Chapter 4

Hustled… Again

Authors note:

Okay I'm back! Sorry for the wait. I may or may not have accidentally put a brill bit through my hand. Anyway I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Bogo was silent for a second with the rare look of surprise on his face. "Any idea what that was?"

Nick just stared after where Judy had disappeared a few seconds ago. "Not a clue, I think she may have just hustled me though."

"Is that so? Well in that case she did say that you had something to ask me about. My office, now!"

Nick spoke up quickly. He didn't want to go to Bobo's office. He knew few officers that didn't come out of that office half alive after being yelled at, and he didn't have Judy to back him up.

"I was just going to ask you about setting up some surveillance at the observatory. We've got a pattern and the next robbery could be in the next few days."

"You are aware that the senior officer of the case is supposed to deal with these kinds of matters?"

"Yes sir, I just asked Wolford if we could do it."

The Chief cocked an eye brow. "Why did you do that? I know you hate paperwork with a passion."

"Well you see he was…" He had to think fast or-

"Spit it out Wilde!"

"He was asking when Hopps and I started dating, which we aren't. That's the excuse I used to get away from him because it was really embarrassing Hopps." So much for having a silver tongue; nice one ya dumb fox!

Bogo was caught off guard, again. "I'm going to have to have a talk about proper work place conversations with Wolford." He grumbled.

"I really don't think he was trying to be rude. I think he was honestly curious, and you know how easy it is to embarrass Hopps." Nick didn't want to snitch on his friend and condemn him to a thorough chewing out.

"I think I've noticed." Bogo muttered "As long as he wasn't intentionally trying to hound you about your relationship with Hopps I'll let it go but only this once!" He turned around and started to walk off.

"But sir Hopps and I aren't in a relationship." The fox argued.

Just keep telling yourself that Wilde. The buffalo chuckled to himself.

Nick just stood there mouth slightly open. I'm losing my touch. He blamed it completely on this one ball of fuzz that just would not leave him alone, not that he would have it any other way. He just didn't like that he seemed to lose his hustlers touch when Judy wasn't around lately.

While he was lost in thought the earlier mentioned ball of fuzz made a triumphant return with two paper bags from the mess hall in hand. She waked up behind him but he still didn't notice her.

"Did talking to the Chief really shake you up that much? What ever happened to never let them see they get to you?" she teased. Nick jumped away spun around and shielded himself from her with his arms. "Jeez Nick, it's just me." He just stared at her like she wasn't wearing any clothes. "What?"

Regaining what little bit of sanity he had left he answered. "Nothing Fluff, you just surprised me. Can you stop that, you're going to make me have a heart attack?!"

"I wasn't trying to scare you Nick. That was just a bonus." She replied with a sly smirk before she turned and started for their office.

"Whatever, you say Carrots. That's the second time you've done this to me. You do know I'm going to have to get you back again, right?"

"It isn't my fault you're so jumpy, and that was good revenge for this morning. Now come on I'm hungry and we have a case to solve," she declared, then hurried off in the direction of their office. Nick just shook his head but still followed none the less; he was hungry too.

After lunch the pair resumed work on the case. Nick went down to the tech department to check out the necessary equipment for their surveillance and then dropped if off with Wolford and Fangmyer. Unfortunately he was the one stuck with all the paperwork.

Judy was going through all the past archives on the case to try and find something someone might have missed. It was all really boring. It was now almost four in the afternoon and they still hadn't found anything.

Judy groaned and flopped her head down on the desk in front of her. She was getting increasingly frustrated, she couldn't find anything that might be useful. Her ears perked us as she heard someone coming towards the office. The bunny looked up, thankful for a distraction, as Nick entered the office.

"How comes the search Carrots?" He asked with a smile.

"Nothing, I can't find anything. Whoever we're dealing with obviously knows what they're doing. Have you ever heard of any groups or individuals that have this kind of reputation or skill Nick?"

