Troubles in the Big Apple for the Scratchin' Thieves

Judge Francis Patterson, had very strict morning schedule. Every morning, he'd wake up at five thirty, drink a glass of freshly pressed orange juice, wash his face, neatly brush his small mustache, put on his black sportswear ensemble and leave his house for his daily hour of jogging before having his breakfast at seven o'clock.

This Sunday wasn't an exception. Around six, Mr. Patterson locked the door of his home, put his keys in his left pocket before jogging to his property's front gate. After passing it, Mr. Patterson entered the code to lock the front gate. Then, he started to jog toward the Central Park, his usual jogging spot.

A few streets away from his room, a petite dark skinned woman with long black hair styled in a ponytail, wearing a deep purple jogging outfit and a white cap, bumped into him as she came from around the corner of the street, making the two of them fall on the ground.

"Oh, my gosh!" the female jogger said in a high-pitched voice as she stood up to get the judge on his feet. "I'm so sorry, sir!" she added as she dusted Mr. Patterson jacket. "I was so focused I didn't slow down at the corner! So stupid!" she tapped the side of her head angrily.

"Now, now," Mr. Patterson said calmly. "It was just an accident. No need to beat yourself up." he smiled softly at the younger girl who relaxed at his calm voice.

"Accidents do happen a lot around me," the jogger said while embarrassedly scratching the back of her head. "I focus so much on running that I forget to look where I go."

"Big competition coming?" the judge asked with curiosity.

"Qualification trials for the college's track team," the girl replied with a nod. "How did you know?"

"I used to be a young athlete too, Miss," he winked with a chuckle.

"You say that as if it was a long time ago!" she noted with a cocked eyebrow.

"Well, it was a long time ago," Judge Patterson replied with a chuckle.

"Like what, three, or five years ago?"

"Add a two in front of those numbers and you'll be much closer to the truth," he said casually, smiling at the sight of the young girl widening her eyes in amazement.

"You're what? Forty?" she asked incredulous.

"Forty-eight actually," Mr. Patterson corrected playfully.

"WAOW!" The girl said in genuine amazement. "You sure don't look like it!"

"Thank you, my dear!" Mr. Patterson said before taking a step away from the girl. "Do you happen to be heading for the park?" he asked with curiosity. "It could be nice to have a jogging partner."

"It would have been with pleasure, but I have to meet up with a friend to jog with her," she said apologetically.

"In that case, I bid you a good day, Miss." Mr. Patterson said politely before he continued his jogging. "And, good luck for the trials!"

"Thanks! Good day to you too!" The dark skinned girl waved at the judge before jogging in the opposite direction.

The girl ran at a calm pace until she passed in front of the judge's property. She went inside an adjacent alley an an orangish pickup truck was parked with a tall, woman with  short blonde hair hidden in a black hood which was pulled up to let her freckled face be shown, was pulling two backpacks out of the trunk.

"How did it go, Claude?" the blonde asked in a thick southern accent when noticed the dark skinned girl trotted to her pickup truck.

"Just as planned, my dear Jack!" Claude said happily as she pulled Patterson's house keys out of her jacket's pocket.

Claude took her cap and her black wig off, letting her two-toned blonde hair cascade on her shoulders. She gave stolen keys to Jack who gave her a towel in return. Claude used the towel to wipe the dark brown makeup off her face, slowly making her fair skin visible. As soon as it was done, she took her jogging outfit off to put on the same black clothes Jack was wearing.

"What did you see while I was getting the keys?" Claude asked as she passed her head through the hole of her pullover.

"Nothin' much," Jack replied with a shrug. "The front gate opens only with the right code, just like Vinyl had explained. Ah couldn't see what the code was with the binoculars. That Patterson fella made sure to stand in front of the keyboard."

"A wise man," Claude commented as she put a pair of thicker gloves in place of the small ones she was wearing when she stole the keys. "How do we pass the wall?" she asked, nodding at the property's three meters tall walls with metallic spikes on top.

"Like planned, Sugarcube," Jack replied matter-of-factly as she pulled the straps of her backpack tight.

"What about the cameras on the walls?" Claude asked as she also pulled the straps of her backpack tight.

