IT WAS ABOUT the time of Pentecost or Whitsuntide that the woods commonly be lusty and gladsome - and the trees clad with leaves and blossoms, and the ground with herbs and flowers sweet smelling, and also the birds singing melodiously in their harmony - that the Noble Lion, King of all Beasts, would, in the holy days of this feast, hold an open Court at state, and he commanded by straight commissions and commandments that every Beast should come thither.
All Beasts in his land came hither forto the open Court. All Beasts, save Reynard the Fox; for Reynard knew himself faulty and guilty of many things and against many beasts, and that he did knowe that these Beasts should comen, he durst not adventure to go thither. And so when the King had gathered all Beasts to his Court, there was none of them absent but for Reynard the Fox.
Ysegrim the Wolf, with all his lineage and friends, came forth and stood before the King and said: "High and Mighty Prince, my Lord the King, I beseech you that ye will have pity on the great trespass and unreasonable misdeeds that Reynard the Fox hath done to me, for he hath comen into my house and made unholy use of my wife! A day was set whereby it was judged that Reynard should come and swear before the saints that he was not guilty thereof, tho when the book was brought and set thereby, he hid away in his hole and said naught. And yet hath he trespassed to me in many other things. He is not living that could tell all that I now leave untold. But the shame and villainy that he hath done to my wife, that shall I never hide nay suffer it unavenged."
Tho spake Tybert the Cat, who sprang in among them with an irous mood. "My Lord the King, I hear that Reynard is harsh complained on, and should add that in a cold winter past - when food was sore on to find - that I had kept to myself a pudding* I had won by night in a mill as the miller lay and slept. This pudding Reynard took from me and kept for himself, taking from me that which was mine by right. If Reynard is to give Ysegrim compensation for his misdoings, then I too state claim to his mistreatment."
Then spoke Bruin the Bear, who was Captain of the King's Guards: "I think, my King, that it is good that Renard is sore complained on. He is a very murderer, a rover and a thief. He loveth no man so well as himself - neither our Lord the King, nor God Himself - and that he should betray any Beast for the fortune of so little as a leg of a fat hen. I shall tell you what he did yesterday to Cuwart the Hare, who standeth here before you with the fresh wound still upon her neck.
"Renard made promise to Cuwart that he should teach her Credo and make her a good Chaplin, saying to her to comen and sit between his legs. I stoodeth there nearby and heard her cry loud, 'Credo, Credo!' Tho went I near and found Master Renard as he began to playe his old playe. Forto he had caught Cuwart by the throat, and had I not that time comen he should have taken her life from her! Sikerly, my Lord, if ye suffer this unpunished, dishonor shall be brought to thee and thy family for many years."
"Forsooth, Bruin," said Ysegrim. "Ye say truth - it is good and right that justice should to be done to them that would fain to live in peace. My Lord, there are many beasts hereby who know of and have came afoul of Reynard's deeds and misgivings, and I say it were wise and no accident on the part of the Fox to avoid your Court, as to try and avoid your judgment thereby."
* The word 'pudding' used to mean any kind of meat. Tybert meant this; not a 'dessert course' of a meal.
It was a warm day in the city of Zootopia. The sky was clear and blue as the sea, and a warm but gentle wind blue through the streets.
It was near the edge of the city where Julia Andrews lived - in an upmarket part of the town with two-story buildings which were spacious and well built; with all the skyscrapers being further inland.
"It's this one here, according to her instructions," Nick said as Judy pulled the car up alongside one of the houses. Judy looked upon it silently, as she pulled their sleek-but-sensible car into the driveway.
Stepping out, the Detectives of Phoenix Investigations looked upon the house. It was detached from the other homes on that street, with a small front garden (a rare commodity in a city as built-up as Zootopia) of fresh, green grass and a clean, stone path leading up to the door.
It was a quaint and simple house - appealing to the eye, with white window frames and a green-painted door. All was clean and in good condition, with everything looking as though it was exactly where it belonged.
"Nice place she has," Judy said, shutting the car door and stepping onto the soft grass.
