The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 57

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle-A Zootopia Fanfiction

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Part One:

Fuel

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Chapter 6-Nick's Story

(Continued...Pt. 7)

"Ohhhh, Nick."

Judy Hopps could feel the tears welling in her eyes; it was something she couldn't help. Even though Nick had walked free from Lemmingworth Penitentiary more than ten years ago, she was still that happy for him.

And now she finally understood how he could have been accepted to the ZPD Academy even after going to prison. He'd been fully exonerated of the crimes for which he'd been jailed-which meant that his prison record had also been expunged, nothing to see here, move on. (And the Department had been so right to give the fox his chance; after the way he'd foiled Jerry Guilford's plan to spray-bomb the Carrot Days Festival with herbicide, could anyone doubt that Nick Wilde belonged with ZPD? Certainly not this bunny.)

But still...by rights, Nick Wilde should have come out of that experience with a deep-black hatred of law enforcement. Instead, he had elected to become a peace officer himself.

"Honestly Nick," Judy shook her head, "After going to jail for a crime you didn't commit, I'm surprised you'd even want to become a cop."

He responded by turning away for a second; in the dim light of the railway car, Judy couldn't see his ears, but she had the distinct impression he was blushing. When he turned to look at her again, she could make out just the faintest outline of a grin on his face.

"Carrots, if anyone had told me on the day I left prison that someday I'd become a police officer, I would have suggested that they seek some professional help. In fact..." the grin slowly melted into a serious expression, "remember that time in Bellwether's office, when we were using the traffic cams to track those wolves?"

"The ones who took Manchas, yes I remember," Judy nodded, equally solemn, "And I know where you're going with this, Nick. When I said, 'You know, I think you'd make a pretty good cop...'"

"...I said, 'How dare you?' he finished for her, "and now you know why."

Judy nodded again but she was also chewing her lip. Yes, but there was so much else that she didn't know. Nick had been exonerated, and yet still he had lied about his arrest on his application to the ZPD. Why would he do that? It didn't make any sense. And also, how had his relationship with Robyn McFerral come to grief? The way Nick talked about it, their bond had been stronger than ever on the day of his release. And last, but not least-Judy was nobody's legal wiz, but like every good cop, she had at least a rudimentary grasp of the law. And it seemed to her that when Nick had walked free of Lemmingworth, he had brought with him some pretty solid grounds for a lawsuit against the Zootopia DA's office. Why hadn't he sued...or had he? She wanted so badly to ask him about it, but by now she knew better; Nick would get there in his own, good time, not before. And so, she offered him only a quick prompt.

"So, when you walked out of Lemmingworth, was Robyn there, waiting for you like she promised?"

To her surprise, Nick tilted his head back, and the railroad car was instantly filled with ringing, raucous fox-laughter.

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"Not only was Robyn there Carrots, she brought the band with her, too; she had them set up on a flatbed truck, right in front of the admin building's main entrance...and as soon as I walked out the door the they struck up a tune called 'I Feel So Good'. Hmmmm, let me see if I can rememberrrrr...oh yes, part of the lyrics went like this..."

"They put me in jail on a sacrifice play

Four long months, and thirteen days

Now I'm back on the street in a purple haze...

...and I feel so good, I'm going to break somebody's heart tonight."

"Nooo, it wasn't an original number, it was by...ahhh, who was it, wrote that song Conor sang at the bonfire again, the one about the motorcycle outlaw? Right, right, Richard Tomcat, right. I Feel So Good was one of his songs, too, except that Robin changed the lyrics around a little. Originally it went..."

"'They made me pay for the things I've done

Now it's my turn to have all the fun.'"

"Robyn changed that to..."

"'They put me away for what I'd never done.' "

"Whoa, the guards didn't like that very much, but me, I was loving every second of it; so did all the guys in D Block, according to a letter I received from Chuy after I got home; 'We sing it all the time, it drives the hacks loco,' he wrote me. When the band finished playing, I ran over, jumped up on the trailer and took Robyn in my arms. I don't know if that was the longest kiss we ever shared, but it was sure as heck one of the best."

