Chapter 9: The Good, the Bad and the Weasel
Sitting in her police car, Judy nervously tapped the steering wheel as she turned her head and stared at a medium sized house.
The building was roughly three stories high and was painted with red and white colors that had begun to peel off, and a multitude of bikes and cars of various sizes made it clear that it had many different tenants living there.
Taking a deep breath, she finally stepped out of the car and made her way over to the house.
Stepping inside, she looked at the mailboxes and eventually found the needed name and apartment number. After going up three cases of stairs, the bunny soon found herself standing before the door. She extended her hand and was about to knock, but then quickly pulled it back.
Why did she feel so nervous? All she had to do was to visit her partner's mother and reassure her that everything was going to be all right. Nothing about that sounded difficult in practice, or particularly hard in execution, but for some reason Judy still didn't dare to knock.
"Come on Judy, you can do this… Just… Knock…" Judy whispered to herself. "Its not like Nick has died or something, so come on and be a good girl…!"
"Can I help you?" A voice suddenly came from behind her. Meeping and turning around, Judy recognized her partner's mother.
She was a middle-aged vixen, whom Judy had to admit looked very good for her age. She herself never understood if this was a natural talent for some females or if they went trough some special training, but for someone who according to Nick was supposed to be in her late 40's, she looked at least ten years younger. She wore a simple dress with her hair done in a ponytail, had a rather good figure, and a set of familiar, green eyes that currently looked down at Judy for what seemed like an eternity.
The female vulpine then tilted her head and smiled gently. The plastic bag in her paw made it apparent that she had returned from grocery shopping.
"H-hello ma'am, I'm Judy Hopps, Nick's partner," Judy said, extending her paw. Blinking and now looking at her with a sense of recognition, the vixen took her paw and shook it.
"Ah, I knew I had seen you somewhere before. It was too bad that we didn't have any time to talk at the graduation," the vulpine replied. She then let go of Judy's paw and opened the door to her apartment. "The name's Alice. Do come in, I'll make some coffee."
"Thank you, ma'am," Judy said and stepped inside.
The apartment itself wasn't that big, roughly one could say it had about three to four rooms. But, what it did have was a feeling of warmth and coziness to it, with the tapestries being of a warm shade of ocher with a burgundy flower-pattern, old school furniture (though, Judy did notice a few more modern things from the TV to the laptop resting on the coffee table), a brick fireplace and a faint smell of cinnamon that seemed to linger in the air.
While Alice prepared some coffee in the kitchen, Judy walked up to the fireplace, on top of which she could see several framed photos that had caught her interest.
The first one showed a much younger Mrs. Wilde in her teens wearing what could be described as punk-styled clothing, and next to her stood a male fox around the same age in a leather jacket and some jeans. Looking closer, Judy noticed that the male fox looked a great deal like Nick, except, his fur had a lighter tone and had brown eyes instead of emerald. They were both leaning against a motorbike, with the male having his hands wrapped around his girl's stomach and nuzzling her neck while she looked like she was in mid-laughter.
The photo next to it showed the two on their wedding day, both dressed for the occasion and sharing a deep kiss.
The next one showed the female vulpine looking a few years older and dressed as a waitress with a pregnant belly clearly showing. She was smiling proudly at whoever the photographer was as she served some customers in a diner.
In the one next to it Judy saw Alice sitting in a chair and holding an infant Nick, who was sucking his thumb and to the bunny's admittance looked too adorable for words.
But she did notice that as the images went on, Nicks father was nowhere to be seen in the photos. Her eyes stopped on the last photo on the far right, in which she could see Nick and his mother together. Nick looked like he was in his late teens, wearing graduation garbs which were messed up and torn up in places. He also had a clearly busted up nose and a badly hidden black eye. His mother stood next to him and tried to give her best smile.
As Judy stared at said photo, she heard a soft cough and turned her head. Mrs. Wilde was already sitting on the couch with two cups of coffee and some biscuits.
"Oh, I apologize, didn't mean to snoop, just these photos…" Judy said, her ears blushing with embarrassment as she sat beside her. "Forgive me Mrs. Wi-"
"Please, just call me Alice dear," the vixen replied softly as she looked at Judy."And it's quite all right, I understand your curiosity."
