Loves Bond
Chapter 13 - Marked
A large camel jogged across the marble steps that led up to the police station's main lobby. His thick, winter fur was starting to grow in, yet he wore a tight fitting sweat jacket with the hood pulled up. He was breathing hard as he jogged across the stone plaza and punched at the air with several one-two jabs.
The sun was shining and not a single cloud could be seen in the sky. A cool breeze blew through the park where a crowd of early risers had gathered to greet the morning. The Savanna Central commuter trolley dinged and disgorged several passengers before moving on to its next stop and a vendor's voice carried across the park, letting hungry mammals know that his paw wrapped breakfast burritos were hot and fresh.
A cheerful rabbit dressed in a police uniform skipped up the steps like a young schoolgirl ready to meet the beautiful day. Beside the bunny cop, was a uniformed, red fox with a sleepy, yet puzzled expression on his muzzle like he was seeing the real world for the first time. The rabbit held the fox's paw like he needed her support to climb the large steps.
As the tall camel neared the two officers, they could hear him mumble under his breath mockingly, "What day is it, Mike? What day is it, Mike? I don't give two salt licks what day it is, Charles. Maybe you should get a calendar, you moron." The camel turned the corner still punching the air and was quickly out of hearing range, even for the rabbit's sensitive ears.
Judy pushed open the giant, glass doors that covered the entrance to the ZPD's main lobby. She nearly had to drag the tod by his long, black tie through the opening. His feet seemed to drag heavily across the large stones, but he still held his tail aloft so it wouldn't touch the ground.
The lobby was as busy as always when the fox and rabbit officers strolled across the brightly polished marble floor. Police mammals stood together chatting, or simply waiting for their shifts to start. One group was clumped around a white box of donuts that a uniformed hippo had brought. Several officers around the lobby already had a paw, or hoof, full of the sticky, sweet goodness or were wiping off the remains of sugary crumbs.
Bouncing and skipping merrily, Judy led her fox by the paw, through the lobby towards a rotund cheetah presiding over the main reception desk. When they crossed the enormous, gold-trimmed seal that covered the lobby floor, Nick stumbled and nearly tripped before he was caught by the uniformed rabbit. They both snickered softly as the fox regained his balance, but their eyes hovered on each other for several, dangerously long seconds.
"Hey, Spots," Nick waved to the cheetah warmly as the pair finally approached the counter. Instead of smirking in his usually foxy manner, he actually snickered slightly like he had told a good joke.
"Morning, Ben," Judy beamed up at the large feline. Her eyes glistened with a heat that the cheetah had never seen in them before.
"Aww, Spots. You didn't leave any Lucky Chomps for the rest of us this morning?" The tod said with a mock disappointment and the rabbit snorted quietly as she glanced intensely at him.
Clawhauser's eyes widened as he watched the small couple. He counted the seconds on his fingers waiting for the punch that never came. What was going on here, had the rabbit actually winked at the reynard? The cheetah pinched his arm before he returned their warm greetings, "Good morning you two. Officer Portones brought donuts this morning so I thought I would skip the cereal today. Besides, I need to buy a new jug of milk."
"Ah, sorry to hear that," the rabbit said.
Nick poked a claw at the snowglobe sitting on top of the counter, "So any word on those Gazelle tickets yet, Buddy?"
The cheetah's muzzle fell sadly and his ears drooped, "Naw, nothing yet. I am still holding out for an appearance at the Winter Star Festival. I was really bummed when she canceled all her summer concerts." Tears filled the big feline's eyes and he wiped them away with a large, yellow and black paw.
"Well, I will keep an ear to the ground for ya, pal," the fox said as the pair walked happily away from the counter and towards the main offices. Several mammals gave the cheetah a suspicious look after the two smallest officers passed.
Paw in paw, the fox and rabbit strolled to the back of the lobby with silly smiles planted on their muzzles. Her's was the satisfied smile of a feline who had caught a big, tasty fish, while his smirk looked like he had been caught with his paw in the cookie jar.
When they passed the small group where Wolfard and Fangmeyer were chatting with Andersen, Nick held up his paw in greeting, "Morning Scruffangs." He had accidentally slipped and merged the tiger's and wolf's nicknames into a single portmanteau.
Judy took one look at the tod before she snorted loudly. She grasped his paw in both of hers and planted her muzzle into his arm to cover her loud snickers. After a few seconds, she wiped the happy tears on his sleeve, but she continued to snicker softly as they walked away.
Wolfard and Fangmeyer glared at each other before turning back to the small couple in puzzlement. When the gray wolf shrugged, he turned and gave the cheetah a long gaze before jerking his head in the direction the fox and rabbit had gone.
The instant the back door closed behind the small couple, every officer in the lobby rushed towards the counter like a herd of equine jumping on the last apple. They all began talking at once and the sound that echoed through the lobby was reminiscent of the Zootopia Central Station at noon.
"What just happened?"
"Are those two drunk?"
"Did you see the look she gave him?"
"I knew they were a couple!"
"Who won?"
"What's today's date?"
"I think it's Friday."
"No, it's not."
"Did he bite her?"
"Clawhauser, get the list."
"We need confirmation."
Suddenly the crowd of mammals parted and everyone turned to look at Wolfard, who took a second to realize that all eyes were on him. He climbed off the reception counter and firmly put both hind paws back on the marble floor. Straightening the tie on his uniform he looked around at the crowd and shrugged, "What?"
When they continued to glare at the wolf questioningly he put both of his paws in the air, "I honestly have not been able to tell their scents apart since they started living together."
"They're living together?" Someone in the crowd cried and the wolf covered his muzzle with both paws at his accidental slip.
"We already knew they were dating," Clawhauser exclaimed. "What we all want to know is if you smelled anything different about them so we can start planning the wedding." The last bit was said with a loud squeal as his paws pressed into his fluffy, spotted cheeks.
"I don't care about a wedding," said one gruff rhino. "All I want to know is who won the pot."
Everyone turned to the cheetah, who looked askance at the wolf detective.
Shrugging, Wolfard scratched at his muzzle before finally speaking, "She marked him pretty good. I could smell her scent all over him as he passed, but." He held up a sharp claw as the cheetah pumped his fist in the air. "I am not sure if he marked her unless you guys want me to go around sniffing up the bunny cop."
The crowd took a step away from the wolf and waved their paws while some even drew signs across their chests to ward off evil.
"She would probably break your nose," someone said and the rest of the crowd agreed.