"Well," Nick said, stepping past her and making towards a tall, wooden gate which lead to the back garden, "Harry was a leading fashion designer, it makes sense he'd have good taste."
"What was he like, anyway?" said Hopps, following Nick into the back garden, which was just as clean and well kept as the front - the grass fresh and cut levelly; the flowers well catered to.
"Dunno, I only met him once: at his and Julia's wedding. That was the last time I saw Julia, too - or anyone else in my family, for that matter," he added in a mumble.
"It sounds like the two of you were pretty close," she said, softly. She didn't exactly understand why, but she knew there was tension between Nick and the rest of the family, and that Julia had probably invited Nick against the wishes of her elders.
It was not this she was referring to, however. It was that Nick had gone - despite the resentment he clearly had for them - to see his older sister married. Knowing how sensitive her lover really was underneath, she knew it would've taken a lot of bravery for him to dare show his face after running away from them all those years ago.
"Where did she say this key was?" he said, casually avoiding having to reply to Judy's comment.
"Third flower pot to the left of the shed," she said, nodding to a large, solid-wood shed.
Nick paced to it and reached for the appropriate flour pot. He raised it, and paused a moment, with his fingers hovering above the key. He reached out and took it, examining the space beneath the small piece of metal before replacing the pot and making back towards the house.
"Anything interesting?" Judy said, spotting he had made note of something.
"Only that, if there was a murderer, they didn't get in using this key." Dusting off pieces of soil, the fox slid it into the glass, French door which lead into the back of the house. "This key hasn't been touched in months, judging by the soil on it and the witness mark where there isn't any soil beneath it."
Judy nodded, glancing around the garden as the lock clicked and the door was pulled open.
Nick stepped into the darkness, the curtains pulled shut and the sun in the wrong place to be shining in through the French doors. Raising his nose, he sniffed at the air as he paced inside - Judy lingering a moment longer in the garden, her gaze roaming across the windows and drainpipes.
Distracted from his sniffing, Wilde looked upon a photograph of Julia and her husband, stood together, holding one another in their arms. They looked happy. His expression softening, he reached out his paw slowly and touched it upon his sister's face. He heard Judy entering behind him, and swiftly moved away.
The living room they entered into was one long, rectangular room. Though there were French doors on the one end of the room leading into the back garden, on the other end of the room were windows which looked out upon the front - the room running the entire length of the house.
The walls were painted off-white and the floor was a creamy-brown. There was a large, russet rug and a deep sofa of a similar color. A black, upright piano stood against one wall; a large, flat-screened TV stood against another.
An enclave of around three feet cubed was cut into one of the inner walls and a modern, gas fire was sat within. Beside it was a straight-backed, green armchair, built with a sold wood frame and angled towards both the gas fire and the television. Pacing up beside it - as she and Nick searched the room - Judy noticed a thin beam of light upon it.
She turned towards the window nearest the front door - the window the postmammal who found Harry dead would have most likely looked through to see him - moved towards it, and pulled back the curtains.
The bright light of the rising sun shone in, it's haggard shafts of light shining directly onto the back and side of the armchair.
Judy looked between them and realized that, from where the postmammal would have been stood, it would've been impossible for him to have seen someone sitting on the sofa. Moving back to the armchair, she realized that it was here where Harry had been found dead.
"Nick," she said, softly, "this one."
The fox paced over without saying a word, his nostrils twitching as he took in the various scents.
"Smell anything?" she said, a few moments later.
"Julia's perfume, Harry's cologne, the faint smell of about a dozen other mammals... but since the ZPD came trampling all over the place, there's no way of knowing if it's one of them or an 'assailant'.
"No traces of arsenic or some other poison?"
"Huh, as if it'd be that easy. You get anything from outside?"
"Only that this really is a well made place, and not just because it looks pretty: the drainpipe goes down a bare wall with no access to windows or any rooftops; all the main entrances are visible from the street; the windows have auto-locks; the door has three locks built into one; the back garden is only accessible via the front and there's a security camera and motion-sensor light by the front door."
Nick nodded. One year ago, he would have stood and starred at the rabbit in disbelief at all she had noticed in such little time - but he was used to it by now, and said, instead:"And no signs of a forced entry - no broken windows, no forced locks... if we're dealing with a murder here the murderer's either a ghost or a damn mastermind."
