Loves Bond
Chapter 10 - Ring Tailed Rabbits
"I do not care what you do in your free time, but when you are on the job I expect you both to act like professional police officers!" a large, uniformed, cape buffalo bellowed angrily down at his two smallest officers. He leaned far over his giant desk with both hooves planted firmly on the finely polished oak surface.
In front of him sat a red fox and a small, gray rabbit in uncomfortable steel chairs that were ten sizes too large for their tiny bottoms. The rabbit sat on a completely separate chair from the fox with her brows furrowed in a deep scowl while her long ears lay flat along the back of her head. Her muzzle was deliberately turned away from the fox, and her nose lifted ever so slightly in the air.
Bogo sat back in his stiff chair with a loud creak, but his dark scowl remained. "I really don't give a rat's tail how much you hate each other off the job, but as soon as you put on those uniforms, you are mine." He leaned over again and said the last bit with an evil grin that showed all of his blunt teeth. "Jay Q. Public will never hear the words, 'Sorry I'm Off Duty,' from one of my officers, so I do not care if you are clocked in or not. You will maintain the appearance of competent officers at all times, and squabbling amongst my officers will not be tolerated in this precinct. Is that understood?"
"Do you want us to kiss and make up, Sir?" the fox asked snidely.
The rabbit, on the other paw, whipped around suddenly at the word 'kiss' and gave the fox a cold, hard glare.
"Wilde!" the chief snapped. "I am no shrink, but I can guess that an apology would not hurt."
"I am sorry, chief," the red fox said while his ears fell flat along with his muzzle in meek submission.
Groaning loudly, Bogo ran his hoof down the full length of his muzzle. "You two need to figure out your differences on your own time, but right now, let's get back to business, hmm?" The buffalo opened a large manila folder on his desk and began to thumb through the pages. He carefully adjusted his reading glasses before he spoke. "Please tell me you have good news about this mammal trafficking case."
"Well, sir, about that," Judy spoke up while trying to ignore the other small mammal in the room. "We met up with Lady Hogenshaw and got her side of the story. It appears that she had been swindled by a bogus real estate company."
Nick unfolded several sheets of paper and pawed them over to the chief. "Here are the Deed of Sale and the shipping documents. You can clearly see that the signatures appear to be exact photocopies. This forger is either very good or it is a direct copy."
"This all leads back to Gatolli," the uniformed rabbit said, standing up on her paws and leaning on her boss's desk. "He is either shipping foreign mammals into the city or had one of his lackeys forge those documents. We don't know why he is doing it, but we definitely know how it's being done."
"This bobcat is smart, Sir," the fox declared. "He is using what, on the outside, appear to be legitimate businesses to collect signatures from wealthy mammals and then uses those to sign off on his other illegal activities." Nick rubbed at his chin thoughtfully. "It's almost brilliant, if these signatures weren't obvious forgeries."
The large buffalo placed the forged documents inside the folder, closed the flap, and set it aside. "Unfortunately, I am going to have to take you two off this case."
"Why?" Judy began to object, but the chief cut her off with a raised hoof.
"Because, Officer Hopps, the ZBI has explicitly requested that we stay away from Gatolli. They send their thanks for helping out with their investigation, but until we have something more concrete, you are to keep your paws off the case." Bogo shook his head to halt any more runaway objections from the excitable rabbit. "This is an order, Hopps. For now, we will have to wait for these mammal traffickers to make another mistake. And we will continue to keep an eye on the docks."
Pulling another folder off the top of one of the many stacks on his desk, Chief Bogo looked back at the bunny. "I have something else I would like the two of you to work on for now. Over the last week, this precinct has received several reports of kitnapping and missing mammals. Other officers are looking into the reports, but I wanted you to take this one personally."
"Ok, Chief," the rabbit said, looking up at her boss. "Why do you want us to take this specific case?"
"First, a young rabbit named Sara Maky never returned home from school on Friday and has been missing all weekend." The buffalo adjusted the glasses on the end of his broad nose while he read the report. He rubbed his forehead in frustration as he looked down at the two small officers. "And second, Mrs. Maky somehow got ahold of my private number and has been calling twice a day all weekend. I want you to go to the Maky home and please calm this frantic mother so she stops calling me."
"We're on it, Chief." Nick saluted.
Bogo glared down at the fox. "And for mammal's sake, don't do anything rash. Collect the parents' statements and follow any leads you find, but I don't want to hear that either of you have damaged any more public property or blown anything up this time."
The quaint home sitting on the edge of the savannah looked more like it belonged on a tropical beach than in the middle of a large city. Brown paint and stucco siding gave it the impression that it had been built out of mud instead of wood and nails, while the faux thatch roofing looked like the entire home could blow away in a stiff breeze. Along the rest of the block, all of its neighbors were built for more temperate climes.
In the front yard, a single palm tree leaned over the house and provided almost no shade. Broad-leaved ferns lined the edge of the property where its neighbors had built stone and brick walls. Under a large picture window, a square section of lawn had been tilled and fresh herbs grew tall in the loose soil.
Despite the neat and well-kept garden, the rest of the front yard was a mess. The grass was brown and nearly dead with a broken and rusty lawnmower hiding behind a clump of tall grass. A wheeless bike leaned against the house, and various rusty tools were scattered around the yard like the groundskeeper had simply thrown up their paws and left. Hidden by thin patches of tall, dying grass, a long, black hose snaked its way between the brown blades and clumps of choking weeds.
A black police cruiser with a large white 'Z' painted on the side pulled into the driveway next to a small, brown, two-door SUV. The cruiser barely missed hitting an overturned skateboard that had been abandoned on the sidewalk as it pulled in. Mounted above the garage, was a metal ball hoop with only a few bits of tattered string hanging where the net would have been.