"I have heard of a few, but as far as I know none of them are in operation anymore. I never met any of them personally but Mr. Big knew some," was his answer.

Judy looked up, ears perking and a smile gracing her lips. "We should go and ask him if he knows anything about this or not. The observatory is in Tundratown, his home turf, so he has to know something."

"Not a bad idea Fluff. We should probably head over there before it gets too late."

"Yeah you're right."

She picked up her Carphartt coat. They weren't very fashionable but they held up good to heavy use and were warm. Being from Bunnyburrow she just brought the one she already had with her when she came to the city.

"Let's go, Nick."

"I'm right behind you Carrots."

On the way out Nick grabbed his Carphartt off the hook on the door.

Judy had given it to him for Christmas. It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him. Growing up Nick hadn't really gotten very much new stuff, one of the only things being the Junior Ranger Scout uniform that his mom had given him. The rest came from thrift stores and other second hand places, which he didn't mind at all. It really meant a lot to him when Judy gave him the coat. She must have bought it in advance and had it around her for a while because is still smelled kind of like her, which was a huge bonus. But he was never going to tell her that, she'd probably think it was weird.

The pair walked out and towards Wolford's office; they needed to let him know where they were going. This wasn't the first time they had worked with a bigger team. The first time they made the mistake of leaving the station without telling someone about it. By the time they got back with their suspect Bogo was getting ready to mobilize half the cops there to start a search for them. Nick couldn't see what the problem was; they were only gone all night and half the next day staking out this rich guy's house.

"Did Mr. Big ever talk about the people we're going to ask him about before?" Judy was curious about how Nick knew of these people. Oh right he says he knows everybody. She still decided to ask.

"Only once or twice and it was never in very much detail."

"Was there anything of interest that you remember?" She asked.

He sighed, he knew this was coming and he didn't really want to talk about. It was too much a reminder of the skunk butt rug incident. "Well Carrots there was one thing that might narrow our search a little. He mentioned that they were large class animals."

"That's not what I was expecting actually. I was thinking maybe someone smaller, easier for them to get in, you know?"

"Yeah me too, though it makes sense too. Did you see how big some of those pieces of equipment were?"

"You're right, the only other way they could get that equipment out without the forklift is if they were to carry it, or use their own forklift. Even then, that's after they cracked the two codes for the doors."

"We're missing something. There's no way someone could do this and not leave a trace of any kind."

"What are we missing though?" she asked.

"That is the question Carrots, that is the question."

They made it to Wolford and Fangmyer's office, it was only six doors down form theirs. Judy reached up to knock but before she could the door opened and out came Wolford.

"Oh sorry Hopps, almost got you there." He apologized.

"No worries, it's going to take more than a door to get me."

Nick chuckled. He didn't know what could stop that rabbit. She was the undefeated champion of precinct one in the sparring ring, not even the chief could best her.

"Well what did you guys want to talk to me about? Find anything on the case?" Wolford asked perking up.

"We haven't found anything yet." Wolford visibly deflated. "We do have a lead though and we were here just to let you know we're going to follow up on it."

Wolford looked at them rather surprised "You guys have a lead?"

"Well not exactly, more of an informant. Nick knows someone that might have some information on our suspect." Judy replied.

"I'd call that a lead. I haven't had a lead on this case in almost a year and half. Good job guys!" Wolford congratulated them with a double thumbs up.

"Thanks buddy. We got to go before it gets too late we have quite the drive ahead of us." Nick replied.

"I'll get out of your hair then. Good luck guys!"

"Thanks again Wolford, see you later. Come on Nick, let's go!" Judy took off towards the stairs at almost a full sprint.

Wolford turned back to Nick. "Wait Nick, where are you guys headed?"

"We're going to Tundratown. Got to talk to an old friend."

"I may have an idea who this is." Nick was about to argue but Wolford held up his paw. "But I'm not going to say anything. You just be careful."

"Well I'm not guaranteeing anything but we will try."

"I'm going to hold you to that. If one of you gets hurt Bogo is going to have my hide."