Judy walked over, sat down next to Alice and took her cup. Staring down at it in silence, she then looked at Alice as she tried to think of the right words to say. She bit her lower lip and finally spoke.
"I'm sorry Mrs.- I mean Alice," she said with her ears going down as she put the cup back on the table. "I'm sorry for what has happened."
The vixen looked at her a tad surprised, but then gave the bunny a gentle smile as she patted Judy on the head.
"Dear, there's no need to apologize. I can tell you care deeply for my son and will do your utmost to prove that he is innocent," she whispered, as she then looked at her coffee cup. "Besides, I've grown kind of used to seeing him ending up in a jail cell, just like his father."
"His father? What happened to him?" Judy asked as she couldn't recall Nick ever mentioning his father to her.
Letting out a soft sigh, Alice crossed her fingers together and stared ahead of herself in silence, clearly trying to gather all her thoughts properly. A faint smile then began to manifest itself in her face.
"His father always wanted the best for me. Even when I didn't ask for anything, he'd go out of his way to provide for me," she said and gave off a nostalgic chuckle. "When he found out that he was gonna be a father, he went to the most extreme lengths to make sure that our child would have it all."
As she said that, her smile began to fade away and she closed her eyes.
"But it was hard for him to find a proper job. We had just finished college, and getting a good job for a fox wasn't exactly easy back then. Most big companies wouldn't accept John because of his species," she murmured then sighed again, placing a sugar cube in her coffee and stirring it with a spoon. "So he had no other choice but turn to petty thievery. I knew this wasn't the right way, but I also understood why he did it. However, he wasn't very good when it came to picking his targets. After getting caught several times, he turned to gambling and began to drink… That was my last straw. When Nick was around five I filed for divorce… Since then, I haven't seen or heard from him."
Alice paused and took a careful sip from her cup.
Judy nodded slowly. This certainly explained why Nick didn't talk much about his father. Not being in contact with him since such a young age had probably not given him much to talk about.
As Alice lowered her cup she began to talk again.
"You probably know about Nicholas and the boy scouts."
This made Judy's ears spring up. Noticing her reaction, Alice nodded.
"He didn't tell me about it himself, I found it out on my own when one of those children's parents called me. Apparently, the kid's father was a policeman, and the muzzle was something the kid had taken from his police belt. He told me he was sorry and even made his kid apologize to Nick, but… Nick had taken it much harder than you'd imagine." The middle-aged vixen shook her head and then looked at the sad-looking rabbit next to her.
"I doubt Nick will ever admit it, but he thinks very highly of you, Judy," Alice said, taking Judy's paw. "You gave him something back that I couldn't. You gave him a reason to trust people again, and for that, I am very grateful."
Judy felt her cheeks starting to heat up, and her eyes began to glimmer with determination. She took Alice's paw and gave it a squeeze, their eyes meeting, and with that, they both understood that neither would back down in this. Not now, not ever. Not much more needed to be said.
Well, except…
"You want to see Nick's baby-pictures?"
Alexis apartment was drenched in darkness as the ocelot busied herself at pummeling her punching bag, wearing just her jeans and a sports bra, as her phone blared Russian melodies in full volume on her nightstand.
Breathing heavily, the feline stopped for a few seconds to wipe some sweat from her brow, feeling a throbbing pain in her side.
Sleeping had been a no-go after fixing her nightly preparations, so she had instead spent the remaining hours exercising. Her wounds had started to ache profusely, so most of her regular training schedule had to be put on hold until she got better, or she might just make things worse for herself. Her arms were in a better condition than most of her body, so she had focused most of her training on them.
Taking a bottle of painkillers from her drawer and popping a few in her mouth, she then went back to the boxing bag. Injuries or not she wasn't about to get lazy.
She hadn't gotten any calls or messages from Wooly yet (especially after she had given him an earful about the whole godmother part and what she'd like to do with his cosplaying ass), so things seemed like they were going according to plan.
