plush doll!

"I knew it!" said Judy. "C'mon, Nick, let's see where he goes."

Nick and Judy followed Fangmeyer from a safe distance. He turned a few corners and finally stopped.

"Lemming Brothers Bank," said Nick, looking from the alley across the street at the familiar building.

"So that's their next target," said Judy.

They watched as three other canines slowly appeared: a dingo, who arrived in a blue van, another wolf and a Chihuahua. All but the dingo stood beside Fangmeyer in front of the bank. The dingo kept the engine running on his van. Clearly it was their escape vehicle.

"How are they going to…"

Judy began, but stopped when she saw the wolves, Fangmeyer and the stranger, walk to the wall of the bank and form a living ladder. The stranger stood on Fangmeyer's shoulder, and then the Chihuahua hopped up and climbed to the top, reaching an air vent just above his head.

"They're breaking in!" said Judy, her cop instinct kicking in. "C'mon, Nick."

"Wait, Carrots," said Nick, holding her back.

"But they're…"

"If we interrupt them now, that will be two crimes we prevented. The masterminds will take the hint and skip town, and we'll never catch them then," said Nick. "If we follow them and see where they go, they might lead us to the loot, and to whoever is behind this."

"News flash: They have a van. We don't have a car," said Judy.

"Oh, we do now," said Nick, looking down the street and seeing someone familiar in a familiar parked vehicle. "You stay here. I'll be right back."

Nick walked casually out of the alley and down the block, pretending not to notice anything. Judy watched Nick from the shadows, wondering what he was up to.

He approached the vehicle he had spotted. It was painted with a wacky decal of a fox warrior god holding a beautiful fox goddess, a cheesy sword-and-sorcery theme that wouldn't be out of place on the cover of a pulp novel. There was a small someone sitting in the driver's seat, looking at a magazine. Looking, not reading.

"Well, hellow there, Finnick!" said Nick cheerfully.

The occupant of the van jumped with surprise and quickly stashed his magazine under the seat.

"Wha…Nick?!" said Nick's former associate, the fennec fox named Finnick. He was the owner of the van, which doubled as his home.

"Long time no see, buddy!"

"What the heck are you doing here?!" said Finnick.

"Oh, I just saw my old business partner and long-time compadre and figured I'd come and say hello! Say, by the way, Finnick old pal…I have a question."

Nick looked inside the van. Finnick narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Is your insurance on the bro-mobile up to date?"

"Insurance…what are you talkin' about?!"

"Well, I don't mean to alarm you, but you see…there's this new law that Mayor Mousawitz had proposed and it passed, and it states that any vehicle owners who owe more than three months of insurance can have their precious vehicles impounded."

Finnick's eyes went wide at the word 'impounded.'

"Now, I'd hate to be the one to have to do this, Finn old pal, but I am a cop after all, and…well, you know. Nothing personal, it's just my job," said Nick. "Ah, this is the part of the job that pains me…"

"You wouldn't!" snapped Finnick.

"Oh, I would have to. Otherwise, well…I wouldn't be doing my job, would I?"

Nick saw triumphantly that Finnick was properly shaken.

"Of course, we're friends and we go way back," said Nick. "So I could pretend we never had this conversation, if you…oh, I don't know…lend me your van for a few hours."

"WHAT!?"

"Of course, you don't have to," said Nick. "But I'd hate to be the one to have to send your precious bro-mobile to the pound and have you pay that ridiculously high fine at City Hall…"

"Grrr….FINE!" said Finnick, opening the door and stepping out of the van.

"You are a pal, you know that?" said Nick. "I'll bring her back to you at the usual place. Won't take long."

"I'm warning you, Wilde! If you put one scratch on my ride…"

"Don't worry," said Nick with a snarky grin. "I'm sure your insurance will pay for it."

Finnick walked away fuming.

As Finnick disappeared into the night, Nick waved to Judy, who had been watching and listening from the alley. She approached the van and got into the driver's side.

Nick was sitting in the passenger seat, with a smug look on his face.