"So what are we looking for?"
"Don't ask me, Carrots. You're the one with the academy training."
A smile crossed the rabbit's lips for a moment. "I guess we could make a start with the coroner's report. You check that out - it's in the bureau - I'll have a better look around."
Nick nodded, pacing over to the wooden piece of furniture and opening it as Judy paced slowly about the room.
There were two wooden doors leading out of the room: one into a small ports leading to the front door and the other leading to a square room - one of the walls of which ran level with the front of the house.
It looked to the rabbit to be Harry's studio and came somewhere between a tailors and an art workshop, with easels and tailor's dummies for a variety of different mammals; the various easels having clothes drawn on them in black and grey watercolor with thicker and thinner brushstrokes traced lightly on the page.
Ink pots and brushes sat in cups of water lay in abundance all throughout the room, alongside scraps of clothing and pieces of material, some of which were loosely held together with pins and lazy stitches on the dummies - the tailoring equivalent of a basic sketch.
The rabbit walked with quiet awe around the room, too caught up with the incredible atmosphere of delicate artistry the room held - the air filled with the smell of paint; the mood of the room similar to the silent reverence of an old church.
She wasn't sure how long she had lingered, but eventually she emerged from Harry's studio and looked upon the final exit from the room: a wide staircase which lead up into shadow - and Judy didn't feel like exploring up there until she'd found the switch. She turned back towards the fox, opening her mouth to ask if he had seen the light switches anywhere, but then she spotted him stood quite still beside the bureau, his expression noticeably troubled - though somehow touched at the same time - as he stood there, gazing at what looked like a photograph in his paws.
She paced towards him, softly. She opened her mouth to speak - to draw the fox back from his thoughts - but then spotted something shiny inside the now opened bureau.
She reached out and picked it up, frowning for a few moments; then smiling as she realized what it was - wrapping paper - and that what Nick now held in his paws was a gift from his sister.
Turning it over in her paws, she found what she had guessed would be there: a small card attached to the wrapping paper with, written upon it in a flowing and artistic hand: 'For my long lost brother. Julia, x'.
Putting down the wrapping paper, the rabbit touched her paw on the fox's forearm, bringing him back to the moment as she looked up at him, fondly. "What did she get you?"
Nick glanced to her, then looked back at the photo. His expression was still troubled, but it was begrudgingly moved by the gift. "It's a photo. Julia's wedding. A family shot took just after the ceremony - and the only family photo taken this decade with me in it."
"...can I see?"
Nick moved to respond. He paused for a moment, looking down at the rabbit carefully. "Alright," he said at last, turning the photo around and handing it towards her, "you can look."
Judy took it, giggling softly. "My," she said, playfully, "what a handsome group of vulpines! Who's the cute, young one at the front?"
Despite his mood, a smirk grew on the fox's muzzle. "Cute, young and naive," he said. "That was about eight years ago now - I would've been about the same age you are now."
"Almost center stage, too," she commented.
"Huh, yeah~. You should've heard how much they complained that I was in the shot at all - they put me right on the edge to start with, so I was almost out of shot - but Julia was determined. She wanted to have me at the front, and didn't let the photographer take the shot until I was stood right beside her."
Judy smiled. She didn't have to look at Nick's face to see his fondness and affection of her - she could see that by his expression on the photo she was holding. There were about two dozen red foxes. It was easy to tell those of the Wilde family from the Andrews, for the Wilde's all shared a coat of deep russet much the same color as Nick's, and another thing they all shared was~...
Taking her gaze off Nick and Julia, Judy's eyes widened, surprise entering her voice as she observed: "And so many emerald eyes!"
"For whatever biological reason," Nick said, dismissively, "the children of a 'Wilde' just always have that color eyes. Well, the children of any 'male' anyway - guess even biology can be sexist."
Judy nodded, her brow furrowing. "So, if the Wilde family has even recorded the colo-"
"Later, Hopps," he sighed, heavy-heatedly, taking the photo back and putting it down on the bureau. "This is enough of a trip down memory lane as it is - memories I'd hoped I wouldn't have to remember. I will answer whatever it was you were going to ask, but that'll just lead to more and more questions, and now ain't the time for a history lesson."