"Oh no, Carrots. I wasn't disappointed that I didn't have her all to myself-because I did, or I was going to very shortly. Parked right behind that flatbed was a brand-new Cavy Camelro, courtesy of Mr. Big. It was only a rental, but who cared? Robyn and I were going to have plenty of quality time together, except...as soon as I closed the door I felt the guilt bug biting me. 'We should really go pick up Finnick...' I started to say, but Robyn shushed me with a finger to my lips. 'The Big Shrew already sent a limo to get him, Red. Sorry, but from now until we get back to Zootopia, you're my fox....mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, all MINE.'"

"I uh, don't think it would surprise you to hear that we took the scenic route back to Zootopia, Carrots. Heh, we almost made a detour to get married in Las Vegoats. The only reason we didn't was because both of us thought that kind of wedding was about as romantic as an assembly line."

"Along the way, Robyn brought me up to speed on how she and The Chimeras were doing. She hadn't mentioned anything about the band during her earlier visit because she'd known that it would have upset me. But now she could finally talk about them, and they were doing just fantastic; right after she'd come to visit me, they'd been hired as the house band at Growls and Grooves, a new rock club in the Downtown District. It may not have been a gold mine, but it was a steady gig with plenty of exposure; Robyn said she expected good things to come from that job."

"When we finally arrived back in Zootopia, after an (amazing) week on the road, I had a zillion things to take care of. First up, I had to go see my mother; she had never bothered to check her answering machine, (I had called her something like fifty times on the way home,) and when she opened the door and saw me, she almost fainted. The next thing I knew, she had her arms around me and was crying her eyes out. So was I...and unashamed. Then she insisted that I move in with her until I got settled. I pretended to be uncomfortable with the idea, but she had actually saved me the trouble of asking; my release had been so sudden I hadn't had time to make any plans. I also managed to talk her into letting Finnick stay over for a few of days-and that brought up the next item on the agenda, making contact with my former partner again. We met at our old hangout, the Dockside Diner, and though the little guy denies it to this day, when he saw me, he came running with his arms wide open, jumped and hugged me...with tears in his eyes! We swapped stories about our different prison experiences over breakfast, and then the two of us hit the ground running; before anything else, we each had a big stack of messages to deliver."

"That's another one of the unwritten rules of the joint, Carrots. The Lemmingworth authorities could open the prisoners' mail; they could monitor the telephone conversations, they could listen in on visiting day, but there was one communications pipeline they could never penetrate, guys carrying messages when they got out. And so, if you were on short time and someone asked you to pass along a memo after your release, you always said 'yes', no questions asked. Over the next few days I called this animal's partner, that one's girlfriend, the other one's parents, and the occasional lawyer. A few times, I even visited fursonally and mostly, that worked out okay. The one time it didn't was when I went to see Greasy Shual's daughter. I wasn't there half a minute before I got the door slammed in my face. Finally, with my messenger obligations fulfilled, I got in touch with Mr. Big."

"'He'll see you at The Club tonight, Nick.' The animal on the other end of the phone call told me. 'Come after Nine and bring Finnick along, there's a lot he wants to talk to you about.'"

"What? No, I wasn't worried that The Big Shrew might be offended because I hadn't come to see him first. Just the opposite in fact; if there was any animal who understood the rules of prison life, it was him. And don't forget, he was an 'Old School' boss; fulfilling your obligations was always a big thing with him, 'a matter of respect' he always said. Just the same Finnick and I showed up at The Thaw at 9' O'clock on the nose, it couldn't hurt to be punctual."