"Ah observed them cameras' movements," Jack said as she and Claude, now fully equipped for their enterprise, walked to the edge of the alley to see if no one was in the street. "We have about a ten seconds window during which we can approach the wall without being seen," she explained as she pulled the hood down her face, leaving only her green eyes, which were locked on the security cameras, visible.

"When?" Claude asked with her hood pulled down as well.

"Right about...Now!" Jack pushed a button on her watch before making a mad sprint toward the property's wall.

Claude didn't miss the sudden start of her partner and ran right behind her. The pair crossed the street in the blink of an eye. Jack reached the other side walk before stopping a meter away from the wall. She twirled around, and joined her hands together  when Claude was about to bump into her. The small blonde put her left feet on the tall one's joined hands before leaning her weight on them.

With a low grunt, Jack lifted her hands upwards while Claude jumped. The small blonde curled herself in a ball as she passed above the spikes before extending her body on the other side of the wall. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she leaned her body forward to roll over before crouching in the property's gardens.

Jack, on the other hand, used the wall itself as step ladder to climb on it easily. Her gloved hands grabbed the base of the spikes before she lifted herself up easily. Jack carefully passed above the pointy edges of the spikes before dropping herself in the gardens, landing on her feet, crouching at the impact with a low thud.

"Time?" Claude asked as Jack pushed again on the button of her watch's chronometer.

"8.5 seconds!" Jack said happily before Claude and she bumped their fists together. "Now, we gotta find the alarm control panel."

"Should be near the electric box on the north facade of the house, if the plans Patty hacked from the alarm company's database are accurate," Claude said as the pair discretely made way to the north side of the massive, two story mansion.

"For a company that makes business in security, their own security kinda sucks," Jack commented casually.

"Weird, right? Anyway, I'm not really complaining about it!" Claude and Jack quietly chuckled.

The pair of burglars reached the north side of the building without further complications. Claude pulled a smartphone out of her pocket and plugged it to a white cable which ended with two USB entries, one blue and the other white.

"You got Patty's instructions?"

"Here!" Jack pulled a pink sheet of paper out her pocket. "Now, let's see." She began reading the note. "First, ya gotta to find the camera’s control grid. Accordin' to this here note, it's supposed to behind in a small dark grey panel."

"Found it!" Claude said after finding the wanted panel, right between the electric circuit box and the telephone line. "What do I do next?" she asked as put the dark grey panel on the ground.

"Ya must start Patty's app, and when it says it's ready, ya must plug the USBs into the matching' colored slots..."

"Huh.... That's going to be problematic...." Claude commented nervously as she pointed the control circuit.

"Why are ya sayin.....Oh!" Jack blinked in surprise at what Claude was pointing at.

The USB slots on the house's control grid were red and green, not white and blue.

"Did Patty write anything about that?" Claude asked in a worried tone.

"Huuuuuh.... " Jack quickly read the entire pink note she had. "Aside from a warning sayin’ how important it is to not put the wrong USB in the slots because it'll automatically warn the security company, nope!" she said in a nervous chuckle.

"Urgh! What are we gonna do?" Claude stood up in a short panic before she started to pace around. "Let's think about it for a bit." she rubbed her temples as Jack crouched in front of the security grid. "To obtain green you must mix blue and yellow, which could mean that the blue USB must go into the green slot. Unless they thought we were going to think that because it would have been so obvious! But if they .."

"Problem solved! Let's go!" Jack interrupted Claude's thinking circles by grabbing her shoulder.

"Huh?" Claude stared at her friend in disbelief. "How did you find the right combination?"

"Ah didn't!" Jack said with a shrug. "Ah just pulled the darn thing out, and the cameras stopped moving!"

Claude looked at control box, only to see the electronic grid lying on the ground with all its cables ripped up with electric sparks coming from their other parts still connected to the house. Claude then looked at the cameras which were filming the outside of the property had indeed stopped moving, and the small red lights under the objectives were off.

"Not too subtle, but the results are here!" Claude commented slowly.

The pair walked to the mansion front door before Jack opened it with the keys Claude had stolen to the judge. They entered into a wonderfully decorated lobby with stairs that parted on the right and on the left of the hallway before joining on the floor below. The two thieves walked past the stairs before entering the very luxurious living room.

