Chapter One
Mornings at the Grand Pangolin Arms were almost routine for the young bunny, so much so that she normally woke up five minutes before her alarm went off.
On the calendar it reminded her it was the first of the month and time to pay rent so before even switching on her night light, she slid her smart phone from underneath her pillow and slid it unlocked to called her parents.
The image of her Mom and Dad appeared for a moment and then the two bunnies showed up on the webcam as they stumbled and tried to work the phone.
"Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?" Stu asked as he breathed hard on the camera.
She stifled a laugh and replied, "Dad, dad you're looking at the wrong end."
She waited as he fumbled for a moment and stuttered saying, "Oh... there ya are. Bonbon, Judy is on the ringer."
"My its super early dear, is everything alright?" her mother asked in concern. Judy smirked at them and said, "Everything is fine. It's just rent day, and you know how my salary goes."
"Oh, uh right.. look Judy we forgot to tell you.." Bonnie muttered to which her father remarked, "We're kinda behind in sales. Carrots aren't as in demand this season with all this new fangled hybrid stuff."
"Are you guys doing alright? Do you need me to come down next weekend," the bunny wondered, knowing it wasnt common for her folks to be without. Even though her family had done well over the years, she knew from time to time that the carrot farming business could get slow.
"Don't worry about us dear, but maybe this will teach you to budget a little better," Bonnie said. "Right, I'll talk with Ms. Armadillo, she is pretty understanding," Judy said with a nervous smile and then checked the clock and added, "I got to go."
"All right Judy, sorry we couldn't help ya much, don't be a stranger," Stu began even as he accidentally hung up. Judy shook her head and then got ready, quickly brushing her teeth, combing her hair and getting into uniform.
As usual she looked at herself in the mirror and smiled triumphantly at the badge, ever since she had first gotten it she never stopped being proud of the achievement.
Rushing out of the small apartment, she hurried down to the main lobby where the armadillo who ran the apartment was busy sorting thru mail and slowly dropping it into the correct slot before noticing the young female bunny standing there.
"Oh, Officer Hopps, up bright and early as usual," the friendly landlady remarked as she passed Judy her mail. "Good morning Miss Dharma," she said fidgeting her a moment as she considered a way to bring up her rent being late and then noticed a few of the residents of the Pangolin were watching some sort of news report in the small dining room that Ms Armadillo occasionally served breakfast in.
"Something going on?" Judy asked distracted by the bulletin and wandered into the room. A young squirrel stood on the shoulders of an antelope to turn up the volume and they all listened as the ram reporter explained, "...details at this time. The ZPD is expected to canvas the area around the Palm Tower to determine if this was an accident or possibly the very first homicide in Zootopia history!"
Judy's eyes widened in shock as she too heard the word of a possible murder and realized she had to get to the luxury hotel right away. Grabbing a bagel from the nearby tray, she sprinted out of the apartment complex completely forgetting anything else.
On a normal day she knew that her police car would be parked outside with her partner waiting for her around 7 in the morning. But since it was still rather early and she knew that the fox was likely already heading to the crime scene she ran across the street and bounded toward one of the many entrances to the Central train station.
Even this early in the day the place was already filled with commuters from every district in the massive metropolitan area preparing to move around the city for work or pleasure. Judy had been in the city for months now but she still sometimes just sat back and marveled at the sheer ingenuity of the mammals that had built the city ages ago. Making her way to an escalator behind several large elephants and an ox, she checked her phone and quickly text her partner just in case he was driving across town to pick her up.
.
Ever since Nick Wilde had joined the ZPD two months ago the bunny had insisted that he come stay with her at the Pangolin until he found a place of his own, but the fox had insisted that he could take care of himself so she hadn't pressed the issue. The grizzly handling the tickets reached down and inspected her ZPD pass that allowed her free transit on the train and then ushered her in, muttering for other commuters to show any sort of promotional material they had brought now.
Fifteen minutes later the fast moving train was speeding away from the downtown area to the west, a familiar journey she had made many times to get to Bunnyburrow. I wont be going that far today she thought as she watched from the dining cart and the train sped out of Savannah Central and toward the other districts.
Judy watched as the sun stretched over the elaborate skyscrapers she had come to call home, basking the entire valley with a reddish glow as all across Zootopia another day began. Soon that image darted from sight as one of the city's impressive geothermal walls zoomed by and the young bunny found herself entering the dunes.
The train she was on veered away from the main line slowing to a halt near a station that overlooked one of the many plazas. To her left Judy could make out the naturalization club and even saw a few night shift workers from the arena rushing to go enjoy the freedom the private group offered. She shuddered trying not to imagine the sweaty hippos in such a light and instead sprinted across the marble plaza toward the glistening oasis of Palm Tower.
Soon though it became clear that the normally beautiful structure was anything but this morning as yellow tape kept onlookers and reporters from taking any pictures and Judy quickly looked about the police line for one of the animals she was familiar with.
Fangmeyer was one of the officers keeping the paparazzi at bay and the bunny shot her ears up and hopped over to him asking the tiger, "What's going on here?"
"Hopps? What're you doing here? I thought the boss had you assigned to the Bearington Bridge today," he remarked gesturing to one of the beavers trying to get a snapshot that he had his eye on him. "I saw the news and ran here as quick as I could, I figured I could be more help here," Judy admitted.
"Probably could, but I have orders from Bogo, no one gets in or out while the investigation is going on and that includes you," Fangmeyer admitted.
Judy nodded glancing past the tiger's imposing figure to see Higgens and another officer moving with some type of equipment toward the pool and realized that the victim must have drowned.
"Surely there is something I can do here to help," she insisted. Just then she felt a paw on her shoulder and turned about to see a familiar face smirking at her.
The red fox lowered his sunglasses and winked at his partner before stating, "You heard the man, Carrots. Nothing we can do here, and don't call him Shirley."
Hopps wanted to object as Nick pulled her away from the front of the police tape and muttered, "What's gotten into you? Storming into crime scenes without me."
"Sorry, I guess you got my message," Judy said lowering her ears to which Nick shook his head and remarked, "You should know by now that Fangmeyer is all muscle, if you want to get into that scene you gotta use your bunny brains."
She thought about it for a second and looked down at the bagel that she had been chomping on before saying, "I think I got an idea..."