"When we walked into the place, it became fairly obvious, and pretty quickly, that we weren't going to get much talking done, not for a while at least. Nearly the entire Tundratown gang was inside, waiting for us. And as soon as we came through the doors they stood up and started cheering-and not just the animals with Mr. Big, I mean everyone in the club, staff and patrons alike. It was almost like the mirror image of the way the prisoners in Cell Block D had applauded me when the word of my release came down. And after that...well, here's another rule of The Slam. When a guy gets out, it's customary to throw him a party...and this was our coming home celebration."

"I have to admit, Finnick enjoyed that bash a lot more than I did; Robyn wasn't there, she had a gig that night and it just didn't feel the same, partying without her. Anyway, it wasn't until after midnight that Mr. Big finally took us into the back room for some serious talk."

"As always, we didn't get right down to business. First, there were the usual greetings and salutations, and then Koslov slid an envelope across the table for each of us. As before, I didn't count the money-bad manners if I did, but I could see right away that this envelope was at least twice as thick as the one I'd gotten for the Lanny Braunwald hustle. When I tried to thank Mr. Big-for that and for taking care of Finnick and me on the inside-he immediately held up his paw."

"'You don't owe me nothing," he said, pulling himself halfway out his chair. 'You and Finnick kept your mouths shut and took the fall for Wild Times, even though you could have gotten off with a slap on the wrist by giving me up to the cops. There's nothing I appreciate more than a stand-up guy, so I'm calling us even, capisce?"

"What he didn't mention of course, was that in order to give him up we'd have had to lie. I would have reminded him of that fact, but I didn't have time; the next thing he said nearly blew me straight through the wall."

"'The DA actually had it at least partway right, Nick-the crew that torched Wilde Times was working for someone else; only it wasn't me, it was your other money guy, Mr. Diamond."

"Wha...? Why hadn't I thought of him before, Carrots? Because I didn't really know anything about him, except that he was an animal who liked to take his profits and run; at least that's how it had been the first two times I'd worked with him. But the more I turned it over in my mind, the more sense it made. Diamond's go-between, Carson, had hated the idea of him lending me money to start an amusement park for predators. And yet he'd still agreed to back me-but only on the condition that I hire HIS sanitary service to collect the trash from the park. Only now did I understand the reason for that condition; when I'd agreed to those terms, I'd effectively given his animals access to every corner of the park, including my office. No wonder that gang of fireflies-that's what Mr. Big called them-no wonder they'd known the layout of Wild Times like the backs of their own paws."

"'Your fireflies were only too happy to give Diamond up after they were caught,' Mr. Big went on to explain. I could see he was becoming angry, but not at the arsonists, at the animal who'd loosed them on Finnick and me."

"'That pezza de sporcizia double-crossed them, too.' He said, 'They were supposed to be paid five large for the job, plus whatever they could glom out of the park. Instead, when they got together to divide up the take from the robbery, a gang of enforcers moved in and grabbed everything for themselves, they even took the fireflies' watches and wallets. The arson crew blamed Diamond for the rip-off and when he heard what they were saying about him, he got mad and refused to pay them a nickel. That's what he told them, but I think it was his plan all along.' I saw the Big Shrew turn and pretend to spit. 'A mammal without honor; Diamond had a mole buried in with the arsonists, too...no, not a REAL mole, the inside guy was a fossa, their second-story animal. That was how Diamond knew about the meeting, where and when it was going down. By the time the fireflies figured out they had a traitor in their midst, the fossa was gone, vanished. That's what they said to the cops but me, I suspect otherwise; I think he's on ice somewhere. And that, in fact, is how the rest of the crew came to be apprehended.'"

"What he told me next Carrots was that after the fossa disappeared, the gang had needed a replacement, and the animal they brought in turned out to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire; he was a Russian sable, another species that knows a thing or two about climbing...and he was also a confidential informant with the ZPD. When the police wired him up, they hit the jackpot; they recorded something like 100 hours of incriminating conversations between the arson gang and their CI. And whoa, what a bunch of motor-mouths, they let slip the details of at least five other jobs they'd pulled before Mr. Diamond hired them to take out Wild Times."

