TRICKS AND TREATS: CHAPTER 5
A New Bunny Partner.
After taking Judy back to Barbara's and setting her to rest on the guest room's bed and covering her limb form under of the blanket to keep her warm, Nick decided to go to the little evening walk in the neighborhood.
And during of his walk, Nick kept all his senses in full alert for the possible suspicious activity of the night in the neighborhoods streets.
And yet he had something personal things to do.
During of his night walk, Nick paid the visit at the neighborhood's phone booth and decided to call to Detective Oates, not caring in which mood he was right now, either sunny or rainy… meaning grumpy.
And, as he expected, Detective Oates was indeed in a bad mood and he remained in grumpy mood during the whole call… but it was not because of the case hasn't progressed much, but rather from the whole call, which had either came too early by his opinion or then Nick's call had interrupted something very important event in the another side of the line.
However, without begging the bardon for his interruption, Nick informed to Oates all the information he had received during the day.
"I'm telling you, Detective Oates, that was all what Dr. Madge told me back in her office. Judy was placed under the some kind of hypnosis by the one who ambushed her with C-word on that night when the crime in the Shopping Paradise happened. Meaning that in fact, Judy has been innocent all of time and she's innocent even right now." Nick said with the serious tone.
However...
"So what, Wilde? Only words are not enough to proof her innocence. You need a better evidence to proof her innocence if you wish to help her to avoid the judgement about the theft." Oates said quite rudely.
Nick let out the annoyed growl of hearing this.
Oates was still speaking of the crime with the tone as if it was some even more serious crime.
"Well, what about the missing children, then? Huh?" Nick said, rising his voice in the phone out of impatience and being annoyed of Oates attitude to the high level, as he changed the subject.
"What about them?"
"Judy is not only one who has faced the incident like this." There's a several prey and predator children gone missing the last night. One zebra couple told me this couple hours ago and I'm suspecting these incidents as an kidnappings, which would have happened also to Judy as well if I had not found her in time the last night." Nick explained.
Nick could heard Oates' snort out of frustration and annoyance.
"Officer Wilde, If I remember correctly, our deal concerned a case related to the robbery in the Shopping Paradise and to your pathetic attempt to try to prove your partner's innocence to the theft in the Shopping Paradise before the last night on Halloween… not to the missing mammal case, because I'm already on it right NOW." Oates stated angrily.
"Yes but… haloo… haloo… haloo. Haloo!" Nick yelled, but Oates had already cut the calling.
Out of frustration and anger, Nick stepped out from the phone booth and started to walk back at Barbara's.
"Bah! It's like yelling to the stubborn wall which barely even answers back!" Nick hissed angrily.
"Well, who cares! I'm gonna show that big old sourpuss-like Detective-Horse-Butt that FROM WHAT and FOR WHAT this fox officer is made for… especially when it is about my partner's innocence and those poor kidnapped zebra kids." Nick declared, as he headed back to Barbara's.
Later in Barbara's...
Barbara had just returned from today's shopping trip back to her home, where Sis, Tagalong and the rest of her children making more jack-o'-lantern (carved pumpkins) in the living room of their house.
Most of pumpkins were carved to resemble to look like bunnies with the zombie- or hag-face or with with vampire teeth. And there was also one pumpkin, which was carved to bear the resemble the faces of the one-eyed and sharp-fanged bunny-like alien with the long antenna in between of the rabbit ears made for the pumpkin and the tentacle-like limbs beneath of it.
Having recovered from the shocking news from the morning and wearing the smiles on their faces again, Sis and Tagalong were both together carving two pumpkins to look like Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, which they placed to look like they were lovingly nuzzling each others, which got both the rabbit girls to giggle to their work when it was ready.
Also Barbara smiled at her little girls' creation when she passed her little girls, even letting the silent giggle to escape from her mouth.
Barbara eyed one by one all her children carving diligently different Halloween-styled face-looks to the pumpkins, until she suddenly noticed that someone, or someones, were missing from the group.
"Hey, kids? Where are Skippy and Nick? Weren't they supposed to make more jack-o'-lantern with us tonight?" Barbara asked from her children.
Almost none of her children had not idea about Nick and Skippy, until it was Sis's turn to say something, because she probably knew where they had gone.
"Skippy left with uncle Nick to another night walk." Sis said.
