Monday; January 11, 2016; 9:25 AM; Floe Lane, Tundratown, Zootopia City

ZPD officer Nick Wilde yawned as he put his arms behind his head and put his feet on the squad car's dash.

"Nothing like a homicide investigation to help wake you up at 9 o'clock, eh Carrots?" said Nick to his partner as she tried to focus on the road as they moved into Tundratown, turning on the heat and windshield wipers to keep snow off the windshield.

"Ha, I wouldn't exactly call it investigating, we're just here to see if there's a possible link to a body that was found in the Rainforest last week. Then, it will be moved upstairs to a detective who gets to wear civvies to work and gets paid much more,'' his partner dryly retorted.

"Yeah, but it probably won't be long until you and I are some of those guys, eh Hopps?"

Judy sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Maybe, but let's just focus on today's problems."

Nick's smile slowly disappeared and he slowly lapsed into silence. After a minute of looking out the window, he finally spoke up, "Well, if we're focusing on problems we have right now, then maybe we should…"

"No," said Judy, before Wilde could finish his thought, "Now is not the time. Besides, we're here."

She pulled over next to a shipping warehouse and quickly got out of the car. A disgruntled Nick slowly followed. Behind the warehouse, lay a small crime scene with three officers. Two of them stood guard to make sure no pedestrians walked through the crime scene, while the other one took pictures of the body that was partially hidden by a black tarp. They also noticed that near the tarp was a couple scattered food items and a bottle of shampoo.

As the two got closer to the crime scene, they saw that the photographer was an arctic wolf and the opposite cop was a fairly large polar bear. The cop closest to them had a scarf that was hiding their face and an odd pair of sunglasses, so the only thing they could tell was that he only a little taller than Nick and more stoutly built. The partners approached the crime scene.

"Officers Hopps and Officer Wilde?" came a masculine and slightly muffled voice from the closest cop wearing the scarf.

"That's us," replied Judy as she stopped in front of the officer.

"Officer Jack Flemish," said the cop as he took off his scarf and extended his hand. However, it remained unshaken longer than he had intended for it to be. This was mainly due to the surprise of the two officers that underneath the scarf was a large rabbit with dark, steely grey fur.

The first one to break out of the daze was Wilde, who quickly shook the bunny's hand and said, "Uh…nice to meet you. So, what do we have here?"

"Um…we have a female snow leopard, late twenties, died of suffocation, most likely homicide. She was found this morning by a local resident who was out jogging," said the cop as he slowly walked with the officers up towards the body.

Once they were next to it the photographer dropped the tarp, began to put up his camera up and said, "Okay, Jack, I think I have enough pictures. I'm gonna take these back to the precinct and call the morgue. They should get here in about 30 minutes."

"Thanks Weedon. I'll see you back at the station."

Nick rubbed his hands together and breathed into them. He asked, "What say we go ahead and take a look at this stiff? I mean, the sooner we do, the sooner we can go back to Central where it isn't freezing, eh Hopps?"

"I hadn't heard that another rabbit had joined the force," exclaimed Judy to Mr. Flemish, not paying attention to Nick or the body. As he felt his jaw clench and stomach tighten in a completely unjealous manner, Nick walked over to the opposite side of the tarp and lifted it slightly above his head.

Jack's description was correct. It was a female, snow leopard lying face up wearing a dark purple pantsuit and a plastic bag over her head. Now Nick knew what Flemish meant about suffocation.

"Yeah, I guess 'Second Bunny Cop' didn't sound like a good headline," Jack told Judy who laughed along with him, while Nick just rolled his eyes.

It was then that Nick noticed a 2x2" envelope paper clipped to the snow leopard's lapel. Nick gingerly grabbed it with a gloved hand.

"But seriously, thank you, it was your inspiration that led me to get off my tail and believe that I could make a difference," Jack said after they had finished laughing. Judy's face turned a slightly embarrassed shade of red, though it was hard to tell underneath her fur.

Nick slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of blank white card stock that had an interesting symbol printed on it. It was a perfect octagon, with all of the diagonals drawn in, printed using pure black ink.

"Now, I'm flattered, but I wouldn't say…," said Judy, before she was interrupted by Nick,

"Hey Carrots, come take a look at this." As she walked over, Nick noticed a slightly incredulous look appear on Jack's face, as if he was surprised that Judy let Nick call her that, but it vanished as soon as it appeared.

Taking the piece of cardstock from Nick, Judy closely inspected it and let out a long sigh. "Yep, this calling card matches up with the one found on the body of the victim of the Rainforest murder last week. Looks like Zootopia has itself a possible serial killer." Judy knelt down next to Nick and inspected the body herself. When she reached out to inspect some dried blood from inside the plastic bag, she ended pressing the bag against the victim's face, giving the two of them a better look at the leopard's face.

Nick, upon seeing her face more clearly, let out a silent gasp. "My God. Judy, does she look familiar to you?"

Judy couldn't believe it, "Sweet cheese and crackers. She's that anchor from the news. Catty, uh…..Catty….?"

"Wait, Catty Snowric. Are you sure?" asked a flabbergasted Jack who had taken off his police hat and was in the middle of rubbing his ear.

"Come see for yourself," said an upset Nick who was rubbing his eyes, as he stood up and walked towards the car to radio the chief. He felt a cold wind blow, causing him to shiver. What a great way to fricking start the day, Officer Wilde silently mused to himself.

I would like to give special thanks to Steefwaterbutter who beta-read my story for me. I'll try to make a new chapter at least once a week.

Jack Flemish's name comes from the Flemish Giant Rabbit.

Weedon's name comes from a character from the book 'White Fang' by Jack London.

If anybody finds a good idea for the story image PM it to me and I'll give you a shout out in the next chapter.