"Nooooo, they talked about Wild Times now and again, but there was never anything specific, nothing you could take to court, much less that could get me off the hook. You see, that whole episode had been a big an embarrassment for the fireflies. Most of the time, if anyone brought it up someone else would tell him to shut up. The few instances, when they did talk about it, there were never any details discussed; they never even mentioned Wild Times by name, it was always 'the pier job', that's all."

"What finally happened was, the firefly gang got hired to burn down a car dealership in Sahara Square. As soon as they went inside, the ZPD surrounded the place. They caught the arson crew red-pawed, right in the middle of planting an infernal device, and they also had a barrel of accelerant with them-the same homemade napalm they'd used to burn down Wild Times. That was all the leverage the ZPD needed and eventually, they fessed up to everything."

"Here's how they pulled off the Wild Times job: Three of them, the fossa and two smaller gang members went in first, using an inflatable assault boat, supplied by Mr. Diamond. They entered the park using a partially pre-cut hole in the floor, fitted with removable bracing. (These were the details the ZPD hadn't released to the public; even I hadn't known about them before then.) Mr. Diamond had also supplied the gang with the alarm codes, a detailed map of the park, and a memory stick that would allow them to get into Wild Times' computer mainframe. 'We didn't have a computer guy of our own.' their leader, a sea-otter, explained to the police. After they finished cleaning out my office and the cash boxes, they put together the dust bomb and then opened up the service entrance for rest of the gang, the large mammal species. These animals came in with the barrels of napalm and after getting them unloaded, they filled up their truck with the contents of the storeroom and all the cash and other items they'd stolen. Then they left the park, and 30 minutes later, WHOOMPF! The whole thing, from the time of their arrival to when they detonated the dust-bomb took less than two hours. These guys had been good, really good...but they were still amateurs compared to the animal that had hired them."

"'The unfortunate part Nick, is that the fireflies were unable to give the cops anything useful about Mr. Diamond. They would have if they could, believe me; they hate that animal. But he never communicated with them directly, it was always either by go-between...or over the internet, can you believe that stuff? But they never saw his face, never heard his voice, only the guys who worked for him."

"Yeah, well what about those guys?" Finnick demanded, coming halfway out of his chair. He was agitated and I knew why. Going to Mr. Diamond for that loan had had been his idea."

"No Carrots, I didn't blame him for it. After all, I could have said no, but I didn't. And Diamond's double-cross had even managed to slip past Mr. Big. That's a big reason why he was so angry; it made him look bad, and he didn't like it when that happened."

"'You mean that kit fox and that sheep?' he said, raising a bushy eyebrow at Finnick, 'the ones who called themselves Carson and Woolsey? Carson's real name is, or should I say WAS Burke Sage. Two weeks ago, his girlfriend reported him missing to the ZPD. She said they were having dinner in the Chaparral Restaurant in the Canyonlands District, when Sage received a call on his cell phone. According to what she told the police, he departed the restaurant 'in a highly agitated state.' He was last seen getting into a large-mammal-size red van with tinted windows, parked up the corner from the restaurant. The maître d' said he appeared to hesitate before entering the vehicle, and then got in very quickly, "almost as if he'd been pulled inside," Then the van sped off at high speed and that was the last time anyone saw him; the maître d was unable to get the plate number.'"

"Mr. Big stopped to take a sip of mineral water and then looked straight at Finnick and then straight at me. 'The ZPD still has him listed as missing, but you and I know better, boys; he's not coming back, not anytime soon, not ever. Your Mr. Diamond may be a backstabbing lowlife, with no sense of respect, but he knows how to tie up a loose end. I'll give him that much if nothing else.'"