"Nick! Where are you?" Judy yelled.

Nick pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Oh great, I got to go or she's going to have my hide."

"Nick I got some advice for you, just remember this when Judy is angry at you; yes dear."

"I heard that Wolford! Unless you want to be my next sparring partner, I suggest you quit distracting my partner and go do whatever it was you were doing!" Judy roared from the lobby.

Wolford's eyes widened and the color drained from his face. "Okay shutting up now." He then took off almost running to go finish what he was doing.

"Nick, let's get going!" She yelled again.

Nick gulped and started for the stairs. "Yes dear." Maybe that wasn't that bad of advice.

Judy gave him a funny look. "What did you say?"

"Oh nothing." He deflected. "Did you actually hear what Wolford said?"

"I didn't hear all of it. Did my threat work?"

"Yeah, you scared him pretty badly. I don't think even the chief could have done any better. Does this mean I'm not your sparring partner this month?" Nick silently prayed that he wasn't going to get beat senseless again this month.

"I never said he was going to me my sparring partner. I said if he wanted to be my sparring partner."

"Carrots you've beaten me for the last two months. Don't you think that's enough?" He was all but whining now.

"If you don't hurry up and get to the car it's going to be three months." She said it with an almost evil smile, kind of like the first time she hustled him, only scarier.

It was Nick's turn to have the color run out of his face and his eyes to widen. All he could manage to do was hold up his hands and nod his head as he slowly backed away from Judy. He continued to back away slowly for about three steps until he turned around and ran away.

Judy's rare moment of triumph over Nick was cut short when it dawned one her that she was still in the middle of the lobby and that Clawhauser had seen the whole thing. Clawhauser was barely holding in one of his ear shattering squeals.

Judy just pointed at him and gave him a stern look, almost like a mom would when her kits did something bad. "Not a word of this to anyone or I'm going to talk to the chief about cutting off your doughnut supply."

Clawhauser's eyes almost rolled to the back of his head before he regained his composer and nodded his head. Judy turned around and jogged after where Nick had off run a minute ago.

After she was gone for a second Clawhauser picked up his desk phone. "Chief, Hopps is threatening people about being her sparring partner again."

"I thought I told her to stop doing that. Who was her last sparring partner?"

"It was Wilde, month before last too."

"Okay I'll take care of it." The line went dead as he hung up.

It had become custom around the office that if someone got into trouble there was a chance they would be partnered as Judy's sparring partner as punishment . I wonder who it's going to be this month. The cheetah pondered. Whoever it was going to be wasn't going to be happy.

Up in Bogo's office the buffalo was looking at a list of all his officers. He was currently counting the strikes of bad behavior they had accumulated over the last month. They all had mostly clean records other than a particular fox and bunny. "*sigh* Why is it always these two? I swear they'll never learn." He sighed again and marked Nick as Judy's next sparring partner. He almost felt bad about it, almost.

Judy caught up to Nick who was in the garage waiting by their cruiser. "So is it three months in a row or did I get here fast enough?"

She glared at him as she unlocked the cruiser. "Just get in Slick. We still have a long drive and it's getting late."

"I'll take that as yes. That was close. You had me worried there Carrots." Judy just rolled her eyes.

"You got lucky this time."

"Who knows maybe I'll get lucky next time too." He wiggled his eyebrows and started laughing.

Judy's mouth dropped open and she started to blush. "Nick!"

"What?" She just gave him a look that said 'you're kidding me?' "Oh come on you walked in to that one, admit it."

"Fine I guess I did." she huffed. "But who says you'll be the one getting lucky next time?"

Nick stopped laughing. "Wait, what?"

Judy erupted into laughter. "Oh Nick, and you say I'm easy to mess with. You should have seen the look on your face. I wish I would have had my phone out."

Judy's laughter was contagious and Nick couldn't help but to start laughing too. "Sly bunny, I walked in to that."

"Did you walk in to that? Yes, yes you did dumb fox. Now let's get going."