A gray rabbit climbed out of the police cruiser and was quickly followed by a red fox. The rabbit wore a light-blue, fur-tight suit with a rabbit-sized piece of body armor over her chest and a well-equipped utility belt. Directly behind the rabbit, the fox wore a more traditional blue, button-up police uniform with long sleeves and a black tie around his cream-colored neck.
"You should probably stay in the car for this one," Judy suggested as she stepped over a discarded rake that lay across the walkway. She waved at him to back away when she approached the front door.
"I think you underestimate my foxy charms, Carrots," Nick remarked, adjusting the knot on his tie. Despite the glare she threw his way, he continued to follow her. "I am sure everything will be fine." He pointed at a small black button next to the door. "Go ahead and ring the bell so we can introduce ourselves."
To spite the fox's suggestion, the rabbit stepped up to the door and knocked firmly on the solid wood before shouting, "ZPD, we are here to speak with Mr. or Mrs. Maky."
There was a clatter from inside the house but no other response, so Judy knocked again. As her soft knuckles collided with the wood, the door clicked and swung inward.
Standing where the door had been only moments ago was a doe rabbit with pure white fur except for a line of brown splotches that ran across her head at an odd angle and down her back. She wore a tight-fitting tiger print top that showed off the rabbit's curves for all the world to see and a tight pair of black leggings that did nothing to hide her hips. What really stood out about this bunny were her ears.
The ears on the rabbit holding the door open were so large that they could not stand up like the ears of other lagomorphs. They flopped from the side of her head and hung around her shoulders and down her chest to where they nearly reached her knees. The very long-eared doe would habitually pull at one of them.
When the doe saw the police rabbit standing in front of her, she released the ear she had been pulling and covered her muzzle. The other paw soon joined the first, and her eyes widened in shock.
"ZPD, ma'am." Judy flashed her badge at the large-eared rabbit.
"Oh my god, oh my god!" was all the doe uttered as she hopped excitedly.
"My name is Officer Hopps," Judy said and nodded at Nick. "And this is Officer Wilde. Are you Mrs. Clover Maky?"
The brown and white rabbit dropped her paws and yelled over her shoulder, "Julean, get your tail off that couch and come in here. We have guests!" She then turned back to the officers and once again covered her muzzle with her paws. "Oh my god, I can't believe the real Judy Hopps is standing on my very doorstep. I just have to call Marge and tell her about this."
Without acknowledging the cops any further, she pulled out her phone and hit a single button. She stepped back inside the house and put the phone under her long, floppy ear. After a few seconds, she began yelling into the phone and hopping in place, "Marge! Marge! You will never guess who is in my house right now."
Waving at the officers to follow her inside, Clover stepped into the small living room. Inside, the house was as much of a disaster as the outside. Open and unopened cardboard boxes were everywhere as if the family was in the middle of unpacking, yet the thick layer of dust and empty takeout boxes said otherwise.
In the middle of the living room, sat a long couch with a bright sunflower print. On one end of the couch, sat an extremely overweight ring-tailed lemur. The lemur wore a blue button-up shirt with stripes that ran vertically down his chest and a red tie with white polka dots. He nonchalantly leaned against the couch with a TV remote in one paw and the other shoved under his belt.
On the flat-screen television sitting across the living room, was a national tuskball game. More accurately, it was a replay of yesterday's tuskball game while a jaguar and a boar bickered over their favorite team's goals and the other team's fouls. The TV was quite loud, so Mrs. Maky had to yell in order to be overheard.
Julean would occasionally set down the remote and reach into a large bag of potato chips at his side. His paw would return from the depths of the chip bag with a pawful of greasy, fried potatoes and shove them into his black-nosed muzzle.
Clover sat down next to the lemur with an unceremonious flop that nearly crushed the bag of chips while she continued to yell into the phone, "No, it's not Sandy Claws." She shook her head with a frown. "No and it's not Jarred Beaver. What do you mean? No, it's Judy Hopps. The actual police officer."
"Ma'am," Judy tried to yell over the sound of the TV. "We are here to ask you about your daughter, Sara."
The floppy-eared rabbit hung up the phone before she slapped the lemur on the leg. She then yelled at him with a pout on her broad, red lips, "Honey will you turn that damn thing down. The cops want to talk to us."
Looking up at the newcomers, Mr. Maky nearly slid out off the couch when he saw the two police officers in their blue uniforms. He jumped up from the floor before trying to hide the bag of chips and then quickly dusting off the couch with his paw. "You never told me the cops were here, Darling," he cried as he quickly turned off the TV.
Looking at the shapely rabbit with the big ears, the lemur waved his paws. "Well don't just sit there, offer them some tea or something."
Jumping to her paws, the rabbit strutted towards the next room that could have been a kitchen. She stopped near the door, turned back to the bunny cop, and cheerfully asked, "Is there anything I can get you, Officer Hopps?"
"No, ma'am," Judy replied. "We are here to ask about your daughter, Sara. You called the ZPD to report that she has been kitnapped."
As soon as Judy mentioned the daughter, the other rabbit's cheerful expression evaporated and she began to sob. "Sara," she cried as she ran back to flounce onto the couch and grabbed a pawful of tissues.
"That is right, officer." Julean sat down next to the distraught rabbit and put his arm around her shoulder, moving aside one of her ears in the process. "We do want to report a kitnapping."
Judy sat down in the free recliner next to the couch and pulled out her yellow notepad. She began to scratch on it with her carrot pen and looked back at the couple. "I guess the first thing to ask is how do you know she was kitnapped?"
