Hey all. I'm a bit late but still I wanted to wish you all a Happy 2017.

22. The 'Sensitive' Evidence

==Nick==

Outside I found Kevin waiting for me in the parking lot. He towered over the car he was standing next to and because of that, I was certain that he drew a lot of attention. It didn't fit into the daily image of the precinct's parking lot, to have a huge bear standing among the cars, at least not one that wasn't an officer. He didn't notice my approach until I appeared from behind the row of vehicles. He was browsing through some stuff on his phone, I couldn't see what. He kept swiping his thumb.

"Kevin?" I asked.

"Mmhm?" He replied without breaking eye-contact with his smartphone.

"How long have you been standing here like this?"

He didn't answer me straight away. First he typed and sent out a text, closed the files of whatever it was that he had done until I arrived, and finally tucked it away. Only then did he shift his gaze to meet mine.

"Does it matter?"

I felt a certain agitation arise from the stupidity of that question, yet managed to withhold informing him of that.

"It does."

He drew a pensive look and concluded that it was likely around half an hour. I sighed and scratched my cheek. Chances were high more than one animal had seen him hanging around here. That idiot, why couldn't he have stayed low or at least waited somewhere else. That was a bit unfair since I had asked him to wait here. Well, there was nothing to do about it now. We had to try it another day, now would be too risky. It would raise questions, and to answer them, I needed a credible story for me to walk in with a humongous, criminal polar bear. A thought occurred.

"Hey Kevin. Smash that backlight. That one, next to you."

"What for?"

"Do you ask Big so many question when he asks you to do things?"

"No, but he pays me and you don't."

He had a fair point.

"Just smash it."

To my unpleasant surprise, he smashed not the one I pointed at, but that of my own car. I was too late to react, thus the glass splinters of my right backlight were scattered around our feet. He looked at me patiently, waiting for an explanation.

"I meant the other car actually."

"I know." He replied deadpanned.

I should have known.

"Right, well, you are hereby under arrest for vandalism of police property."

With more speed than Kevin could have anticipated for, I cuffed him in the fluent motion Judy had told me to imprint. Having applied it on a real-life suspect for the first time, I realized that all that practice paid off. Kevin's stoic expression plummeted into an angry one. He tried to break open the pawcuffs with all his strength, yet they were made to withstand a full-grown male elephant, thus he wouldn't succeed in a million years. He growled at me menacingly.

"You better pray these cuffs hold me, Nick."

"Oh stop whining, I'll release you once we're inside."

The confusion was clearly readable. Big's henchmen might be strong, they were not always very clever. Although he let me guide him inside, I was certain that he still didn't fully understand the plan. That didn't matter as long as he remained his usual taciturn self, so he wouldn't mess it up.

Upon our passage through the entrance hall, we received a great number of eyes. It gave me a strange sensation, and not in a positive way. It was of course our size difference that sparked everyone's interest. Who would think that a small fox like myself would be capable of bringing in an adult polar bear? The attention faded almost as quickly as it had emerged. As so often, the best cover was to hide in plain sight. I was not trying to sneak a criminal into the evidence room. If anyone asked, I was simply bringing in a suspect; And if anyone bothered to check up on the story, there was my broken car light to support it.

Despite my preparations, nobody cared enough to give us any second thoughts and thus I reached the locker room without trouble. Hiding behind Kevin's massive stature, I pulled myself up by his suit to peek through the glass window of the locker room. When I was certain it was empty, we went in, where I removed the cuffs. In an automated response, he rubbed his wrists and looked around the room.

"Now what?"

"Now…" I said, digging my lock picking tool up from my duty belt. "… we get you a uniform."

There were always some officers on leave and with everyone on the force being as large as Kevin, finding his size couldn't be hard. The first one was already a match. Tentatively, Kevin replaced his black suit and tie for the slightly worn out ZPD uniform of Officer Anderson. Although few animals came here in the middle of the day – shifts started early or late, rarely around noon – I asked him not to dawdle. I didn't like the idea of getting caught stealing a uniform. The chances of it happening were slim, yet they existed.

"How can you wear this, the collar is way too tight." He complained, trying to stretch it up.

"Says the guy who wears a tie on daily basis."