"Okay, we separate or we search the whole house together?" Claude asked.

"We don't have much time, so Ah say we divide the house. Up or ground?"

"I'll take up. Meet you in the lobby in thirty minutes?" Jack nodded and Claude was about to go for the stairs until her gaze fell on something in the corner of the living room. "Jack?" she called slowly.

"Yeah?" Jack asked while she was searching through the drawers of a long cupboard.

"Why are there three metallic bowls in the corner of the room?" Claude asked as she pointed at bowls in question.

"Probably the bowls of Mrs. Patterson's dogs," Jack shrugged as she found a rather large golden Rolex in one of the drawers.

"D-Dogs?" Claude asked fearfully in a shaking tone. "As in more than one?"

"Claude, don't worry!" Jack said firmly. "Mrs. Patterson is a model, they must be chihuahuas or any other race of froufrou-y purse rats. Besides, she surely took them with her for that shooting thing,"

As soon as she said this, the pair heard the sounds of many paws on the marble. They both looked back in the lobby as the sounds became clearer. Their eyes ended on the right end of the stairs at the very moment Mrs. Patterson's dogs came into view.

The three massive Rottweilers stared at the two thieves, tilting their heads with curiosity.

Claude started to shake like a leaf while Jack stood up and slowly put her hand on her friend's shoulder in reassurance. The dogs started to growl as they realized the two women in front of them had nothing to do in their masters' house.

"Try to not act scared," Jack advised slowly. "It excites them!"

"I'm not acting!" Claude replied in a terrified whisper.

The middle dog barked loudly before the three of them charged at the two thieves.

"RUN!" Jack shouted.

Claude didn't need to hear it twice. She ran away from the dogs as fast she could, heading to the dining room while Jack had run into the kitchen. Two Rottweilers decided to run after the small blonde. Claude jumped on the long dining table, quickly mimicked by one of her canine pursuers while the other ran next to the table.

Claude tried her best to ignore the furious barks directed at her while running like she had never run before. As the end of the table came close, she jumped to grab onto one of the crystal chandeliers of the room. Her momentum added to her made the chandelier tilt to the right of the room, bringing Claude closer to the lobby.

Claude let go of the chandelier as she heard the dog, surprised by its prey's sudden change of direction, fall from the table with a small whimper. Claude didn't forget the other dog after her though.

"Of course, they had to come after me two to one!" she muttered as she ran to the lobby when she heard the second dog barking at her while its companion quickly recovered from its fall.

Claude dashed to the corner of the lobby, taking two steps on the walls before leaning on them to jump and reach the second floor. She climbed up the ramp while her pursuers made for the stairs, giving her a small advantage.

The small thief ran across the corridor of the second floor as the dogs swiftly caught up on her due to their four legs. She dashed through two rooms before entering in a bathroom whose only exit a window too small for Claude to pass through. She was about to turn around when the two dogs started to sprint toward the bathroom she was in, barking furiously.

She climbed on the sink before leaning heavily on it as the dogs came closer. When they passed the door frame, Claude jumped, using the sink as a springboard. One of the dogs tried to bite her mid air, but it fell a millimeter too short. Once she landed on her feet, she twirled around and slammed the bathroom door closed.

The dogs scratched the door with a mix of low whimpers and angry barks, while Claude relaxed slowly. She was afraid of dogs, but if they were in another, closed, room, it was fine. After all, dogs couldn't open doors.

Claude blinked before blocking the door handle with a nearby chair. Just to be sure. Once that was done, she looked around and realized she was in Mrs. Patterson's dressing room, if the many pairs of shoes, fashionable dresses, haute couture tops, and fancy skirts were of any indication. Claude noticed the massive vanity at the other side of the room, unavoidably attracted by the dozens of jewelry caskets lying on it.

Claude pumped her fist in the air. "Jackpot!" she shouted excitedly. A second after her shout, the two imprisoned Rottweilers charged the door, shaking it violently while barking ferociously. "KYAAAAA!" she let out a high-pitched shriek of terror. "I need to get the hell out of here!" she shouted in panic before throwing her backpack on the vanity table before emptying all the caskets in it at top speed.