This caught Barbara out of surprise.
"What?!" Barbara exclaimed surprised and immediately turned her attention at the wall clock, which was a half past ten o'clock at night.
"Skippy is with Uncle Nick out at this time of night? And he didn't inform me anything about this? Not even with the phone call?" Barbara said in disbelief.
"What's the problem, mom? Uncle Nick is a street-smart fox and yet cop. With Uncle Nick Skippy is in safe from everything out there." Sis said calmly and continued carving pumpkins with her big sister.
"And not to mention about how adventurous, energetic and yet daredevil my little brother actually is. Let's see how many times Uncle Nick catches my foolhardy brother from balancing on the top of the long wooden fence... or climbing to the top of the highest tree... maybe even skateboarding on the streets and the car road, if Skippy took his skateboard with him... or, who knows, tried foolhardy play as brave and aunt Judy by playing tough bunny in front of the bigger predators." Tagalong said with the sarcastic tone about his, showing that she didn't admire much her little brother's adventurous and daredevil attitude.
Tagalong kept a small pause, before she continued...
"Uncle Nick told that bureaucratic horse did not take Uncle Nick seriously today when he made the phone call to him, and that he mentioned to Skippy that he is definitely forced to do detective work, even when it went against the limits in the agreement Uncle Nick did with him. And so, Uncle Nick said that he needed Skippy's help in his detective work and…"
Sis's ears suddenly jumped upwards over her head and her eyes widened in shock, as she realized that her big sister was unintentionally revealing to their mother the secret which they promised to keep in secret from their mother.
And, to prevent her big sister from saying anything more, Sis jumped up on her feet and hurriedly wrapped her tiny paw over Tagalong's mouth before she would tell more to their mother.
Her sister's sudden act caught Tagalong out of susprise and off guard, leaving her next words to come as a mumbling through of her little sister's paw over her mouth and against of each others sealed fingers.
However, Sis acted too late, as Barbara had already heard enough.
"HE DID WHAT?!" Barbara shouted with the scolding tone, that caused both Sis and Tagalong to slightly and nervously back off.
The rest of the family remained in aside and stayed out of this.
"Nicholas took my little seven-ears-old son into this dangerous work... and none of you two bothered to tell me about this anything EARLIER?!" The bunny mother exclaimed out of disappointment towards her daughters...
...and, right now on, towards the certain fox!
Meanwhile, back in the first crime scene.
Nick and Skippy had arrived back to there from where this entire mess got its start: On the street near of the Shopping Paradise and in the same place from where Nick had found Judy from lying on the ground with her shopping bags.
"Alright. when I found her the last night before this whole mess, she lied in this spot. Nobody else were around of us when I arrived here, or at least I didn't saw anybody else, and she told me that she was ambushed from behind of her back… with the C-word. But the strange thing was that nothing had been stolen from her." Nick explained shortly to Skippy, who listened Nick from the next of him.
"And where she said she was standing when someone called her cute, uncle Nick?" Skippy asked.
Thinking quickly and making the quick decision by recalling his memory from the last night, Nick pointed with his finger at the spot near the entrance of the alley, where he found her and in where he himself believed Judy to be standing when someone called her with that "cute" word.
"There, after passing the first corner of the entrance of the dark alley next of this street." Nick answered, gesturing the entrance to the alley in the opposite street.
The fox officer and the bunny rushed to the another side of the road, until they were standing in the next of the entrance of the alley.
And once there, Skippy took the look at the dark alley, even though the rabbits night vision was poor compared to the foxes.
Nick had once told him that the dark alleys are always the perfect hideaway for the trouble-makers and even some criminals hunting the weaker and lone ones, thanks of the alley's darkness at night timess and the numerous hiding spots like the doors leading to the abandoned buildings and apartments, garbage cans and dark corners.
However, even though he was the small bunny and despite he wasn't capable to see in the dark alley, Skippy didn't show any sign of fear in his face.
More likely, he had a quite eager expression on his faces instead, showing that Skippy wasn't afraid of darkness at all, and that he seemed to be ready to foolishly rush into the alley to see that what was in there.
However, instead of foolhardy rushing into the darkness without knowing that what might be out there, Skippy decided to halt himself but not out of the fear.
It was then when Skippy turned to Nick.
"Do you think that the bad guy came from there when aunt Judy was about to pass the alley?"