Clawhauser clapped his paws together in the air before speaking loudly to the whole group, "So are we in agreement then? The fox and rabbit did have a ..." He covered his mouth with a large spotted paw and coughed, "An intimate relation last night? All in agreement say 'aye'"
The whole group spoke that single word at once.
"This isn't a council meeting," one of the rhinos declared gruffly. "Break out the list already."
"Fine," the cheetah grumbled. "Ruin my fun." With a mock frown, he unlocked one of the many drawers in his cabinet and pulled out a colorful notebook that was plastered with every Gazelle sticker known to mammal kind, as well as a few glitter-covered princesses. He flipped through the book until he came to a page marked with the words 'Nick and Judy' followed by the name of the current month and year and a cute paw drawing of a bed with a heart floating above it.
On the page was a list of dates running down one edge. Next to each date were two or sometimes three names. The precinct was so large, including the late shift, that most officers had to double up on dates. Beside each name was a number preceded by a 'Z' symbol with a slash through the middle.
Clawhouser ran a sharp claw down the page until he came to last night's date, "Let's see here." He poked at the line in his notebook before he squinted and read the names, "We have Brian Cheung and Edward Jackson."
A golden furred bear cheered, pumped his fist, and approached the counter in front of the cheetah, "Yes!"
The next to step forward was a tiger that was only slightly shorter than Fangmeyer, "Ok where is the pot? It's got to be pretty big since this thing has been running for what, five months now?"
Carefully, Clawhauser pulled a small lockbox out of the same drawer where the notebook had rested. With excessive slowness and care, the cheetah placed the box on top of the counter. He pulled a key from somewhere on his uniform and placed it into the lock. Taking a deep breath, he turned the key in the lock and lifted the lid with a brilliant smile, like shimmering precious jewels were held within.
The tiger rolled his eyes at the cheetah's antics. He began to thump his paw on the floor like a rabbit while waiting for the other big cat to hurry up.
Clawhauser reached a huge paw inside the box and pulled forth a stack of mixed bills. Some were crisp and new while others were old and crumpled. With all the mammals watching, he began to divide the stack into two even piles. Once the bills were separated, he counted each one and wrapped them with a stiff rubber band. One bill, marked with the number 20 remained apart from the two piles. He then passed one pile to the light brown bear and the other to the waiting tiger, "It has been a pleasure gentlemammals."
"Thanks," the tiger said, stuffing his stack of bills into an open pocket.
"Thank you, Ben," Officer Cheung said, flipping through the stack with a sharp claw.
The remaining twenty was placed swiftly back into the lockbox where the lid was quickly closed and locked. It was then unceremoniously shoved back into the desk drawer along with the notebook. Clawhauser then slammed it shut and with a couple of waves of his paws, he pretended to swallow the key. With a voice that sounded like his mouth was full, he declared, "Ok mammals. Party's over. Everyone back to work."
The bullpen fell into an uneasy hush as the rabbit and fox officers walked into the room. Nothing seemed amiss or out of place as the pair entered, and none of the other officers gave them odd looks as they walked past. Everything in the bullpen seemed perfectly normal, except that all conversation stopped. Even the arm wrestling match abruptly ended without so much as a snarl.
Only a well-maned lion stood in a corner whistling softly while trying to look everywhere but at the small couple. Later, Officer Delgato would have sworn that the tune he was whistling sounded nothing like, "Da dum te dum, da dum te dum." He took his seat once the pair had reached the front of the room.
Oblivious to the silence or the serenade, the two small officers giggled and chatted together with pawfuls of coffee and donuts. Judy skipped down the aisle, while Nick sloughed along, barely holding his tail above the floor. When they reached the front row, the noise in the room resumed and the arm wrestling match was back on with fervor.
Before the rabbit loomed a giant chair made from sturdy steel and plastic molded to fit the backside of a much larger mammal. The plastic seat and backing were dyed a pale orange color that looked nothing like her favorite root vegetable. As she prepared to leap into her seat, she noticed several deep scratches in the cheap plastic. The scratches were not new and had probably been left years before she had joined the force.
Judy climbed into her seat with the help of her partner who passed her the coffee and donuts he had been holding, before he too, climbed up the tall chair. She placed her tall cup of coffee on the table in front of her and listened to the fox telling her his latest sloth joke. It was a joke he had been working on ever since they had returned from Bunny Burrow and he liked to work out the kinks with her before he started spreading it around the office.
Nodding as her tod set up the joke, Judy took a long sip of her coffee and began to scratch under her breastplate. The new holes in her chest were starting to itch uncomfortably, but remembering how she had acquired them, brought a pleasant, dreamy smile to her muzzle and a warm glow to her heart. She knew she shouldn't be scratching at them in case they started bleeding again, but she could not help the feelings and memories that they brought.
She had examined her chest in the mirror this morning as she was getting ready for work. Under the short, gray fur, were two lines of holes that ran from the middle of her breastbone up to her collar. Her mate's bite was very strong and she was lucky that he had not broken anything or bitten even slightly to the left or right. His long fangs could have easily pierced her lungs and his strong jaws could have snapped her collar bone or worse.
Looking in the mirror, she gently caressed the two holes in her chest and knew that a matching pair rested on her back. The fangs on the fox's lower jaw had broken the skin on her chest, creating the two holes and she wondered if she could see the bone beneath. A dreamy smile filled her muzzle as she rubbed at the scabs that had formed, causing a drop of fresh blood to form.
Seeing that she had broken the new scab on her chest, she dabbed at the blood with a tissue and tried to stem the flow. She didn't try to cover them with a bandage or use any healing ointment. These were scars that she wanted to keep for the rest of her life. "For our lives", she said out loud. This was his mark, the physical symbol that he loved her and that they were now mates.
Even hours after he had given them to her, the bite marks still hurt. It was a dull, throbbing ache that seemed to match the warm glow that filled her chest and she found that she almost liked the feeling. Closing her eyes in front of her bathroom mirror, she pictured his jaws clamped around her once again, and felt the sharp pain of his teeth on her skin.
Back in the bullpen, she subconsciously rubbed at the two holes again trying to remember everything that had happened between her and the fox last night. Oblivious to her surroundings she dreamt of the feeling of his teeth brushing through her fur and she wondered when he would bite her again.
A shiver ran down her spine as she thought of her mate's sharp fangs and his long claws. Reaching over she dug her own claws into his leg and began to scratch them back and forth. His tail brushed against her side and she giggled as it tickled her fur.
