Chapter VI: The Newsroom
Judy heard him snoring before long, deciding to pull off the highway to give them some time before ZNN evening news cut for the evening and they could have a chance to speak with him. Taking side streets also led her to the inevitable traffic signal, allowing her some time to take her eyes off the road and look at Nick, occasionally grunting and turning over in his sleep. His ears were pressed against his head and his paws occasionally grasped at something that wasn't there. She reached her paw out to pat his legs, before the light turned green and she was forced to move toward their destination. Perhaps, in her dream to become a police officer and make the world a better place, she'd also added an addendum to make him a better animal, and he her. She relished the thought.
"You can't change anything without changing yourself first," she said, smiling at the koan she'd seen on the back of an ice cream cone wrapper that Nick had bought her one time. She pulled into an inconspicuous parking spot next to a bus stop near the ZNN building, letting Nick rest a little more so she could steel herself and collect her thoughts.
If it was necessary to change herself before she changed the world – or even the city for that matter – and if she'd been forced to change herself to work together with Nick to solve the Night Howler Incident, then what was she missing in this case? They'd both been through the academy and had roughly the same amount of experience in policing, but so far, Nick's hunches and attempts at police work had far exceeded her own in terms of producing actual results. Even his outlandish conspiracy theory that he wove (or stole from the internet) for Mr. Big had gotten the crime boss to talk where saving his daughter two years ago hadn't. "What am I missing?" she asked aloud.
"Huh? Are we here already?" Nick asked, raising his sunglasses to rub the sleep out of his eyes, turning the dial on the side of the seat to return it to its upright position. "So you're taking my advice and seeing Moosebridge?"
"Yeah, but I'm wondering how to lead into this. I honestly have no idea where this is going. We're investigating by the seat of our pants."
"If we knew the answer from the get-go, Carrots, there'd be no need for police. What time is it?"
"Five till. Why?"
"Come on, let's go," Nick said, taking off his jacket and putting his patrol cap on, stepping out into the mild nighttime air. In front of the ZNN building, there was a group of young wolves and a sheep chatting and smoking cigarettes. Nick led the way. "Hey guys, you wouldn't happen to know if Peter Moosebridge is available for a chat after his program, would you? Me and Officer Hopps here are huge fans."
"Oh my god, are you Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps!" the sheep said, bringing her hooves up to her face.
"The one and only," Judy said, beaming. It felt good to be recognized.
"We were thinking of doing a piece on you two today, but the murder story in Tundra Town got the editor's attention," one of the snow leopards said. He looked them both up and down before speaking again. "You're both a lot smaller than I imagined."
"Those posters of us make us look bigger than we actually are," Nick said, bringing his paws behind his head. "So, is Mr. Moosebridge available?"
"Yeah, he should be, especially for you two. You're practically the talk of the station," the sheep said, taking a deep drag on her cigarette.
Nick and Judy looked over at each, seeming to ask why. The sheep obliged them.
"You two haven't heard yet? The mayor's office has been buzzing about you two for weeks now, but the talk in the staff office blew up after you arrested those two yaks at the train station."
"Yeah, we actually got called to head the Mammal Inclusion Program just the other day by-" The group of snow leopards looked at each other, letting Judy know something was wrong. "What is it?"
"That's interesting. That's not what we heard."
"Mind divulging what you heard for us?" Nick asked.
"We can, if we can have a selfie with you two," one snow leopard offered.
"We're all huge fans. The Night Howler Incident practically launched our careers. We were interns back then at the crime desk – and with you two being the first rabbit and first fox officers and all, it was a pretty explosive story. We had viewers all the way from the Avian Hegemony. You two just have such great cross-species appeal," the sheep said, taking out her cell phone.
Nick and Judy blushed in unison. They'd never thought of themselves as celebrities before: Gazelle was a celebrity, not them. They were just two cops doing their jobs who happened to be a fox and a rabbit – admittedly old-time natural enemies but now fairly amicable, save for Nick's snoring in the patrol car and Judy's need to hurry everywhere. Nick brought his arm around Judy's waist and waited for the crowd to come around. Smiling and waiting for the picture, they thanked the young ones after they were done, all of them busily uploading their selfies to Furbook
"So, what was it that you know that we don't?" Judy asked.
"The Mammal Inclusion Program is being killed," the sheep said.
"Budget cuts," one of the snow leopards continued. "The mayor's office is digging so deep into the city's coffers that almost everything is on the chopping block."