"Yes, and that wasn't all he was giving up, Carrots. It was something I'd never seen before, and I never would have said so to his face...but at that moment, Mr. Big actually looked a little bit scared. And that takes some doing, believe me; I had been there the first time he and the Red Pig had met face to face; Big never so much as blinked, even though Peccari had brought nearly the entire Razorback crew with him. But the Big Shrew didn't look so calm and collected now, and I knew then, deep down in my gut, that he was never going to catch up with Mr. Diamond-and neither was the ZPD. It wasn't anything I thought so much as felt...but I felt it as strongly as a bad toothache. I was so certain I was right, I didn't even bother asking about Woolsey. Later on, I learned that the cops never found him either."

"Sensing that I'd gotten the message, Mr. Big changed the subject. 'I'm afraid I can't offer you and Finnick a chance to earn with me Nick; it would bring down heat I can't afford right now. And for that same reason, I can't offer you another loan either.' He spread his paws on the arms of his chair. "I am truly sorry to have to tell you this, but there it is.'"

"No Judy, I had sort of expected something like that; so had Finnick. I said, 'I understand Mr. Big, but honestly, I haven't had time to plan anything. Less than a week ago it looked like the only future I had was behind bars.' He nodded his understanding, and then Finnick spoke up again."

"What I can't figure is how we got let out so fast," he said, and the Big Shrew raised a finger."

"That's because the city is trying to cover its tail," he told us, "They want to be able to say, "Look, see? We're the good guys; even though Nick Wilde and Finnck are both foxes, as soon as we realized they were innocent we let them right out of jail, no red tape and no stalling.'"

"He went on to tell us that there was a big shake-up going on in the Zootopia's District Attorney's Office right then. Clark Muskegg, the caribou who'd prosecuted us had already been fired-it was actually more of a 'You can't fire me, I quit!' kind of thing, and it wasn't just because of Finnick and me. I don't know all the details, but apparently I was the straw that broke the camel's back, if you'll pardon the expression. Later on, they took away Muskegg's law license and he barely escaped going to jail himself."

"But if the City of Zootopia thought THAT was going to keep Finnick and me from filing suit over our wrongful convictions, I had a whole new line of bridges to sell them."

"Yes Carrots, I know...I KNOW. I know it now, but I didn't know it then, and when I told Mr. Big what I just told you, he kind of looked at me for a few seconds and then turned and signaled to the bodyguard closest to him. 'Raymond, get me Michael on the phone.' We waited while the polar bear dialed and then held the cell-phone close to Mr. Big's chair."

"Michael? This is Don Grandi. You over at Halibuts' right now? Good, good...wait there, I'm bringing someone over.' He nodded again to Raymond who disconnected and then crushed the phone in his paws. Mr. Big had never liked computers and he wasn't too fond of cell-phones either. The only kinds he'd have around him were the disposable variety...and even then, they had better be used only once."

"Halibut's was within easy walking distance of The Thaw, but Mr. Big insisted on taking a limo. When we pulled out of the parking lot, I found out why. Parked against the curb, almost directly across the street from the club was an unmarked, large-mammal, delivery van."

"'What kind of an idiot leaves a delivery truck parked in the same spot for three whole hours?' I heard the Big Shrew grouse rhetorically, 'If you're going to run surveillance on me, at least don't insult my intelligence.' I just sighed and shook my head, whoever was in that van, it couldn't be the ZPD-no way would they have made such a boneheaded mistake-but it explained pretty clearly why Mr. Big couldn't stake me to anything, or offer me a job; he really was looking at the much heat. Mmmm, actually, that wasn't necessarily such a bad thing, Carrots; I couldn't have accepted such an offer anyway; Robyn would have thrown a fit...and then she'd have thrown me OVER."