When she had looted all the jewelry, which represented no small amount, Claude closed her bag, put it right on her back and stormed out of the room to get to the corridor, closing all the doors she encountered behind her. As she reached stairs to the lobby, she remembered there were three dogs in the house, and that one of them had chased after Jack.

"Jack?" Claude called with worry as she reached the end of the stairway.

"Yeah?" Jack called back casually from the living room.

"Are you ok?" Claude asked, heading toward Jack's voice.

"Why shouldn't Ah be ok?"

"What happened to the ...." Claude froze when she saw the third Rottweiler trotting gently behind Jack while she was inspecting a beautifully decorated silver candle holder. "What is that monstrous thing doing here?" Claude asked fearfully as she hid behind the door.

"He ain't a monstrous thing, Claude!" Jack said in a reproaching tone while patting the dog's head. "His name's Regulus and he's a total sweetheart!" Regulus barked happily at the compliment, waggling his tiny tail.

"Did you miss the part when your total sweetheart and his two bloodthirsty friends tried to eat us not ten minutes ago?" Claude asked in a scared sarcasm.

"Their mistress ain't home. They must have wanted someone to play with them," Jack explained casually. "What did ya do to the others by the way?"

"Locked them in a bathroom upstairs, and NO, you can't go to get them out!" Claude shouted angrily, causing Regulus to growl at her.

"Tut tut shhhh!" Jack said softly to the dog who instantly became calm as a lamb. "Fine, Ah won't get them out, but ya need to calm down."

"I'll calm down when he's out of the room!" Claude demanded firmly, pointing at Regulus.

Jack sighed before turning her head toward the Rottweiler. "Regulus, go into the lobby and don't move from that spot," she demanded gently.

The dog let out a soft whimper with his ears flattening on his head and a sad pout before doing as Jack instructed. Regulus slowly trotted to one of the lobby's windows before sitting in front of it, his eyes focused outside. Claude got out from behind her door made shield, meeting a rather pissed Jack with arms crossed.

"What?" Claude asked angrily. "You know very well I'm scared of dogs!"

"Yeah, Ah know, but ya hurt his feelings!"

"I don't give a damn shit about that dog's feelings!" Claude retorted. "Not until he's on a leash and at least fifteen meters away from me!"

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack waved off in annoyance. “Anyway, ah took all that was interestin’ in this here room.” Jack shown the content of her bag. “Mainly silverware, some fancy golden or silver decorations, and ah found around a thousands bucks in the many drawers,” she explained casually. “We should search the other rooms quickly, we don’ have much time until he gets back.”

“Or, we could leave now,” Claude said with a triumphant smile. “Check what I found upstairs!” she said as she passed her bag to Jack.

“Oh Nelly!” Jack whistled with wide eyes at the large quantity of jewels in her friend’s backpack. “Ya sure ya didn’t rob some fancy jewelry store while ya were running away from them dogs?” she asked with a chuckle.

“Mrs. Patterson sure has enough jewelry to open a small one,” Claude commented.

“A bit too much for a skinny lady like her,” Jack added as she inspected a large diamond enchased on a golden band. “Ah think we’ll do her a huge favor by taking this from here!” she smirked as she let the golden band fall in the bag. “Good job, Claude!”

“Thank you, Jack!” Claude said while rubbing her chest in a very modest tone.

        Regulus suddenly barked deeply at his window, startling Claude who jumped into Jack’s arms with a high-pitched shriek. Jack had to struggle a bit to lose her footing due to the sudden add of weight. She glared at Claude before letting her fall on the ground with a surprised yelp.

“What is it, Regulus?” Jack asked as she went to the dog’s side, while closing Claude’s bag.

        Regulus let out a soft whimper while poking the thin, white curtains of the window. Jack slowly parted the curtains to peek outside for a second or two. She then patted dog’s head while scratching behind his left ear with her finger. Regulus shown his appreciation for the gesture by wiggling his short tail.

“Good boy,” Jack said with affection before heading back to the living room. “Claude, hurry up!” she called her friend.

“What’s going on?” Claude asked as she stood up, rubbing her butt with a small wince.