He gave a sloppy salute. "You're the boss Carrots."

Their drive was mostly quiet except for the occasional question about one of the many places that someone could eat at. Judy was still somewhat new to the city. With her job she didn't get to go out very often, especially to Saharasquare and Tundratown, or Nick would ask how her family was doing.

"What is that Weazer's Wing and Things place, is it any good?" The bunny asked.

"Yeah it's good, you'd like it."

"We'll have to go there sometime then." She declared.

Silence fell between them for the next twenty minutes; they both were too busy thinking about the case to talk much.

"Turn right here it'll save ten minutes." There were only a couple places to get on to the street they needed to go down that Judy knew of. Probably one of the reasons Mr. Big liked it; it was secluded.

"How long did you work with Mr. Big Nick?"

"I've known of him for most of my life. I've only know him personally for the last thirteen years. I've worked with him on and off for four of those years. One of which I worked alongside his polar bear henchman. Then I sold him the skunk butt rug. He wanted to ice me but he gave me one chance to never be seen anywhere around that area again. It's been three years now since that. Turn left here and you should be on Evergreen again."

"Why are there three streets with the word Evergreen in the name in Tundratown?"

It was true there was an Evergreen Street, Evergreen Drive, and Evergreen Lane. And to make it even more confusing they were all a block over from each other.

"I don't actually know Carrots. Maybe someone was trying to play a joke with the names and it was taken seriously."

"That sounds like something you'd do." she quipped.

"You wound me Carrots, I'll have you know that these streets were here before I was. And you're about to pass our turn."

"Like I'm going to fall for that again, I'm not that dumb of a bunny."

"No, I'm not joking this time, you just passed it!" He cried, while pointing at the driveway she had indeed just passed.

Judy turned to confirm that she really had just passed the turn and snorted almost like Bogo did when he was mad. She whipped around to give Nick the bunny look of death, before slamming on the brakes and cranking the wheel which had them sliding sideways on the icy road before fully turning around.

Nick was in almost complete shock; he was plastered to the door from the G-force and Judy could see claw marks on the seat where he had tried to hang on for dear life.

"I think I w-would r-rather you hit me for joking a-around, not try to kill me with your bad bunny d-driving."

"Oh shush."

It only took them a few seconds to make it back to the driveway they wanted. This time around Judy turned but was stopped about thirty feet in by one of Mr. Big's polar bears.

"Good evening Miss Hopps. What business do you have here?" He inquired in a gruff voice.

"Hi William, we just wanted to ask Mr. Big some questions about some old acquaintances." Judy replied.

"Very well, the car stays here though." Judy nodded in response.

The duo pulled on their coats and stepped out to follow the guard up to the manor.

Nick leaned over to Judy's ear. "They seemed to know we were coming."

"I texted Fru Fru saying we would be dropping by."

They continued on through the house into the same office they nearly got iced in almost a year and a half ago. Nick shivered, he wasn't sure if it was form the memory or the cold. Mr. Big was already waiting for them in his tiny chair atop the massive desk. Fru Fru was standing next to him holding baby Jude.

"Hi Judy!" she squeaked in her high pitched voice.

"Hi Fru Fru, Mr. Big." She nodded at him in respect.

"Good evening my dear. What is it you are here to discuss?"

"We were wondering if you had any information about the robberies that are occurring at the Yaks Observatory over the last two years, or if you might know who is pulling off these robberies?"

"Yes, I am aware of these thefts but I don't know who might be in control of them. There is one thing though; the thefts usually aren't discovered until the routine check of the warehouse. This only happened every month or so, but now happens every two weeks. About the species of mammals that would be able to move the equipment without damaging it and not being noticed; I have only one guess, but it's far-fetched."

"We'd appreciate anything you could give us." Judy interjected.

"Many years ago there was a group called the Silent Hand. There were only two people that I know of, in the group. Some say they're brothers but I'm not sure if they really are. I'll tell you what I know about them. They were originally a moving company; The Helpful Hand Moving Brothers, I think is what they called themselves."