"Finnick used to call Clark Halibut's 'the submarine', because the interior of the place was lit in red lighting; it always took a minute for our eyes to adjust whenever we walked into the place, not that we ever complained. Then as now, Halibuts had the best seafood in Zootopia. As soon as we were able to see where we were going, the headwaiter, a sea lion, led us to a booth in the small mammal dining section. It was big enough to seat at least half a dozen foxes, but it was occupied by only a single animal, an impeccably dressed mink in a silk suit and gold-rimmed spectacles. I remember that when we saw him, he was in the midst of a meal of lemon sole over orzo pasta. At first, he appeared to ignore us, but that was only because he was waiting for the sea lion to leave before he said anything. As soon as the waiter departed, he looked up and was all smiles."

"'Don Grandi, what an unexpected and pleasant surprise; please...sit down, have you eaten yet?'"

"We hadn't and so Mr. Big sent Kevin to fetch another waiter while Koslov set him down on the table top and Finnick and I slid into the booth on either side of the mink. And then, as he always did, Mr. Big insisted on engaging in some small talk before getting down to cases, something the mink seemed to take completely in stride."

"'So it's true then, Don Grandi?' he asked, in between bites of his meal, "Don Porcini appointed Rocco Peccari to be his new underboss?"

"It was like hitting a hornet's nest with a soccer ball. 'The Red Pig!' Mr. Big spat out Peccari's street-name like a bad taste, 'Che infame! I ask you Michael, what is this thing of ours coming to when a cafone sporco like that can be elevated to such a position of respect?'"

"The mink just shrugged and took another forkful of sole. 'He may be a little rough around the edges Padrone, but he gets the job done. And except for the Palm Hotel Casino, he's the biggest earner in the Sahara Square mob.'"

"'Fah!'"

"While all this was going on, I just sat there and kept quiet. One of the messages I had delivered after getting out of Lemmingworth had been from Don Rafaello Porcini to his consigliere in Sahara Square. It had all been in code, and I hadn't understood a word of it, but now I wondered, could that have been the order Mr. Big was so upset about? I had no idea, but when our food arrived and the subject changed, I never felt more relieved."

"It wasn't until Finnick and I were halfway through our shrimp scampi that Mr. Big finally introduced us to the animal we had come to see."

"Nick, Finnick, allow me to present Michael Mink Esq, attorney at law. Michael? You haven't met this fox and fennec, but you've heard me mention their names several times. These are Nick Wilde and Finnick, the former proprietors of Wild Times Amusement Park.'"

"Ah yes, what a shame,' Mink said, reaching across the table to shake our paws, 'My son Jeremy was crazy about that place. Whenever his mother would drop him off for the weekend, there was nowhere else he wanted to go.'"

"I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just said thanks; there was something about this mink that was a little bit off-putting but I could quite nail it down."

"'Michael's specialty is business law,' Mr. Big explained when we sat down again, 'he represents me in regards to...ahhh, certain of my business assets, (meaning his legitimate businesses,) however he is in no way unfamiliar with the subject of civil litigation.'"

"I almost choked on my pasta. So that was why Finnick and I had been brought here...and it took Michael Mink all of half a second to discern our intentions; he was one very sharp mustelid He put down his fork and adjusted his glasses. Then he cleared his throat."

"'You realize, I hope, that I cannot formally represent either one of you, only offer you some advice, which you are under no obligation to accept.' That was his way to telling us that that if we followed his counsel and it all went sideways, tough luck, we were on our own."

"'I understand,' I said, 'Please continue.'"

"Mink cleared his throat a second time. "Then I must inform that if you intend to file suit against the Zootopia DA's office in regards to your wrongful conviction, your chances of success are not nearly so great as you might think; certainly your chances of collecting anything substantial are quite slim."

"That brought Finnick straight out of his chair like a jack-in-the-box."

"'What do you mean we don't have a chance? We didn't get off on no technicality, we were proven innocent!'"

"'Finnick, will you just listen to him for minute?' I said; I didn't like what I was hearing either, but at the same time I knew that Mink was playing straight with us. And if there was one thing my prison experiences had taught me, it was NOT to hear only what you wanted to hear."

