Chapter 1: Bunker buster.

Whistling floated through the maze of effluent filled tunnels. The song, 'Over the hills and far away', spoke of memories that had been locked away inside the sewer workers mind and away from prying eyes for years. The horse had seen things that no mammal ever should, he had done worse and this song was the only glimpse others ever saw of it beneath his grey fur.

"That song again huh?" His co-worker pried with naive enthusiasm. "You ever gonna tell me why you keep whistling it?" It was a glimpse and as such you needed context to understand it.

Context he was in no hurry to share. "When your old enough" A fatigued sigh accompanied his words. It was unbearably humid and the almost overwhelming smell of bodily waste was so thick you could see it rising from the water.

The apprentice looked incredulous. "Old enough? Your only, what?, 8 years older than me?" He was about to turn around and give the weasel something to chew on, it was not a subject he enjoyed talking about and if his own family didn't know anything about it. Well why should he share with this giant pain in the neck.

But a strange smell stopped him. It wasn't of sewage and that was one of the reasons it stood out. The other was he recognised it as that of deaths buffet. "You smell that?"

His colleague was still irked over the age comment "What? Oh I get it play a prank on the apprentice huh? Yeh it smells of…" He'd stopped listening. Instead, using his torch he slowly, cautiously advanced into the darkness. Slowly something began to appear.

He froze, eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open, as the torch illuminated the source of the smell. The weasel was by now in a full on rant "Are you liste…lis…li. Oh Fuck!"

2 Weeks later

The bull pen was alive with the usual collection of whoops, cheers and rapturous laughter. Nick was seated in his and Judy's usual spot, right at the front on an over sized chair with the bunny being forced to stand on the seat. Nick was at least able to sit down and still be able to see over the desk.

To their right sat officer Savannah Lupus a new addition to the precinct though the maned she-wolf had been a police officer for roughly the same time as Judy just in Ewe York. It was Nick and Judy's task to help orientate her with Zootopia.

Like most maned wolfs she looked like a red fox on a set of stilts. Her species was often mocked for their strange proportions whereby their body and head were only slightly bigger than a fox's, But their arms and legs were the same size as a grey wolf's. Savannah herself came to around the same hight as wolfford and her fur was the colour of embers from a recently burnt out fire. Her ears were slightly rounded but maintained the same basic shape as Nicks and her eyes were an icy bluish grey. The raised fur of her mane went from between her shoulder blades, up the back of her neck and between her ears forming a sort of raven black Mohawk.

A frustrated growl drew Nicks attention to his, usually bubbly, partner. She was typing away on her phone in such away the fox was worried she'd put her paw through it. "What's up carrots?" he inquired with a lazy grin that morphed into one of fake shock. "You wouldn't happen to have a new boyfriend? And you didn't tell me! Oh Hopps" Falling back against the chair with the back of his paw placed against his forehead for added effect.

Judy looked up, lowering the phone slightly, and tried to look irritated though the ghost of a smile pulled at her lips. "You jump on conclusions faster than my parents slick..." she started but was cut off

"We Foxes prefer to pounce, but continue"

"Pounce then. Anyway I forgot to phone my parents last night and they've gone into a full on melt down" Her exasperation was clear as yet another message arrived.

A chuckle came from their colleague "They just worry about you Hopps" Lupus' voice was smooth as silk but with a hard no nonsense undertone. If sounds could be visualised Nick imaged her voice would be like pouring syrup over a pebble. The merest hint of a New York accent also tugged at it.

Another message flashed on the screen "Oh for carrots sake" The rabbit cursed.

Nick knew what it was like having a parent wanting to know where you were and what you were doing at all times. After his time in Somalia his mother had insisted on seeing him daily. Though she'd recently allowed it to drop to once a week, Nick could sympathise with his partner. But that didn't mean he wouldn't poke fun. "Language young lady"

Before Judy could manage a retort their boss entered "SHUT IT!" the Buffalo roared bringing instant order to the chaos. Like with the Nighthowlers case he stood in front of a map of the city with the pictures of its latest maniac's rampage pinned to it. "Now as your all aware, 6 murders have occurred in as many weeks" The wolf butcher murders. Wolf corpses had begun appearing in various levels of dismemberment and decay. All male's in their 20's they'd been tortured to death before being dumped in a smorgasbord of locations. One skinned and hung upside down in an abandoned warehouse, another nailed to a sewer wall and the latest had been found in a bug processing plant…being processed. "I've got the mayors office calling me day and night to get results so needless to say this is everyone's top priority".

