The next day, Judy was back to ticketing cars parked at expired meters. She plunked a ticket down, and a moose yelled at her: “I was thirty seconds over!”
As another meter dinged, Judy scribbled the ticket and placed it on a tiny windshield.
“You’re a real hero, lady!” yelled an angry mouse.
Ding! Judy wrote out a third ticket, which a hippo picked up. Her small child looked at Judy and said, “My mommy says she wishes you were dead.”
An angry driver shouted, “Uncool, rabbit. My tax dollars pay your salary.”
Later, Judy got into her cart and turned the key. But the engine wouldn’t start. She banged her head against the steering wheel, making the horn honk.
“I am a real cop,” she muttered weakly. “I am a real cop. I am a real cop...”
“Hey hey!” called a frantic pig, running toward her.
The pig pounded on her cart window. “You! Bunny!”
“Sir, if you have a grievance, you may contest your citation in—” she responded mechanically.
“What’re you talking about?” shouted the pig. “My shop! It just got robbed! Look, he’s getting away! Well! Are you a cop or not?”
“Oh, yes,” said Judy, snapping out of it. “Don’t worry, sir. I got this!”
She spotted a weasel running down the street, carrying a bag of stolen goods and jumped out of her cart.
“Stop!” she yelled, chasing the thief. “Stop in the name of the law!”
“Catch me if you can, cottontail!” shouted the weasel.
McHorn screeched up in his patrol car. “This is Officer McHorn. We’ve got a 10-31,” the rhinoceros said into his radio.
Judy slid right across McHorn’s hood as she ripped off her vest and hat and shouted, “I got dibs! Officer Hopps. I am in pursuit!”
She chased the weasel through Savanna Central, dodging giant elephants along the way.
Then the weasel ducked into the tiny community of Little Rodentia. The large cops, who had joined in the chase, couldn’t fit through the gate, but Judy was small enough to follow the weasel in.
“You!” she yelled forcefully. “Freeze!”
“Hey, meter maid! Wait for the real cops!” called McHorn.
Little Rodentia was packed with tiny rodents, and Judy and the weasel looked like giants pounding down its small streets.
A mouse school bus swerved to avoid the weasel and flew skyward. Judy caught it in mid-air, preventing a disaster. The mice inside cheered as she gently placed the bus on the ground. Judy watched the weasel jump off the top of a mouse building, tipping it over. She struggled to protect each and every building the weasel knocked into. Then he leapt on top of a moving mouse train!
“Bon voyage, flatfoot!” said the weasel with a chuckle, riding the train away.
But Judy wasn’t about to give up. She ran even faster, until she was able to push him off the train. Rodents screamed and ran as Judy and the weasel came barreling through their midst.
“Hey!” she yelled. “Stop right there!”
“Have a donut, copper!” the weasel said with a laugh as he yanked a huge donut sign from the front of a shop. He flung it at Judy, but it missed and bounced toward some shrews coming out of Mousy’s department store.
“Ohmygawd, did you see those leopard-print jeggings?” said a fashionable shrew to her friends. She turned to see the donut bouncing toward her and screamed in terror. “Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
A second before it crushed the shrew, Judy moved in front of the donut and caught it in her arms. Then she turned to the shrew and said, “I love your hair.”
“Awww...thank you,” said the shrew gratefully.
Out of the corner of her eye, Judy noticed that the weasel was about to get away. She threw the giant donut over his head and around his body, trapping him inside. The weasel was stuck!
It wasn’t long before the weasel, still inside the donut, rolled through the front door of the ZPD lobby and hit Clawhauser’s desk.
“I popped the weasel!” Judy exclaimed.
Chief Bogo yelled from the other room: “HOPPS!”
Like a kid in the principal’s office, Judy sat on a giant chair in front of Chief Bogo as he reviewed the report in front of him.
“Abandoning your post, inciting a scurry, reckless endangerment of rodents...but to be fair, you did stop a master criminal from stealing two dozen...um, let’s see...moldy onions.” Bogo looked straight at the bag on his desk that Judy had confiscated from the crook she had stopped—Duke Weaselton.