Unleashing a few more punches she then heard her doorbell ringing, raising an eyebrow and looking at her clock. She then remembered; she had scheduled a meeting with her neighbor last night.
Wiping some of the sweat off her face with a towel and putting on a shirt she then approached the door. Alexis then stopped midway as she passed her mirror. Looking at her reflection, she put on her best "happy face" and then went to open the door.
Chris was on the other side of it, wearing his trademark nervous expression.
"H-H-Hey… So, um, h-here I am… You look-" Chris said, with his ears pinning against his scalp as he got a good look at her face. Besides a visible black eye, the ocelot's eyes looked reddened by sleep deprivation. "… Tired. Jeez, rough night huh?"
"Mmmmm…I've been занета (busy) and sleep wasn't on the agenda," Alexis replied, internally cursing herself for forgetting to cover her eye up with something. "So, shall we go?"
Looking a bit uncertain at first, Chris then nodded and led her to his apartment. Before stepping in, she could see Chris full name written over the letterbox. Christopher Mau it read, which struck her as a pretty exotic last name.
Walking into the caracal's apartment, the ocelot was surprised by how different this place was from hers. Having pretty much the same outlay as her own apartment, it looked a lot more colorful, with most of the furniture wearing bright shades of autumn colors. His living room was decorated in a more interesting choice of decor, with several bookcases filled with what seemed like movies, games, books, and even anime, as well as several movie posters decorating the walls. He also had a flat screen television with three types of consoles placed within the shelves of the TV-table and several games stacked next to them.
All of this looked very foreign to Alexis, who generally hadn't seen that many movies while growing up, and had to her memory never even touched a video game before. To see someone her age that would invest in such child's play was a bit surreal to her.
"Hehe, sorry about the mess, I didn't have the time to clean it up properly," he muttered bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. "Anyway, you want anything to eat or drink?"
"Some соку (juice) if you have any," Alexis responded as she stepped into the living room and carefully studied it.
Chris nodded and headed for the kitchen.
Approaching one of the bookcases, Alexis could see a selection of framed photos. One of them showed her neighbor along with three others of his kind, smiling at the camera with a pair of pyramids visible in the far background. Alexis guessed that the two older ones were his parents and that the third one, which was a younger-looking female, was a sibling.
Rubbing her chin, Alexis suddenly felt a hand rest on her shoulder. She quickly spun around and grabbed the figure's hand and twisted it out. But then she saw that it was Chris who let out a pained yelp as he held a plate of chocolate chip cookies in his other hand and was trying not to drop them.
"Sa-Sally! It's me! It's me! Yow that hurts," he cried out as Alexis loosened up her grip. "Jeez… I'm sorry if I startled you or something."
"Oh, my apologies Christopher," Alexis muttered apologetically. "I didn't mean to harm you, just… Please refrain from touching me."
Christopher blinked, looking confused by that statement. He then coughed and looked away, trying to think what to say or do next. Truth to be told, he had never had any girl in this flat before. He had plenty of male friends who would drop by every once in a while, but never a female (the exception being his sister, who would pay him a visit any time she was in the neighborhood). So, this was a whole new situation for him.
Alexis eyes went down to the plate of cookies that the caracal had brought.
"Why did you bring cookies?"
"Didn't you ask for a cookie?" Chris asked.
Alexis got a dumbfounded look, and then she slapped her forehead and gave off a sigh.
"Oh… No, I asked for соку; it means juice. Sorry if I confused you, I sometimes use Russian words without realizing it."
"Oh," Chris replied. "Well, unfortunately, I don't have any juice. Would it be okay with milk?"
"Sure, milk and cookies sound good," Alexis said with a smile and took one of the cookies off the plate. She usually didn't like sweets, but she figured that she could take a little nibble of it in order to be polite.
"So… Where did you learn that trick? It looked a real Bruce Lee kind of move." Chris then said, making the ocelot look at him with a rather puzzled expression.
"Bruce who?"
Chris blinked at this.
"Bruce Lee. You know, Way of the Dragon, Fist of Fury… " He said, but failed to get a single sign of recognition from Alexis face. "… The Green Hornet?"