Each pair were given a file detailing one of the victims, everyone except a certain grey bunny and red fox. "Uh sir you missed us" the rabbit pointed out.

Bogo casually looked up, peering over the top of his glasses. "It would seem I have Hopps" It was a statement made nonchalantly. The large Buffalo enjoyed the down cast look on the rabbit and head tilt from the two canines that had their ears flopping over.

Savannah wasn't surprised she hadn't been trusted with this assignment, she was new after all and didn't really know the city or mammals in it. But not giving the mammals responsible for bringing down two mayors and a conspiracy against all the predators in the city? Chief must have found out Nick had been behind the whoopee cushion filled with whipped cream on his chair…

Nick was also reaching that conclusion. But as he went to speak "I'll tell you why in my office Wilde" Bogo cut him off and the fox gulped at the implication. A few of the others passed him sympathetic sniggers. "Dismissed!"

5 minutes later

5 minutes saw the trio in the chiefs office seated again on an oversized chair. 'You'd think they'd have sorted this out by now' Bogo's office was exactly what you'd expect from a police chief. A identical map to the one in the bull pen adorned one wall while the opposite was covered by an enormous book case however instead of books in contained files. Hundreds and hundreds of files. Atop the chief's desk sat several pictures although from where Nick and the others were they couldn't tell what was on them as well as 2 trays for incoming and out going paperwork.

"Sir if I may…" Nick began fully expecting he knew the reason why they'd been called in but again their boss interrupted him.

"Wilde before you put your paw in it, again, let me speak." The apprehension in his voice caught the trio off guard. They were used to the fire eating Buffalo's authoritative, angry, even scary persona so to see a more reserved and worried version immediately set alarm bells ringing. We have a suspect for the wolf butcher.

The chiefs tone confused them. Why did he sound so conflicted? "Thats great chief" The rabbit chirped excited the only thing keeping he in her seat was Bogo's tone. She still needed to work on her unbridled enthusiasm but Nick was even more confused. They finally had a break in the case and the chief was acting melancholy.

"I'm with Hopps sir. Thats great news but why are you so…concerned" Savannah added. The internal investigator in her already working on deciphering the chief.

Bogo reached into his desk and pulled out a hefty looking file. There was silence for a minute as Bogo collected his thoughts. Finally he spoke, voice low, Eye's staring straight into Nicks emerald orbs. "Wilde, I know about the 16th" The fox's blood ran cold and his left ear twitched. He'd successfully pushed those memories to the back of his mind, yet in that instant a thousand images and films fired through Nicks head. Like a tightly compressed spring being released they fired themselves around the inside of his skull demolishing the sandbag, and concrete walls he'd built and used for protection.

The two females looked at the fox and then each other. Both saw the immediate impact the seemingly innocuous statement had on Nick as the air around him seemed to chill and the vulpes' fur stood on end, his fantastically fluffy tail shooting out behind him. "Nick?" The fox's head snapped in the direction of the voice, and paw placed on his shoulder, to find a all to familiar golden vixen staring back with the remains of a slowly sinking bridge behind her. "Nick?" He blinked and the vixen was gone, replaced by the police chiefs office and a graphite bunny with eyes of…amethyst.

'Oh my…'

Judy regarded him with worry etched on her face. This was new. She'd never seen him so spoked before, like a thousand skeletons from his closet had suddenly awoken. And what was the 16th? Lupus couldn't see Nicks expression but his body language told her plenty. He'd been hiding something and had just been caught red pawed. She filed this away for later.

"Wilde?" Before any of them could act of their thoughts their boss brought them back to the business at paw. "That conversation is not going to happen here but it is why you are here." The fox, though still spooked, had confusion slowly sneaking its way back onto his features. The chief maintained his authoritative, sympathetic tone. "We found a single hair with our latest victim and from there we got a partial DNA match." With that he slide the file across his desk to Nick. "You should recognise them"

The two females on either side of him waited with a mixture of unease and impatience as he picked up the collection of documents. With one final look at the chief, who nodded, he open the front cover. His face dropped and he choked on his own breath. He did indeed recognise the suspect.

At the top of the page and next to the customary mugshot, in perfect black and white ink, was the name:

Jonathan Spencer Blackwell.