“Hate to disagree with you, sir, but those aren’t onions,” Judy replied. “Those are a crocus varietal called Midnicampum holicithias. They’re a class C botanical, sir. I grew up in a family where plant husbandry was kind of a thing.”
“Shut your tiny mouth, now,” said Bogo.
“Sir, I got the bad guy. That’s my job.”
“Your job is putting tickets on parked cars.”
Bogo’s intercom clicked as Clawhauser’s voice came through. “Chief, uh, Mrs. Otterton’s here to see you again.”
“Not now,” answered Bogo.
“Okay, I just didn’t know if you wanted to take it this time—” said Clawhauser.
“Not now!”
Judy said, “Sir, I don’t want to be a meter maid. I want to be a—”
“Do you think the mayor asked what I wanted before he assigned you to me?” Bogo interrupted her.
“But, sir—”
“Life isn’t some cartoon musical where you sing a little song and your insipid dreams magically come true. So let it go.”
Just then a female otter, Mrs. Otterton, barged in with Clawhauser trailing behind, wheezing.
“Chief Bogo, please, just five minutes of your time,” pleaded Mrs. Otterton.
“I’m sorry, sir, I tried to stop her; she is super slippery. I gotta go sit down,” said Clawhauser, panting.
“Ma’am, as I’ve told you, we are doing everything we can,” said Bogo.
“My husband has been missing for ten days,” said Mrs. Otterton. “His name is Emmitt Otterton.” She held up a family photo.
“Yes, I know,” said Bogo.
“He’s a florist,” she added. “We have two beautiful children. He would never just disappear.”
“Ma’am, our detectives are very busy.”
“Please. There’s got to be somebody to find my Emmitt.”
Bogo tried to calm Mrs. Otterton down, but nothing worked. She kept going on about her concern over Mr. Otterton’s disappearance.
“I will find him,” said Judy.
Bogo looked at Judy as if he was about to explode. He watched as Mrs. Otterton hugged Judy tightly.
“Bless you, bless you, little bunny!” she said, relieved. “You find my Emmitt and bring him home to me and my babies, please.”
Bogo grunted and ushered Mrs. Otterton back outside. “Mrs. Otterton? Please wait out here.”
Bogo closed the door and turned to Judy, furious. “You’re fired.”
“What? Why?” she asked.
“Insubordination. Now, I’m going to open this door, and you are going to tell that otter you’re a former meter maid with delusions of grandeur who will not be taking the case.”
Bogo opened the door and there was Assistant Mayor Bellwether, hugging Mrs. Otterton.
“I just heard Officer Hopps is taking the case!” said Bellwether happily. Bellwether pulled out her phone and began texting. “The Mammal Inclusion Initiative is really paying off! Mayor Lionheart is just going to be so jazzed!”
“Let’s not tell the mayor just yet—” said Bogo.
“And I sent it, and it’s done, so I did do that,” interrupted Bellwether. “Well, I’d say the case is in good hands!” Bellwether smiled at Judy. “We little guys really need to stick together! Right?”
“Like glue!” Judy responded.
“Good one,” Bellwether said. “Just call me if you ever need anything. You’ve always got a friend at city hall, Judy. All right, bye bye!”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Judy said.
Bogo forced a smile and closed the door. He turned to Judy, even angrier than before. “I will give you forty-eight hours,” he said.
“YES!” cried Judy.
“That’s two days to find Emmitt Otterton.”
“Okay.”
“But you strike out, you resign.”
Judy couldn’t believe what he was suggesting. “Oh, uh...,” She thought for a moment and then nodded. “Okay...deal,” she said.
“Splendid. Clawhauser will give you the complete case file,” Bogo said.
Excited, Judy rushed out to the front desk to retrieve the case file. “Here you go!” sang Clawhauser, handing her the file. “One missing otter!”
Judy opened the folder and her jaw dropped. Inside was a single piece of paper. “That’s it?” she said in disbelief.