"And here I thought those taxes still hurt as much as ever," Nick said, reaching into his pockets and pulling them empty to drum up sympathy. "What in the world are they spending it on?"
"The MetroTrail expansion is being funded entirely by taxes – no debt. That's a lot of money to be throwing around," the snow leopard said. "The contractors for the new lines have been charging the government through the roof ever since the election. We've tried to get access to the budgets of the companies involved, but they all seem on the up and up. If you're asking us where the money's going in the end, we have no idea."
"So why would the mayor ask us to head up a program she was planning to nix anyway?" Judy asked, turning to Nick. It was a good question, but one that would have to be answered another day – the group of staffers led them inside after they'd finished, forcing them away from their conversation.
The bull at the security desk waved them past when they flashed their badges, heading into a separate elevator as the group of staffers. Nick slid to the back of the elevator when the doors closed.
"Never thought I'd be so recognizable," he said, taking off his cap and brushing the top of his head.
"Well, a fox and a bunny palling around tends to draw attention," she offered, standing next to him.
"I guess you could call it palling around," he said, scratching the top of her head. "Guess you could call it being partners."
They both straightened up as the elevator reached the top floor of the tower where the production studio was located, Mr. Moosebridge ending his live report just as the doors opened.
"And that is your news tonight. I'm Peter Moosebridge, signing off," the moose said, cool and calm as the lights dimmed around him. They immediately turned back on when filming cut. "Wow, that might have been our heaviest story in years. What did you think, Mike? I keep it cool back there? It's been a while since Sarah's been on to help me air."
"You did good, Pete. Don't worry about it," an aging pig said from a seat in front of the desk. He wore a headset, with a green shirt and tie not unlike Nick's outfit from his life as a con-artist. He turned to the elevator when he heard the doors open and was the first to notice Nick and Judy coming into the studio. "Officers, how may we help you today?"
"Good evening, sir, I'm Officer Hopps and this is Officer Wilde from the ZPD, we were hoping to talk to Mr. Moosebridge just now," Judy said, proffering herself to the pig. He took her paw and looked over at Moosebridge, who looked rather confused.
"Well officers, it would be an honor to talk to both of you. Let's go to the conference room and I'll see what I can do for you," the moose said, getting up and leading them to a glass room in the center of the floor. There were high-backed executive chairs surrounding an oak conference table, with TV screens covering the only drywall in the room.
"Mr. Moosebridge, we need your help – yours and ZNN's," Judy said, holding her paw behind her back, signaling to Nick to let her have this one.
"My help with what? I'm pretty sure you're both aware that you two are the star officers of the force. What could I possibly do to help you? You're helping me out more than not – anything with your names attached is practically a ratings gold mine."
"Mr. Moosebridge, we're conducting an investigation into the murder of Benjamin Bos – the yak you reported on tonight. We'd like to supply you with information about the case as it's forthcoming, in return, you air what you find unedited."
"Unedited? I'm not sure I understand, we always edit for-"
"We want you and your crews to go where we can't and air any footage you find of animals tampering with the camera systems around the city," Nick said. Judy looked back and shot him a glare while he shrugged his shoulders.
"You want me to become ZPD's private intelligence service?" Moosebridge said, crossing his arms and raising his voice. "You want ZNN to effectively spy on animals because you can't get a court order."
"No, Mr. Moosebridge, we're not asking you to spy on any animals, we're asking you and your news crews to pay particular attention to the tampering of official surveillance devices throughout the city. That same tampering is severely hindering our official investigation," Judy said, trying to offset Nick's initial attack.
"So you're telling me, a reporter, that you can't do your jobs?"
"No, it's not that, it's that-"
"Yes, we're saying exactly that. ZPD can't focus on the investigation right now because there are some animals in the city interfering with our surveillance. What's more, it appears that they're tampering with witnesses and evidence as well and they're able to hide their tracks as effectively as they're able to commit crimes."
"So you want me and my news crews to find and publish as much information as we can on whoever is tampering with your investigation, and in return you'll, what, exactly? Give us information we'll already be finding for ourselves?"
"No."
"Yes."
Nick and Judy looked at each other, Nick smiling while Judy was ready to stomp on his feet. What the hell was he doing?
"I think it's best if you sort this out yourselves before coming back here," Mr. Moosebridge said, incredulous, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. He shook his head and looked Judy in the eyes. "Get the hell out of my newsroom."