"Hopps," somebody called her name gruffly from the front of the room.
The rabbit opened her eyes and took a long sip of her coffee, and she heard her name again.
"Hopps, do you think this is funny?" A dark-furred, cape buffalo was glaring at her from behind a tall podium with a large manila folder in his hooves.
She sat up straight and gulped down the hot liquid, "Sir?" Flames could have burst from the chief's nostrils as he snorted in her direction. "Uh, no Sir!" She shook her head and noticed that everyone was watching her, including her partner.
"Good. Because I almost thought I heard you asking for a week of parking duty," Bogo declared, stepping from one hoof to the other. He lifted the folder higher in the air to call attention to it and adjusted his glasses, "Now, as I was saying, these abductions and missing minor reports are still on the rise. None of the parents or guardians have received any threats or ransom demands. And, each abduction report I read gets stranger and stranger."
He placed the folder down on the podium with a loud slap, "If you thought a mother losing her one-year-old cub out of a shopping cart while her back was turned is strange, then think again." Slamming his fist down on the podium, causing it to wobble, he glared out at the crowd of officers, "A young zebra foal was taken under our very noses during a hit and run crash up on Highway 4. Yes, I know that you may have heard that all the passengers were safe and alive, but the father insists that one of the foals was missing and two witnesses saw a costumed individual leaving the scene."
His hoof hit the podium a second time, "This foal was taken in the few seconds it took for officers to arrive on the scene, under our very noses. This is getting out of hoof. I want the mammals responsible found before the media gets wind of this debacle."
Stepping back, the chief pulled a stack of folders off of the podium and held them up in the air, "And finally, here are the day's assignments."
Chief Bogo passed out the folders to the various teams as they filed out of the bullpen. Each folder went to one officer or group of officers until none remained. He glared down at his two smallest officers before he spoke again, "I am waiting for yesterday's reports from you two, and I haven't received any of those traffic citations either. They had better be on my desk before either of you leave for the day."
Storming out of the room, he shut the large glass door gruffly without saying another word. The rabbit, who was still sitting in her chair that she shared with the fox, could hear the buffalo's hooves clomp down the hall outside of the bullpen, as the chief headed towards his office.
Judy picked up her half-eaten donut, but was unable to take a bite before a pair of fox lips were pressed against her own. "Nick," the rabbit giggled, trying to push the pawsy tod away. "I know how much you want me right now, but we really should get to work."
The fox continued to smack his lips in her direction even after she picked up her coffee and the donut and climbed off their chair. When she reached the door, she turned and blew the fox a warm kiss and wink at him before she followed the buffalo's path out into the hall.
Back at her own desk, she noticed that her computer screen was flashing an urgent warning.
"What is wrong with your computer, Carrots?" the fox asked as he rushed up from behind her and sat in his personal swivel chair. Judy felt a light pinch near her tail as the tod passed and she didn't even make a single yelp or swat at his paw, but hummed sweetly instead.
The rabbit did however rub her hind paw against his larger black one once she sat down. She tried to intertwine their toes but gave up once she started typing at the computer.
"It looks like the search I left running last night has finished." She stroked a few more keys and several images splayed across the screen like shuffled cards.
"Remind me again what we were searching for last night, Darling?"
She kicked his hind paw instead of punching the usual shoulder, "Dr. Walia's license plate, so we could figure out where the SUV went with that zebra foal."
"Oh, right," the fox rubbed his paws together excitedly. "What did the computer find?"
"It found quite a lot actually," the rabbit frowned and then sighed heavily. "Oh, no. Most of these aren't even the right vehicle. In some, the plates are a total blur so it's a wonder the computer picked them at all."
Turning to her mate, Judy placed a small peck on his cheek, "Honey, could you be a dear and finish filing our citations while I sort out this mountain of traffic photos?"
"I would rather be sorting the photos," Nick groaned.
She leaned over and softly kissed his nose, "I am sure you would, hun, but how about I bake you a nice blueberry pie for dinner once we are done for the evening?"
"Ugh," the fox groaned again, this time rubbing his stomach in mock pain while sticking out his long tongue. "I can still feel all those pies I ate from the fair. Your friend Gideon is one excellent baker, but if I ever see another blueberry pie it will be too soon." He then leaned back in his chair with the back of his paw held to his forehead while the other clutched at his chest.
"Ok, dear," Judy giggled at her mate's overly embellished drama. "Just file those reports so I can focus on these sightings. It's going to take me at least an hour to go through all this. That should be more than enough time for a smart fox like you to finish his homework." She gave him a final wink before turning back to the computer.
Without another word, Nick slipped his long muzzle between the rabbit's tall ears and planted a wet kiss on top of her head. He turned away from her and grabbed the first folder off the top of a stack that sat on his desk. Opening the folder, he turned to the appropriate page and began to sign his initials where prompted. At the bottom, he wrote a small note to describe the situation and then signed the last page in the folder.
Placing the completed report on a new pile, he reached for the next, where he followed the same procedure. Some reports required more explanation, but most were simply to initial each box and sign on the dotted line. The report for the hit-and-run however would be much more lengthy and both he and Judy would have to file their statements separately, so he moved that one to the bottom of the pile.
Neither the rabbit nor the fox noticed the hippo watching their flirty exchange from across the room. He snorted and took notes every time one or the other used a pet name or showed even the slightest hint of affection.
The hour passed in silence as the couple worked back to back. Only the sound of clicking keys and a scratching pen could be heard from the Wilde Hopps desk. Even when the fox's tail swished and landed in the rabbit's lap, she never once said a word, but gently began running her claws through the soft, orange fur.
Nick finished his reports long before Judy was done sorting through the results of the traffic search. He dropped the citations off on his boss's desk before circling back to chat with Clawhauser and Grizoli about this season's tuskball teams. None of the two larger mammal's teams were doing very well either, but they were both still far ahead of Nick's favorite, the Sandsharks.
Checking back with his bunny, Nick found that she had hit a snag and would need the rest of the hour to finish up. He decided to hit the gym for a bit and worked on strengthening his legs until Judy sent him a text saying that she had finished but needed to use the little bunny's room first.
Unlike the academy, the building for precinct one actually had a restroom for small mammals. Unfortunately, it was downstairs and connected to the lobby, forcing the rabbit to trudge down two flights of stairs or keep her legs crossed while hopping in the extremely slow elevator. Generally, she chose the stairs since she wasn't afraid to take them in a single leap.