“We got company,” Jack said with a small grin.

*******

“Come on, Dash!” the young police officer with short orangish-blonde hair, Delilah Lisander, called her brown haired colleague in annoyance. “We’ve been standing there for more than fifteen minutes. You can see that nothing’s going on in here!” she added while pointing at Judge Patterson’s house.

“Then, why did we get a call from the security company that their cameras ceased working?” Renée Marianne Dashell, also called Dash by her co-workers, asked with a cocked eyebrow before turning her gaze on the judge’s house.

“Maybe it was just a simple break down,” their white haired partner, Gilda Griffin, suggested with a shrug  as she exited the patrol car. “We should still stay until one of the residents shows up,” she quickly added when Dash turned around to glare at her. “Just to be safe.”

“Thanks!” Dash turned back to watching the house. “Also, the probability for one of the surveillance cameras to break down is extremely low, so you can imagine the probability for it to happen to all of them.”

The other two police officers blinked  before staring at their colleague with a puzzled frown.

“Since when do you actually know that stuff?” Delilah asked slowly.

“Heard it somewhere,” Dash replied with a shrug.

“You’ve been hanging around the crime labs again, haven’t you?” Gilda asked with a knowing sigh. “That pushover from the “mind hunters” department will never glance at you!”

“Hey! She’s not a pushover!” Dash replied angrily. “And, what do you mean she’ll never glance at me?” she asked with a small blush.

“Well, she kinda is,” Delilah chimed in slowly. “She apologizes to anyone who walks close to her because she thinks she’s in the way,”

“And, she’ll never look at you, because she’s too busy hiding from everyone behind her curtain of hair!” Gilda said with a mocking laugh. “What a scaredy cat.”

“Come again, G!” Dash retorted furiously. “I didn’t hear you quite clearly!”

        Delilah put herself between her two partners as Dash took a threatening step toward Gilda, hoping to calm them by reminding them why they were here in the first place.

“Hmm, excuse me, officers,” a calm man’s voice called the three officers, interrupting their argument. “May I ask what are you doing in front of my front gate?” the voice asked politely.

The three cops immediately stopped their ‘fight’ to turn their head to the source, seeing a very puzzled Judge Patterson who had just come back from his morning jogging.

“Is that your house?” Dash asked rather abruptly. “Sir?” she added softly as she realized she hadn’t been very polite.

“Indeed, officer,” Judge Patterson replied casually. “Is there something wrong?”

“We received a call from Monitronics,” Gilda explained calmly. “Apparently, your surveillance cameras stopped working about thirty-five minutes ago. We went to see what was going on.”

“Would you mind if we get inside to see what it is about?” Dash asked.

“Of course, not!” Patterson immediately answered before heading toward his front gate’s electronic panel. “Give me second to open the gate,” he added before typing the code to open the front gate.

Within the following seconds, the front gate automatically opened to let the judge and the three policewomen enter. The group headed straight for the house’s front door, passing in front of the beautiful gardens of the property.

Gilda let out a very impressed whistle at how well maintained the property’s gardens were. Something that earned her a small whack behind the skull from a frowning Dash when Mr. Patterson wasn’t watching.

“Is there anyone inside?” Delilah asked professionally as they reached the small stairs before the front door.

“Aside from my wife’s dogs, no,” Patterson replied as he put his hand into his left pocket to get his keys. “She’s absent because of her work.” He frowned when he didn’t find his keys. “That’s strange, I was certain to have put them in my left pocket,” he whispered as he went through his other pockets.

“You sure you had them when you left?” Dash asked. “I mean, considering the front gate needs no key to open itself.”

“Positive!” Patterson replied firmly. “I locked the door, put the keys in my pockets, closed the front gate and headed for Central Park for my usual jogging.”

“Has anyone stopped along the way?” Dash asked abruptly.

“Well, there was that young jogger…” his eyes widened in realization. “She accidently bumped into me three or four streets from here,” he said slowly.

“Did you have your keys after that?” Gilda asked firmly.

“I… I didn’t check,” Mr. Patterson admitted.

“Probably a pickpocket,” Dash muttered for herself. “Can you describe that…”

“Guys,” Delilah interrupted them softly, her hand on the door handle. “It’s open.”