"Well, she has not come home in, oh, how long?" He began to count on the fingers of one paw. "It has been three days."
"Go on, Mr. Maky," she told the lemur while she continued to frantically scratch on the pad. "Can you describe exactly what happened? When did you see your daughter last?"
"The last time I saw her?" Julean asked with a shaky tone. "The last time I saw Sara was when I left for work on Friday. She had finished eating her Lucky Chomps and was getting ready to go to school. We said our goodbyes and I left for work."
"Has there been any ransom notices or strange phone calls?"
"No, nothing." Julian shook his head with a frown. "I did get a call at work from an unknown number, but I thought it was just a crank call."
"Did they say anything to you, Mr. Maky?"
"I don't know. It was an out of area number, so I just hung up on them."
Judy turned back to the rabbit and asked, "Mrs. Maky, do you have anything to add?" When the other rabbit shook her head she redirected her questioning, "How does Sara get to school?"
Sniffling, Clover blew her nose and reached for another tissue. "She-she rides the bus. The school is only a few blocks away, but I feel the bus is so much safer, especially with that nice, old sheep driving."
"And then what happened?" the police rabbit asked with her pen held anxiously above the notepad.
"Ah, nothing else happened," the droopy-eared rabbit explained, looking very puzzled.
Judy tilted her head to the left, letting her ears flop on her shoulder.
"Oh," Clover sniffled. "I watched her get on the bus, and that was the last time I saw her. She-she, she never returned from ..." The rabbit broke down into another fit of tears and fell into her husband's lap with a loud sob.
"So you are saying that she never came home from school?" the police rabbit asked. After Clover nodded while sobbing into the lemur's lap, Judy continued, "It was the weekend. Could she have decided to go stay with a friend?"
Clover lifted her head and her tears dried up in an instant, but her husband spoke instead. "No. Sara would have called us if she was with a friend. We even called them to ask if they knew anything, but none of her usual friends had seen her."
The hysteric rabbit's eyes burned with a red fire, and the lemur gave her a squeeze to try and calm her. Thick anger flowed from the droopy-eared rabbit's muzzle. "This is all those preds' fault!" She turned to face the lemur. "I told you it was a bad idea to let our daughter go to a school run by a pred. She would never be hanging out with those awful pred friends of hers if you had been able to pay for that all prey school."
"Yes, dear," Julean said, patting his wife's knee. "Remember the police are here. You should not let them hear you talk like that."
"To hell with the police," Clover screamed. "Mayor Bellwether would not have let this happen." She turned and looked directly at Judy. "I voted for her, you know. She would have locked up all those filthy preds, and my daughter would still be safe at home right now."
Judy reached out her paw and placed it across the fox's muzzle. She could hear the deep snarl that was building in his chest and she was determined to cut it off at the start. A cop showing his teeth to a mammal in their own home would have had him fired before you could say the word Bogo. Without taking her eyes off the couple on the couch, she spoke to her partner, "Please go wait in the car, Nick."
"It is ok, Carrots. I am fine," the fox replied, but the shaky tone in his voice said otherwise.
The rabbit officer's voice cracked like a nine-barbed whip. "Now, Officer Wilde." She squeezed her paw tightly around his muzzle, cutting off any rebuke. "I will handle things from here. Please, just wait in the car."
Nick got up and walked to the door trying not to trip over the rubbish that lay around the living room. He stopped before stepping outside for one last look at his partner, but she never once returned his gaze. "Ok, I will go ahead and apprise dispatch of the situation," the red fox said before walking out of the still-open front door.
Smiling in approval, the long-eared rabbit nodded at Judy. "You keep a tight leash on that one. That is how it should be. They all need to be kept leashed and collared like the savage animals they are."
How dare this tramp of a rabbit say such cruel words in front of her partner! Judy was about to yell that this arrogant trollop was the savage here, but she swallowed her words with a loud gulp. Yelling at this misguided doe was never going to change her mind. She was going to show this ignorant lop exactly how kind and trustworthy her partner really was when they found her daughter.
Blinking, Judy lifted her notepad with a faux smile and addressed the troubled parents, "Is there anything else you can tell me about your daughter?"
"She goes to the J. M. Lemuris Middle School," Julean said as he squeezed Clover's paw.
Pointing at a dusty, overstuffed bookcase, Clover added, "That is a picture of her." She stood up from the couch and retrieved a dusty family portrait. The picture showed a happy family holding their kit between them. Julean stood on the right, holding up the smiling kit while Clover hugged them and held the other paw under her daughter.
Sara looked to be the spitting image of her mother except she had black splotches around her eyes and nose like her father. Her ears were shorter than her mother's and they hung out to the sides like a helicopter. In the picture, she looked to be about five years old.
With a stunned expression, Judy took the portrait in her paw and ran her finger over the glass as if she could reach out and touch the kit. "H-how?" she stammered. "How were you two able to have a child?"
Clover and Julean turned and looked at each other like Judy had told a really good joke. The rabbit shook her head and smiled. "We have no idea, but Sara is our little miracle."
Julean squeezed his wife and nodded. "We were married for years and were considering adopting when, out of the blue, Clover told me she was pregnant."
"Yeah. For the longest time, this guy thought I had been cheating on him. Even after she was born, he was far too suspicious."
"And I am very sorry for the trouble I put you through, my dear."
"It wasn't until her tail grew out when she was about three months old that we knew for sure she was ours."
The lemur tenderly squeezed his wife's paw as he continued to explain, "After she was born, we took her to the family planning clinic down the street. A nice goat doctor there told us that this kind of thing was extremely rare but not impossible and that they actually worked to help couples like us have their own little miracles." He leaned over and planted a warm kiss on the large-eared rabbit's muzzle.
