An uncomfortable silence filled the car during the ride back to the station. Nick and Judy exchanged looks every so often but for the most part the two simply lost themselves in thought. They knew what was to come once they reached their destination, only so much mental preparation could be done for the verbal beating they would endure from the chief. At least he didn't go off on them at the hospital.
Nick was still annoyed that the staff contacted the ZPD when updating Judy's condition in their system. Bogo practically teleported there once the news got to him. The relief on the buffalo's face when he saw Judy up and about was the most emotion either of the officers had ever seen on him. After checking to make sure her bandages were properly applied, Bogo launched into a series of questions regarding the circumstances of the rabbit's injury. Nick and Judy answered him vaguely, giving him the location and the fact that it was from a fall. Other than that the two withheld any information they could, knowing Bogo wouldn't make too big of a scene in the middle of a busy hospital. They didn't say anything about Sly just yet, they were going to work out what to do with him later.
As soon as the chief realized questioning the situation at that moment wasn't getting anywhere he went quiet. Only speaking when necessary during Judy's discharge process, both her and Nick knew he was not happy.
Every now and then during the unusually long trip back to the station, Bogo would clear his throat or grunt as if he was about to speak, but no words followed. At what should have been the halfway point of the ride Judy noticed a distinctive lack of radio chatter from the front of the chief's cruiser. He was always listening to the daily communications of his officers, so for the radio to be off was especially strange.
Several brutally quiet minutes later the three arrived at the station. Without a word, Bogo exited the cruiser and proceeded inside, Nick and Judy following close behind. Upon their entry, the entire station did a double take, all but the Interpol officers freezing in place for a moment before returning to their duties. Everyone must have known they were gone, but no one said anything about their return, not even Clawhauser. It was easy to see why though, Ben's face lit up when he noticed the two trailing the buffalo, once he saw the glare on Bogo's face though, his smile quickly faded away.
The three headed straight for the chief's office. Bogo held the door for Nick and Judy, allowing them to enter before looking at them for a second.
"Wait here." He muttered, closing the door and simply walking away.
A brief sigh of relief was let out by both as they were left alone for a moment. It was midday, but the chief's office felt like dusk. The blinds were drawn letting only a sliver of light pass, landing in a sharp line across the floor. A solitary lamp sat on his cluttered desk, emitting a faint glow which illuminated the piles of forms and files hastily stacked on one side. It was clear the dealings with Interpol were having a great impact on Bogo's day to day schedule.
"Think he's upset?" Judy remarked, looking to her partner who had the hint of a smirk on his face.
"Nope," Nick replied, "this is all a mind game. He's just trying to scare us into telling him what happened…and then he'll yell at us a bunch anyway."
"So what do we tell him?"
"Ya know carrots, I'm not really sure. See technically this is all your fault, so you get to handle the story." The fox poked at Judy's bandages, to which she winced before instinctively punching at him.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure this is your fault."
"How do you figure that?"
"Because everything's always your fault." Judy teased.
"Makes sense."
The door opened again and in walked Bogo, who slowly rounded his desk and sat down. The buffalo looked between Nick and Judy before placing a hoof to his head and taking a deep breath.
"I'm going to start with this." The chief announced in his gruff tone, "When I get a call that one of my officers is in the hospital, there are times it doesn't end with a meeting in my office. Every time I get that call there is a chance that it will end at a cemetery, with me giving a speech about how another good rabbit or fox gave everything in the line of duty. I always have that fear in the back of my mind, it never goes away, it's just a part of the job I have to live with. I want to make it perfectly clear that I am glad you two are okay. With that said, would either of you care to explain exactly what happened out there?"
Nick opened his mouth to answer, but Bogo interrupted him, "Before you say anything, I have Snarlof and Rhinowitz investigating the docks right now, so your stories better match."
That last quip was warranted, but Nick had no intentions to lie about this one. He would never let it show, but the fox empathized with Bogo, knowing exactly what he meant. His mother had given him a similar speech years ago, when one of his early hustles went bad. He came home with only had a few scrapes and bruises, but the pain he could see in her eyes was far worse. She didn't yell or get angry at him, all she could do was embrace her son and let the tears roll down her face.