"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about," Alexis muttered. "Your parents?" She asked and looked at the photo from before, hoping to change the subject.
"Hm… Yeah, my folks and older sis," Chris said, as he rubbed his hand and smiled. "What about you? Got any siblings?"
"Not really, I was an only ребёнок (child)," Alexis said and shrugged casually. "That means child by the way. My father raised me by himself… He's dead now."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Chris said. An awkward silence manifested itself. Clearing his throat, the caracal pointed towards the kitchen. "Look I'll… Get you some milk."
Alexis nodded and watched him go. She then went over to the couch and sat down. Taking a bite out of the cookie, which was actually pretty good, she noticed something peeking out between the cushions next to her. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she placed the half-eaten cookie on the table and pulled up the mysterious object to see what it was.
It looked like a toy gun made out of gray and white plastic with a wire coming out of the bottom of the grip. Inspecting it closer, she could see that its side had "Nintendo" written on it with small, red letters. She shifted it and held it in her paw, holding it ahead of herself like she usually did when on the job. It felt strange, given that it was far lighter than any actual gun.
"So, you've never seen any movie with Bruce Lee?" She suddenly heard as Chris came back with a glass of milk in his paw. "What about…" He stopped as he saw the ocelot holding the little gun. Smiling at this, he came and sat dawn next to her (though at a careful distance) and offered her the milk. "I see you've found the Zapper."
"Zapper? It's remote?" Alexis asked before putting down the fake pistol down and accepting the glass.
"Well, yes and no; its a peripheral. It's used for better immersion for rail-shooter games like Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman. Ever played any of those?" He asked, getting a negative shake from the ocelot's head in response. "Played any games in general?" Alexis shook her head again. "No games huh… No offense, but what did you do to make time pass when you were a kid?"
"Nothing special, mostly I just read books," Alexis said and took a sip from the glass. "I served in the military later on."
"You served in the military?" The caracal asked. "You don't seem like the type. I mean you're very fit, but you seem so… Peaceful."
"It wasn't anything special. Mostly office work really," Alexis lied, then tilted her head as she saw Chris leaning forward as he began to dig trough a collection of games underneath the couch table.
Grabbing one of the cartridges, and he then looked back at Alexis.
"Well, since you never had an experience with games," he said, putting the game in an old-looking console and sitting down again. He then took up the zapper from the table and offered it to Alexis. "How about you give a shot with your first game? I promise to go easy on you."
Looking at the controller in his hand, Alexis looked up at the caracal again. He was giving her a sweet smile, which was a nice change from his usual, nervous state.
Slowly extending her paw, she took the controller and looked at the TV.
Three hours later, Judy stood before Nick's apartment, which now had police tape all over it. After having asked every person in the building if they had seen anything and hearing nothing of interest, she was now placing her hopes on finding any traces that the crime technicians might have missed.
Narrowing her eyes, the bunny sneaked trough the tape and stepped inside. Looking around Nick's apartment, Judy's first deduction was that it was indeed very Nick-esque, evident in the way the arrangement of the secondhand furniture gave the place a unique sense of non-expensive charm. Spotting a photo of him and Judy herself on the dresser, the bunny cop couldn't help but feel touched.
But there was no time to think about that now. Putting on a pair of forensic gloves, she began looking around the crime scene, rubbing her chin and trying to find anything that was out of place. At first, the bunny sniffed the air several times, but that ended in a sudden coughing fit. The room was practically drenched in whatever cheap cologne Nick wore on daily basis, making Judy wonder how her nose didn't burst into flames whenever she inhaled this damn thing. Coughing a few more times and wiping tears from her eyes, Judy then whipped out a magnifying glass and began to crawl around as she carefully studied every nook and cranny for a clue. After about fifteen minutes, Judy slumped on the floor and groaned.
"NOTHING!" She exclaimed, slamming her head several times against the floor in frustration. "No paw prints! No fingerprints! Not even a strand of hair! NOTHING! GAAH!"
Lifting her head to slam it again, here eye finally caught something under the sofa.
Something small and barely visible was shimmering in the darkness beneath it and was lodged in a gap in the floor.
