Summary:

Judy steps in to visit an old friend and ask her some questions, leaving Wilde behind to make a friend of his own.

Notes:

Yes! I'm still alive, just very busy. Sorry.

Here ya go!

"Partner?" Nick echoed. "What, the wonder gumshoe actually had a partner? You never mentioned that in class! And yet Bogo had to twist your arm to take me on?" Nick cocked his head as he looked down at her striding form with one eye, "What's the story?"

"Two, actually..." Judy grumbled, "And it's a long story..."

"Oh, do tell!" Nick chuckled. "I'm all ears!" He waggled his ears on either side of his hat band while he winked down at her.

Judy, still a little flummoxed from having forest fox dumped on her lap after her dream filled night, simply swept her fedora from her crown to hold her ears erect.

"Oooo Much bigger than mine! I'm jealous, I really am. So, rabbit. Who's the former partner? Ursine? Proboscidean, perhaps?" He leaned down so that his muzzle was level with her gaze, "Canine, may chance?" He took in her scent as he sniffed delicately. A sly grin snaked along his narrow muzzle as he intoned with light laughter, "Ho ho! Run with a hare, did you?"

Judy paused in front of a glass door, and half turned her head over her shoulder, "You wish." With a grin of her own on her muzzle, she uttered a single word as she pushed open the door.

"Felines."

Taken momentarily back, Nick stood up straight as a hidden shiver chased down his back fur. His eyes bolted up to the writing on the door as the rabbit detective passed through the threshold.

"ZPD VICE"

Concern suddenly appearing upon the cast of his bearing, Nick dawdled at the open door for a moment, lagging behind the advancing rabbit. She strode across the room to a gray steel desk where a gray timber wolf sat, dressed to the nines in a gray pinstriped suit, leaning back in his gray chair and absently chewed on a pencil while staring at a flickering computer screen filled with text.

"Wolfard." She called out as she approached. The wolf, distracted by his work, didn't notice her query. She skipped the last few feet to stand beside his chair and stood for a moment beside the distracted canine, until she could no longer stand being ignored.

"WOLFARD!" She yelled louder.

The wolf flinched, his pencil flying from his grasp as he recoiled from the sudden appearance of a small but intense mammal at his side. "CHEESES, HOPPS!" He cried out. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"Yeah..." she drawled, "Sure..." not believing a word. "Your boss in?" She asked sweetly, cocking her head at the corner office's closed door.

Wolfard, searching around him for his missing pencil, nodded as he waved a paw in the direction of that office. Looking back up at the rabbit, he finally noticed Nick walking up to stand behind Judy. He squinted at the smaller canine dressed in khaki.

"Who's the dodger?" He asked her.

Before Judy could answer, Nick arrived to stand beside her. With a scowl on his brow he pipped up, "Dodger? Look who's talking, Buddy!" He gestured down at his olive uniform and then at the gray wolf, "At least I don't looks like some mob wisedog!"

Wolfard started to retort but he quickly ground to a halt, his response withering on his tongue under the onslaught of angry amethyst eyes. Judy held up a paw to silence the two posturing males before they got further along with their insults, having little patience for displays of masculine canine dominance. She turned to leave, but paused for a moment. Without turning around or moving her head, she cocked an ear at the floor behind her, "Wilde. Stay." and then moved off to the corner office with purpose in her step.

Shocked at being commanded like a wayward kit, Nick stared after her slack-jawed, only to flinch at Wolfard's sharp bark of laughter. He turned his green eyes, suddenly temper hot, back to that grinning wolf.

Judy knocked on the glass door and without being bidden she pushed into the cramped office. Cramped not because it was small, but because it was filled with filing cabinets of various sizes piled high with forms and folders, the clutter threatening to cascade down up the occupant's broad feline shoulders.

"Yeah…?" the tigress drawled in a tired voice, not yet looking up from her paperwork pile at the intruder. She leaned on the broad desk with both tawny arms, the cuffs of her ivory shirt rolled up to her thick biceps. Her black coat was tossed carelessly across the back of the rickety wooden chair she sat on, it creaking ominously with each slow movements of her powerful body as she shifted, turning each page in one pile over slowly to lay it haphazardly on another shifting pile which threatened to cascade over her desk nameplate and onto the floor at Judy's feet. A nameplate that stated in bold sulfated brass that 'Senior Detective-In-Charge Micah Fangmeyer, ZPD VICE' held court over the disaster at paw.

Judy, a grin alight upon her muzzle as she watched the display, coughed lightly. The tigress flicked her eyes up, and beholding the rabbit's form she lit up with a grin in response. Sitting up with renewed energy, she greeted the smaller mammal with an enthusiastic, "BUNS!"

"Hey ya, Micah." Judy paused for a moment, "You up for a visit from an old partner?" She asked, "I need to pick your brain."

"From you? Always!" She gestured to the sole chair not covered in boxes. "Grab a seat. And leave the door open."