“Yikes! That is the smallest case file I’ve ever seen! Leads: none. Witnesses: none. And you’re not in the computer system yet, so resources: none.” Clawhauser chuckled. “I hope you didn’t stake your career on cracking this one,” he said, smiling.
Judy didn’t smile back. Clawhauser took a bite of his donut and crumbs landed on the picture inside the file.
“Last known sighting...,” she said, looking at the photo under Clawhauser’s donut crumbs. The picture was from a traffic camera and showed Mr. Otterton on the street. Judy blew the crumbs off and noticed something about the picture. She squinted. Still unable to see, she looked around. “Let me borrow that.” She grabbed Clawhauser’s empty soda bottle. She looked through it, using the glass at the bottom to magnify the image. Now she could see Mr. Otterton holding a frozen treat. She examined it and said thoughtfully, “Pawpsicle.”
“The murder weapon!” Clawhauser said, nodding.
“Get your pawpsicle...,” Judy said, thinking back to the incident with Nick.
“Yeah, because...What does that mean?” asked Clawhauser.
“It means I...have a lead.” She headed out, leaving Clawhauser sitting at his desk, confused.
第二天,朱迪又去給超時(shí)停泊的車子開(kāi)罰單。她剛撕下一張罰單,一頭麋鹿就沖著她大喊大叫:“我只超時(shí)30秒!”
隨著又一只計(jì)時(shí)器叮的一聲響起,朱迪匆忙開(kāi)好罰單,把它放在一塊小小的擋風(fēng)玻璃上。
“你可真了不起,女士!”一只氣憤的老鼠大嚷道。
叮!朱迪開(kāi)出了第三張罰單,一頭河馬拿了起來(lái)。她幼小的孩子盯著朱迪看了看,緊接著說(shuō)道:“我媽咪說(shuō)她希望你死掉。”
一位憤怒的司機(jī)喊道:“真不厚道,兔子。你的工資都是從我的稅里出的。”
稍后,朱迪坐進(jìn)巡邏車,轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)車鑰匙。但是發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)卻啟動(dòng)不了。她用頭砰砰地撞擊方向盤,使得喇叭鳴叫不停。
“我是名副其實(shí)的警察,”她無(wú)力地咕噥道,“我是名副其實(shí)的警察,我是名副其實(shí)的警察……”
“喂喂!”一頭氣急敗壞的豬大聲喊著向她跑過(guò)來(lái)。
那頭豬砰砰地敲打著她的車窗玻璃。“你!兔子!”
“先生,如果您有什么不滿,可以對(duì)罰單提出異議——”她機(jī)械地回答道。
“你在說(shuō)什么?”那頭豬大叫道,“我的商店!剛剛被盜了!看,他想逃跑!喂!你到底是不是警察?”
“哦,是的,”朱迪說(shuō)著,打起了精神,“別擔(dān)心,先生。我來(lái)處理!”
她發(fā)現(xiàn)一只鼬鼠正拖著一袋偷來(lái)的東西沿街逃跑,便馬上從車上跳了下來(lái)。
“站住!”她一邊大叫著,一邊追逐著那名小偷,“以法律的名義,站住!”
“有本事來(lái)抓我呀,棉尾兔!”那只鼬鼠大喊道。
麥大角開(kāi)著他的巡邏車嘎吱一聲過(guò)來(lái)了。“我是麥大角警官。發(fā)生了代號(hào)為10-31的案件。”那頭犀牛對(duì)著無(wú)線電說(shuō)道。
朱迪一把扯掉馬甲,脫下帽子,一下子從麥大角的車子引擎蓋上翻躍了過(guò)去,大聲喊道:“我捷足先登了!是霍普斯警官。我在追捕!”
