Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the movie Zootopia are all owned by Disney the great and powerful. Any and all registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.

This chapter's obscure reference is to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. People under a certain age are unlikely to catch the reference. People over a certain age forgot the reference decades ago... That's pretty much the definition of obscurity.

Make My Day

Something was rotten in Bunnyburrow. Of course Judy would not have expressed her anxiety in exactly those words, but something was clearly wrong. And she was certain of that. But she had no idea what 'it' was. And she felt confident she was in the middle of 'it'. Whatever 'it' was. But she still wasn't sure what the issue was. Except that 'it' involved weasels.

Nick claimed that Judy always blamed weasels. Perhaps that was true. but this time Judy felt certain she was correct.

Judy didn't ask if Teresa Ferressi remembered Duke kissing her. Hopefully she did not. If the ferret wanted to talk about it, Judy would have been willing to listen – but if Teresa Ferressi did not mention it Judy wasn't going to ask. If the teacher wanted to forget the incident, Judy would respect that (Judy would certainly not wish to remember if Duke Weaselton had kissed her). Perhaps her glass of champagne had rendered the language arts teacher unable to remember the event.

Duke, who had consumed most of the champagne in the celebratory bottle, hopefully did not remember kissing the teacher. Judy could not image he would have kissed Teresa if he were sober. He might have washed his lips if he did remember.

Nothing was said by anyone about anything, but something was wrong. Judy served as a neutral party, when the two mustelids met, to moderate the interaction of the well-educated small town teacher and poorly educated big city hustler, but the two seemed to have figured out how to tolerate the other's idiosyncrasies and work was progressing at an amazing rate on the book – encouraged no doubt by the fact two publishers showed interest in the book and both mustelids were anxious for the credits promised. But the tension was still so great you could cut it with a knife. Not that you can cut tension with a knife. But Judy would have been happy to try if she thought it had a chance of success.

"Okay," Lylah demanded. "You said the three of you had some sort of an idea. Spill it."

"Remember," Doc Wheeler reminded her, "there is no guarantee of–"

Nick interrupted, "Let's cut to the chase. They know there is no guarantee. Basically, now that the Professor here can move about without GPS monitoring he can go to places where he has a chance of being seen by someone in the Bellwether gang. We're hoping–"

George frowned, "You know a place where Bellwether's animals can be found?"

"And you didn't tell us?" growled his wife.

"The Fold is an entirely respectable lounge," sniffed Ramsey. "Many of the sheep in Zootopia will go there for a drink. The majority of the sheep in Zootopia are not associated with Bellwether. You don't have enough animals on the force of the ZPD to track every sheep in the city – ninety-nine percent of whom are not with Bellwether. The hope is that, by going there, I will increase my visibility and someone might speak to me."

Lylah laughed, "After the things you said about her at your parole hearing? You're more likely to be shot. No, this is a bad idea."

"The Fold is not a place where any shots are going to be fired," insisted Ramsey. "No one will risk anything there. But, if a follower sees me, and accuses me of betraying Bellwether I'll insist I did it just so I could get out of prison in order to help her escape."

"And that will be enough to get you welcomed back with open arms?" George asked, the suspicion evident in his voice.

"Probably not," agreed Nick, "but Ramsey has way, way too much potential to be ignored."

"They're not going to try Night Howler again. That failed the first time, and we have the antidote now."

Doc Wheeler smiled, "But, what do you think Bellwether's plan is this time? What does it appear she's trying to do?"

"We've got no fucking clue," admitted Lylah, "although it appears she's trying to discredit and undermine the police department."

"Exactly," nodded Nick, "and what could make us look worse than important evidence at the forensics lab being lost or compromised? Some big name prey crook comes up to trial and the case is dropped for lack of evidence."

"More likely a pred criminal," suggested Ramsey. "Would look like the Police was either incompetent or complicit."

"Wait", Lylah objected and turned at Ramsey, "you're in a position at the Forensics Lab where you can tamper with–"

"No, he's not," Doc Wheeler told the panthers. "But I am. Oh, we'll carefully preserve any evidence – probably have you there so we've got several witnesses so the trial can be held once this is over. But we're hoping that will get Ramsey accepted and welcomed into a position where he can find evidence to recapture Bellwether."

"If he gets contacted at this lounge, and if his offer is accepted, and if you can hide evidence, and if that makes him welcomed again. A lot of ifs there."

"What other ideas do you have?"

"A lot," insisted George.

"Any of them working?"

George looked at his wife, "We should let them try."

"It's not by the book." Lylah sighed. "And, at the moment, neither are we – even this conversation is technically sketchy."

Nick reminded her, "If she's got members of the ZPD working with her nothing by the book is gonna work."