Certain about that possible fact, Nick nodded as a response, because the alleys were never any nice places, especially at night time, when the law did not have a room in the dark alleys.
At night times, the alleys turned into the hostile territories/dens of the outlawed mammals and the gangs of trouble-making hooligans with the unfriendly attitudes towards the outsiders, not wanting anyone in outside of the alleys passing their so called "territories."
Nick has experiences of this, as an ex-con artist before meeting Judy, Nick had either negligently or foolishly passed one of the alley, where the gang of criminal-like underworld mammals were holding their meeting by drinking alcohol, smoking, fist-fighting each others or playing billiards. But once Nick appeared on their sight, they all had immediately stopped their doings and shot their menacing eyes at him as he negligently walked pass of the crowd. However, none in the gang didn't make the life-threatening move towards Nick back then, just kept their eyes on him until he was out of their sight and gone from the alley.
However, there was still some even more hostile trouble-makers that hides in the shadows of the alley waiting to ambush anyone who dared to walk pass of the alley, making from the poor trespasser an victim of either robbery or physical abuse.
"Do you think that that bad guy had some friends helping him?" Skippy asked.
However, Nick had quite a different view of that.
"Judy mentioned about the one guy, Skippy. If there were others helping that "guy," Judy would have mentioned that she was about to walk through of the alley until she got surrounded by the small group in middle of the alley instead of that one who said that C-word behind of Judy's back... but no. I think that were playing this game only with one bad guy, at least I believe so." Nick answered...
...as he kept his eyes on the darkness in the alley, using his night vision to see if there was happening any suspecting.
But nothing didn't happen.
Nick mused for a moment and then decided to go in with a flashlight.
"Because of the bad guys hiding in the shadows of the alley, who are most surely taller than me myself, it's probably best for you, Skippy, if you stay here until my return." Nick said and was about to enter to alley, until Skippy grabbed from his right wrist, pulling him back.
"But Uncle Nick, you said we're gonna work together with this case." Skippy said with the pleading tone.
Even though Skippy wasn't afraid of darkness, the young white-furred rabbit, who happened to be seven-years-old, always started to feel himself quite uncomfortable alone in middle of the city,
"Yes, I said Skippy. But as a cop, I'm also responsible about your safety. Your mother's gonna skin me alive if something bad happens to you. And, as a cop, I can take care of myself but my chances to beat any bad guy will lower over half percent if I have to take care of you during the fight." Nick said.
"Besides, I'm not saying this to make you freak out, but in the alley might be some animals, who would not hesitate to abuse the children... including the ones in your age. That's why I cannot risk the civilian's life on my work, Skippy." Nick said and was about to enter again to the alley, but Skippy pullet him back again.
"You said that the streets might be dangerously full of the bad guys at the night as well as the alleys. So, the only safe place is only near of you. I'm coming with you Uncle Nick, no matter what you say as a protest." Skippy said, still with the stubborn pleading tone on his voice.
"Besides, I got prepared for the encounter with the bad guys. Look."
Skippy opened eagerly his coat to show to Nick that what did he took with him to this night walk and what he had hidden under his coat before they both left from Barbara's.
"I took with me a rope and climbing hook, water gun, slingshot, black cloak for hiding, my own night vision binoculars and a wooden sword just in case... and I took even some smoke bombs with me." Skippy listed, as he took one of them from the small bag, in which he was keeping them, inside of his coat.
Nick took the smoke bombs from Skippy's paw and eyed it, finding out that Skippy's "smoke bombs" were actually the firecrackers.
"May I ask, where did you get these things?" Nick asked from Skippy, reminding the young bunny with the scolding face look that the such of fireworks are dangerous in the wrong hands.
"We bought them for the New Year's day." Skippy said. "Perfect weapon to distract the enemies with the small explosions and the thick smoke while we run away from the bad guys. Genius, isn't it, uncle Nick?"
As an police officer, and because of his sense of duty as well as the laws governing the use of fireworks, Nick felt a great urge to confiscate such of things away from Skippy, but he had to admit that Skippy, despite for his young age, was a quite genius little bunny to be prepared for the worse just in case.
Nick then kneeled down in front of Skippy, so that their heads were in the same level.
Nick then wrapped his fingers around of the firecrackers in his paws.