"We were helping out a friend and things went bad." Nick spoke, Bogo looked from him to Judy for confirmation, and she nodded.
"Does this friend have a name?" The chief had a good idea who it was, but needed to be sure.
"It was Mr. Big, but we had a good reason-" Judy responded quickly but was cut off.
"I told you this would happen if you kept working with him!" Bogo huffed at the rabbit, admittedly the shrew had been a big help on more than one high profile case, but he never liked the arrangement.
"It was a legitimate deal," Nick defended his partner, "He was robbed and asked us to find who did it."
"Well then why wasn't this reported to me?"
"He didn't want a lot of attention brought to it. He thought it might be someone inside his operation and didn't want to tip them off. That, and I don't like paperwork."
"I've noticed that Wilde." Bogo commented as he took another deep breath to calm down, "So, if it was a simple investigation, what went bad?"
"We had the guy." Judy spoke up before Nick had a chance, "We ID'd the suspect and tracked him to the docks, but I was dumb and tried to bring him in myself. He resisted and dropped me on a piece of rebar. It didn't work out too well."
"Alright, give me names, assaulting an officer makes this priority one as of now. Whoever he is, I want him in custody yesterday!" The chief barked.
"Sorry, but we can't tell you." Nick said adamantly, Bogo slowly turned to face him, a curious expression on the buffalo's face.
"And why's that?"
"Because he's also the one that brought us to the hospital. It was an unfortunate turn of events that led to her injury, but he helped us, and I have to respect that."
The chief looked back at Judy with the same curious expression, not entirely believing anything the con of a fox said.
"I was in and out of consciousness the whole time, but from what I saw he potentially saved my life."
"If he put you in that situation to begin with, he can tell his side of the story to me directly."
A brief silence fell on Bogo's office as neither Judy nor Nick responded. Seeing how stubborn the two were on the subject, the chief had no choice but to accept their word, for now.
"Fine." The buffalo sighed, "You are two of my best officers, time and again you surprise me with what a little determination and quick thinking can accomplish. Now, one of you got hurt out there, and for you to protect the guy responsible…I have to take that into consideration. I expect a full report of the incident to be on my desk Monday. Either that, or the greatest excuse I've ever heard as to why this mystery mammal should walk free. That's 48 hours, you know the drill."
Nick and Judy looked to each other, a mixture of accomplishment and uncertainty plaguing both their grins. They bought themselves some time to figure out the situation, but not much. They had a lot of work ahead of them.
"Hopps, right now you need to get some rest, doctor's orders. And you," The chief looked to the smug fox in the other chair, "I just don't want to deal with you. Both of you go home, I have enough to deal with around here already, I want you both back in top shape for Monday."
The two got up and turned towards the office door, getting ready to leave.
"Judy," Bogo called before the rabbit made her exit, "For the record, if he really did help you, I'll do my best to make sure he's let off easy."
"It's not you I'm worried about." She replied before stepping out the door, leaving the chief alone in the dim grayness of his office.
Walking out into the lobby of the station, Nick and Judy exchanged looks, both thinking about the mess they had gotten themselves into. They were going to have to write up a report for Bogo, it was inevitable. Undoubtedly the news would then spread to Interpol and the hunt would be on to catch the Cooper. For now they could leave Sly's name out of it while searching for a way to convince the chief otherwise, but that still didn't buy them much time. Before they had a chance to discuss what the plan was, a flurry of commotion started up around them. Over at his desk, Clawhauser jumped between his computer, paperwork, and radios. Neither could make out what it was the cheetah was doing, but only seconds later a familiar accent boomed from the meeting room.
"Let's go Winthrop, we are leaving!" Carmelita came rushing out of the room followed by a swarm of Interpol agents. The vixen stopped in the middle of the lobby a few feet away from the two officers. She looked around quickly before muttering something to herself in Spanish.
"What's going on?" Judy wondered out loud, to no one in particular.
"Hopps!" The inspector noticed the rabbit standing there, directing attention to her and speaking quickly, "Have you seen Oliver?"
"No?" She responded blankly.
"Ugh, I knew he wouldn't be any help…You two, come with me."