"I know... We need Judy here," muttered Lylah, "she can contain you when you go off the rails."

"The Professor and I are hoping to serve that function," Doc Wheeler assured her. "My highest priority, and hopefully Nick's as well, is to keep Doug safe. I don't want the life of any animal on my conscience. But things are bad now, and will only get worse until Bellwether's capture."

Lylah sighed and looked at her husband. "I hate to say this, but it looks we'll need to try this." She looked at the trio with the scheme, "You will keep us informed daily. Even if nothing happens, we get a daily report. Is that clear?" She then turned her attention to Nick, "Did you clear this with Judy?"

"Uh, no... I–"

"You will when you call her tonight. You will explain your plan, in detail. Tell her to give me a call and tell me if I should let you move ahead." Turning to Doc Wheeler and Professor Ramsey, "You will only proceed with this after I hear from the rabbit."

"You have to hear from Judy first?" protested the hamster.

"It's for your own protection. Silver-tongue fox here is capable of conning two otherwise very smart animals into doing something very stupid, and very dangerous. He may be able to fool George and me. But Judy has the ability to cut through his crap. If she okays this, George and I sign on... Professor?"

"Yes?"

"I, um, am still not a hundred percent certain I trust you. But if you're on the level, and willing to put yourself on the line... You have my respect."

"Let's just get Bellwether back behind bars."

George smiled, "One thing we can all agree on."

Before their meeting ended Nick sought clarification, "I'm hearing rumors of something called the B-Team."

"What kind of rumors?"

"Nothing clear... Remember, the animals I'm talking with on the phone think I'm in Bunnyburrow."

"What I heard," Doc Wheeler told them, "was some sort of rapid response team. I'm assuming the officers are hand-picked and you're avoiding prey species for inclusion."

"No. No to the last part. We want prey species. We want any officers we can trust. Anyone you have total confidence in would be welcome," Lylah told him. She looked over at the fox and grimaced. "Hanging around you too much. This is not by the book. At least I feel guilty about it."

"And it's not called the B-Team. We sometimes say REDS, for rapid emergency deployment squad," George clarified. "Got twenty-four official members right this minute and more than thirty officers who've asked to join and we expect many more."

"Hope you're being careful on who you accept," Nick muttered.

"As careful as you're being with Professor Ramsey."

"Don't let anyone, and I mean anyone know what we're doing," warned the hamster.

Judy woke up a feeling of guilt. There were no obvious problems with Nick's plan that she could see, and she'd told Lylah that. Had she missed something important? Had Nick concealed some important fact? Part of her felt relief that it wouldn't be Nick making himself a target, and part of her felt guilty that she had agreed to a plan that put Doug Ramsey in danger. She also worried that perhaps the ram wasn't as reformed as he claimed. Could the Professor be setting up a trap for Nick?

Somehow the difficulties in serving as moderator between Duke and Teresa didn't seem as great. She was not going to able to set her worries about events in Zootopia aside to make the biography of Duke's grandmother the highest priority in her life.

Zootopia's problems had, to some degree, become a problem for the Bunnyburrow police department as well. Judy was a local hero. Lylah's call, reporting the rumor that a hit animal had discovered Judy's location weighed heavily on the officers' minds. There was always an animal at the station when a passenger train from Zootopita pulled in, watching to see if a suspicious stranger disembarked. Eager officers were even known to be at the station if a freight train from Zootopia pulled in – perhaps a clever killer would know not to arrive by a means that would be expected.

The crime rate was low in Bunnyburrow. It was not as low as Judy liked to imagine, but it was very low compared with the big city. That left officers with time on their paws as they did their routine patrols. Each officer wondered what it would feel like to capture a dangerous criminal. Each officer tried to imagine how a skilled assassin would try and enter Bunnyburrow. How would he or she disguise herself to appear innocuous?

Sales representatives from several companies had the impression that Bunnyburrow was a very hostile, bigoted community as the police swooped down and took them into the station for interrogation as soon as they set foot in the city.

Prey species lingering bias against preds made more Bunnyburrow officers especially suspicious of pred visitors to their town.

Officer William Obanhein had more imagination than most of the officers on the Bunnyburrow police force – or perhaps he had watched too many action movies. He carried the additional burden of being the newest member of the force and was eager to make a name for himself by breaking a big case. What could possibly be bigger than arresting an assassin, sent out from the evil big city to kill Bunnyburrow's greatest heroine? He would not be lulled by anti-pred bias to imagine the killer must be a pred species, prey species could be killers too. This Dawn Bellwether was a bovidae – so the killer would be bovidae. And, in the action movies, it could as easily be a pretty female as an ugly male. Having no first hand experience with actual hired killers Obie drew on the movies he had watched. And, if the killer was really smart, and that was the rumor, then the killer wouldn't arrive on the train from Zootopia. He or she would take a train to some smaller city – not on a direct track to Bunnyborrow, and arrive in their town from some other, more local, town.