"I'll keep this one and you may keep the rest. But ONLY if you promise to uncle Nick that you will not use those things until the worst happens... and don't use them before New Year's Eve. Have we deal?" Nick said with the sly grin.
It did not take long from Skippy to decide.
"Alright, Uncle Nick, only if you yourself promise to me that you and aunt Judy are at presence when we shoot the rockets into the night sky at New Year's Eve. Deal?" Skippy asked firmly.
Nick could not help but give a laugh.
And then, Nick lifted his right open paw up in front of Skippy.
"High four, Bat bunny. As a sign that we have a deal." Nick said, earning the smile from Skippy.
"Fine, Robin Hood. Even if the two." Skippy said and both of them, laughing for the nicknames they gave to each other, gave each other high four.
And then, Nick agreed to let Skippy to come with him to keep an company, when he bounced from the ground on his feet and turned around towards the alley.
But, however, when they both were about to enter to the dark alley, Nick suddenly halted to the entrance and turned to Skippy, saying that they are now going under of the guidance of his natural night vision what the bunnies don't have. And because of that, Nick demanded that if Skippy wanted to come with him, he had to walk right next of him and holding him from his paw...
...much to Skippy's shock and embarrassment.
Nick also added to Skippy that it was the way to prevent him getting lost to the alley's darkness, he liked it or not.
Skippy greatly disliked the idea of walking paw to paw, because as an seven-years-old rabbit buck, he felt it to be too embarrassing for his developed "Tough Boy" attitude and he usually attempted to avoid being walked paw to paw out of fear of being called "mama's boy," "wuss" or "loser" among his school friends.
However, though reluctantly, Skippy agreed and took from Nick's arm.
"Do not make me regret this, Skippy." Nick murmured quietly...
...before they both finally entered into the alley and disappeared from the street.
The dark alley was a disgustingly messing and stinky place, full of the overly filled garbage cans and garbage bags and the ground was covered by… both Skippy and Nick didn't even want to know on which they were walking. The air in the alley was filled by the smell of spoiled fish and the smell of sweat, which made both of them to put their paws on their noses to prevent themselves to sniff such of smell. There were also some rats, who after spotting two larger mammals walking right towards them quickly ran to the cover behind the garbage bags and cans as Nick and Skippy, carring less about the little street rats, simply passed them.
Then was the worse place, when Nick and Skippy passed a group larger mammals.
There was the trio of spotted hyenas, dressed into the gray spotted hoodies and who were playing the card while smoking.
One of them, probably the leader of the trio, was the medium-sized "handsome" teenager hyena, who had the pointed ears and mohawk-like spiky black mane along with the spiky tuft of hair upon his head.
Another one hyena was small-sized and quite skinny. And yet he had a quite messy mane. This hyena had also big yellow lopsided eyes, and he had a couple large round cuts on each of his pointed ears and yet his tongue was hanging out from his mouth.
And the third and big one of the trio was well-built bald hyena, who had the round ears, a thick neck and a large, round jaw and yet he had a rather tough attitude.
The hyenas immediately paused their card game and turned their gazes at Nick and Skippy, as they were about to pass them.
Nick cared less of the presence of the hyenas, who payed at him the territorial look with the hint of sceptical attitude towards Nick's species the foxes, despite being the fellow predators.
However, the hyenas seemed to be a quite interested of Skippy with the fox, as they all three locked their "happy" looks at him along with the wide and greepy teeth baring grins, and the trio's leader's two friends even tied the napkin collars around of their necks and took out forks and knives...
...which caused Skippy to feel a quite uncomfortable in the presence of the hyenas with such of opinion of him and such of attitude, and that yet even caused Skippy to hide behind of Nick for protection while walking.
As they passed the hyenas, Nick shook his head.
"Hyenas, they always like to act like that in the presence of the prey animals... at least those ones like those three." Nick explained to Skippy.
And after passing the hyenas, they kept walking straight along the alley, during of which Nick looked to everywhere to see if there was anything suspicious..
However, for now...
They found nothing suspecting about the real bad guy from the alley...
...but all what they did find was only three in the alley sleeping homeless mammals, the huge and obese grizzly bear, who had dressed into the sleeveless red shirt and dark-blue loose pants. He wore over his red shirt the dark-brown bear-fur hoodie and he also had the blue sailor hat overhis head.