They didn't say a word to each other before reaching the patrol car.
"What the hell was that about, Nick? I thought you wanted to go to Moosebridge! I thought it was your idea to act as informants while the case was ongoing so they could go where we couldn't!" she yelled at him, throwing her patrol cap on the dashboard. "I don't believe you! I looked like an ass in there! No, you looked like an ass!"
"Judy, calm down-"
"Don't tell me to calm down! What was that, Nick? What was that?" she was still yelling, her eyes welling up as she looked at the steering wheel, averting his face. "You made me look like an idiot in there."
Nick took a deep breath, "actually, I think it went over perfectly. Any more pushing and Moosebridge would've become uncooperative."
"You call him telling me to get the hell out of his office not uncooperative?" Judy asked, still refusing to face him.
"I call it the first step in the process. Visiting Moosebridge wasn't so much about getting him to be on our side so much as it was to plant it in his head that that's what we want him to do. He already aired the murder story tonight, and you heard the staffers outside – they were already planning a story on us. Now, they'll be able to run the two together using the information we just gave him. If ZNN connects the dots, or if Moosebridge's report reached enough animals, we might be able to pin down who is tampering with our evidence and from where."
"How is that possibly going to work out for us?" she asked sarcastically. She normally tolerated Nick's borderline excessive creativity when it came to investigations. Tonight, her patience wore out.
"Because, my little bundle of rage, there's only two outcomes here: either they don't act on our information, in which case the stories air anyway and we're no worse off than we started, or they do act on our information and they start identifying which pieces of the camera network have been affected. Locate enough cameras and we can start identifying patterns based on the residual traffic and population data. Locate enough patterns and we've got a suspect."
Judy cursed him under her breath. "Was making me look like an idiot your plan for the night, then?"
"Judy," Nick said, placing a paw on her shoulder, which she struggled to shake off, before giving up. "I actually went in there expecting to say something completely different, but our conversation with the staffers and their upcoming story on us gave me an idea just as we stepped onto the floor. I was thinking about it too hard. I'm sorry – you know how I get," he said, bowing his head to her. She looked over and saw that his tail was tucked in towards his body and his ears pressed against his head. He was legitimately sorry. She scratched his head.
"What's the plan now?" she asked, starting the car and wiping the wetness from her eyes.
"We head back to the station and see what we can glean from there. Let's see if the chief got any more information on Mr. Bos."
"Good idea."
"Oh, I'm full of them!" Nick chided, earning him another glare from the rabbit, forcing his paws up in apology. "Come on, Carrots, I didn't mean to step on you back there. I'm just trying to do what's right."
"I know," she said, almost too low for him to hear. She turned out of their parking spot, making an illegal U-turn onto Ecology Avenue before continuing. "But your hunches and work have gotten us this far in. I'm still trying to figure out how I can help put the pieces together."
Nick didn't have to have advanced vision to see that she was hurting. Nor did he have to be close to her to sense her frustration. He knew exactly how much this job meant to her – if risking her life once wasn't enough to deter her from bringing down criminals, nothing would. Still, he also knew how damning it was to want something so bad and be denied everything.
"You know neither of us would be able to do this alone. I'm quick on my feet and you lift me up when I trip over myself. Quite literally from the crime scene earlier today," he said, reaching his paw out to lay it on her shoulder. "Besides, if we ever get in deep trouble like we did during our last big case, we'll need those award winning acting skills of yours again."
"Award winning, huh? I like to think that I shared the stage with a more than capable actor himself," Judy said, winking at him. He let out a short laugh, settling back into the seat and staring out the window. From downtown, it wasn't much of a drive to ZPD headquarters.
When they reached the central precinct garage, Francine – the lone female elephant in their precinct – was in the guard booth. She immediately got out when they reached the gate.
"Where the hell have you two been!" she yelled, prompting Judy to roll down the windows.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Chief's been looking for you for the better part of the day! Clawhauser radioed you throughout the day but you didn't respond – even your transponder wasn't pinging. The entire precinct's been on alert for you two for the better part of the night!"
Judy looked over at Nick, scowling, who in turn looked down at the transponder and radio in the center console of the car. In their drive away from Mr. Big's villa, Nick had been so focused on looking up articles on mice that he'd forgotten to turn either of them back on. Judy gave a sheepish smile to Francine as Nick put his paws over his eyes.
"Oh crap."