He groaned and gave up trying to free himself from the collar's grip.

"Okay, so here's the plan. The limousine will be in with in the 'large evidence' storage, which is just a few doors from here. The problem is that there's a guy at the entrance that keeps track of who comes and goes."

"So how do you plan to bypass him?" He wondered.

"Well, I was told he is not very good with faces."

"Told by who?"

"My most reliable source of advice…"

He looked at me quizzically.

"Myself."

Before he could write down my sense of humor, I preceded him to the evidence storage a little further down the hallway. On our way there, I urged on him to remember that he had to act like an officer and not a henchman. Sadly, this only made his movements more idiotic, thus I took back my words and assured him that it wasn't that important after all. Better a non-motile bear than a one that looked like he was shot in the leg…

"Now remember. If he asks, you're Officer Anderson and you returned early from your holiday. Got it?"

He nodded.

"Good."

Upon my arrival at the reception desk, the old ram looked up from his computer screen. He looked at me, then at Kevin. His eyes narrowed as he read the latter's name tag. Afterwards he compared Kevin's face to the name on his uniform. He took his time with it, but eventually concluded that face and name were a match. I had estimated correctly that with so many different mammals coming here on a daily basis, he wouldn't be able to distinguish everyone. That said, he did know a few names, mine and Judy's included. That wasn't so strange, we were the only ones of our kind and therefore an unusual sight.

"Ah Nick, what can I do for you?"

"Hey Ted…"

Old Ted Curlhorn had been stationed here longer than chief Bogo and was, with his thirthy-eight years the officer with the longest service period in the ZPD. Everybody knew Ted and despite his age, he had a very lively personality. He liked to trick new recruits into believing he was helpless to have them carry him up the stairs every now and then, only to tell them that he had forgotten being stationed at ground level. I remembered him trying to fool me as well. It had pleased him that I hadn't judged him simply on his appearance. Of course, few mammals knew that my previous 'job' required me to read other's personalities, to avoid picking the wrong targets.

"I'm here to look at that limo that has been brought in yesterday. That ring any bells?"

"Sure. It's not every day that I get a car with so much bling."

With some difficulty he raised himself from his chair, but once one his feet, he was quite mobile. Again, the unnerving sensation tremored across my body and through my veins. I tried my best to ignore it, though it kept nagging. After bringing me to the limousine, Ted showed it to me proudly, like he owned the thing. I agreed with him that it was a shiny car, however I remembered all too well how I found it, and under what circumstances. That kind of spoiled the glamour of it all.

"Thanks Ted. I'll let you know when I need anything else."

He nodded and returned to his post. Seeing him leave, I felt slightly guilty for fooling him. I had become quite fond of him and his shenanigans. Still, what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him, and I had to find Judy, no matter what the cost.

"Well, Kevin, you're up."

He pointed at the roof and swirled his finger.

"What about the surveillance cameras?" He whispered.

"Nobody ever checks those unless something goes missing. And Mr. Big told me that is impossible that this 'evidence' of his has been found yet. Well, what isn't found, can't go missing, can it?"

He thought about this for a second, yet soon saw the logic of my reasoning. I was glad to see he knew exactly where to be. Even though I had everything under control, the longer we stayed, the greater the chance we'd run into unforeseen troubles. Surely, nothing could have prolonged our stay more than Kevin not knowing where to look.

"Do you have a charger cable?" He asked.

"I do actually." I replied, pulling the charger cable from my pocket.

Ironically, the reason I had that with me, was due to my hasty departure this morning as a result of Kevin himself. He gestured me to come closer and handed me his phone, whilst he opened the door. I plugged it into his phone and returned to him both elements. Whilst sitting in the driver seat, he placed the phone on his lap and unclicked a silver charm from a charm bracelet on his wrist. A closer look revealed that all the charms were in fact small keys, undoubtedly leading to similar secrets like the one I was going to witness. He inserted the key into a lock that was hidden in the hinge area of the limousine's driver door. It was only accessible when the door was opened and therefore perfectly concealed. After twisting the key, a slit uncovered two USB entrances, in one of which Kevin plugged his phone. A few touches on his phone's display and he began retrieving the required data. I peeked on his screen to read the name and size of the files. From what I saw, I had my suspicions of what it was that he was downloading.

