Carmelita's Vacation Vexation

My name is Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox, a policewoman at Interpol, and, if it hasn’t been said or noticed, I take my job very seriously. Which is more than I can say for some people here at the agency, especially the new recruits; they’re actually talking about going on vacation! Ay dios mio, I can’t even believe it: everywhere I go there’s talk of amusement parks, visiting some foreign country, or heading to the Bahamas. It’s ridiculous – crime doesn’t take a break, neither do criminals like that stinking ringtail, so why should the law? Well, I wasn’t going to be able to get much work done as long as I kept letting all this get to me, so I headed to the shooting range to get it all out of my system.

A good officer never goes anywhere without her trusty shock pistol, and along with razor sharp aim, I was blasting down every target dead center. Not as satisfying as busting the real things, but good enough for a slow night. Come to think of it, Cooper and his gang have been awfully quiet for a while; I can only wonder what those guys were up to. While I was thinking about it, two puppy dog junior deputies came in talking about what else but their summer plans. Argh, and here I was hoping to get away from all that. Suddenly, their eyes turned to me and they raced up like lightning, saying they were huge fans of my work and started showering me with compliments. Sure I was flattered and all, but I had better things to do than stand around getting showered with praise, but then of course came the big question. One of them asked me what I was planning to do for my time off this summer. I didn’t want to be rude so I just said I had no particular plans at the time; they weren’t all that surprised as far as I could tell but they still thanked me for my time, sating it was an honor to meet me, and left. And once again, I was by myself, though all I could do for a while was stand there in silence.

It was getting late, so after a few more hours of target practice, I packed my things and started up my car, ready to go home. During the drive I thought back to a little earlier before I left. Inspector Barkley, now Chief Barkley, had called me in to his office; have to admit it had been a while since we talked, since my promotion back in Paris I think, but he wanted to give me a bonus. He said he wanted me to take some time of on account of I had been working so hard these past few months. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just been stubborn about the whole vacation thing: I probably could go for a little “away” time. I mean, it’s not like Paris will fall apart in a day, right? Suddenly, something rushed past me: a car with dollar bills flying in the wind, no doubt stolen. Rrrgh! This is exactly what I was afraid would happen! With that I slammed my foot on the pedal and raced after the car, You scum better watch out, because Inspector Fox isn’t leaving anytime soon!