Judy took a step closer to the fox, raising a paw and resting it softly on his back. She had noticed from the moment they had arrived Nick had been a little terser and more moody then he normally was; now, she knew why.
"Julia still cares about you," she said softly. Nick grunted - already having feared Judy would try to 'help' - leaning heavily upon the counter, and lowering his head to rest on it's surface.
"Judy~"
"She does, Nick! Look at this present she's giving you. Don't you see? She's reminding you of that time when she showed you how much she cares; she's showing you she wants you to be a part of her life now. I know you don't really want to get back in touch with your family," she said, correctly guessing one of the main reasons for his current mood, "but I really think you need to spend some time with her when this is over. She needs you, Nick."
Hopps smiled softly, taking her paw away and pacing a little into the room - Wilde looking towards her over his shoulder. "Now I think I understand why she came to us: it wasn't about hiring 'Phoenix' especially or finding any murderer. I don't doubt she believes he was murdered or that she, at least partly, believes in this curse - but the real reason, I think, is because she wanted you to help her through this... emotionally, as a brother."
Nick was silent for a few long moments as his gaze slowly returned to the cabinet before him, looking down again at the photo of Julia and Harry and himself. "We're getting off subject," he said, stepping away from the photo (and the conversation). "What's next?"
Hopps sighed, but accepted now was not the time. "Well... I'm not really sure. This is a singular case to say the least. We've had it a few time now where there didn't seem to be any proof that someone was guilty, but this time there's not so much as a scrap of evidence to say it was even murder!"
"No means, no motive... heck, if it weren't for the fact Julia herself pretty much pleaded for us to help out, I'd've called her crazy and kicked her out."
"So you stopped at calling her 'crazy' instead?"
Nick chuckled, dryly.
"Well, I guess the first thing to do is take a look around the upstairs. Also, one of us should read through that coroner's report."
"I call dibs on the report," Nick said, dryly, as he took it from the bureau. "I'm sorry, Carrots, but all this fantastic excitement is too much for me. I've had two and a quarter-hour's sleep and I'm running on empty. I gotta sit down, just for a minute."
"Go ahead," she said. "I'll let you know if I find anything, but I doubt there'll be much to see, anyway."
"He choked on his food, Hopps," Nick said, shrugging. "Julianna is just gonna have to get used to it." He flopped down into the armchair beside the gas fire, his legs stretching out as he rustled the papers of the corner's report - looking like an old fox in his seventies with a news paper.
"I know," she replied, pacing towards the stairs, "but we have a duty to her to at least try."
"I won't be doing nothing," he added, though it was quite clear he was already close to nodding off. "I'll read through this; then I'm gonna force myself to think it is murder just for a bit; then, maybe, if I think long enough I'll come up with a reasonable way it might've happened."
Judy paused a moment longer in the doorframe, gazing carefully at the fox. "You do realize that's the chair Harry died in, right...?"
"Whatever," he said loosely, his muzzle opening wide with a yawn. "A chair's a chair, Carrots - I ain't afraid of no curse."
Judy smiled at the sight of his teeth - those shining, white pearls of predatory dominance - and then made to the staircase, feeling the solid wood of the thick and ornately calved banister beneath her paw as she climbed.
The rabbit had always loved the fox's teeth. In the weeks before they started dating, she used to sit up late with the fox while the two of them made up terrible jokes and foolish yarns as she tried to make the fox split that wide grin she loved so much - where the grin would part his lips and reveal his shining teeth and the tips of his canines.
They had always excited her - those sharp and powerful teeth; but they also reminded her of what a soft and caring gentlemammal he really was, for he had never used those teeth against her, though he had many times had the chance to.
She knew this was being a difficult case for him emotionally, but she also knew there was little more to do before it was over - and that, after, he and Julia would be able to resume the strong friendship they clearly once had.
Judy smiled softly, flicking the light at the top of the staircase in the darkness, and beginning her search of the upstairs.