When they finally met back up at their shared cubicle, Nick was sitting in the rabbit's chair twirling his tail while he spun around whistling a tune that reminded Judy of a colonial march. She promptly shoved the fox out of her chair without a word or even a kiss, causing him to sit on the floor pouting for several minutes.
Why does he look so cute? She thought while taking her seat and tried not to look at the pouty tod. A warm giggle built up in her chest, but she brutally shoved it down and tried to focus on the screen where she had recently been sorting shots of the ibex's truck.
"Nick," Judy called without taking her eyes off the screen. "Will you stop playing around and come look at this?"
Still sitting on the floor, her mate placed his head in her lap and looked up at the computer, "Yes darling, what is it?"
Judy rolled her eyes and began to scratch between his ears and she described what she had spent the last hour and a half working on, "So as you can see here, I removed all the extraneous photos and then sorted the remaining ones by time and location. Over here, I marked each location with a red dot on this map of the city and then, I drew lines between each one based on the time. Now, we have a more complete map of where the SUV was and when."
Standing up, Nick grabbed his own chair and pulled it next to the rabbit, "Wow. I am very impressed honey. This is some serious detective work."
"It was really nothing," the rabbit blushed. "The computer did most of the work. The hardest part was going through all those mismatched images. I had to look at each one very closely to see if the computer had actually found the vehicle but was far in the background or not."
She pointed at one image with a small hatchback in the foreground, but far in the distance, across a grassy park, was the SUV in question, "After I came across this one, I had to go back through all the others and double-check them." Sighing, she placed her paw on the fox's knee and gave it a firm squeeze, "I think I might have preferred to work on those reports instead."
"Oh, don't worry, Carrots," the tod replied warmly. "I saved some for you."
"Gee, thanks, Slick," the bunny sighed.
"So what does all this mean," Nick pointed at the map with all the dots and lines. "Do we know where the Tusker went?"
"Sort of," Judy replied, clicking several buttons to bring up the first image. On the map, the corresponding dot was also highlighted. "So here we have it leaving the impound with Mrs. Walia driving. And the next photo is very blurry but it passes by Aardvark and Herd heading south. After that, we don't see it again until it reaches Slot Street less than twenty minutes later. Isn't that actually impossible? There is no straight route between Herd and Slot even if you did get on the freeway."
"Unless you took the Gator Canal," the fox cut in. "It is mostly dry this time of year and runs under the freeway and by-passes the Palm District dunes." He ran a finger across the map tracing a route between two of the red dots. "And it should let you out right about there, where the cameras on Slot Street caught our vehicle again."
"Nice job, Slick. I am more impressed with you every day. Maybe you should ask Bogo to promote you."
"Har, har."
"But the next shot has me even more puzzled," Judy clicked a few more buttons to bring up an image of the SUV parked next to a brick building that displayed a neon sign with a large sea mammal on the front. The sign was turned off in the early morning hours so the letters were not quite visible. In the foreground was a pair of uniformed ram's shoving a handcuffed tapir into the back of a patrol vehicle. "This is from Officer Swinton's body camera while making the arrest in front of Lucky Lue's Pawnshop yesterday."
"That is the Velvet Orca," Nick pointed out. "Why would Mrs. Walia go there so early in the morning?"
"I don't know, Hun," the rabbit said, scratching at her ear. "Maybe we can ask around the club to find out, But a better question is why she drove all the way back across town again. Here she is on the freeway and again passing Lemuris Middle School. She stopped at the same coffee shop we did before disappearing for two more hours. There must have been a residence in the area where she parked."
"Or an office building out of view of our traffic cameras," the tod snapped his fingers. "So the vehicle was in the area the whole time. Then, when the accident happened ..."
Judy finished the fox's sentence, "Our costumed mammal was waiting to strike. This must have all been some kind of elaborate setup, to abduct that foal. Like Bogo said, right under our noses. But why?"
Tapping some more keys, Judy pulled up the records for the victim's father, "Mzamo Idube, emigrated here seven years ago. Married Mandy Tallgrass in the same year. Works as an accountant for Zoopharma, no arrests or records whatsoever. This is one of the cleanest records I have ever seen. Still, he is practically nobody."
After another search, Judy added, "Other than a few recent speeding tickets there is little on the mother. She went to ZU and has an arrest record during that time. The arrest was for vandalism and indecent exposure. It looks like she mooned a cop during some kind of civil protest."
Nick spun around in the chair tapping his chin, "But why would someone go to all this trouble to steal this family's foal. The older foals said they were coming back from the doctor's office. Was there something wrong with the buck, is this some kind of insurance scam? Maybe the father found something on the company books and they took the foal to try and silence him."
The chair made several revolutions while Wilde's speculations grew even wilder, "He could be some kind of prince near the bottom of the line of succession who found a wife here and his family is trying to cover up the whole thing because it would ruin their relations with a neighboring country."
Rolling her eyes, Judy stuck out her hind paw to stop his chair with a grunt, "Ok, Dumb Fox. You are spinning in more ways than one. Wild speculation isn't going to get us anywhere."
Lowering his muzzle, the fox raised one eyelid to look at the rabbit, "Just throwing out some ideas, Sweetheart."
The rabbit pointed back to the screen, "How about we stick to collecting evidence and find out where they took him before we try to understand why?"
"Alright. What have we got?" Nick asked leaning forward for a better view of the screen, but he lay his tail across his mate's lap.
Following a red line on the map with her claw, Judy explained the route the vehicle had taken, "So the foalnappers drove almost straight south. They passed Little Rodentia like they were on a Sunday stroll. Driving way under the speed limit, it took them nearly three-quarters of an hour to reach their next destination. It doesn't look like they made any stops along the way and they followed a route that had little traffic. There are a lot of images from street cameras and others that regularly upload to our database, but the path is pretty straight south until it turns towards Mole Harbor."
"They went towards the docks. That is not a good sign," the fox declared with worry heavy on his words.
"Let's hope the mammal traffickers didn't immediately load the young buck onto a ship." A small tear formed under the rabbit's eye but it never fell to run down her cheeks.
"Or they could have the young ones holed up somewhere before they ship the whole group out at once. If it is the traffickers we are dealing with." Nick stood up from his chair like he was ready to charge into battle, "Bogo needs to know about this."