Looking down at the picture again, Judy noticed that the rabbit kit's tail was about as long as her legs and the fur was a repeating pattern of black and white rings. The ring-tailed rabbit looked so happy sitting in her parent's arms.
"Do you have a more recent picture?" the police rabbit asked.
"Sure. I think she has one in her room somewhere," Clover replied and pushed away from her affectionate husband before getting up from the couch and headed to a back room. When she returned, she pawed Judy a photo of the middle school version of Sara. "Ever since she started this new school, she has been going through this phase. I really can't stand that outfit."
This new picture showed a teenaged image of Sara, who was definitely not smiling. She was dressed completely in black with a black, spiked collar around her neck and silver crosses dangling from her long, helicopter ears. The black patches of fur around her eyes were much more prominent and she had painted her lips black to match her nose. There was even a thick, metal stud in her split upper lip. With the black clothes and the contrasting white fur, Judy thought she was looking at an old black and white vampire movie.
"Can I keep this picture?" Judy asked the concerned parents.
"Of course." Clover nodded. "If it helps you bring our daughter back to us, then you are more than welcome to have it."
"Thank you," Judy said, placing the photo into a back pocket. She stood up from the bunny-sized chair and thanked the couple. "If you hear anything more regarding your daughter, do not hesitate to give the ZPD a call."
"Thank you so much for your help, Judy," Clover said, shaking the other rabbit's paw. "Can I call you Judy?"
"Officer Hopps will be fine, Mrs. Maky," the police rabbit said flatly as she headed for the door.
Climbing back inside the cruiser, Judy let out a tiny snarl. "I can't believe those speciest jerks." Putting her paws on the steering wheel, she shook her head. "I voted for Bellwether, you know," Judy spat out, mocking the floppy-eared rabbit. "How can anyone still support that monster after everything that has happened?"
The fox sitting in the passenger seat leaned over as if he was about to kiss the rabbit on the cheek.
"Don't," she demanded coldly, without taking her paws off the wheel or even looking at the fox.
Despite her harsh warning, Nick continued to lean towards her. "I am sorry," he whispered near the side of her head, causing her ears to flip forward, nearly striking the roof of their car.
"What?" She looked at him with both anger and confusion on her muzzle.
"You have been clearly upset about something today, and because you won't tell me about it, I can only guess that it is something I did." He placed his large, black paw over the small gray one that still tightly gripped the steering wheel. "I am sorry for not understanding what is wrong, and I am sorry for whatever I did to hurt you."
The sincerity in the fox's voice wiped the anger from the bunny's muzzle, and she slowly began to smile.
"I am sorry, Judy," he said for the third time. "Can I make it up to you? Would you like to go on a date tonight with this poor, pathetic fox?"
Judy tilted her head and let her stiff ears bounce in his direction. "She was right about one thing, Slick. I do need to keep you on a leash."
"Ouch! You wound me, Carrots." Nick leaned back and put a paw across his chest in faux pain.
Lifting her paw from the wheel, she reached out and grabbed his tie. "But for now, this tie will have to do." She pulled on the long necktie causing him to lean forward until their noses nearly touched. At the last second, she raised her other paw and bopped him smartly on the end of the nose. "I will think about it, but for now, we have a ring-tailed rabbit to find."
She pawed over Sara's picture and started the car's engine. "Next destination, the Lemuris Middle School," Judy declared, backing the car out of the Maky's driveway. Neither fox nor sharp-eared rabbit heard the loud crunch of the back tires running over some kit's abandoned toy.
Rubbing his nose, Nick looked down at the kit's photo in his paws. "Typical rebellious teenager. She does not look at all happy in this picture." The fox looked back at the house and around the yard they had recently left. "Carrots, do you think maybe she ran away from home?"
The rabbit's ears drooped and a frown crept across her muzzle. "I certainly hope it is nothing more than she forgot to tell her parents that she was spending the weekend with a friend. But honestly, I have a bad feeling about this case." She carefully stopped at the intersection before speaking again. "We should ask around the school to see if they know anything."
"Wait, Carrots, isn't this the place where…?" Nick started to ask his partner as they pulled into the school's parking lot, but she cut him off by quickly slamming on the breaks.
"Where you almost got us killed because some dumb fox could not wait for the bomb squad?!" Judy swiftly punched the fox in the shoulder at the same time she pulled the car into a free spot.
Turning her blazing fury on the poor hapless tod, she pointed one sharp claw at him. "I told you before that if you ever do anything that stupid again, then we are through."
Tears began to fill the rabbit's eyes and pour down her cheeks. "Yes, I know police work is dangerous, but I love you too much, and if anything ever happened to you ..." She sniffled and wiped a paw across her nose. "I just do not know how I could go on without you, even if you are such a Dumb Fox."
The fox opened his jaw with a smirk, ready to make a snide comment, but the rabbit raised her paw and cut him off. "And do not even think about taking up any offers from that Sergeant Razorback and his awful T.U.S.K. team." She quickly opened her door and hopped out.
"I have not heard anything from him in months," he started to say, but she was already out of the car, closing the door behind her.
Mrs. Foosa's office was clean and well organized. It was not the tortuous dungeon of terror that most students at Lemuris Middle School believed. The meerkat behind the desk loved all the kits and pups and foals who came to her school, and she strove to see each and every one of them succeed, at least that was what she continued to tell herself every morning.
Lemuris was an open school that accepted all species but was mainly focused on smaller mammals. It was not that they were prejudiced against the larger species, but it was often difficult for a capybara or even a badger to teach an elephant or a tiger. The school's principal strongly believed in Lionheart's Mammal Inclusion Initiative and even encouraged the students to work together with other species on class projects or in group sports.