"Actually I really need to go home and rest-"
"No time, I'll brief you in the car."
Without a choice, Nick and Judy were pulled into the group of agents running for the garage. Wolves, rhinos, elephants, every type of mammal they had to offer piled into different cars and sped off, sirens blaring. Carmelita led the two to her personal car, slapping a small light on the roof as they all got in. She floored it and quickly took lead of the pack.
"We got a hit on the case." She explained from the front seat before taking a sharp right turn, "I've had my people watching anyone that fit the pattern of the previous missing mammals. A pig we were tracking was just seen being shoved into a truck, we followed them back to some little shack."
The line of cars, tore through downtown, coming to the border of the Rainforest district. Sirens were cut as they turned onto a small backroad lining some old train tracks sitting right on the division. A horse was standing next to a stopped car at the corner. Carmelita brought the vehicle to a halt as she rolled down the window to speak with him.
"What do you have Damion?"
"They pulled into that warehouse down on the left. This road is a dead end, we've got them surrounded." The horse replied.
"Good work, swing around and check the next street over, I want to be sure."
The Inspector got serious, she waved for the rest of the cars to follow her. They lined up and headed down the road, sure enough a small building sat on the left with a box truck parked outside, its hazard lights flashing. Carmelita pulled up out front, the rest of the agents followed suit, forming a perimeter around the small warehouse.
Without a word, the vixen opened the door, stepped out of the car and drew her shock pistol, followed by the rest of her team. As the line of officers slowly advanced upon the building and truck, Nick and Judy got out of the car, staying a good distance behind the Inspector, neither of them were in any shape for this. Carmelita took two agents to check out the truck while the rest moved towards the warehouse. The box itself was padlocked shut, so they slowly moved to the cab. Both doors were wide open and the truck was vacant. The ZPD officers watched on as Ms. Fox and the other agents searched the interior. Meanwhile the main group breached the warehouse, reemerging about a minute later.
"Inspector!" A rhino called over from the main doorway, "The building's empty."
"What do you mean empty?!" Carmelita yelled back.
"There's nothing inside except some broken crates."
"Shhhhh!" The inspector hushed the scene, getting out of the truck cab and listening.
"What is it?" Judy whispered, taking a few steps closer.
Everyone listened, a stifled banging could be heard from inside the back of the truck.
"Go get some bolt cutters!" Carmelita directed a wolf standing next to her. Most of the Interpol agents gathered around the back of the truck, holding their weapons at the ready. The wolf grabbed a set of cutters from his car and ran to the truck.
"On my count." The Inspector readied him, "One. Two. Three. Go!"
The agent popped off the lock and threw open the latch for the door which shot upwards. Nick and Judy struggled to see over the crowd of agents as Carmelita rushed into the cargo space of the truck.
"Make room!" They heard the vixen call from inside, "Tusker, get me EMS."
Most of the crowd scrambled to clear the area and call for medical. The rest helped Carmelita lower a figure onto the ground. As the wall of mammals dispersed, Judy and Nick could clearly see the pig, bound with duct tape and a burlap sack over its head. The clearly struggling pig was desperately trying to say something, but the audibly muffled grunts signified she was gagged as well. Inspector Fox carefully removed the sack to reveal the most terrified expression Judy had ever seen. The pig was in tears and shaking violently, clearly fearing for her life. As Carmelita went to pull away the tape covering her mouth, Nick noticed the collar around the pig's neck.
"Wait!" He yelled, jumping forward to stop the vixen as the small light blinked on.
It was too late, the tape came off and the pig let out a pitiful whimper just before the collar beeped. There was nothing they could do, she was gone in an instant.
Carmelita's team was finishing up forensics when Constable Winthrop finally arrived some time later. The body had already been hauled away and everyone was starting to head out, the warehouse was returning to the quiet state it was found in. He walked over to where Nick and Judy were standing, taking in the scene as it wrapped up.
"Looks like I missed all the fun." He said in an out of place, upbeat tone.
"Yeah…fun." Judy quietly replied.
"Winthrop!" Carmelita called as she approached the group.
"Well," Nick looked to the weasel, "looks like the fun is about to begin for you."