Crawling on all fours towards it, Judy reached in and managed to pull it out of the gap by using one of her small, dull claws like a hook. Taking it and studying it up close, she saw that it was a golden ring. Judging by the weight it wasn't real gold, and looking inside of it with the magnifying glass, she found what she was looking for: a set of initials that simply spelled "DW".
Judy's brow knitted. Her instinct might be jumping to conclusions, but Judy felt she knew whom this ring belonged to. Getting up, she placed the ring in an evidence bag and stepped outside.
"Why is it that you and Nick always get into these situations?" Finnick asked as he looked at Judy. "I mean sure, he and I got into some problems of our own, but that was just small stuff compared to this."
"Finn, if I want a snarky state of the obvious, I call Nick," Judy huffed as she leaned against the ice-cream truck. Shrugging, the fennec turned back to serve another one of his customers.
After stopping at her place to change into a pair of casual jeans and a black t-shirt and making a quick phone call to her parents (reassuring them that nothing life-threatening had transpired in the last few hours) Judy had set out to find Finnick's truck. Once she had found it she quickly explained the situation with Nick, her mysterious attacker and her urgent need of finding Duke Weaselton to him.
As the customer left, Finnick looked at Judy again, letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Even after becoming a cop, that kid still needs me to bail his butt out," Finnick muttered and pulled out a pack of smokes. "Fine, I'll help ya Fluffer. But don't be telling Nick any of this! I'd hate to think of what that idiot might do if he thinks I care about his well-being."
Judy gave the fennec her widest possible smile as he closed the window and moved over to the driver's seat.
Judy walked around and hurried over to the passenger's seat, getting in and sitting down next to him. As she did, she noticed that the fennec still hadn't customized the truck's interior and still needed to sit on numerous coffee table books in order to reach the wheel.
Placing a smoke in his mouth and lighting it with the cigarette lighter, the fennec started the truck with a roar and steered out into the road. Slipping his shades on, he then rolled down the car window and exhaled a cloud of smoke.
"So, you want to find Weaselton? That might be hard, the sneaky bastard switches his address twenty-four-seven," Finnick said, making Judy's ears drop. "But I know of a guy who can help us out~"
Judy's ears quickly perked up from this, then twitched as a childish melody of what sounded Pop goes the weasel started to play on the outside of the truck. Finnick cursed and started to bang on the panel of his car-radio, which made song cease with a crackling sound.
"That goddamn jingle starts playing nearly every time I drive. I've tried to have it fixed, but like a bad habit it always comes back in the most inopportune times!"
The drive itself didn't take too long and they were soon in the tropical zone, arriving and parking outside of what seemed to be an Irish pub. As they got out of the truck, Judy turned to the fennec with a question.
"Is this where the guy is?"
"Yeah. His name is O'Neill, and besides owning this joint, he owes me a favor. Well, more like he owes me fifty bucks, so instead of collecting said fifty, I'm gonna ask where Duke is."
"Why would he know where Duke is?"
"This place is the main waterhole of every lowlife, both high and low, from all corners of Zootopia. If anybody knows where that weasel is at, it's him."
Giving a nod, Judy then followed Finnick into the establishment.
The place looked like your everyday pub, save for a loud punk melody blaring from the band that was playing on a stage that was surrounded by a netted fence. It was clear that the singer didn't have much of a voice but still tried his best, singing the lyrics loud and off-key.
As Judy and Finnick entered, all the patrons instantly looked in their direction, some of them muttering something unintelligible to each other. Finnick didn't pay them much attention as he and bunny strolled trough the pub and headed to the back, where they could see a door that said "Private" on it. Suddenly, a large warthog got up from a chair nearby and stood between them and the door.
"Oi, where do ya think yer going?" The warthog asked while narrowing his eyes.
"Sir, my friend and I are doing an investi-" Before Judy could finish, the warthog glared at her and growled.
"I don't believe I asked ya a goddamn thing girly," he said and then looked at Finnick. "Now, how about you take your kid and sod off!"
Hearing that, Finnick left eye began to twitch.