The two small police officers standing before her desk were the epitome of that cooperation in her eyes. Mrs. Foosa knew little of the story behind these two young officers, but she could tell simply by watching their actions that they were close friends. She had met them briefly at the end of the last school year and was impressed with how well they worked together. A few months ago, she had even specifically requested they speak in front of her students for career day.
Now here they were, in her office once again, looking as sharp and imposing as ever. She only wished that one of her students would one day take up the same mantle, but today was not such a happy day.
Solemnly, the fox had pawed her a photo of one of her students. She was a troubled young rabbit who had recently taken to dark brooding and bouts of anger, but had good grades and a well-mixed group of friends. Her thoughts of the teenage kit quickly returned to the present as the fox began speaking.
"Ma'am," the fox began. "Were you aware that Sara Maky was reported missing over the weekend?"
"What? No." The meerkat seemed shocked. She pawed the photo back to the fox officer. "I do know that she missed her first two classes this morning, which is unusual."
"And why is that?" Nick asked calmly.
"Because, Officer, she has never been late for class in the past," the principal explained. "We were about to call her parents."
"We were informed that she never returned home from school on Friday and has not been seen or heard from since," the tod declared sadly.
"Mrs. Foosa, did you witness anything odd about Sara on Friday?" Judy stepped forward and put her paws on the desk. "Were there any altercations with any of the other students?"
The professionally dressed meerkat shook her head. "No, none that I heard about, but I can arrange for you to speak with my staff. Discreetly of course."
"Of course, ma'am." The rabbit nodded.
An hour later, the fox and rabbit were walking through the main foyer, heading towards the parking lot. Judy was grumbling under her breath while swatting at a fluffy orange tail that seemed to keep brushing against the back of her legs. "Five teachers, three lunch ladies, two playground supervisors, a tuskball coach, and no one saw or heard anything on Friday."
"Sara arrived, attended all of her classes, ate lunch with her friends, as she does every day, and then left on time," Nick replied. "No hints or clues about what happened to her at all."
"Excuse me, Officers." A young skunk ran up to the pair with a small stack of books clutched tightly to her chest. "I heard that you were asking about Sara. Sara Maky, am I right?"
The teenage skunk wore a black t-shirt with an alien-looking skull printed on the front. She also wore an all-black, short skirt with a shiny chain belt and an evil-looking pair of black paw straps that went up to her knees. Around her neck was a similar spiked collar to the one Sara had on in the photo.
"Yes, that's right," Judy said, turning around to face the young mustelid, while Nick held up the photo. "And you are?"
"Oh." The skunk doe took a short step back, but then recovered her courage. "My name is Tera. Tera Febreche. I am Sara's friend. We take history together, and we occasionally share our lunch. I mean like literally, one day she was so sick of eating salad I gave her my cricket sandwich. She downed the whole thing without so much as a word. And then ..."
"Ok, Tera," Judy interrupted politely. "What can you tell us about Sara? Did you see her on Friday?"
Tera looked down at the books in her paws. "I just wanted to ask how she was doing and if her parents were ok."
"What about Sara's parents?" the fox asked sharply.
"I heard that they were sick or injured or something."
"Can you give us the whole story, Tera? Please." Judy warmly asked like she had seen her mother do many times before with a young kit.
"Well," the skunk replied shyly. "After our classes were over, we were talking about this new band that is all the rage these days called Beetlehaus. Did you know that they release live beetles during their performance? How cool is that?"
"Yeah, I have heard that," Nick replied, unimpressed.
"So, Sara and I were walking across the parking lot after class. She did not want to ride that stinky old bus that her mom makes her take in the morning, so I was going to walk with her for the first couple of blocks. You can almost see her house from the parking lot, so it's a pretty short walk."
"Ok, so you saw Sara walk home on Friday?" the rabbit officer asked.
"Um, well, sort of."
"What do you mean, 'sort of'?"
"Well, we kinda bumped into this goat." Tera seemed almost ashamed to bring it up. "This goat said that Sara's parents had been in an accident, and they had sent the goat to pick her up."
Nick firmly planted his palm onto his muzzle between his eyes and groaned quietly enough that only the rabbit could hear him.
Judy looked up at her partner with a knowing expression and they both nodded.
"What is it?" Tera asked, seeing the two cops' expressions.
"Does no one teach the kits here about stranger danger?" Judy asked disgustedly.
"Of course," the skunk replied proudly with her back straight. "But Sara said she knew this goat was a doctor, and she seemed to trust her. Sara was so frantic at the news that she didn't even say goodbye to me, but jumped into the goat's black sports car without another word."
"Did you happen to catch the license plate?" Judy asked, suddenly pulling out her notepad.
"Um, not really." Tera once again looked down at the books clutched to her chest. "I mean I think it had a D and a C and the numbers 5 and 3. So it was like, something DC153, or DC something 351 maybe. I can't really be sure. It all happened so fast."
"Ok, don't worry too much about it," Judy tried to calm the kit. "What can you tell us about this goat?"
"I think she was an ibex actually, and she was dressed up like a doctor too." The teenager put a claw to her lips in thought. "She did seem awfully short for an ibex though."
"Really?" Nick asked curiously. "How short, er, tall I mean?"
"Well, I think she was only a little taller than you are, sir. I thought ibexes were a lot taller than that. In fact, now that I think about it, there were a lot of strange things about this ibex. For example, she smelled like a predator."
Nick's ears perked up. "Can you elaborate? What did she smell like?"