Obanhein spurned the assignments to watch trains arriving from Zootopia, volunteering instead to keep an eye on trains arriving from other points of origin.

Between the low crime rate in Bunnyborrow and Obie one of the least effective members of the department Chief Warren was willing to give the young rabbit permission to watch for strangers from other towns.

Obanhein tried to look inconspicuous as he loitered on the platform outside the train station. The train from Wheaton rarely did anything but pick up a bag of mail or a few pallets of carrots. To the officer's surprise a stranger stepped onto the platform. A gorgeous black ewe, lean and athletic, stepped onto the platform. She carried what appeared to be gym bag, or perhaps a small overnight bag. Obie began to catalogue, in his mind, all the types of deadly weapons that might fit in such a bag.

The ewe headed in the direction of the taxi stand located at the far end of the station platform. There would, of course, be no driver present for the ancient taxi. Since no one ever arrived in Bunnyburrow from Wheaton the driver was in a small diner a block away enjoying a slice of carrot cake, a cup of coffee, and a smile from the middle-aged doe holding the coffee pot.

Moving quickly Obie intercepted the black sheep. "Come along with me," he ordered.

She looked puzzled, "What's the matter?"

"And I'll take that bag," Obanhein told her, grabbing it from her. "You're going down to the station."

Judy sat in the Lanol parlor, looking at her watch, when the phone in the purse of the boarding house owner rang. "That's her!"

"Perhaps," Mrs. Lanol smiled. "Hello?" The older sheep's face took on a look of amazement and horror. "What? ... How? ... Is there- ... Judy and I will be there in ten minutes."

"Was there an accident? What's wrong?" asked Judy as she followed Mrs. Lanol as the sheep bolted from her chair and ran for the door.

"Sharla was arrested! Some idiot officer thought she was a killer wanting to murder you!"

Officers of the ZPD had better success in their search for a contract killer.

Nick called to offer congratulations, "Hey, heard you got your cheetah. Maybe that'll stop some of the animals grumbling about the department."

"Hope so," Detective Carson agreed. "But some animals are never going to stop complaining."

"Henry Clawhauser? Any relation to Ben Clawhauser at the First?"

"How would I know? Cheetahs are the most inbred family of felines. So of course he's some relation. But I think they only have something like three last names. Call your friend if you're curious."

Nick decided to return to the arrest, "You're right, some animals won't stop complaining. How tight's the case?"

"Well, the city attorney thought it was enough to give us the arrest and search warrants. I'm not sure we could get a conviction with what we have, it's not anywhere as strong as we'd like. Hopefully the search warrant turns up more."

"Want me and Judy to come back to the city and help?"

"I'll have to be dead before I ask for your help."

Nick laughed, "Be a little hard to ask for my help then."

The wolf chuckled. "Judy's good. Her husband... He's a different story. Hey, how are things in the country?"

"Boring. No, a boring day would be more exciting than days spent on a bench on the town square watching the grass grow."

"How'd you hear about the arrest?"

"Judy calls Lylah Bagheera every day, maybe a couple times a day... Oh, your cheetah? Has he said anything about who hired him? I remember hearing you're pretty sure it was a nephew?"

"Nephew, yeah. Talk? Hell no. Still insisting he's innocent and won't speak without his lawyer present. Good lawyer. You know the cheetah got paid a bundle for the kill. We got enough for probable and the warrant, But Parr and I are really hoping to get more evidence to insure a conviction. He may be more willing to talk if he decides his fancy mouthpiece can't get him off."

Duke assured Judy that progress on the book was moving forward. Judy, knowing Duke was a liar, didn't believe him. Teresa Ferressi assured Judy work was progressing very well on the book. Judy didn't know the language arts teacher well, but asked if she could see chapters.

"Of course you can!" Teresa enthused. "Let me know how you think it's going. I feel like I'm finding her voice better as I write."

"I thought you did great in the early chapters. They impressed the publishers."

"I still feel like I'm doing better. I want your opinion."

Judy read the chapters. The writing was brilliant. The book was going to be finished sooner than Judy had considered possible. And yet the two mustelids were very clearly tense and unhappy in the other's presence. Could one drunken kiss, which it is possible neither remembered, be the issue? Surely one or the other would say something to her if that were the case. Was there another problem? If there were another problem, what was it?

The rabbit's questions were almost enough to distract for her for up to a half hour at a time from what was happening with Nick.