"Wait!" Judy grabbed the fox's arm before he could rush off to tell their boss. "The SUV is still sitting at the docks, or at least it was at sunset last night. The camera at the dock entrance caught it entering the area but none of the others around the wharf spotted it. It didn't drive aboard any ships or leave the area so it still has to be there."
The Mole Harbor docks appeared quiet when a police cruiser pulled onto the wharf. Giant cranes that could lift stacks of shipping containers sat silently near the edge of the water. A single cargo ship floated next to the dock looking barren, with its deck nearly empty of crates, and few mammals scurried about the wharf as the cruiser drove past.
It was the lunch hour and many mammals had driven elsewhere to find food. There were no restaurants or fast food joints near the docks and not one single food truck had shown up today, forcing mammals that hadn't brought their own meals to drive several minutes' distance for their lunch. Thus the docks were quiet and the parking lots were nearly empty.
The absence of mammals today should have made the two small officers' search easy, but the black and green Tusker SUV was nowhere to be seen. They drove back and forth several times, checking each parking lot and the alleys between warehouses. Eventually, they pulled up to the dock security office.
Sitting at the desk in the small office building, was an assateague pony wearing a dark blue dockworker's uniform with a bright orange vest and a matching helmet. He was talking on the phone when Judy approached the counter, "Yes, sir. The papers are all in order and she has permission to unberth as soon as the tugs arrive. No, she can't navigate the harbor on her own, not a ship of her weight class."
The equine paused and nodded several times before speaking again, "Yes, sir. You are welcome, sir. Have a nice day, sir." He then rolled his eyes and blew a loud snort through his long muzzle as he placed the phone back onto its receiver.
When the port security official turned around, he saw the two small police officers and greeted them with a small hint of annoyance, "Hello Officers, how can we help you today?"
"Good morning, sir," Judy said with almost too much cheer and exuberance as she hopped up to the counter. The pony rolled his eyes again but kept his muzzle shut at the small cop's greeting even though it was clearly noon and no longer morning.
Nick pulled out a picture of the Tusker they were looking for and pawed it towards the security official while Judy spoke, "We are wondering if you have seen this vehicle around here recently. It should have arrived sometime during the day yesterday."
Taking the photo in his hoof, the security mammal barely looked at it before he shook his head and placed it back on the counter. Before he could speak, Judy began pleading with her big, purple eyes held wide open, "We have reason to believe this Tusker was involved in a foalnapping yesterday and the abductors may still be here. Please, just look at the photo sir. Any information you can give us could make a big difference in a small buck's life."
The uniformed pony picked up the photo once again and took a longer look. His eyes widened and he turned his head before he sneezed, making sure to cover his nose with a long arm. "Yes, I think I have seen this before. The big, green stripe along the side does look familiar." He thought for a second while flipping the photo back and forth as if to fan himself.
After several seconds, he spoke again, "That's right. I did see this SUV parked over by pier 2 after I clocked out for the end of the day." He pointed back towards the west, "It was near the remains of the old GE warehouse. I thought it was strange seeing someone parked over there, but I am sure it was gone when I clocked in this morning." Giving the photo back to the fox, he wished them a good day, "I hope that helps in your investigation, Officers."
"Thank you very much, sir," Judy replied as she led her fox towards the door.
Minutes later, they were parked outside the ruins the assateague pony had mentioned. There was hardly anything left of the warehouse except a few sturdy beams and blacked walls. A fire had reduced the large warehouse to dust and ashes a few years ago. Two scorched beams held up a blackened door that was still heavily locked with a thick chain slung across it.
Judy explored the ashes and rubble with her phone at the ready, to quickly take shots of any evidence she found. Nothing she found hinted that this could have been the center of a mammal smuggling ring or a hiding place for the abductors. Everything was broken and had been left out in the weather for years. The remains of a broken toilet were piled near where a wall had once stood, and a large block and tackle sat near the center of the ruins, with a few links of an extremely heavy chain still attached.
Nick leaned against a twisted railing along the edge of the wharf. In his paws, was a burger that he had picked up after they left the police station earlier. He sipped on an ice-cold soda as he watched his partner digging through the ashes of the burnt and ruined warehouse. She kicked over broken boards and rusted scraps of metal, taking photos as she went.
After exploring about a quarter of the ruins, Judy walked back to where her partner waited. She stood on her toes to plant a soft kiss on his cheek. With the fox distracted by her sudden affections, she took a bite of his juicy bug burger.
"Hey, what was that for," the fox asked, trying to pull the burger away from the ravenous rabbit.
"Bekwuz I wuv eew," the rabbit said while chewing on her mouthful of burger. She wiped the juices dripping from her muzzle with the back of her paw before she reached for the fox's soda.
"Sheesh," the tod scoffed at his rabbit. "I told you to get something before we came here. Do you want my fries too?" Mockingly, he waved the small, paper box in front of her nose while he tried to retrieve the soda she had stolen.
"Hank eew," Judy mumbled, plucking the long potato sticks from the box before the fox could quickly pull them away from her hungry nose.
"Come on, Carrots," Nick groaned. "You can't just steal my lunch."
"I did ask you to order a second, large fry," Judy chided between bites of the fries she had stolen.
"Ok, fine." the red fox sighed. "I am sorry, ok? I forgot to get you an order of fries." He pawed the box towards the small rabbit, "Here, you can have the rest of mine."
Judy reached out to take the proffered box from his outstretched paw, but her nose began to twitch and her ears jumped to full attention. She pushed the fry box away and her eyes followed the twisted railing along the shore.
Several meters from where they were sharing the fox's lunch, the iron railing had been bent over until it was nearly level with the paved dock. Roughly two meters below, the waters of the harbor met the stone wall that supported this part of the docks in a very sturdy levee. A pair of thick black marks stretched across the pavement where the road met the railing.
"I recognize those tracks," Judy uttered under her breath.
"What tracks," Nick asked.
"Look here," the rabbit pointed at the black marks where they ended at the edge of the wharf. "They even go up the bent railing, here and here."
Eyes widening, the fox cried, "You're right, darling. How come I never saw those?"
"Maybe because the glare from the water is ruining your vision," she shot back.
"Har, har," he groaned, but then he pointed to something about ten meters out from the shore. "What is that?"
"I'll call it in, Slick," Judy exclaimed as she ran back to their cruiser.
When the wind slowed and the waves smoothed for a second, a dark shape could be clearly seen roughly two meters below the surface of the harbor. It was black with hints of green along the side and shaped exactly like the vehicle that they had been looking for, now turned into a new home for the local fishes.