"What did you just call me?" He asked with an even deeper growl than the warthog, his eyes narrowing into slits and his little paws clenching into fists.
"I said you should piss off you little brat and get back to nursery school," the warthog said, which led to some laughter among the patrons.
Then, before Judy could say anything, Finnick moved forward with a quick motion and delivered a swift kick to the space between the warthog's legs, which made Judy cover her mouth in surprise.
The warthog went down, gritting his teeth and emitting a high-pitched noise.
As that happened, Finnick turned around and bared his teeth at the stunned patrons.
"ANYONE ELSE WANNA CALL ME A KID?!" He yelled out, prompting the patrons to go back to their drinks or simply look away. Finnick huffed, kicked the out-of-commissioned bouncer in his side and muttered: "Didn't think so…"
After that, he pushed the door open and gestured for Judy to follow him.
Inside the room, the bunny saw what looked like a small-time casino, with three round card tables, two roulette's and six slot machines. There were roughly four people inside, six if one counted the two croupiers behind the roulette tables.
But Finnick's eyes were focused on one of the poker tables, where a gray-furred husky sat, wearing a black vest with a t-shirt under it as he was staring down at the cards in his paws.
"Oi! O'Neill!" Finnick yelled out, as the husky looked up and nearly dropped his cards.
"Oh fuck me in the arse…." O'Neill said and flashed an innocent smile. "Hey, Finn! Me mate! I was just about to pay ya visit about that cash and…"
"Save it…" Finnick muttered as he and Judy approached the table. "I didn't come for the cash, I came here for some info."
"Info? What sort of info, Finn me ol'friend?" O'Neill asked, clearly calming down and looking back at his cards.
"We're looking for Weaselton," Judy said, and the husky looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Weaselton? What would ya want with that piece of shite luv?"
"Personal reasons. Do you know where he is?"
"Weeeellll, maybe I do, maybe I don't… Question is, what's in it for me if I do luv?" He asked with a crooked smile, wrapping his paw around Judy's shoulder, which in turn motivated her to grab his thumb and twist it, making the husky cry out and drop his cards. "GAH! The fuck is yer problem!"
"Please refrain from touching a police officer~" Judy said and applied more pressure on the thumb. At the mention of the word police, the people around the table quickly put down their cards, grabbed their marks and left.
"Yer a fucking cop?! I knew you looked fucking familiar ya fuckin' fuzz!" O'Neill yelled and dropped his face on the table. "Mhhp…! F-fucking hell! HOGGINS!"
"If you're referring to the warthog at the door, he's busy doing a bit of soprano," Finnick said, clearly enjoying the sight of the big husky being forced into submission by the much smaller rabbit. "Now, if you wanna keep that thumb, I recommend you give us an address."
Cursing under his breath, O'Neill hissed out the address and Judy released his thumb.
"Thank you for your cooperation, sir~" She said sweetly and patted O'Neill's cheek before she and Finnick began to leave.
"Oi, Finn! We're square about those 50 bucks, right? Right!?" O'Neill yelled while Finnick ignored him.
Following the address, Judy and Finnick soon found themselves staring at what could be described as a complete dump of a two-story house. The lawn had clearly not been cut for ages and looked more like a jungle, some of the windows were boarded up and the brick walls were covered in old graffiti. The mailbox was stuffed with various pamphlets, bills, and letters. Studying some of the letters contents, Finnick rubbed his chin and looked at Judy.
"I don't know about this place. Anybody living here would have to be crazy or desperate," he muttered.
"Well, let's assume that Weaselton is the latter… Unless your friend lied to us." Judy said as they approached the door.
"If he did, so help me I'll break his kneecaps," the fennec replied and knocked on the door a few times.
Nothing happened at first until Judy's ears picked up what sounded like footsteps on the other side of the door.
"Who is it?" A voice asked, which Judy immediately recognized for being Duke's. Before she could say a word, Finnick shushed her and cleared his throat.
"Mr. Weaselton? We're from the lottery department and wanted to congratulate you for winning our golden package price and a check for ten thousand dollars!" Finnick said with much lighter and enthusiastic voice.