'"Yes, that's a plus in your favor," Mr. Mink conceded without batting an eye, 'but on the other paw, let's review. First of all you two were wrongfully convicted, but you were NOT falsely convicted; none of the evidence against you was manufactured and none of the witnesses were coerced into giving false testimony. As a matter of fact, the police didn't find THEM, they all came forward of their own accord."

"That only made Finnick even angrier. He slapped the table so hard, the dishes jumped and Koslov took a step in his direction; Mr. Big immediately waved him back; he understood my partner's frustration."

"'Dangit', Finnick was almost shouting, 'the court convicted us on circumstantial evidence alone; stuff that was thin as toilet paper! And that no-good judge was on the prosecution's side all through the trial!'"

"Once again, Mink didn't even flinch. 'That may be Mr. Finnick, but can you convince another jury of that fact? Let me tell you something; that's going to be an almost impossible row to hoe...unless you draw a judge who hates Evelyn Rainier's guts. And believe me, the city of Zootopia will never allow that to happen. I can't say this too many times, the Zootopia DA's office did not railroad you, they may have been deluding themselves as to the matter of your guilt, but at the same time they honestly believed it.'"

"Finnick still wouldn't give up. 'We never saw a nickel's profit from that bust out!'"

"'But you would have, if you'd gotten away with it,' Mink countered, pointing at him with a fork, "Or that was what everyone believed until the real arsonists were caught. Both the DA's office and the ZPD thought you'd either stashed the loot, or-much more likely-that you'd had it stolen off of you after your arrest. In any event, what does it prove? If an animal robs a bank and comes away empty pawed, does that make him any less guilty?'"

"'Well, what about that doofus we had for an attorney?' Now Finnick was shouting. "That fool couldn't have defended his way out of a wet paper bag!"

"Okay that was all; now I felt the need to intervene. Everyone in the dining room was staring at our table; it was just a lucky thing it was late and Halibut's was almost empty."

"'Come on little guy, you already know that's bogus," I said, trying not to sound patronizing. I didn't need Mr. Mink to tell me that his line of thinking was a dead end... and neither did Finnick; he was letting his frustration get the better of him."

"'Half the animals we did time with are on the inside because they had to rely on a two-bit public defender to represent them.' I pointed out. 'Ineffective counsel might be okay for getting a verdict overturned, but if it was good for any kind of a cash settlement, the City of Zootopia would have gone broke twenty years ago.' I was exaggerating, but Finnick got the point and sat back down again. And Michael Mink saw that as the opportunity to deliver the coup-de-grace."

"Well said, Mr. Wilde; but your biggest problem is that each of you served only a little more than four months in prison. If you'd served twenty, even ten years you might get some sympathy from a jury, but...only four months? Even if the judgement goes in your favor, don't expect any kind of a substantial payoff-especially, sorry but I have to say this, especially since the two of you are foxes. Given that fact, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a jury might decide to award you one dollar, just to show you what they think of you. Trust me; as a member of the weasel family, I'm all too familiar with that sort of thing.'"

"'Even Finnick, as wound up as he was right then, couldn't argue that last point. Conventional wisdom said, 'They're a couple of stinkin' FOXES! What else did the DA need to prosecute?' We'd known that was the biggest strike against us long before we sat down at that table."

"For what seemed like hours afterwards, no one said a thing. And then finally I ventured, 'Well, then what do you think we should do, Counselor?'"

"He took another bite of orzo before answering."

"'My advice is to go ahead and put in your claim. But do it quietly, without fanfare, and if the city offers you any kind of a settlement, take it and be glad for it'"

"All the way back to my mother's house, Finnick and I were arguing. I thought we should take the lawyer's advice, but he wanted to go full speed ahead on a lawsuit, and dang the torpedoes and the consequences, At first, Robyn was on his side-until she talked it over with Meffy, who referred her to her OWN attorney. 'I can either tell you the truth, or I can tell you what you want to hear Ms. McFerral,' is what I later heard she said. 'Which do you prefer?' (Robyn went with the truth even though it wasn't her preference.)"