An hour later, Judy was standing at the edge of the dock chewing on a thick, veggie burrito surrounded by four squad cars and a very large crane, whose boom was stretched out over the water. She took a large bite of her lunch as she watched the crane slowly lift the SUV out of the water without so much as a groan. Gallons of water rushed from every opening in the vehicle as it slowly rose into the air.
The water continued to pour from the mid-sized Tusker as it was swung over the railing and unceremoniously set onto the pavement. Someone opened the driver's side door and water rushed out to soak their uniform leaving them drenched and spitting seaweed.
In the driver's seat, was a very dead ungulate. At first glance, it looked like a large sheep due to the curved horns, but its muzzle and hooves had been badly burned making the species nearly indistinguishable. Judy quickly turned away and lept into her fox's arms, who patted her back while he gazed sadly at the dead mammal.
The sheared and very dead sheep was dressed in a fictional superhero costume that was made from red and yellow cloth. On one of his burnt hooves, was a unique ring that seemed to display a family crest, with a large ruby set in the center.
Detective Wolfard pulled the ring off the corpse's burnt and crusty finger as he uttered, "Freddy The Ram."
"We don't know that yet, detective," A large grizzly, with captain's bars on his collar declared gruffly.
"But," the wolf turned to Captain Berenstain. "The mob don disappeared three days ago after an attack on his main office."
Snarling at the much smaller wolf, the grizzly cautioned his subordinate, "Be careful making those kinds of assumptions. Let the ME decide if this is the Don or not." He waved a paw to a small, white van that had pulled up to the scene. "Look, he is already here."
A young, white-tailed buck walked up to the vehicle and Wolfard stepped aside in deference. He was carrying a black bag in one hoof and had a long, white coat draped over his shoulders. With one swift motion, he pulled a long metal probe from the bag and stuck the pointy end into the body with a squirting, squishing sound.
"What can you tell us doc?" the captain asked, addressing the question to the mouse standing on top of the deer's shoulder.
The mouse looked up at the bear and pointed at the body, "In my professional opinion, it looks like you have a very dead mammal behind the wheel of that car." When the bear huffed, the mouse looked back at the body, "Let us do our job captain, and I will give you a preliminary report before we bag and tag our friend here."
He then addressed the medical assistant, on whose shoulder he was perched, "Time of death Mr. Hoofmer?"
Stuttering, the deer tapped his thumbs to his fingers before replying, "Uh, um, Three weeks, or sometime next Friday."
"Did you account for the temperature of the water he has been sleeping in?"
"Yes, of course, but it is still coming up negative."
"Are you saying the body is below the ambient temperature?"
"See for yourself doc," he waved a hoof at the large dial at the end of the giant thermometer.
Dr. Phill placed a very tiny paw across his muzzle, "Oh, my. This is disturbing."
Several minutes passed while the mouse doctor and his assistant examined the body, but Judy still clung to her partner trying not to cry. The uneaten half of her lunch had been discarded and she hiccupped between light sobs. A large, fluffy tail wrapped around her waist while the other officers avoided the couple.
Once the preliminary examination was complete, the mouse approached the large bear, "For now, I cannot determine if this was your mob boss or one of his lackeys. What I do know, is that the body was dead before it was placed into the car. In fact, it was frozen, or refrigerated before it was burnt. Time of death could have been anywhere between two days, or three weeks ago. I won't be able to tell you more until I can get him up on a table."
"Thank you, doctor," the captain grunted as he watched the pair of MEs return to their small van.
Someone whistled from the back of the SUV before shouting, "Would you look at this baby."
Judy and her fox rushed over to see what the leopard officer had found.
With the rear hatch open, the back compartment of the vehicle was exposed. Inside, was a heavy mechanical arm that had a sharp metal cone attached to the end of a piston. It looked like a portable, hydraulic ram.
"This must have been what the abductors used to tear open the car door," Nick said with a paw under his chin.
The dance club was quiet while the sun still hung in the desert sky outside. It had been built from a refurbished old casino that the current owner had won in a card game, or that is what she let the patrons believe. The interior had been recently refurbished in a bit of a retro-modern style with S-curved bar stools and egg-shaped chairs around low sitting tables. And the bar had way too many curves wrapped around the velvety, neon glow of a leaping whale.
Most of the patrons rarely came by in the middle of the week, yet the Velvet Orca kept the same working hours regardless of the crowds. Only two other mammals sat at the bar as the small cops walked through the glittering front door. One was a large moose wearing a bright shirt that loudly proclaimed him as a dealer or some other employee of The Palm Hotel. The other was a small echidna, who was busy scrolling through the news on his phone.
On the dance floor, was a pair of mixed felines practicing their dance moves even though no music came from the stage. A clouded leopard was practicing some wild moves that involved a lot of swinging work with her elbows and knees. With a backflip exit, she motioned for her partner to jump in. The black-furred puma dove to the center of the floor, where the leopard had just vacated. He came in with several energetic spins and flips that reminded Judy of those ground fireworks she used to see as a child. Both dancers really tore up the floor as they traded off the spotlight, like it was some kind of competition.
Behind the bar, was a single meerkat in a tight-fitting t-shirt that clearly showed off her well rounded feminine features. On the front of the shirt, was the same outline of a jumping whale that glowed on the side of the bar. While the meerkat was in her middle years, she had the figure and a smile of a mammal half her age.
When the two cops walked up to the bar, she set down a short glass that she had been polishing and leaned across the bar and looked them up and down. "What can I get you two?" she asked warmly.
Judy held up her paw with the palm facing the bartender while Nick scanned the large room, "We are not here for drinks, Ma'am. We wanted to ask you some questions."
The meerkat leaned back and returned to polishing her drinking glasses. She looked back and forth between the two cops and sniffed at the air. Her eyebrows rose before she spoke again, "How about a trade then, honey?"
Nick quickly turned around and planted both paws on top of the bar, "This isn't a game ma'am. Mammals' lives are at stake here. Do you intend to help us or not?"
Sighing, she set down the freshly polished glass, "Please, call me Sandra. And yeah, yeah I know. Mammals' lives are always at stake." Her expression took on a playful glint as she looked directly into the fox's eyes, "Are you cops afraid of a few questions? Or do you just harass hard-working mammals like us?" She waved her paw around the room at her only patrons.
Judy climbed into one of the oddly stylized stools and leaned towards the pretty bartender, "Alright, I am game. What kind of questions?" She tilted her head to the side and rotated one ear around in a circle while her tiny nose twitched.