她一路追逐鼬鼠,穿過(guò)熱帶草原中部區(qū),沿途還躲過(guò)了巨大的象群。
就在這時(shí),那只鼬鼠一彎腰躲進(jìn)了一個(gè)極小的社區(qū)——小型嚙齒動(dòng)物鎮(zhèn)。身形高大的警察加入了追捕的隊(duì)伍中,卻無(wú)法從門口穿過(guò),但是朱迪小小的身體正好可以尾隨鼬鼠進(jìn)去。
“你!”她堅(jiān)定地喊道,“不許動(dòng)!”
“喂,處理違章停車的女交警!等真正的警察過(guò)來(lái)吧!”麥大角叫嚷道。
小型嚙齒動(dòng)物鎮(zhèn)里擠滿了丁點(diǎn)兒大的老鼠,而朱迪和鼬鼠看上去像是巨人,正沿著狹小的街道咚咚地前行。
一輛老鼠校車為了躲避鼬鼠,突然急轉(zhuǎn)彎,飛向了空中。朱迪從半空中接住這輛校車,避免了一場(chǎng)災(zāi)難。她將校車輕輕地放到路面上時(shí),車?yán)锏睦鲜髿g呼起來(lái)。朱迪看到鼬鼠從一座老鼠大樓的頂端躍了過(guò)去,撞得大樓搖搖欲墜。她竭盡全力去保護(hù)每一座鼬鼠觸撞過(guò)的大樓。緊接著,鼬鼠跳上了一列正在行駛的老鼠火車的車頂。
“一路平安,平足警官!”那只鼬鼠乘火車離去時(shí)竊笑著說(shuō)道。
但是朱迪并沒(méi)有放棄。她越跑越快,直至趕上火車,把那只鼬鼠拖了下來(lái)。朱迪和鼬鼠從一群老鼠中間飛奔而過(guò),把他們嚇得驚叫著四下逃竄。
“喂!”她大叫道,“馬上站住!”
“吃個(gè)甜甜圈吧,警官!”那只鼬鼠猛地拉了一下一家商店門面上巨大的甜甜圈標(biāo)志,大笑著說(shuō)道。他將甜甜圈標(biāo)志朝朱迪扔去,但是沒(méi)有砸中,甜甜圈彈跳著朝著正從穆西服裝店出來(lái)的一群鼩鼱滾去。
“哦,天哪,你們看到那些豹紋緊身褲了嗎?”一位時(shí)尚的鼩鼱對(duì)她的朋友們說(shuō)道。她轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)頭發(fā)現(xiàn)彈跳著朝她滾過(guò)來(lái)的甜甜圈,嚇得尖聲驚叫:“啊——”
眼看甜甜圈就要碾壓到那只鼩鼱,朱迪抬腿移到甜甜圈前方,一把將它抱起。這時(shí),她扭頭對(duì)鼩鼱說(shuō)道:“我喜歡你的發(fā)型。”
“哦……謝謝你。”鼩鼱感激地說(shuō)道。
朱迪用眼角的余光注意到鼬鼠想要逃跑。她將那個(gè)巨大的甜甜圈拋向鼬鼠頭頂,套住了他的身體,把他困在里面。鼬鼠被卡住了!
很快,還卡在甜甜圈里的鼬鼠就從動(dòng)物城警察局大廳的大門口滾了進(jìn)去,撞在了克勞豪瑟的辦公桌上。
“我抓住了鼬鼠!”朱迪高興地叫道。
牛局長(zhǎng)從另一個(gè)房間里大聲吼道:“霍普斯!”