Wrinkling her nose, the skunk explained as best she could, "I know what a goat smells like. We have several working here, and she did not smell like one. She smelled more like a canid. You know, a wolf or maybe a hyena. The dry dusty smell they have, unlike felines who smell fishy all the time."
"Was there anything else?" Judy asked curiously.
"Oh, oh, oh." Tera hopped on her paws and almost dropped her books. "She wore these really shiny metal paw straps like a classy supermodel or something. I wish I could have paw straps like those. But gold and coppery colors clash with my fur."
"I have never heard of ungulates wearing paw straps before," Nick said, slightly puzzled.
"Yeah, paw straps might be the wrong word, but her hooves were all shiny so I thought she was wearing some very fancy straps."
"So this ibex drives a black sports car, dresses like a doctor, and wears expensive paw straps." The rabbit flipped through her notebook as she recited the clues the skunk had given them so far. "Was that everything you can tell us?"
Tapping her lip again, Tera replied, "I think so, but I am really going to be late for class if I don't hurry. I hope that helps."
"Yes, this helps a great deal. Thank you, Tera," Judy said with a bright smile.
Before the skunk could exit the main lobby, she turned back to the two cops. "Oh there is one more thing I forgot to mention. The goat's right horn was broken and missing."
"You do know that tuskball season started three weeks ago?" a small, light-brown desert fox sarcastically asked the much taller, red tod standing behind him. Today, the small fox was wearing a black polo shirt with a golden print of a mythical, flying, feathered snake that was popular in Far Eastern cultures. The snake had curled up on the left breast of his shirt and wrapped its tail around his arm.
In the fennec's paw, he held a golf putter that was nearly twice as tall as he was. With the long pole between his paws, he shifted back and forth between his hind paws and wiggled his tail. After a few seconds of wiggling, he lifted the putter over his shoulder before bringing it swiftly towards the ground. As the falling putter was about to strike the plastic, imitation grass, it struck a white spherical object instead. The sphere was covered in dimples and rested gently atop a small stick that had been carved to resemble a push pin with a divot in the top of the pin.
The ball suddenly jumped forward as Finnick carried through on his stroke. It rolled up a ramp where it followed a curve into a tight corner and rolled straight back down the hill. The fox did not curse as the ball rolled back towards him, but he carefully followed its course with his brown eyes. Rolling up another ramp, the ball turned another curve before falling into a large round depression where it circled a hole at the bottom like a rubber ducky circles a drain.
Both foxes carefully watched the ball as it rolled around and around, until finally, it fell into the hole at the bottom with a loud thunk. When the ball rattled to a stop, Finnick jumped in the air with his putter raised over his head.
"Nice shot pal," Nick responded to his ex-partner's hole-in-one.
"You're up, Red." Finnick stepped aside, flourishing a paw as if daring the larger fox to do better.
"Mind if I use your putter, buddy?" Nick asked casually, holding his paw out to the smaller canid.
"No way," the fennec nearly screamed, holding the plastic stick to his chest. "This old girl has brought me luck. I am not letting her go, no matter how much you beg."
"But it's too big for such a short fox. And where do you get off calling it 'old girl'?" The red tod put his paws on his hips. "You have only had it for less than five minutes. I would have waited for at least three more holes before giving it pet names."
"Nick," a small gray rabbit called from less than a meter away. She was dressed in a comfortable pink and blue striped t-shirt with her favorite faded, blue jeans. "Nick, I got you a putter, so stop trying to steal Finnick's." Rolling her eyes, she passed him a nearly identical putter to the one the desert fox carried.
"Uh, thanks, Carrots," Nick replied as he stepped up to the tee and set his ball. In imitation of the smaller fox, he wiggled his much larger tail as he prepared for the swing.
"You missed out on a good game yesterday," Finnick explained as the red fox made a few mock swings.
"I have been a little busy lately, bud, and have not been able to go to any tuskball games lately."
Finnick coughed as Nick swung down hard towards the ball. "The Ruffians trounced the Sandsharks last night."
Nick hit the ball slightly too hard, and it bounced around inside the high walls instead of following the gentle curve that Finnick's had moments before. The ball made it through the curved ramp but did not have enough speed to make it up the second ramp and thus, rolled back only halfway through the course.
Completely unphased by the small, brown fox's distraction, Nick stepped over the small railing and joined his ball. "Carrots and I had police business to attend to in Bunny Burrow, so I wasn't even able to watch the game on TV."
The reynard took another gentle swing at his ball and watched it roll up the second ramp and into the dish, where it swirled around until it finally fell into the hole. "Two for one, that still makes par," he pointed out to the other fox.
Nodding at Nick's success, the fennec decided to rub his old partner's fur even further. "So did this police business include biting each other in public?"
This time, Nick's jaw dropped and he glared at the tiny fox. "Where did you hear about that?"
"From the rabbit," was the small fox's reply as he waved his putter at Judy, who was chatting with a younger gray fox.
Taking turns from one hole to the next, it was Judy's turn to go first. This next hole was designed to look like a stack of sliced watermelon, and the golfer had to get the ball to roll up the slices to the center of a large melon cut in half.
The first ramp was easy, since it was a wedge-shaped slice, but the others were much more challenging. The trick was to not hit the rind while jumping the ball towards the center.
"So how are you and Finnick getting along?" Judy asked the gray fox while she set her ball on the tee.
"Fine, I guess," Carla said with a sigh. "Sometimes it's, like, kind of awkward acting like his mother. I mean I never had, like, any kits or anything, and I am from a small family, but, like, I play the part fairly well."
Judy swung her putter and the ball rolled easily up the first ramp. "I mean outside of work. I thought I heard that he took you to a live tuskball game yesterday."
