It was a dark and stormy night. Within the halls of Oxborn Manor, the final confrontation between the handsome and famous Detective Grizzles and all of his suspects was taking place.
"So here we stand in the Accusing Parlor..." noted Detective Grizzles, the bear casually blowing smoke rings from his pipe. "Because one of you shall be accused of eating the esteemed Mr. Oxborn..."
Thunder clapped in the background as everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably, from Mr. Oxborn's most trusted business partner to his two-year old grandson.
"Who ever could it be?" wailed Mrs. Oxborn, still cloaked her funeral garb. "What monster could have eaten my dear husband?"
"I shall tell you, m'lady!" Grizzles paced slowly around the room, eyeing each and every one of Oxborn's relatives and employees. "It was a clever scheme... almost too clever, really, but not clever enough to match my cleverness! For you see, all the evidence all ties in with one person in this room, and that one person, that one evil, despicable, dastardly fiend is-"
"It's the butler," Nick said flatly, shoveling more popcorn into his mouth.
"How can you be sure?" Judy asked. "It could have been his wife, or his greedy nephew, or-"
"JEEVES!" Grizzles exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger toward the old, frail-looking wolf.
"Told ya'." Nick yawned and idly checked the time on his phone.
"Huh..." Judy paused for a moment. "That... was actually pretty clever!" she said excitedly. "Because the handkerchief and the pocket watch were both gifts from-"
"'Clever?'" Nick eyed Judy incredulously. "You're kidding right? Nothing about this was clever! That 'twist' could've been seen a mile away by a mole with myopia! And when Grizzles and Dr. Fawn had that argument in the third act? It was so contrived I could barely stand it! And you knew they were going to get back together in the next scene because this guy decided to play every single cliché in the book completely straight-faced!"
"Well, I thought the twist was pretty well done," Judy said, folding her arms defiantly. "And the argument was actually justified and essential to the plot."
Nick looked as if he was about to try and argue, but sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his muzzle. "Orson Hitchcock won how many White Tail awards for this movie, exactly?"
"Three," Judy replied proudly. "Best Leading Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. The Shawskunk Redemption's gonna earn him another this year, too."
"Ten bucks says he doesn't even get nominated," Nick challenged.
"Twenty says he wins," Judy said smugly. "Best Picture and Best Actor."
"You're on."
"Ahem."
Nick and Judy turned from their seats to face the stern, imposing figure of an all-too familiar cape buffalo.
"Cheif Bogo, my buddy!" Nick exclaimed, spreading his arms as if expecting a hug. "How are ya' tonight?"
"Don't call me that," Bogo snorted. "First off; you might as well give Hopps the money now, because you know Hitchcock wins every year no matter how terrible his movies are."
"See, Nick? Even Bogo thinks he's - hey!"
"Second; you're supposed to be getting ready to go on patrol, not watching television in the break room!" he shouted.
"Aw, Chief you're breaking my heart here," Nick said, pouting unconvincingly. "Don't you think Zootopia's finest deserve a little break after solving a city-wide conspiracy? I got shot, you know!"
"With a blueberry..." Judy added dryly.
"Still got shot."
"That was ten months ago!" Bogo snapped. "Now get your tails out of here before I drag you into that cruiser myself!"
Nick let out a loud yawn. "Alight, alright. Not like I need much convincing to abandon a Hitchcock marathon," he said, standing up and stretching his arms.
Noticing Bogo's doubtful glare, Judy stood up and saluted. "Don't worry, sir. We'll be three miles out of Savanna Central before you even realize we're gone!" she enthusiastically declared.
"Good." With a final grunt of approval, Bogo stepped out of the break room and into the brightly lit hallways of the ZPD. Nick switched off the TV.
"Well, you heard the Chief," he said, walking briskly toward the door with a wry smile plastered to his face. "Time to get to work."
"Weren't you just trying to get out of working tonight?" Judy asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. "Since when were you so eager to go on patrol, anyway?"
"Since you convinced me to sit through the entirety of The Wolf of the Whiskervilles," he said as the two of them walked into the hall. "While on duty, no less. For shame, Judy!"
"Shut up," Judy said, jabbing him in the rib. "You're the one who told me we had time, anyhow..."
"Speaking of time," Nick said, rubbing out the crease Judy's elbow left in his uniform. "We're gonna have plenty of it this weekend. Thought it might actually be fun to go see a decent movie."
"Maybe we could try the Nightmare on Elk Street remake?" Judy suggested. "The original was always one of my favorites."
"No chance, Carrots. We're seeing Spider Ham 2."
Judy and Nick clocked out around two in the morning, after an absolutely miserable patrol. They had been assigned to Sahara Square, Judy's least favorite district to visit, let alone aimlessly ride around in for four hours. As if sweltering hot days weren't bad enough, at night the district literally became as cold as Tundratown. Even with a thick jacket and the squad car's heaters turned all the way up Judy still found herself shivering from the persistent chill.
"At least you didn't have to get out of the car to get the coffee," Nick said on their walk home.
"You drank half of mine and let it get cold!" Judy complained.
Nick tisked softly. "You're such a whiner." Judy responded by swiftly punching him in the arm. "Correction; an abusive whiner. Is it still police brutality if you're off-duty?"
"Technically. What are you gonna do, arrest me?"
"Nah, I think I'll just eat you."
"Pretty sure that's more illegal than me punching you."
"Well, you hit me twice today, and I think two counts of assault against an officer is equally illegal as eating someone."
"You're unbelievable."