就在牛局長(zhǎng)審核面前的報(bào)告時(shí),朱迪就像校長(zhǎng)辦公室里的犯錯(cuò)的小孩,坐在局長(zhǎng)對(duì)面的巨大座椅里。
“擅離職守,魯莽行動(dòng),危害鼠類……不過(guò),說(shuō)句公道話,你確實(shí)阻止了一名要犯偷盜兩打……呃,讓我看看……發(fā)霉的洋蔥。”牛局長(zhǎng)直直地望著辦公桌上的袋子,那是朱迪從她剛剛攔截的小偷威斯頓公爵那里沒(méi)收的。
“很抱歉我不能茍同,長(zhǎng)官,只是那并不是洋蔥。”朱迪回答道,“那是藏紅花的一種。它們屬于C級(jí)植物性藥物,長(zhǎng)官。我是在以種莊稼為業(yè)的家庭長(zhǎng)大的。”
“現(xiàn)在閉上你的小嘴。”牛局長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道。
“長(zhǎng)官,我抓到了壞人。那是我的職責(zé)。”
“你的職責(zé)是給停放著的汽車貼罰單。”
牛局長(zhǎng)的對(duì)講機(jī)咔嗒一聲響了,這時(shí)克勞豪瑟的聲音傳了進(jìn)來(lái):“局長(zhǎng),呃,奧獺頓女士又來(lái)了,現(xiàn)在想見(jiàn)您。”
“現(xiàn)在不行。”牛局長(zhǎng)回答道。
“好的。我只是不知道這次您是否同意——”克勞豪瑟說(shuō)道。
“現(xiàn)在不行!”
朱迪說(shuō)道:“長(zhǎng)官,我不想做處理違規(guī)停車的女交警。我想當(dāng)一名——”
“你以為市長(zhǎng)把你指派給我時(shí),問(wèn)過(guò)我的意見(jiàn)嗎?”牛局長(zhǎng)打斷了她的話。
“可是,長(zhǎng)官——”
“生活不是什么卡通舞臺(tái)劇,只要唱首小曲兒,你那無(wú)聊的夢(mèng)想就能奇跡般地實(shí)現(xiàn)。所以還是放棄吧。”
就在這時(shí),一位雌性水獺名叫奧獺頓的女士闖了進(jìn)來(lái),身后跟著氣喘吁吁的克勞豪瑟。
“牛局長(zhǎng),求您了,就占用您五分鐘時(shí)間。”奧獺頓女士懇求道。
“對(duì)不起,長(zhǎng)官,我本想攔住她的;她太滑了,抓不住。我要坐下了。”克勞豪瑟上氣不接下地說(shuō)道。
“女士,我已經(jīng)告訴過(guò)你了,我們正全力以赴。”牛局長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道。
“我丈夫已經(jīng)失蹤十天了,”奧獺頓女士說(shuō)道,“他的名字是艾米·奧獺頓。”說(shuō)完,她拿出了一張全家福。
“是的,我知道。”牛局長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道。
“他是一位花匠,”她補(bǔ)充說(shuō)道,“我們有兩個(gè)漂亮的孩子。他不會(huì)就這么失蹤的。”
“女士,我們的偵探非常忙。”
“求您了??偟糜腥巳フ野?。”
牛局長(zhǎng)試圖讓奧獺頓女士平靜下來(lái),但都不起作用。她糾纏不休,為奧獺頓先生的失蹤而擔(dān)憂。
“我能找到他。”朱迪說(shuō)道。
牛局長(zhǎng)望著朱迪,好像要大發(fā)雷霆。奧獺頓女士緊緊地?fù)ё≈斓?,他在一旁觀望著。
“謝謝您,謝謝您,小兔子!”她如釋重負(fù)地說(shuō)道,“拜托您找到艾米,把他帶回家,帶回到我和孩子們身邊。”
牛局長(zhǎng)哼了一聲,把奧獺頓女士帶到了門外。“奧獺頓女士?請(qǐng)?jiān)谕饷嫔缘纫幌隆?rdquo;
牛局長(zhǎng)關(guān)上門,轉(zhuǎn)身面對(duì)朱迪,怒不可遏:“你被開(kāi)除了。”
“什么?為什么?”她問(wèn)道。
“不服管理?,F(xiàn)在,我去打開(kāi)這扇門,你要告訴那只水獺你妄自尊大,以前只是處理違章停車的女交警,不能接手這起案件。”
牛局長(zhǎng)打開(kāi)了門,羊副市長(zhǎng)卻在那里,正與奧獺頓女士擁抱。
“我剛剛聽(tīng)說(shuō)霍普斯警官接手了這起案件!”羊副市長(zhǎng)開(kāi)心地說(shuō)道。她掏出手機(jī),開(kāi)始編輯短信。“動(dòng)物選拔計(jì)劃的確很成功!獅市長(zhǎng)現(xiàn)在可能會(huì)非常激動(dòng)!”