The fox made a soft growl as he ran his paw down his muzzle. He turned around and watched the two dancers perform. Not wanting to have any part in this waste of time, he let Judy have her fun. She always did love a challenge, even if it was a verbal one.
Sandra picked up another glass and breathed on the rim before rubbing it with a dry cloth, "Oh, nothing too difficult. You are welcome to choose not to answer if you want, but know that I won't answer your question either. A question for a question and an answer for an answer. Simple enough?"
"Sure, that sounds reasonable." Judy nodded and drummed her paws on the bar in anticipation. "When do we start? Who goes first?"
"That is two questions dearie," the meerkat held up two fingers. "One question at a time, please. We have already started. And that is an answer to your question so I will ask the next."
"Oh, sorry," the rabbit apologized.
"Don't apologize, Fluff," Nick chided.
"Sorry, oh, oops, sorry," Judy began to blush as her mate's glare made her quite flustered.
"Don't worry about it, hun," Sandra said politely. "Have you two been here before?"
Clutching her fists on the edge of the bar, Judy's determination returned. "Have we been here before?" She thought about the question for a second before she grabbed Nick's paw and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Yes, Nick and I have been here before. We were actually undercover at the time and pretending to be on a date."
The meerkat grabbed a new glass and breathed on it like the previous one, while she watched the two cops. She motioned to the rabbit with the glass while she rubbed at a sticky spot with her rag.
"Oh, right," Judy fidgeted. "It is my turn." She pulled out a photo and held it up to the bartender. "Have you seen this mammal recently?"
Sandra took the photo from the rabbit's paw and looked at it thoughtfully for several seconds, "That looks like Doc, but something is a bit off. Oh, I see, her horn is broken. Why are you looking for her?"
"You didn't answer the question, Sandra," Judy said with a gleam in her eye. "I asked if you saw her recently."
With a snort, the bartender put down her freshly polished glass, "Ok, I see how this is going to be honey. No, I have not seen her recently. She stopped coming here a few months ago. It was about the start of summer when business slows down here in the desert. I have not seen her since. Why?"
Judy raised an eyebrow and glanced at her partner. He raised his paw like he was passing her a note and said, "Go ahead, it can't hurt."
The rabbit turned back to face the meerkat who was polishing yet another glass, "She stole an SUV yesterday and drove it directly here. We spotted the vehicle parked beside this building around 7:00 in the morning. We want to know why she would do that directly after stealing the vehicle."
Breathing into the new glass, Sandra raised an eyebrow towards the bunny, "Is that a question?"
Nick snickered at the bunny then reached out and rubbed her nearest ear before she swatted his paw away with a tiny snarl. The meerkat giggled at the cops' cute and silent banter.
Taking a deep breath, Judy looked back and forth between her mate and the playful bartender. She let her breath out slowly before speaking again, "Why would she drive here directly after stealing a vehicle?"
Sandra frowned and shook her head, "I don't know why she would do that. Seven yesterday morning, that was when my alarm was tripped. This is very odd."
"Your alarm was tripped? Why didn't you call the police?" Judy charged forward with her questions like an interrogator, but the meerkat held up her paw.
On the dance floor, the two felines finished their set with a loud roar to which the only fox in the club applauded. Not noticing the fox, the pair exchanged a very passionate kiss before toweling each other off as they walked towards the club's sitting area. When they sat down in the egg-shaped chairs, the female bared her long fangs and nipped the male on the neck to which he responded by licking her big brown nose.
Raising a small finger, the meerkat tried to cool the over-anxious rabbit, "Uh, uh, uh. Not yet, officer. I will answer your questions but you have to answer one of mine first."
The rabbit scraped her sharp claws across the polished bar while she tried to hold back the questions that threatened to overwhelm her. She blew a breath of air with her muzzle making a small 'O' shape, "Go ahead."
Polishing a new glass, the meerkat leaned back against a cabinet that held many sparkling bottles of colorful liquor. Her next question was short and simple but held tremendous weight, "Why did you do it?" Sandra raised her gaze from the glass to the bunny with a curious expression on her muzzle.
"You are going to have to clarify that question, Tops," Nick declared, scowling at the meerkat behind the bar. "If you are going to set verbal traps then be prepared for them to be sprung abruptly."
"Fine, you got me there, Red," Sandra shrugged and set down the clean glass.
"Would you like to rephrase the question?" Judy asked with a gleam in her eye.
Sandra picked up a deep margarita glass and held it up to the light, searching for water spots. She began polishing the sparkly, crystal base and stem, "Why did you mate with the fox? And before you ask me how I know, honey. I work in a bar for mixed couples, and the signs are written all over your muzzles. The two of you are obviously intimate with each other. So what I want to know, is, why."
Judy slid from the barstool and stepped away from the bar with her jaw held open in shock. Nick turned to speak but the meerkat held up a paw, "Not you sweety, I want to hear her answer."
"I, I, I," Judy's jaw seemed to open and close but no coherent words came out. For several seconds she looked at her mate as she stood perfectly still with her ears standing at their full height.
"What? Fox got your tongue, hun?" Sandra asked, with barely a hint of surprise at the rabbit's reaction.
The rabbit's ears dropped slowly and she began to giggle. It was a warm, vibrant giggle, that seemed to brighten the dimly lit room. She stepped back up to the bar and wiped away a small tear that had formed at the base of one eye.
Climbing back into the stool, she grasped the fox's paw and rubbed it against her cheek with a passionate smile, "Because I love him." Nick's tail wrapped around her waist and she began to pet it gently. "He is my best friend and I love him. Why? Because he was there for me when no one else was, not even my family."
She dropped the black paw she held and leaned onto the bar, "Why did I mate with this fox, my friend? Because I am attracted to him of course. He stimulates and excites me and brings a sense of warmth and love to my life. He is my safe place and my home. And if you must know, he is just so damn sexy!" Leaning over, she pulled on his arm with a loud growl that made the two felines across the room sit up. Baring her bucked teeth she bit down hard on the corner of his mouth causing the fox to yelp.
Wiping the fox's blood from her lips, Judy turned back to the bartender with a vicious glare, "Ok, Ma'am. I am done playing your little game. Now answer the rest of our questions before I cite you for obstruction of justice."
At the far end of the bar, the echidna was clapping and cheering in his tiny voice. The moose at the other end only chugged his drink while the pair of felines snickered in the rabbit's direction before they went back to snogging.