His companions in the same alley were the drunken and loudly snoring wolf and cougar, who were sleeping in the opposide side of the alley surrounded by the dozens of empty alcohol bottles, who were totally out from drinking of alcohol that the light of Nick's flashlight did not disturb them at all.
However, unlike the wolf and cougar, the grizzly was disturbed by the light of Nick's flashlight and that he rose to sit to see that who was disturbing his slumber.
Nick politely apologized ffrom the bear for unintentionally interrupting the bear's slumber, but...
"Get out of here, you you filthy, scabby mutt! Go to eat garbages in elsewhere" The bear sleepily yet rudely said in exchange to Nick's polite apology before he was about to go back to sleep.
However, Skippy get annoyed for such of words towards the fox he idolized the most than anyone else... and in vengenace, Skippy took out his water gun and despite Nick's protests against the idea, Skippy sprayed with the water gun the water at the grizzly bear's face.
The grizzly was caught off guard by this sudden act that the large predator immediately woke up from his sleepy state.
And after Skippy ran out the water from his water gun, The grizzly spluttered the water out of his mouth and muzzle and wiped the remaining water off from his faces... before he lifted his head up and turned to the direction of the fox, who was still standing nearby.
And, it was then when the bear actually spotted Skippy standing next to the fox and holding the water gun in his paws.
"You damned filthy little long-eared brat!" Grizzly roared out of pure anger. , and his roar
Both of them backed off, as the hulking bear stood up on his feet in front of Nick and Skippy and let out the extreme strong and loud roar, which was so loud that it echoed loudly and deeply in the narrrow air space of the alley, which alerted every mammal in the alley or in outside of the alley about the wrath of the bear.
The angry bear then lowered his head down, growling angrily at down both Rick and Skippy, especially Skippy.
The bear then took out and lifted into the air the large baseball bat in order to beat Skippy, which caused the small white-furred rabbit to yelp and rush behind of Nick's back for protection, though it seemed to be no use, as the bear prepared to beat up Nick first before he was able to get his massive paws onto Skippy.
However, the bear never got the chance as Nick quickly took out his officer badge and the extremely powerful taser gun, aiming with both of them at the bear.
"A, a, a, a, aa, pall. Officer Nicholas Wilde, ZPD." Nick said calmly but yet sternly to the bear, forcing the brute bear to slowly back off.
"Remember, one hit with that bat to the head, either mine or his, I have full right to arrest you for the assault at the police officer and the little child. And know that my taser gun is on that level that I can take down even an gigantic rogue elephant with one single shot if I have to. So, if you don't want to spend your night in jail, or the years in the jail for the assault against the police officer, drop the bat and do back to your own business." Nick added with the serious police officer tone.
The bear hesitated to give up at first, but knowing that when the smaller fox was as serious as the lion or rhino officer and having the upper paw with the taser gun with the ability to take down the rogue elephant, the grizzly couldn't help but to give up...
...so he dropped the bat to the ground and angrily murmuring laid back to the ground to continue his slumber.
And after the situation was under control, Nick put both the taser gun, after turning it off, and his officer badge back to his pockets and turned to Skippy with the scolding finger and stern expression on his face.
"Don't you ever do that again, young man." Nick said sternly to Skippy...
...because the last thing what Nick wanted was get into the troubles with the larger and aggressive mammals who lived beyond the law and on the streets...
...before he took from Skippy's paw again and they kept walking towards the another end of the alley.
Later...
It did not took long from Nick and Skippy before they finally reached to the another side of the alley, without finding anything suspecting within the darkness and the shadows of the alley.
Nick was frustrated after exiting from the alley empty handed and yet desperate for poor Judy's ultimate fate between of being police officer, first rabbit officer, and the prison inmate, treated like some kind of dangerous criminal because of one simple and quite harmless theft in the Shopping Paradise.
"If there isn't something suspecting, or any clue about the bad guy what was left unnoticed by Detective Oates, the whole search for clues from that alley with the flashlight was all for nothing." Nick said, letting out the deep sigh of frustration.
But it was then when Skippy tugged at his own hoodie's sleeve to get his attention.
