shopkeeper was yelling at someone to stop.

"SHOP LIFTER! HEY! STOP!"

"Do I take this one?" asked Judy.

"I'll do it," said Nick serenely.

He walked to the door of the shop and casually put up his foot. The door burst open and the thief shot out…only to trip on Nick's foot and fall on the sidewalk in a heap, dropping his bag of loot.

"OOF! OWW…!

"Nice one, slick," said Judy as she quickly cuffed the thief, a weasel wearing a white sleeveless shirt and gym shorts. "Ah, I've been looking forward to this day."

"This ain't what it looks like," said the weasel, whom they both recognised as Duke Weaselton.

"Can it, Weaselton. You're not talking your way out of this one," said Judy. "We caught you dead to rights."

"I'll bring the car around. Don't go away," said Nick as he walked to the end of the block, where their squad car was parked.

The shopkeeper, a leopard lady wearing an apron and nametag, burst out of the door and stopped in her tracks.

"Oh, thank goodness you were here, Officer!" said the leopard lady. "Not a moment too soon!"

"Don't worry, ma'am, we'll be taking him in and he'll be sitting in a cell for quite a while," said Judy with satisfaction as Duke frowned and struggled against his cuffs.

Judy picked up the bag Duke was trying to run off with, and saw that it was full of toy cars. Judy looked up and saw that the store was Lady Hypanthia's Toy Emporium.

"Stealing toys now, are we, Duke?" said Judy. "Just when one thought you could sink no lower."

Nick stopped the car in front of the toy store and got out, opening the rear door.

"Chauffeur service for one Duke Weaselton?" said Nick with a smirk. "Luxury scenic ride deluxe, final destination: the slammer."

"Ah, blow it out your windsock, Wilde," snapped Weaselton.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" said Nick as Judy made him get into the car.

Once Weaselton was safely locked inside, Nick opened the passenger door for Judy.

"Milady," said Nick gallantly as he bowed for Judy and held the door open for her.

"Looks like this will turn out to be a great day after all," said Judy as she buckled up and Nick drove them back to Precinct 1.

In the recreation room of Precinct 1, Judy was throwing darts at a dart board and hitting near perfect bull's-eyes with every one. Fangmeyer was sitting at the table, reading a magazine.

"Mad skills you got there, Hopps," said Fangmeyer, looking up from his magazine.

"I knew I hadn't gotten rusty," said Judy. "That dart booth at the carnival is fixed."

"You mean Old Todd's booth?" asked Fangmeyer. "I was there yesterday."

Judy's ears perked up.

"Really? Did you win?" she asked, although she knew the answer.

"Sure did," said Fangmeyer. "I got a cute little baby chick plush toy that will sit pretty in my collection…"

He stopped abruptly.

"You didn't hear me say that!" said Fangmeyer.

"Say what?" asked Judy innocently, taking mental note of what he said.

"Er…um…"

"Oh, by the way, did you go to the magician? Madame Mystique?" asked Judy innocently.

"Magician?" asked Fangmeyer, relieved to change the subject. "Naw, I skipped that one."

"Really? She's a pretty good hypnotist," said Judy. "She put some of her audience members under her spell and made them do all sorts of things."

"Hehe, they're all phoneys, every one of them," said Fangmeyer and returned to his magazine.

Judy returned to her dart board, her mind racing. Nick's plan had somehow already played out, and they hadn't even had to mention anything. It was perfect.

"Well, that's my time," said Judy, looking at the clock and skipping toward the door.

Judy spotted Nick walking down the corridor and hurried to him.

"Nick!" she said. "I got good news!"

"You're taking belly-dancing lessons with Clawhauser?"

"Close," said Judy with a sideways grin. "I just spoke to Fangmeyer. He went to Old Todd's on his day off, yesterday, and he won a baby chick plushie!"

"Well, I'll be an elephant's bathing suit," said Nick. "So our plan…it kinda already happened."

"Yes!" said Judy. "Well….kinda."

She explained to him that Fangmeyer had gone to Old Todd's booth and had won a baby chick plushie. However, he had not gone to Madame Mystique's show afterwards.