        Delilah slowly opened the door and the three cops, followed by the judge, cautiously entered into the silent lobby. The three cops pulled their guns out, in case something bad might be waiting them.

“Didn’t you say that your wife’s dogs were supposed to be here?” Gilda asked quietly as the quatuor headed through the lobby to the living room.

Patterson nodded in silence.

“I wonder where they are?” Delilah said as they were about to enter the living room.

“You just needed to ask, dear officers,” A very sophisticated, girly voice said in a perfect Manhattan accent.

The voice came from inside the floor above, and the next thing the quatuor heard was a someone whistling sharply. Mrs. Patterson’s Rottweilers stormed out of the living room before each of them tackled one of the three police officers to the ground, letting the three guns escape from their hands.

“Oh… Get him off me!” Gilda called in a choked growl as one of the dogs was sitting on her chest.

“AAAAAH that’s so gross!” Delilah shouted in disgust as the dog pinning her was copiously licking her face.

“Hey, get your dogs away!” Dash called for Patterson while the last dog was lying on her upper body, blocking her two arms under his weight.

“That won’t be possible, I’m afraid,” the voice spoke again, this time closer to the three pinned officers.

        Dash managed to turn her head toward the voice, seeing a tall woman completely wearing a black outfit with a hood that masked everything except her eyes, looking at the three policewomen struggling against their canine opponents on the ground while another person wearing a similar black outfit had pulled Mr. Patterson far away from his dogs before pinning him on the ground.

“I do believe you three are carrying something that weighs you a lot, aren’t you?” the tall woman asked with a soft chuckle.

“No shit, bitch!” Gilda cursed loudly, causing the dog on top of her to growl angrily at her.

“Easy, Augustus,” the tall thief said softly, instantly calming the angry dog. “Now, as I was saying,” she walked closer to the orange haired police officer. “Let me help you with that unnecessary weight you’re all carrying.”

        She crouched between the pinned bodies of Gilda and Delilah before she pulled their personal walkie-talkie from their belt. The thief moved on to do the same to Dash’s, earning a furious glare from the brown haired cop. The burglar then patted the head of the dog lying on Dash before taking a few steps away before crashing the radios on the floor before stomping on it for good measure.

“Now, we bid you a good day,” she said while heading for the door. “Don’t be mad at your dogs, sir,” she added to Patterson as she opened the door. “I learned how to make dogs ten times less obedient than these three Lassies .”

        The tall thief with the sophisticated accent waved at her partner who let go of Mr. Patterson before the two ran outside the house before slamming the front door behind them. Free from the smaller thief's grip, Patterson quickly went to freed the cops from his dogs.

        The three policewomen rushed to the door, after having regained their handguns and glaring at the dogs who had been pinning them to the ground a few seconds earlier. When Gilda pushed the handle down, the door didn’t open. The burglars had locked them in with Patterson’s keys.

“SON OF A BITCH!” Gilda roared as she punched the front door.

“Let’s climb out one of the windows!” Dash shouted before Delilah opened the large window in the left staircase.

        The three cops jumped through that window before making a mad sprint toward the front gate. Dash, being the fastest runner among them, was the first one to reach the gate which was open. As she passed through the opening, Dash saw the smaller thief running into an alley across the street before the back of black gloved hand appeared from her left and crashed into her nose.

“DASH!” Delilah roared in fury as Dash’s body did a backflip because of the impact and landed heavily on her back.

        While Dash was holding her now bloody nose, Delilah pulled out her telescopic billy, Gilda grabbed her gun, and the tall thief exited from behind the wall. The orange-y blonde haired police officer tried to hit  the thief’s head.

        The thief grabbed the attacking cop’s wrist before twisting it strongly. As Delilah grunted in pain, the burglar gave a powerful uppercut right on the celiac plexus, causing her to gape before she let go of her billy.

“Stop, or I’ll shoot!” Gilda roared as she pointed her gun at the thief.

        The criminal’s reaction was to kick Delilah in the stomach to send her stumbling backward toward her partner. The time it took for Gilda to avoid her colleague in order to keep a clear shot at the robber was all said robber needed.

