never existed at all."

"Wow, that's sad actually. I liked that kid, unlike everyone else he seemed like he actually cared about what happened to me." I say remembering the young fox from the trial.

We sat silently while I looked over the pictures she gave me, while she sat quietly tapping her fingers on the table.

"Nick," Judy said nervously.

"Hmm,"

She grabs her papers and started playing with them like she was about to speak in front of a large audience.

"Well…..uhh….I know how much you hate this place…and uhh…I was was thinking…..What if I were to…..kinda just…break…..you out of here?" She said getting quieter with every word.

I looked up at Judy in surprise, did she just suggest breaking me out of prison?

"What! Carrots, are you crazy! Very few mammals have ever broken out of this prison, and when most of them did they were shot just outside the gate! And let's not forget I'm an inmate in maximum security, 24/7!" I say, trying to stay quite.

Thank god this room is really sound proof.

"Yes, I know! But I've thought this out for awhile now, and we both know your not getting out for A LONG time without some help. Trust me, I have a plan and I can get you out of here."

There was a long silence between us two. I was staring down at the table trying to decide if it was worth it to break out or wait utill my case is reopened and I'm proven innocent. It was a hard decision to make.

Possibly get out of here and live the rest of my life free, but likely always on the run….or stay and live the rest of my life in a cell, but possibly get out legally and live semi normally again.

Either way, I wanted to hunt this jaguar and give him what he deserved. So I guess the sooner the better right?

"Fine, so how do you plan to get me out?"

It's fun to re-read this story again and just be able to reimagine it in a slightly new way, I'm really enjoying this. Hope you are too! :)