"Yeah, it was fun I guess." The gray fox fiddled with her own putter. "At least we totally got to see the game instead of, like, scalping tickets n' stuff."
Climbing over the stacks of giant, fake fruit, Judy took up a position for another swing at her ball. "It sounds like it was a nice date then."
"That is just it," Carla sighed again. "It was definitely not a date."
"Why not?" the rabbit asked as she struck the ball with a light tap that caused it to jump and bounce onto the next platform.
"Because, after the game was over, he, like, totally left me outside the stadium and went drinking with his buddies."
Her ears fell and a frown crossed Judy's muzzle as she knelt down to line up her final shot. This section of the watermelon course was tricky. The center melon tilted slightly so a straight shot to the hole would end up rolling to the outside instead. "I see," she said calmly.
"How did you win, like, such an amazing gentlemammal like Nick?"
"What do you mean?" the rabbit asked as her ball rolled across the green before it popped out of the hole and spun slightly down the slope.
Looking over her shoulder, Carla tried to whisper to Judy, "He is so strong and loyal and, like, completely infatuated with you. How did you manage to catch such a prized tod?"
"I saved his life," Judy said matter-of-factly when she sank her ball with ease. Pulling the ball from its home, she waved over at the tods, who were having their own conversation.
Nick was shuffling back and forth between his hind paws, and he tested his swing for the next hole. It was his turn to go first and this one looked difficult. Sure, it was a single straight shot to the hole, but it was entirely uphill.
This next hole was built onto the back of a very long, ancient lizard that was supposed to have lived millions of years ago. The ramp started with the creature's spiky tail and then leveled out across its broad back before climbing again up the long neck. At the very top, the hole was in the center of the monster's head like those giant sea mammals. If you hit the ball too softly, it would stop on the flat back, but too hard and it would go flying off the head and you would have to start over again.
Choosing the safer route, Nick swung lightly, and the ball rolled up and rested on the flat back. "I am not impressed with the Sandsharks this year. Ever since they traded away Shenzi and Banzai the team has gone downhill."
"You got that right," Finnick declared with a loud grunt. "It is only the start of the season, but if the Sharks don't start winning some games soon, they will be totally out of the running this year."
Climbing up the ramp that was the back of the lizard's tail, the red fox looked back at the smaller brown one. "There is still the final bracket at the end of the season where the worst team gets a shot to play one more game."
"They only get the one game," the desert fox grunted. "There is no way they could take the cup."
Nick swung at the ball again, causing it to sail up and over the giant beast's head. "Stranger things have happened."
"Yeah, like you dating a bunny!" Finnick snarled.
At the top of the ramp, Nick found his ball sitting next to the hole. All it took was a light nudge for it to fall in. He climbed back down and watched his ex-partner set his own ball on the tee.
When the fennec started his swing, the red tod tried to pull the same trick Finnick had done to him earlier. "Honestly, you should try it sometime, buddy. You might actually like it."
Seeing Finnick lurch and hit the ball a bit too hard, Nick thought his comment had worked. When the ball sailed over the creature's head, he was more than sure. "It went completely over the head," he said when the smaller fox began climbing the ramp.
"I am not so sure, I never saw it hit the net on the other side," Finnick said as he kept climbing. Upon reaching the top, he called back to Nick, "Hey, bro, can you come up here for a sec?"
"Why? Did you lose the ball again?" Nick asked as he began to trudge back up the steep slope. When he reached the top, he glared down at the fennec. "I hope you didn't lose it. Each one of those cost me five bucks."
Finnick simply smiled and pointed down at the hole in the middle of the lizard's head.
"No," Nick barked, shaking his head. "How do you keep doing this?"
"I told you, this is my lucky putter," Finnick said, retrieving his ball from the hole. When both foxes returned to the tee, the smaller one looked across the course at the rabbit in question and asked, "Does she have a sister?"
Carla was the next to be first to tee-off. Her putting course's fairway wound through and around a variety of pedal cars for medium-sized mammals. The fairway first ran past a vintage model vehicle with the spare tire mounted on top of the trunk. Then it passed a fire truck painted yellow with a mannequin of a white canid with black spots, sitting in the driver's seat. And finally, the ball had to run under an old-fashioned police car with a rounded nose and a single flashing light on the top.
The gray fox hit her ball gently, and it rolled past the first vintage car but stopped in a corner before it could pass the fire truck. "Can you, like, give me some tips?" she asked the rabbit next to her.
"You could try hitting the ball a little harder," Judy replied thoughtfully.
Walking up to where her ball had stopped, Carla glanced back at the rabbit with a quick retort on her lips. Looking at the innocent expression on the bunny's muzzle, she changed her mind. "I mean like catching a tod, ya know."
Judy shook her head. "Sorry, Carla, I really do not know anything about tods." She frowned and her ears drooped. "I don't even know how to catch a buck."
"But don't you and Nick, like, live together n' stuff?" Carla said, trying to size up her next swing. "Surely you must have learned, like, something about him by now."
The rabbit threw her paws in the air. "I really don't understand why Nick and I are together. He is a pred and I am prey, yet my heart flutters when he is near, and sometimes I have no idea why he stays with me. I wish I could give you some advice, Carla, but I honestly don't understand this thing we have either."
Carla sighed and she barely hit the ball, causing it to roll only slightly past the fire truck before it stopped at the small ramp that led towards the old police car.
The expression on the vixen's muzzle told Judy that she needed to say more. "Is this about Finnick?" she asked, and Carla nodded silently. "Then I suggest you take your time and work on being friends first. Have you told him how you feel?"