Nick and Judy went back and forwards like this almost every day. Although the two had only known each other for a few months, they acted as if they'd been friends their whole lives, spending almost every waking moment together, only separating to go home, or more rarely, when work required them to split up for a while. They continued to joke and bicker with each other until they reached Judy's apartment building.
"This is my stop," Judy said, stepping into the doorway. "'night, Nick. Hope you get mugged on the way home."
"And I hope you trip down the stairs and break your neck," Nick replied, lazily saluting her as he continued down the sidewalk. "Sweet dreams, Carrots."
Providing an equally lazy wave goodbye, Judy entered the complex and headed toward the stairwell, eager to get to her tiny apartment. Moving her feet up the concrete steps became more and more difficult a task as she moved upwards, though the real struggle was keeping her eyes open long enough to even see where she was going. Sleep sounds really nice right about now, she thought. Shame Nick's probably gonna wake me up at like nine again because he's bored or something.
After what seemed like an eternity, Judy finally reached her apartment on the third floor, and was pleasantly surprised by the silence. Normally, her neighbors would be screaming at each other the entire night, but it seemed like they wore themselves out early. "As soon as I'm out of this uniform," she said to herself. "I'm going to- what the?" She blinked. She rubbed her eyes and looked at her apartment again.
The front door was wide open.
Judy tentatively peered inside her room, and a weak gasp escaped her throat. What few possessions she had were scattered across the floor, her bed and desk in splinters, the window shattered, and her spare uniforms strewn across the room. But it wasn't the destruction that made her stomach knot up so tight she felt like being sick.
On the wall, written messily in thick, black marker, was a message:
PREY WILL PAY
FEAR MADDOX
Judy thought the world had moved on, that this sort of thing would never happen again.
She wanted to cry.
The response from the ZPD was almost immediate. The operator told her over the phone that practically half the department volunteered to come out. In the end, only two officers, accompanied by Bogo himself, arrived at the scene.
Nick sat beside her in the hall as the officers investigated the area and interviewed the other tenants. She didn't bother asking how he found out, despite having not said a word to him. Neither of them spoke, but that was alright with Judy; simply having him with her made her feel more calm, more sure that things would be okay.
In the midst of her thoughts, Bogo walked up to her, a notebook and pen in his hooves. "We've managed to place the time of the break-in at around midnight," he said. "One of the tenants witnessed a suspicious figure on this floor around that time, but didn't get a good look at them. All they said was they were a medium-size canine or feline. Possibly a hyena or jackal."
"You get anything from the other tenants?" Judy inquired.
"The Oryx-Antlersons say they were too busy arguing at the time to notice anything suspicious," Bogo responded, looking over his notes. He flipped the page and a gave snort of annoyance. "And everyone else says they were too distracted by the Oryx-Antlersons' arguing to notice anything either... So, no, we don't have anything."
"What about the message?" Nick asked.
"We don't have anything on it at the moment," Bogo said, "But we'll look over it back at the station and see if we can identify who or what this 'Maddox' is. Might be other case files that could help."
Judy looked morosely over her apartment. The officers had moved some of the debris out of the way, but broken glass and splinters of wood still littered the room. "This is going take forever to clean up..." she groaned.
"I'll give you an additional day off after we finish here. Just to help you get things back together," Bogo said. "Full pay, even. You don't deserve to be treated this way after what you've done for this city."
"Thanks, Chief," Judy said, smiling weakly. "I really appreciate it."
"No trouble. We're going to be here a while, so I recommend booking a hotel room or find someone willing to take you in for a few nights."
The second Bogo finished his sentence, Nick eagerly exclaimed, "She could bunk with me!" Judy and Bogo gave him a curious look. "Er, I-I mean, if that's ... acceptable..." he stammered, ears flattened against his head.
"It's fine! I'm okay with it!" Judy said, noticing his discomfort. "I just... didn't expect you to offer, is all." At least not so quickly, she thought.
"Whatever works," Bogo said gruffly. "I expect to see you at the station on Monday, Wilde. Hopps was the one who's home was broken into, not yours."
"Got it," Nick replied. Bogo looked as if he were expecting some sort of smart-alec remark from him, almost seeming surprised when he remained silent. Shrugging, Bogo walked away toward the other officers.
Judy turned to Nick. His usual self-sure smile was replaced by a sullen, gloomy-looking expression, as if he were attending a funeral. "Are you alright, Nick?" she asked, placing a paw on his shoulder. "You're not yourself."
"I should be asking you that," Nick said. "I mean, this was obviously a hate-crime. What if you were home when whoever did this showed up?"
"I would have kicked his tail?" Judy suggested, forcing out a chuckle. "I was top of my class, remember? I literally knocked out a rhino during a sparing match; I think I could've taken whoever this was."
Nick stared at her, unconvinced. "C'mon, Nick," she said, nudging him lightly. "It's not like you to worry so much. Let's just head to your place and get some sleep. I'll even go see that dorky Spider Ham movie with you tomorrow."
Nick smirked. "Did the Orson Hitchcock fan really just call Spider Ham 'dorky'?"
Judy slugged him in the arm again.
Author's Ramblings:
The first chapter is always the most difficult to write, I swear... Probably didn't help that I decided to make it over 2,000 words long. Despite that, writing this was pretty fun. Zootopia's one of the best films Disney's released in a long while, so I couldn't help but write something for it. The fact that it's an absolute gold-mine for puns doesn't hurt, either.
Critiques are greatly appreciated. Seriously, go all out me; I already know I'm bad, but I just need to know why I'm bad. After all, if I don't know what I'm doing wrong in the first place, how the hell am I gonna fix it?
EDIT: Fixed a few typos, as pointed out by a review. See? The system works!