"Is that what I think it is?"

He glanced at me briefly, but looked back at the phone without answering me.

"Isn't it illegal to have cameras in taxiing vehicles?"

"Now you understand why this evidence is sensitive."

"I could charge the company with violation of privacy, you know that?"

"You could also shut up and let me find out who took my boss's daughter and your friend." He answered dryly.

I did as commanded and held my tongue. Judy and Fru Fru were indeed top priority now. Besides, it was only natural that with Mr. Big's off record activities, he had taken precautions for when somebody decided to retaliate. By kidnapping his daughter for example.

When the transfer was complete, he returned me the cable and sealed the hidden USB ports. He attached the key to his bracelet again and closed the door. I assumed that this meant that he was finished, thus I preceded him to the Ted's desk. I thanked the old ram and bid him a good day. When he told Kevin, in his mind Officer Anderson, to give his best wishes to the wife and child, I was once more stung by my guilty conscious. It was a bit funny actually. All those years as a conman I never would even have thought that I had a conscious.

After Kevin had changed back into his own clothing, the trickiest part of my plan came. Because virtually everyone had seen me enter the building with a pawcuffed polar bear, leaving the building with that same bear, was going to raise some questions. The two possibilities were for Kevin and I to exit the building alone, or to exit together via the back entrance. The latter seemed more appealing to me, albeit Kevin correctly stated that the former had the highest chance of success. Five minutes after he had left, I followed. Our rendezvous was my car outside, easily recognizable by the broken backlight. When I strolled through the main hall, I finally recognized the strange feeling that bugged me since I had entered the building.

Nervousness.

I hadn't felt this way for years, the last time having been in my eleventh year maybe. It was the anxiety of a rookie trickster, therefore me suffering from it, was a real surprise. The reason I deduced quickly from the sight of my own reflection in the freshly waxed tile floor. My uniform, my job, my life. I was putting all of it at risk by doing what I did. Sure, it was for Judy, which made it all worth it, but for the very first time I actually had something to lose if my scam went wrong. If they caught me, I would not only face jail time. I would lose my partnership with Judy. On the other hand, the nervousness was also evidence that I had a happy life now, and I cherished it enough to have my subconscious warn me not to lose it.

"Hey Nick!" I heard Clawhauser call me.

He visibly startled me from my trance, which seemed to amuse him.

"Didn't mean to scare you." He apologized smilingly.

I walked over to him in what felt to my like the most unnatural way possible. The nerves made my hair stand on end, a trait that was luckily limited to the fur underneath my uniform.

"How did it go with the chief? Please don't tell me he fired you."

I laughed, something which was not often done by my usual self. I had to get a grip quickly before I'd be the one messing up instead of Kevin.

"Strangely enough he didn't."

The cheetah's eyes widened.

"Really?" He bent forward and continued in a whisper. "Cause just about everyone is gossiping about how you just charged into the chief's office."

I looked around to see some of officers indeed watching me and mutter to each other behind their paws. In my tense mood, I had believed it to be because of my scheme. This being the true reason, was good news and my tension was slightly subdued by it. Being more relaxed, I didn't have to think long about my reply. Bogo had spared me by acting so mildly, it was on me to spare his image.

"Well, it did cost me a week of my holidays and I need to do some extra parking duties."

"Sounds like you dodged a bullet. If you had caught him in a bad mood, you'd be scrubbing floors or something."

I was intrigued by the fact that Ben considered the punishment I had made up for myself to be light. Apparently Bogo's regime was a harsher one than I imagined. If so, I was very lucky that Bogo was a more sensitive soul than he had everyone believe and that he understood my feelings, regarding Judy's disappearance.

"Well, I'm off to my first parking duty." I said goodbye, realizing that my imaginary penalty also gave me the perfect opportunity to be out of the office to look for Judy.

"Good luck." He replied supportively.

I left the building and headed for the parking lot, glad that I still mastered my old habit of scheming. Hopefully the limousine cameras could identify the culprit. Unfortunately for me, my content was short-lived. Because when I reached my car, I noticed Kevin to be absent and it dawned on me, that I had been played like one of Jerry Vole's fiddles.