"Yes." Carla nodded, gently hitting the ball over the ramp and under the police car where it stopped slightly short of the hole. She walked around the car and bumped it in before saying, "I told him, but he said that, like, he doesn't like dating coworkers n' stuff."
"Ok," Judy said, setting her own ball on the tee. "It might have been too soon then."
"What? That was like months ago. Finnick and I have been working together for over half a year."
"Nick and I were best friends for over a year before we decided to take our relationship further." The rabbit swung her putter at the small golf ball, causing it to sail down the lane and around the corner. It passed the fire truck, where it stopped at the little ramp that had stopped Carla's ball earlier. "What I am trying to say is, don't rush into things. Get to know the tod first before you try for something deeper. In a year or so, you could find out that you want to try something more, or you could find out that you can't stand each other."
"How could any vixen ever hate that tough little guy? He is, like, so cute and charming and everything." Carla hugged the putter to her chest like it was a plush, toy doll.
"You would be surprised. I think he is worried about getting into anything serious. He probably doesn't want to lose another friend and partner." The rabbit putted her ball over the ramp, where it rolled past the hole. "Nick and Finnick did not exactly part on good terms when he joined the police academy."
"But they, like, made up n' stuff, didn't they?" Carla asked.
"Yes." Judy nodded, knocking the ball gently into the hole. "Friends can do that. I suggest, if you want a serious relationship with our mini fox, then take the time to get to know him first. Maybe go on a few more dates, or a lot of dates, just don't get discouraged if he doesn't immediately come around. That is what I have learned from Nick. He can be a pretty dumb fox at times, and I often have to slap his muzzle and shout in his fuzzy ear, 'Take me on a date.'"
Both females giggled together, not bothering to cover their muzzles as they looked back at the tods. The males turned and looked back at the giggling girls when Nick asked, "What?"
"Does she have a sister?" Nick replied, lining up his next shot. "That is the understatement of the year."
The hole where the red fox found himself was one of the shortest in the entire park but it was not easy by far. Two yards after the tee, the course inclined up a sharp ramp that quickly curved back into a loop. Players had to hit the ball at exactly the right angle and speed, or the ball would come flying back to where it started or fall in the pond next to the big loop.
"She probably has hundreds," the red fox continued as he took a few practice swings.
"Did any of them seem like they would be interested in dating a fox?" Finnick asked, at the same time trying not to sound interested.
Nick gave his golf ball a solid blow, and it sped along the course and up the ramp, but it only reached about halfway through the loop before it fell back to the ground. "I don't really know, bud. I was more worried about not being driven out of town with torches and pitchforks than whether any of the hot does were looking for dates."
Finnick stormed onto the course and partially up the ramp. "No, no, no. You have to hit it much harder. And aim for this spot where I am standing." The desert fox threw Nick's ball back at him, "Now try it again, and you don't have to set the tee right in the center. Move it off to the left a bit for a better angle."
The red tod set his ball where the older, smaller one had described. "There was one of Carrot's aunts who seemed awfully interested in foxes though." Nick swung the putter, and this time his ball sailed cleanly through the loop, but it shot past the hole and bounced off the back wall.
"Her aunt?" Finnick groaned with his front teeth exposed.
"Well I know how you don't like the younger crowd," Nick said, climbing through the loop to get to his ball. "Besides, she looked to be about your age anyways."
"Wait, so there is actually a country bunny, who is also my age, and is actually interested in dating foxes?" The sarcasm was thick on the small fox's lips.
"No, it's true," the red tod explained, nudging his ball into the hole. "Judy told me herself. Her aunt would not stop bugging her about what it was like dating a fox."
"I don't know, Nick," Finnick said, rubbing his chin. "This all sounds like a setup for a really bad con."
Nick retrieved his ball from the hole and glanced back at the fennec with a shrug. "How about I ask Judy to give her aunt a call and arrange for a meeting between the two of you?"
Finnick and Nick strolled over to the next hole as they watched the two females finish up with their own hole. "Like I said already, this really smells fishy to me."
The tall, red fox slapped his ex-partner on the back with a cheerful smile on his muzzle. "Trust me, bud. What could go wrong?"
[A/N] The speciest rabbit was an idea I have been harboring for a very long time. It was one of the earlier concept ideas back when I was still working on the ideas for part one. I knew I wanted to have a kitnapping, and that the mother was very anti-pred to the point where Nick had to leave. The conversation did not turn out at all like I had originally planned, but I think this version fist the rest of the story better.
I deliberately left the argument between Nick and Judy unexplained so your welcome to use your imagination about what happened to get them dragged into Bogo's office.
So by the time this chapter gets publish, I have already written a shore tale that will go up on my Extra Fluffy collection of short stories soon. It entails what happens when Finnick and Sharleen meet up on a blind date. If you are following that collection, I have to post that last chapter of The Wall before the date scene will be released so expect about two weeks. I was really not expecting The Wall to take so long but I am sorry, this date will have to wait.
The Makys are a conglomeration of several TV couples as well as some of my own personal life, but I wonder if anyone can spot my inspirations. Sara and Tera are completely original as far as I can tell. They were not inspired by any existing characters. I would like to write more about them, possibly in Extra Fluffy if the inspiration hits me. Currently I am going nuts finishing my main story while the muse has its paws on me, so we will see if anything comes of these OCs.
For comments, I have decided that I will uses this site's method of Direct Messaging to respond instead of including my replies in the following chapters. I really do love reading each and every comment and I want everyone who does to know how much their kind words and criticisms are appreciated.
THANK YOU to everyone for reading and sticking with this story for so long. I can guarantee that there is at least a year or more worth of content comming, provided I keep to the same upload schedule. At the moment it comes down to my editors and beta readers and they are currently setting the pace of my uploads.