        The tall woman in black grabbed the breech of the gun, pushed it toward  Gilda to eject the bullet from the barrel. Then, she pushed on the button to eject the magazine out of the gun before kicking it away before it reached the ground. Before Gilda could react, she was elbowed in the chest. The thief did a spinning kick in the back of the cop’s knee, making her fall on her back with a pained groan.

        The tall thief glanced at the three cops on the ground as she dusted herself before heading casually across the still empty street where an orangish pickup had just driven out of the alley. Dash managed to stand back on her feet when the one who had just beat her and her two colleagues up was taking place on the driver seat.

“Come on, you two!” She yelled while wiping her bleeding nose.

        Gilda and Dash quickly help Delilah on her feet before they reached for their patrol car. The orange pickup was still in sight as the thieves were driving toward Central Park.

“Contact the central!” Dash ordered to Gilda as she started the car’s engine. “Tell them we’re in pursuit of an orange Dodge pickup truck on the 79th street, heading to the 5th avenue!”

“Huh… that won’t be possible,” Gilda growled. “That bitch cut the radio’s cord!” she explained as she threw the cb’s microphone, which wasn’t connected to the radio anymore, on the car’s floor.

“We’ll do this the hard way, then!” Dash shouted before speeding away.

The police unit didn’t speed away at all. The car was slow and moving with a high-pitched screeching sound. Dash stopped the car, opened the door and glanced at the front left tire.

“FUCK!” she yelled in frustration as she noticed the tire had been cut open, figuring out the others were in a similar state.

******

As their orange pickup truck was heading North on the fifth avenue, with no cops on their trail, something that puzzled Claude a lot..

“How come they’re not coming after us?” she asked with worry.

“Kinda hard to start a car with four flat tires, Sugarcube,” Jack replied with a small grin in her usual southern accent while she pulled out a large hunting knife from its holster attached to her boot. “This here baby can cut the rubber of a tire like it’s butter!” she explained while turning in the 87th street.

“Well, without their radios and their car, we should be able to get home without any trouble,” Claude commented as she pulled her hood up and relax on her seat. “How did you do that by the way?”

“Do what?” Jack pulled her hood up as well, before she engaged the pick up on Madison Avenue.

“That thing with the Rottweilers!” Claude specified firmly. “How come they obeyed you?”

“Mama used to train dogs back at the farm,” Jack explained with nostalgia. “She taught me a few tricks.”

“And that Manhattan accent?” Claude asked.

“Something Ah was forced to pick up by ma foster family,” Jack replied sourly. “Never thought it’d come handy one day.”

“Well, that kinda save you today,” Claude added matter-of-factly. “Your real voice is recognizable among a thousand.” Jack nodded slowly.

“So, what did ya think of Regulus, Augustus and Maximus?” Jack asked with a chuckle while Claude shivered at the mention of the three Rottweilers. “Without them, it’d have been a lot less easy to escape.”

“Well, I must admit that for three bloodthirsty, four legged monsters, they were ok,” Claude said in a low tone.

“They ain’t monsters,” Jack said in offence. “They were cuddlier than teddy bears!”

“I maintain that they wanted to eat me!” Claude pouted before crossing her arms.

Jack sighed. “One day, we’ll get you rid of that fear of dogs.”

“Yeah, and one day, you’ll stop hating the Apple company,” Claude retorted sarcastically.

“That’s different!” Jack shouted angrily! “Their founders went to ma family’s orchard and used our name to start their business! Then, them rascals sued us and we were forced to change our name to Smith!”

“I know you told us that story many times, but I’m still not believing it,” Claude replied matter-of-factly.

“What with all the….” Jack grumbled before taking a deep breath. “How about Ah drive us home in silence?” she asked in a low angry tone.

“Speaking of home;” Claude said with interest. “You think Vinyl and Patty did okay?”

“They surely did things a lot more discreetly than us, that’s for sure,” Jack commented. “But, Ah doubt they got more than us with what you took from Mrs. Patterson’s jewelry boxes,” she added with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna have to do the dishes for the next two weeks,” Claude said while gently patting her bag full of jewelry. “No way, Vinyl or Patty got something as cool as that!”

“Sure thing, Sugarcube!”