Nick snickered, "Kind of a funny name for a moving company."

Judy elbowed him, "They were probably a family moving company, of course they were going to have a friendly name. Now stop interrupting and listen."

Mr. Big resumed his explanation. "But back on subject, something happened to them I don't know, maybe a mother died or something like that. They needed money and quite a lot very quickly to cover the cost of what ever happened to them. What do you do when you need a lot of money in a short amount of time?"

"You break the law to get it." Nick answered back in a whisper.

"Yes, that is exactly what they did. Since they were a professional moving company once they had experience moving very large things very quickly and without damaging anything. They were successful in the criminal underworld for many years but they got over confident and started getting sloppy. Eventually they were arrested by the ZPD. Story has it that your chief is the one who stopped them personally, but I don't know for sure."

Judy looked up from her notepad. "So Bogo might have some information about this; we should ask him about it in the morning." Nick nodded in confirmation. "Is there anything else you have for us?"

"There is another reason they're called the Silent Hand; anyone who ever caught them was killed."

Hearing this made Judy stop writing, Nick's eyes to widen, and Fru Fru to gasp and cover her mouth with her free hand.

"If you discover that they have returned, tread with the utmost care." Mr. Big warned.

Judy recovered from the shock first. "One more question; how many years ago did this happen?"

Mr. Big was quiet for a moment before he answered. "It's been a good twelve years since they were arrested now, and they were operating for five years before that. For now, that is all the information I have on these thefts and my theory to how they are happening. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Judy finished writing in her notepad and closed it. "No I don't thing so. Thank you so much Mr. Big, I'm sure this will help somewhere."

"You are welcome my dear."

"Do you guys want anything warm to drink before you head out?" Fru Fru asked.

Nick answered before Judy. "No, we've got to get heading back to the station before it gets super late. It'll be an early morning whether we get back late or not. Thanks anyway."

"Okay, you guys drive safe and let us know if you need anything else." Fru Fru replied.

"Bye Fru Fru I'll text you sometime." Judy said as she waived bye to little Jude. "Thanks again Mr. Big." He nodded in return.

After another cold walk back to the car the pair settled in to start heading back. "What time is it Judy?"

"It's almost nine. Why?"

"Just curious, our-" He was interrupted by his radio.

"Hopps, Wilde, this is Wolford, you guys there?"

Nick pulled out his radio and answered. "Yeah we're here buddy. What you need?"

"I was just calling after I got back from setting up the surveillance to check in with you."

"We're just finishing up here. We got a lead but we're not sure how strong it is."

"At least you got something. Since you guys are done there and your shifts are over, I could clock you out and you could just head home for the night."

"That would be nice. What do you think Carrots?"

"It would save us an hour." She answered.

"You can go ahead and clock us out. We'll see you in the morning, thanks buddy."

"Okay, you guys have a good night." The radio went quiet again after that.

"That was nice of him." Judy murmured.

"Yeah, better get going it's getting late."

They hopped into their cruiser and started turning around. The snow had started coming down harder but it was normal considering the time it was.

"Hey Nick, do you want to eat at Weazer's Wings and Things? It sounded pretty good."

"Sure I've met the owner, you'll like him." He chuckled as she started to drive.

Right away Judy knew he was up to something, and it wasn't going to end well for her.

Author's note:

Well what did you guys think? Please I'm begging tell me something, anything!

We've reached over 500 views, that is amazing! I wouldn't have gotten here with out you guys! Thank you guys so much for reading this it really means a lot to me! If you're enjoying why not favorite and follow, it goes beyond words how much I would appreciate it. And another thank you to the people who have Favorited and followed this! You guys are AWESOME! Thank you so much!

Next chapter we meet this Wezer person and our favorite fox and bunny go on a date. (It's not a date but that's what I'm calling it. Don't tell Nick and Judy. XD)

Until then this is TheAssassin_2 signing off.