"Sure," Judy replied as she crawled into the seat. She turned and watched as Micah leaned to gaze out the open door. Judy turned and tried to see what she was looking at before turning back and looking at the tigress with a furrowed brow.

Staring out the door Micah answered the questing bunny's gaze, "Just making sure that Wolfard isn't jerking off or anything." She flicked her eyes back to meet Judy's, "He needs constant supervision, you know?"

Judy snickered behind her paw. "Well, he is a male, you know!" She retorted.

Micah snorted as she leaned back in her protesting chair, "Yeah… Speaking of which, what's with Ranger Rick out there? He with you or something?"

Judy rolled her eyes and with a suffering sigh she groaned, "Yes… He's on loan from the Forestry department."

Micah leaned back and gazed back out at the two arguing canines. Her eyes flicked down as she took in all of the newly arrive vulpine, "Nice tail!"

"Micah!" Judy objected.

Her eyes flicking back to Judy's, she observed, "Nice muscular butt too..." She waited to see what Judy thought of that.

Judy, caught between exasperation and laughter, just ground her jaw and scowled at her old partner.

Micah chuckled for a moment before comprehension finally dawned on her tired brain, "Wait… Forestry? Is this something to do with why all the crime scenes techs disappeared yesterday?"

Judy sat up and nodded, "Yeah. You hear about that?"

Micah nodded, "The electronic techs were geeking out about it in the OC van last night. Lots and lots of bodies, found in a swamp."

Judy nodded, "Yeah, at least two dozen, in various states of decay. Mostly large predators, but I don't have an exact break down yet. I still have to talk the M.E. about that." Judy looked at Micah and asked, "What were you doing in an Organized Crime Surveillance unit last night?"

Micah rubbed a paw pad in her tired eyes, "We're doing a joint OP with them, trying to help them get somewhere on their latest Big family investigation."

"Oh?" Judy inquired, professionally interested in the ever continuing saga of the ZPD's cold war with Mr. Big's criminal operation. "He's getting on in the years now, isn't he? Isn't he retired or something?"

Micah snorted, "Retired my furry ass. He's still holding high court at that drafty mansion of his, surrounded by wise-bears. She shook her head, "The rumor on the street though, is that he's handed the reins of power over to his daughter, Fru-Fru. Not sure I believe that, though. She's mostly involved with the day to day operations of her husband's bakery business; making wedding cakes and shit like that."

She shrugged, "I dunno… Maybe she's just as dirty as Daddy is. Not sure what she'd do with all the bodies that side of the family business would generate. Maybe she's having her husband cremate them in his ovens." She looked thoughtfully down at the small detective, "Or… Maybe she's having them buried out in the backyard?..." Micah gestured to the north.

Judy mulled that over, "Maybe… Weird MO, though." Micah looked back at her and nodded for her to continue. "Like I said, the bodies were mostly large predators. The latest victim wasn't even buried yet, just wrapped in a tarp. We know he was a bear, but beyond that we have no idea who he was."

"Why not? He not in the ZPD system?" the tigress asked.

Judy shook her head, "No, it's not that. He was skinned, Micah. From head to paw." Judy motioned with her claw along her arm.

Micah recoiled with a distasteful grimace, "Oww… Okay… Now that does sound like a mob hit, ya know. Strike fear everywhere sort of thing?"

Judy nodded, "Yeah, kinda. Actually, there was more to it… Um… the vic was seriously underweight, and his claws were broken. Some were even missing entirely." Judy waggle her fingers in demonstration, miming the claws being yanked out one by one.

"Like he was being kept somewhere without food or water and being tortured?" Micah observed.

"Maybe..." Judy shrugged, "Except that it's kinda messy. Can you see Raymond or his cousin getting blood on their glossy white fur or their expensive suites?"

Micah shook her head, "No, knowing that bunch you would expect them to choose something neater, like tossing their victim in the drink. You would think that if they wanted to send a message, they'd do something like that where the body can be found easily, not tucked back some swampy corner of a wildlife park."

Judy agreed, "Looking at the psychology of it, certainly. A killing of this nature exhibits a lot of rage, and I would surmise this sort of hit would only be reserved very special enemies. Ones where they want the victim to disappear afterwards." She chewed on her lip for a moment before asking the tigress, "Is there some gang war going on that I don't know about, maybe some missing bosses or something?"

Micah shook her head in denial, "No! That's the thing! Everything is too peaceful right now. Nothing is going down that would explain a couple of dozen bodies, nothing that I've heard of at least. Hell, if there was a turf war going on, OC would arrest the Bigs just to calm things down. And I'm not seeing that with any of the drugs gangs or gambling dens. Most of the drug gangs operate over the Internet these days, and gambling victims can't pay back their debts if they're dead, ya know?" Micah threw up her paws, "Hell, I'm not even missing any of my regular street informants, and if there was something big going on I'd expect at least one or two of them to disappear!"

"Yeah, actually, speaking of informants, that's what I wanted to pick your brain about." Judy explained.

"When's the last time you talked to Duke, Micah?"