Judy stared at the fennec in disbelief. Who would be so stupid that he would fall for such a cheap trick?
"Oh?! Well finally, took ya guys long enough!" Duke said. This was followed by the clicks of several locks being unlocked while Finnick winked at Judy.
Just as the door began to open up, they saw the weasel in the crack. Duke's eyes widened with surprise, but before he could slam the door shut Finnick delivered a good kick and the door flung inward, making the weasel jump back. He tried to run away, but before he could, Judy had caught up with him and delivered a slide kick to his legs, which made him collapse. She then grabbed him with a textbook police-grip and began to twist his arm.
Weaselton gave off a pained yelp as he struggled and tried to break free from Judy while Finnick knelt down in front of Duke and held his head up by his right ear.
Judy looked around, seeing that the interior was pretty much as messy as the outside.
"Now you listen to me Weaselton," Finnick growled. "You've done some really rotten stuff, but doing this to Nick really takes the bloody ca-"
"Hey! What are you doing to our big brother?!" A scared voice called out as both Judy and Finnick turned their heads to a flight of stairs nearby.
There they saw two young weasels, a boy and a girl that was probably around the ages of twelve or eleven, both of them wearing clothes that seemed way too big for them and staring at them in complete horror.
Duke meanwhile grunted as he tried to ignore the pain in his arm and ear as he looked up at the two kids and smiled.
"Hey, hey. It's all good ya little scamps, just me and some old buddies of mine fooling around, right?" He asked, looking at Judy with a pair of eyes that asked her to play along.
Judy nodded and released her grip of Weaselton and stood up. Finnick backed away as well, albeit more reluctantly.
Just then, the weasel girl gasped as she tugged her brother's shoulder and pointed at Judy.
"B-Bro! She's that bunny-cop! Ya know that hero cop!" The little weasel said, as her young brother's eyes widened and he let out an excited squeal.
"Quick! Get the autograph book! The others are gonna die once they see it!"
As they raced up the stairs, Judy looked at Duke as he got up and rubbed his aching wrist. The two kids returned in a matter of seconds with eager smiles. The girl was holding a small book and pen.
Accepting the pen and the book with a soft smile, Judy flipped to a blank page. She had gotten pretty used to signing autographs by now ever since the Night-Howler case.
"Sooo to whom should I write this?" She asked.
"The Weaselton family," the two said in unison. "Lucy, Jake, Lily, Franky, Corey, Doris, Mike, Tim, Evangeline aaand Duke!"
Hearing so many names made Judy look surprised, but she then scribbled them all down in the book while Finnick kept a careful eye on Duke, as if to make sure that the weasel didn't have any fancy ideas of escaping. As Judy returned the book to the younger weasels, Duke flashed a sweet smile at his younger siblings and spoke with a tone that sounded a lot more affectionate than Judy was used to hearing from him.
"There, you got what you wanted, so go on back up now ya little scamps! The pizzas should arrive soon, 'kay?" He said, getting a nod from them as they raced back up the stairs. Sighing, he then looked at Judy and Finnick. "C'mon, let's head to the kitchen…."
The kitchen wasn't in any better state than the rest of the house, with a dirty sink filled with dishes, more boarded up windows, a fridge that looked like it was from the last century, cupboards which seemed to be stuffed with canned food and finally a long table with several chairs that looked like they were about to fall apart.
"You two want anything to drink?" Duke muttered and opened the fridge.
"Got any beer?" Finnick asked, as he got comfy in one of the chairs, which were of a fitting size for him.
"Just water for me, please," Judy murmured. "So… Mmm… Duke…"
The weasel didn't say anything as he placed a beer can and a glass of water on the table and then sat down, staring at them both from the other side of the table.
Finnick quickly opened the bottle and began to chug its contents, while Judy stared at her glass, then back at the weasel.
"Sooo… Those are your siblings?" She asked in an attempt to break the ice.
"Yeah… They have a bit of a cold, so they're home sick today. Four of them is at school, two are at their internships and the last one is at violin practice." Duke murmured, tapping his fingers together and giving Judy a little smile.