"Even if there had been a decent chance of Finnick and I collecting any damages, I didn't have to consult a lawyer to know that it would be a deferred payoff at best; lawsuits don't get resolved overnight, and so..."

"Ah yes, the insurance policy; I was wondering when you were going to bring that up. I'm afraid that was a no go too, Carrots. Right before my trial started, the company that had underwritten Wild Times had been hit with an even bigger claim than mine, and it had sent them straight into Chapter 11. By the time my conviction was overturned, their assets had already been liquidated and there was nothing left for me to take. Not that I would have been awarded much of anything anyway. The term is due diligence; I had brought Mr. Diamond, on board as an investor in Wild Time despite knowing almost nothing about him...and I hadn't informed our insurer of that fact. When I think back on what an incredibly careless mistake that was... Well, it was Cats-22, Carrots; if I had told them, they would have declined to cover us; no insurance coverage, no operator's license-and no amusement park."

"The point is...except for the money Mr. Big had given me, I was flat broke, and so was Finnick. And that cash wasn't going to last very long; I'd already had to dip into it to help pay some of my mother's bills; she'd had to have the house re-piped while I was away. What was left wasn't enough to rebuild Wild Times, but if Finnick and I pooled our resources and brought in a third party, we could start a small business of our own...or so I thought."

"No, Carrots...no, we couldn't; no one wanted anything to do with either one of as business partners. And this time it wasn't only because we were foxes, it was because the last time I'd tried to start a business, one of my other partners had busted it out and then burned it down...and I'd never suspected a thing. I might not have had anything to do with that scheme, but I hadn't spotted it either. It was that due diligence business all over again. No one wanted to sell us their business either, and that WAS because we were foxes. Every time we made somebody an offer, they'd immediately up the price; they were convinced that because of our species we had to be lowballing them. And in the meantime we had bills to pay. It was easier on me than it was on Finnick; I was still living at home with my mother while he'd had to move out and fend for himself after a while."

"With my cash reserves dwindling, I took the only route open to me. I went looking for a job. As I'd expected, no one called me back for a second interview, but then something strange happened."

"I had applied for a job managing a video arcade, and for once, I thought I had a decent chance at getting hired; the proprietor was a hyena, an animal with a rep at least as bad as a fox's. The first time I talked to him, he seemed to like me and thought I'd be good fit for the job, having once managed an amusement park. But I never heard back from him either and then I found out the job had gone to another fox, one who didn't have nearly as much experience as I did. So I did some digging and found out that what he DID have was a clean record; when the hyena had run a background check on me, he'd found out I'd been arrested for torching my own establishment and closed the books without going any further. And that, as I soon discovered, was how it had been with every other prospective employer I'd applied to; my conviction might have been expunged but not my arrest. By the time I managed to get that oversight corrected, it was too late; the information was already in several other database files. No one would hire me...or Finnick either."

"And now you know why I lied on my ZPD application, Judy. I was afraid...afraid I'd be denied the chance to become a police office without getting a chance to prove myself, the same as had happened before with those other jobs. I know now that it was the wrong decision, but at the time, it seemed like a no brainer..."

"Huh? What do you mean, 'You're right?'"

"'Yes, it WAS a brainless decision?' Oh, har, har, har...don't quit your day job, Fluff. Listen, I'm trying to make you understand something; yes, I lied about my arrest, but what had the truth ever gotten me before, except, 'don't call us, we'll call you?'"

"Okay, I can live with that answer, Carrots. But now I have to tell you something else, lying on my ZPD application was a brilliant move compared to what I did after finding out I'd been unofficially blackballed; the worst mistake I ever made in my life."

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Author's note:

Much gratitude is due to E.O. Costello, M. Mitchell Marmel, and Walt Reimer, for their timely insights and wise suggestions regarding certain legal and law enforcement issues. Thanks guys, you're the best.