Sandra only breathed against the rim of the margarita glass before rubbing it with her dry cloth, "Alright honey. The two of you just looked so hot when you walked into my bar. I just had to know what your story was. Forgive me. I didn't mean to pry." She set the large glass down and leaned towards the angry rabbit with a soft smile, "The next time the two of you are in here, the first round of drinks is on me. Consider it an apology, and maybe we can swap stories under more pleasant circumstances."
The bunny's ears fell and her expression changed dramatically, "Ok, Sandra." She reached out to shake the other female's small paw, "But you have to help us find this mammal you call Doc."
Smiling warmly at the fox and rabbit couple standing at her bar, Sandra folded her arms under her breasts and leaned back against her liquor cabinet, "Doc was a guest DJ that has been showing up here almost as soon as I opened the place." She lifted a second margarita glass and began to remove any water spots from its sparkly surface. "She was an instant favorite and quickly became quite popular. I had asked her to come on as a regular, but she refused. She wouldn't even take any of the tips. I got the impression that she was already well off, and only did this for fun."
"Why do you say that?" Nick asked the smaller mammal.
Without looking up from the glass she was polishing, she answered the fox's question smoothly, "Because she always wore very expensive lingerie. Not that overpriced stuff you find in a department store. This was straight out of Preyda." After a strange look from the fox, she continued, "It was part of her set, or costume or whatever you want to call it. She would go up on stage wearing a long doctor's robe. That's why we called her Doc. But about halfway through the first song she would unbutton the robe and show off those expensive undergarments. It was always a hit with the crowd for some reason."
Nick nodded, thoughtfully, "Ok, that makes sense."
Holding the deep glass up to the light, the meerkat checked the clear crystal for any remaining spots. "She also had these very expensive paw straps."
"Paw straps?" Judy spoke up.
"Yes," Sandra nodded before reaching for a third margarita glass. "She either wrapped her hooves with gold fabric or had them painted. From about her knees down to the ends of her hooves, were covered in a shiny, metallic color. And, she was clearly into preds, specifically desert canids, like coyotes or hyenas."
"How do you know who she was into?" The fox asked curiously. "Did you ever see any of her dates?"
Sandra shook her head, "Nope. It was odd because I never did see her with anyone. Not on the dance floor or at the bar. She always seemed to turn away anyone who approached her as well, but I assume she was with someone because she always smelled like a desert canid. Just like you smell more like a fox than a rabbit, Honey."
Judy's ears turned a bright pink and her nose twitched in embarrassment but she did not try to hide. After her adventurous night with her new mate, she was trying to bury the squeamish feelings that overwhelmed her whenever someone mentioned nudity or procreation.
The meerkat set down the glass drying rag in her paws as she mumbled, "Well there was this one rumor."
"What rumor?" Nick asked, turning away from the furiously blushing rabbit.
Waving her paw in the air, like she was swatting a fly, Sandra said, "Oh, it's nothing. Just something my employees keep spreading about Doc, but I have never seen it myself."
A pair of reddish-pink rabbit ears stood on end in curiosity. "Please tell us what you know," Judy begged warmly.
"Well, some of the girls have mentioned that they have spotted Doc dancing with a bobcat before she goes up on stage," the bartender explained. "But I have never seen the guy they describe, and like I said, she smells like her partner is a canid, not a feline."
Thinking about that oddity, Judy's expression turned slightly sterner as she looked across the bar at the scantily dressed meerkat. "What about this alarm you mentioned yesterday? Was there a break-in?"
"Yes, the alarm," Sandra said, shaking her head. "I got an alert on my phone, but when I arrived thirty minutes later, everything was locked up tight and the alarm was reset."
"Who else knows the code to the system?"
"Only the closing girls and the stage crew. So, that is about six people," The meerkat explained.
"So you never told Doc the code? Or could she have found it lying around in a desk drawer or something?"
"No," Sandra shook her head. "I trust my girls implicitly. They would not have shared it or left it lying around." She waved a paw around the large clubroom, "There is nothing of any real value here. All the equipment and liquor are insured and nothing on this wall is worth that much. It's not cheap, but certainly not worth breaking in to steal. I keep all the money in an account off-site, so if someone wanted to rob me, they would have to do it while I was here."
Nick finally climbed onto his own barstool before asking the next question, "Did you take a look around to see if anything was missing."
Scoffing, the meerkat chuckled, "Of course, darling. I spent a couple of hours going through everything. The only thing I found missing was a dusty, old, metal mask that I used to keep on the shelf right here." She took a few steps and pointed to an empty spot on the glass shelf behind the bar. "One of the stage crew found it backstage several months ago. No one had any idea where it came from. It looked really cool, so I put it up there hoping someone would claim the thing."
Sandra scratched at her chin, "Now that I think about it, the thing showed up right around the time that Doc stopped coming here. She could have just asked me for it. I don't know why she had to break in and get it."
Judy pulled out her phone and began scrolling through some images, she stopped at a shot of the foalnapping she had sent to herself. After zooming in as much as she could to the robot abductor, she showed it to the bartender, "Did that mask look anything like this?"
The meerkat's eyes widened and she nearly dropped the large glass in her paws, "Yes, that is it exactly!" Tapping a claw on her bottom lip, she hummed, "So that is what it is supposed to go with, that suit looks really cool."
"Cool, and very dangerous," Nick added. "Whoever is in that suit is also wanted for foalnapping."
"Foalnapping?" Sandra held out her palm for Judy's phone. "Can I have a closer look?" When the rabbit passed her the device, Sandra scrolled over and zoomed in on the half-zebra foal, "I think I recognize this buck. I might actually know his parents."
[A/N] Can anyone guess what day of the week it is? There are several obscure references in this chapter. In fact most of this story is built from my own experiences across our modern media.
This was a pretty fun chapter to write with a variety of different scenes. I was really going for a Coyote Ugly vibe to the bar, but there is also a hint of the 10-7 in there somewhere. We have seen Sandra in a few other chapters in part one, but I thought I would dust her off a bit for this one and see what happened. I would love to hear what everyone thinks of her character.
With Nick and Judy's relationship finally taken to the next level we get back to the mystery that they have gotten themselves wrapped up in. Will their new status bring them closer together as a team, or will the office gossip prove their downfall? Can they solve this case before even more mammals go missing? Chapter 14 of Loves Bond comes out in three weeks so we will have to wait till then to find out what happens next.