"Well, I'm not agree with you, uncle Nick. Not at least in that one." Skippy said, as he held on his paw a torn piece of cloth, much to Nick's confusion
"I found this with the help of my night vision binoculars, which I took into use after our encounter with that bear. It was hanging in the end of the nail sticking out from the wooden fence back in the alley." Skippy added, as he stretched the the piece of cloth holding paw towards Nick... gesturing him to take it.
Nick kneeled down a bit and gently took the piece into his paws from Skippy's own and began to feel it in his paw's furry skin and even sniffing it in front of his nose for a bit to find out its material.
"This fabric is quite good quality. Probably silk, I think. It is usually used in the silk capes used by the mammals who works as a the magicians in the circus." Nick said, after examining the piece of cloth.
"How do you know that?" Skippy asked, a bit confused but with the eager and interested-like look in his faces when he heard the word "circus."
"You see, in the earlier days of my life as an con artist, I used to act like the street magician to amuse some children with the with some conjuring trick I self-learned. And for that, I snatched the magican's hat and silk cape to perform as a street magician." Nick explained.
"And secondly, those knuckleheads back in the alley never wear such of quality of silk by themselves." Nick said before he stoop up.
"Well done, little Detective Skippy." Nick said with the jocking tone, as he gently stroked Skippy's head between of his ears to congratulate him for his discovery of the clue, which made both of them heartily laugh.
"Good. We have a first clue, but we need a bit more than just a piece of cloth." Nick happily and with a newfound hope declared, before he turned back to Skippy.
"Did you find something else with your night vision binoculars, Detective Skippy?" Nick asked.
Then Skippy looked down to his feets.
"Well, Uncle Nick, you're kind of right now standing on it."
This strange respond surprised Nick and he quickly lowered his head down to look at his feets, eyeing the ground around of his feet for a while before he noticed nearly the unnoticeable footprints beneath of his own feet.
Nick quickly kneeled down by all fours to sniff the footsprint from closer in order to recognize the scent of maker of these footprints, which was quite difficult because there was dozens of different scents, and not mention about the dirt on the street, mixed with the scent in the footsprint, and to find out their date.
It took more that just half of hour to recognize the maker of the footprint by scent, until Nick finally got the right scent what he was seeking from the footprint.
"The footprint seems to be more than just one day old… and its maker's species is clear now." Nick said as he lifted his head up to watch to Skippy, who was standing aside, eyeing Nick's progress and waiting excited to get to hear Nick judgment about the scent's owner."
"Timber wolf."
Skippy's excited smile turned into more excited after hearing the criminal's species.
"So, the bad guy is the wolf by his or hers species, right? Can we go now hunt down that wolf baddie who framed aunt Judy fro that candy theft back in the Shopping Paradise the last night?" Skippy said eagerly and jumping impatiently around of Nick.
"Not so fast, Skippy." Nick suddenly said.
Skippy's ears dropped down against the back of his head and his eager look in his faces faded away from his faces out of disappointment.
"But Nick, we have to hunt this bad guy down before this mess gets any worse." Skippy said in frustration.
"I know, I know, Skippy. But knowing the real criminal's species from the footprints and the torn piece of piece of cloth aren't yet enough to prove Judy's innocence. We need to know the identity of the person in question... and we also need the footage from that how this wolf commits his crimes, which is even the bigger evidence to proof Judy's innocence." Nick stated, with satisfaction that the case has been finally progressed... even this far.
Nick then turned to Skippy.
"Does not you happen to have a camera with you, Skippy?"
Skippy nodded immediately as an response to Nick's question and he started to search for a camera, which he also took with him to this case but left it without telling to Nick unlike with the rest of his stuff, from his coat's pockets.
And then, Skippy found it and handed it over to Nick.
"Be careful with it, Uncle Nick. You see, it's originally my mother's camera as a gift from my dad, and it cost a fortune, or my dad at least said so." Skippy warned as Nick carefully and gently took the camera from his paw.
"Good work, Detective Skippy." Nick said and stroked again Skippy's head.
"Now, if you give me a minute or two, I take a several pics of this footprint and then, we pay a visit in the Halloween Town in the Town Square. The people out there is our first suspects." Nick said before he started to take a pictures from the footprint to recover the second clue.
Skippy was very excited and happy of being part of the detective work with his hero cop Nick Wilde.
But the white-furred rabbit was even more excited when Nick mentioned that they're going to pay the visit in the Halloween Town!
TO BE CONTINUE...