"Hmm…" said Nick. "So Madame Mystique didn't have a chance to do her magic on him."

"Yes, but still, he has a plushie," said Judy. "Old Todd clearly targeted him."

"Yes. All we gotta do now is keep an eye on Fangmeyer. He's sure to do something suspicious."

"Exactly," said Judy.

"Do you know where he lives?" asked Nick.

"No, but I do know how to find out," said Judy.

Just then, Chief Bogo came walking down the corridor. He spotted Judy and Nick and nodded in acknowledgement.

"My felicitations, Wilde," said Bogo as he walked past. "That weasel has been a thorn in my hoof for a long time. Now he's where he belongs."

"Thanks, Chief," said Nick.

He walked into one of the side doors.

"I'll be right back," said Judy as she walked to the front desk.

Nick waited for her in front of the bulletin board. Wolford walked by and nodded. Then stopped.

"Hey Wilde," said Wolford. "How did you manage to get a table at the Maison du Bison? They charge like twelve bucks for a glass o' water."

"I've been on my own since I was twelve, mon amie," said Nick smoothly. "Clearly, I've squirreled away some dough throughout the years."

"No kidding?" said Wolford. "My wife would go bonkers if I took her there for our anniversary."

"Then make it happen, sport," said Nick with a cheeky wink.

Judy walked up to the front desk, where Clawhauser was checking his phone and sipping a fizzy drink.

"Hello Clawhauser!"

He looked up from his phone and smiled.

"Hopps! What a surprise!"

He leaned over his desk to look at Judy.

"You gotta tell me, Hopps. You gotta tell me everything about your date at the Maison du Bison! Ooh, did you know Gazelle goes to dine there every other Saturday! Ooh, you didn't happen to see her, did you?"

"Um, no, she wasn't there this time," said Judy.

"How did you manage to get a table at the Bison! Oooh, I'm so jelly! It's like the crème de la crème of fine dining and entertainment."

"Well, actually…" said Judy, thinking of something. "…I might be able to talk the owner into giving you a VIP table. He owes us a favour, after all."

"You would!? Oh, Hopps, I'd be in your debt for a billion trillion gazillion and one years!"

"Don't mention it," said Judy. "Um, by the way, I wanted to send something to Fangmeyer, but I lost his address. Do you happen to have it on you?"

"Oh sure, let me pull it up," said Clawhauser distractedly as he daydreamed. "Gazelle, your humblest and most devoted admirer, Benjamin Clawhauser. Ooh, I'd die of excitement!"

Judy waited with her notepad and carrot pen.

"Oh here it is," said Clawhauser. "It's Lupus Rex Suites, Apartment 306, 11037 Nile Avenue."

"Got it," said Judy, jotting it down. "Thanks a lot!"

"Oh, I can only imagine the thrill and the glamour…" Clawhauser continued to daydream.

As Judy walked away, she smiled to herself.

"So that's how Nick does it," she thought. "I could get good at this."

She returned to Nick, who was reading the postings on the bulletin board in the hallway.

"Got it," said Judy, telling Nick how she'd obtained Fangmeyer's address.

"Sly bunny," said Nick with a grin.

"I'm getting there," said Judy.

She looked at the time on her phone.

"Well, another day's work done," she said. "How about supper at Dinah's Diner?"

"A scrumptious proposition," said Nick as he and Judy went over to clock out for the day.

The night was rather quiet. Judy and Nick sat down on the park bench sipping coffee and watching the entrance of the Lupus Rex Suites building. Fangmeyer had gone into the building an hour earlier.

"Do you think we'll run into the masterminds?" asked Judy.

"I hope we do," said Nick. "If we can catch them in the act, that will definitely close the case and help clear Nana Bernardine's name and the names of the three from the Maison."

"I doubt they'd risk getting seen, though," said Judy. "When you think about it, a carnival is a perfect front."

"If they are the ones behind it, they must have a hiding place for the loot," said Nick. "Banknotes are traceable to the banks they were deposited at. If we could find where they're hiding the dough, we could prove they're behind this."

"Which is exactly what we need to do," said Judy. "Hey! Look!"

They saw Fangmeyer walking out of the building and crossing the park. He was carrying a baby chick plush

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