"Where are your parents?" Judy asked. Duke scoffed and looked away.
"Our ma's been dead for six years, and I've never met my old man. She was very social but had an awful luck with men you see; One dead, two deadbeats and one or two who just came and went…" He muttered and gave and looked a bit embittered. "Look, I know why you came here Flopsy…"
"Good, then it will at least save me some time," Judy said and tossed the evidence bag with the ring on the table. "Now, would you like to start explaining?"
Duke sneered at the sight of the ring and scratched his neck.
"Tch… It was nothing personal against you or Nick. I mean, yeah, you guys screwed me over twice, but it's not like I plotted a revenge scheme or somethin'. Ah just don't have the time or money for something like that," the weasel muttered as he tapped his fingers on the table. "I… I just got in contact with someone who wanted me to deliver this bag to Nick's place. The price was too right to pass up, so I took the job without question."
"So what, you gladly accepted a job to frame a good cop?" Finnick said, glaring at Duke. "Knew you were greedy, but this is rotten even for you."
"Oi, I didn't do this because I wanted too," Duke growled in response. "If you haven't noticed, I have a family to watch over. One of them needs braces, the lungs ain't right in the other, and their overall education takes more than three-thirds of what I make in a month!"
"Then how about getting an honest job?" Finnick shot back with an ever-growing edge in his voice. "Or what, you think you're too good for that shit?!"
"You don't think I tried?!" Duke said and slammed his fist into the table. "I've tried! I've tried so many times I must've broken some kind of record! You know what weasels are commonly seen as?! Thieves and backstabbers! Mix that with the fact that I never had a chance for a higher learning! People don't exactly get in line to hire someone like me!" Duke hissed and then slumped back in his chair. Breathing heavily through his nose, he then pointed at Judy. "Just because you and Nick made it, don't think for a second that everyone gets a happy ending… But see, I don't care what happens to me. Just as long as them kids will make it."
Judy blinked and felt a sting of pity for the weasel that she had internally referred to as trash on multiple occasions. But, thinking of Nick and his mother, her eyes hardened.
"Being that as it is, that doesn't give you the right to let others suffer for your misfortunes," she said. "Nick's life is going to be ruined if you sit here and do nothing."
Duke avoided her look, her words reaching out to him in the worst possible way.
Finnick had meanwhile begun to simmer down, and he grabbed the beer can and finished it fully.
"So who gave you the stuff?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. "Could you at least describe him?"
"Well, he was raccoon, kind of fat, medium height, wore a coat, drank quite a lot from a flask… Mmm, can't quite recall the name…Richard…Riener…?"
"Richter?" Judy asked. The weasel nodded in response, making the bunny's eyes narrow, with a faint growl escaping from her mouth. "Richter…! That low son of a… Duke, you need to testify about this."
Duke looked up with a wide pair of eyes, his face fixed with terror.
"W-W-What? Are you nuts?! I can't do that!" Duke stammered as he began to pull away from the table. "I'll be arrested, or worse, ASSASSINATED! M-my family…!"
Judy got up, hurried up to the fearful weasel and grabbed his hand.
"We'll protect you and make sure they are protected, and I'll even make sure you aren't arrested for this," Judy said, looking pleadingly at Duke. "Please… I know what it's like to be an older sibling and how it's not always easy, but I beg of you, we need you in order to clear Nick's name."
Looking at the bunny with an uncertain look, the weasel then groaned.
"… Dammit, fine." He said, but then pointed at Judy with a strict finger. "But, if anything happens to me, you'll have to make sure that they will get a good life."
"I promise you…" Judy assured him and him another smile. Just then her phone indicated an incoming call.
"Excuse me…" She said and left the kitchen. Looking at her phone, she could see that the call was from Honey. Not wasting any time she quickly answered it.
"Hey Honey, what you got for me?"
"Well, two things: I'm close to restoring the footage and I managed to dig up some info on this Saint of yours. Listen, I don't like talking about this on the phone, so how about we meet in a small café, I'll drop you the address via a text message."
"Sounds good too me. And don't worry, I got some good stuff on my end as well~"
-ntroller and then looked at the TV.