“我們還是先不要告訴市長(zhǎng)——”牛局長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道。
“可是我發(fā)過(guò)去了,信息發(fā)好了,這么說(shuō)來(lái)我的確那么做了,”羊副市長(zhǎng)插了一句,“那么,這起案件已交給可靠的人去處理了!”羊副市長(zhǎng)笑瞇瞇地看著朱迪,說(shuō)道:“我們小個(gè)子動(dòng)物需要團(tuán)結(jié)在一起!是嗎?”
“就像膠水一樣!”朱迪回應(yīng)道。
“說(shuō)得好,”羊副市長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道,“有什么需要,盡管給我打電話。你在市政廳永遠(yuǎn)都有一位朋友,朱迪。好了,再見(jiàn)!”
“謝謝您,女士。”朱迪說(shuō)道。
牛局長(zhǎng)強(qiáng)作笑顏,關(guān)上了門。他轉(zhuǎn)身面向朱迪,比先前更氣憤了:“我給你48個(gè)小時(shí)。”
“是!”朱迪大聲說(shuō)道。
“兩天內(nèi)要找到艾米·奧獺頓。”
“好的。”
“要是失敗了,你就辭職。”
朱迪對(duì)他的提議感到不可思議。“哦,呃……”她思忖了一會(huì)兒,然后點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭。“好的……一言為定。”她說(shuō)道。
“好極了??藙诤郎獣?huì)把全部案宗都給你。”牛局長(zhǎng)說(shuō)道。
朱迪興奮地沖到前臺(tái)去取這份案宗。“給你!”克勞豪瑟把案宗遞給了她,滿心歡喜地說(shuō)道,“一只失蹤的水獺!”
朱迪打開(kāi)文件夾,頓時(shí)驚得張大了嘴巴。文件夾里只有一張紙。“就這些嗎?”她難以置信地問(wèn)道。
“呀!這是我見(jiàn)過(guò)的信息最少的案宗!線索:無(wú)。目擊證人:無(wú)。而且你現(xiàn)在還沒(méi)加入計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng),所以資料:無(wú)。”克勞豪瑟咯咯地笑了起來(lái)。“我希望你沒(méi)有把前途押在破獲這起案件上。”他笑容滿面地說(shuō)道。
朱迪一點(diǎn)兒也笑不出來(lái)??藙诤郎Я艘豢谔鹛鹑?,碎屑落在了卷宗里的照片上。
“最后一次看見(jiàn)……”她說(shuō)著,看了看克勞豪瑟的甜甜圈碎屑下的那張照片。照片是道路交通探頭拍下的,上面顯示奧獺頓先生站在大街上。朱迪吹掉那些碎屑,發(fā)現(xiàn)了照片上的蛛絲馬跡。她瞇起了眼睛,依然看不清楚,就四周張望了一下。“借我用用那個(gè)。”她一把奪過(guò)克勞豪瑟的空蘇打水瓶子。朱迪透過(guò)瓶口望過(guò)去,利用瓶底的玻璃片來(lái)放大圖像。這下她看到了奧獺頓先生手里拿著一份冷飲。她仔細(xì)研究了一番,若有所思地說(shuō)道:“梅花掌冰棍。”
“殺人兇器!”克勞豪瑟點(diǎn)著頭說(shuō)道。
“來(lái)買梅花掌冰棍……”朱迪說(shuō)著,回想起了尼克那件事。
“哦,因?yàn)?hellip;…那是什么意思?”克勞豪瑟問(wèn)道。
“那意味著我……有線索了。”說(shuō)完,她出發(fā)了,留下克勞豪瑟坐在桌前,丈二和尚摸不著頭腦。
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