"Pretty smooth, huh?" said Nick.

"What? Your negotiation skills? Pfft," said Judy smarmily, buckling up. "Seen them already. Not impressed, sunshine. You wanna impress me? Take the wheel for a while, then we'll talk."

"Ouch. Cold as ice," said Nick with relish.

He adjusted his rear-view mirror so he could see the dingo in the blue van, still waiting for the others to pull off their heist.

"They're on the move," said Nick as he watched the bank robbers run to the van with bags of money.

"Right," said Judy, starting the van. "We follow them from a safe distance. Tail them until we find out where they are heading. Then we call Bogo."

"Sound plan," said Nick, taking out his phone

The bank robbers hopped into the blue van and the dingo stepped on the gas. They drove away, not noticing Judy and Nick in their van at the end of the block.

Judy stepped on the gas and tailed them, staying a block away at all times so they didn't notice them.

They turned left on Mamba Avenue, right on Coney Street, left again on Acacia Avenue…

"Where are they going?" said Judy as she followed them.

Suddenly, they noticed the street light ahead turning yellow, and the blue van accelerated to beat the light.

"They're speeding up!" said Nick.

"And so are we!" said Judy and floored the pedal.

The blue van shot past right as the light turned red. Judy drove like a bullet behind, going right through the red light.

"Just went through a red light," said Nick.

"Cop didn't see it, I didn't do it," retorted Judy with a wry smirk.

Nick couldn't help laughing.

The blue van exited the city and sped along Meadowlands Highway. Judy and Nick followed from afar.

"They're heading in the opposite direction from the carnival," said Judy.

"They must have a drop-off point," said Nick. "Hiding the loot at the carnival would be too risky. They probably stash the cash elsewhere and collect it once they skip town."

In the distance, flashing lights suddenly lit up and a loud horn sounded. It was a drawbridge signal! It was going up for a ship to pass through.

"Yes!" said Judy. "We got 'em, Nick! We'll corner them at the drawbridge!"

But then, suddenly, the blue van shot forward like a bullet, racing towards the drawbridge!

"What the hay!?" said Judy.

"They've got nitro," said Nick. "Two can play at that game. Quick, the lever in the middle, beside the cup holder! Pull it!"

"What does it do?!"

"It's the nitro! You know…in case of a getaway."

"Oookay…I won't read too deep into that."

Judy reached for it and pulled it! They shot forward like shot out of a cannon.

"Illegal to use…not illegal to have!" said Nick as they raced towards the drawbridge in hot pursuit.

"The law is a strange thing!" said Judy, keeping the wheel steady.

The blue van ran right through the wooden road gate, splintering it to bits. It raced to the edge of the drawbridge just as it was starting to go up. Then…

"Cotton rot!" said Judy as they sped after them.

The blue van jumped the gap between the two sections of the drawbridge and sped on down the road.

"You might wanna consider hopping back to the other side of the sound barrier before we suffer a truncated lifespan," said Nick.

"We can make it!" said Judy, speeding on.

"Carrots! Don't even try!"

"They're getting away!"

"Stop the van!" said Nick. "We won't make it."

"Yes we will!"

"No, we won't!"

"Yes we will!"

"Carrots!"

"Yes we will! Yes we…no! We won't! Hang tight!"

Judy slammed the brakes! The van skid in circles out of control on the pavement. Nick held onto the seat and closed his eyes as they skid and spun and finally came to a stop a few feet from the drawbridge, which was already a solid wall of metal and concrete in front of them.

"Whew! You okay, Carrots?"

"Ask me again in a few seconds…when the world stops spinning. Oh…"

Judy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it go slowly.

The headlights of the blue van could be seen in the distance until it disappeared over a hill. And it was gone.

"They got away," said Judy. "Now we'll never know where they stashed the loot."

"Well, it wasn't a total loss," said Nick brightly as he held his phone in front of her.

Judy watched and saw that Nick had recorded the robbery, the chase and, more importantly, had zoomed in on the license plate.

"We can check and see who owns that van,"

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