"Nice of you to show up Oliver." The Inspector angrily greeted her partner.
"I know, I'm sorry. But as soon as I heard, I took some time to do a bit of research." The Constable replied.
"Anything good?"
"Seems as though this place was part of a restaurant supply chain."
"That explains the crates we found inside, they were full of cups and some old chairs."
"Yup, from what I gathered this location hasn't been used in a while, but the company is still in operation."
"I guess that's as close to a lead as we're going to get. Go ahead and finish up here, I have to take these two back to the station."
Without waiting for any kind of acknowledgment, Carmelita headed for her car, motioning for Nick and Judy to join her. The trio got in and started back towards the ZPD. As the dust settled on the event and everyone had a moment to think, the Inspector spoke up.
"I'm sorry…"
"It's okay, that stuff happens it's just a part of the job." Judy responded, trying to rationalize everything.
"No, not just that, I should've kept you two more involved in this case. I got word about your injury Hopps. If you two had been with my team that never would have happened."
"No no, that has nothing to do with you, don't worry."
"Listen Judy, I don't care if it has to do with me or not. But after you rest up this weekend, come Monday I'm going to get you properly involved with the investigation."
"Nick too?"
"Yes," Carmelita sighed, "Nick too."
The three arrived back at the station shortly after, they all exited the car and stood around for a moment, each with a little better understanding of the other. Inspector Fox was the first to step away, heading for the station entrance. A moment later, Nick and Judy began walking towards the road.
"Yet another fun filled day, wouldn't you say carrots?" Nick tried to lighten the mood a bit.
"Absolutely," Judy welcomed the idea of getting her mind off the previous events, "and it's barely even three!"
"You know what that means, don't you?"
"What?"
"It means I have the rest of the day to take a nap." Nick flashed a smirk as he started walking away.
"Nope, you're not getting off that easy, we have work to do Wilde." Judy grabbed the fox by his tie and began dragging him in the opposite direction, towards her apartment.
"Sure I'll help, thanks for asking so politely. You know you really are the prime example of respect and courtesy."
The hours passed quickly as the two officers worked out of the small apartment. Handling the situation with Cooper was taking its toll on the pair. Judy sat at her desk, meticulously writing out the report, having Nick dictate whatever parts she couldn't remember. The fox spent most of that afternoon laying in Judy's bed, trying to find a clever reason to let Sly off the hook. As the sun set, and the two exhausted partners' motivation wavered, their progress was minimal. Judy didn't want to write any details until they had a plan around the raccoon, but neither of them could find any reason Bogo would ever leave him be. Every shred of an idea they had would only have a tiny chance of working if they could talk to Cooper directly, and who knows where he ended up.
Nick fell asleep on Judy's bed while she was still working on the report. Eventually, she gave up, not on the report itself, but on the plan to keep Sly out of it. The raccoon seemed to be good at avoiding police, he'd been doing it for years so what difference did it make if they were after him now. Carmelita and the rest of Interpol were busy with the recent developments in their case so the news of Cooper might not even affect them. Plus Bogo did say he'd help as much as he could, so it wouldn't be that bad. With Nick snoring away in the background, Judy got as many details as she could written down on the report, citing exactly how the fateful meeting initially came about. Of course she helped Sly as much as she could, not mentioning his name in the report, instead only saying that he was a raccoon thief they tracked through some sources. Hopefully nobody would make the connection. Now all the paperwork was missing was the account of the rabbit's injury. Judy decided to leave that part for tomorrow, when they both could think straight again, it was time to call it a night.
The next morning, Judy woke up early to a sharp pain in her side from accidentally pressing on her bandages. Letting out a yawn, the rabbit looked over at the fox sprawled out in her bed, his tongue was hanging out and he looked like a mess. She shook her head with a grin before something on her desk caught Judy's eye. An easily recognizable blue card sat all alone in the center, right where the paperwork had been the night before.
Okay, so a lot happening in this one. Some story nonsense, some light action, some of me writing at 1 am trying to finish before a particularly busy weekend, it's all there. Like I said before, next chapter should get real interesting (you know what's coming, it's in the description of the story). As always, keep the feedback coming, it's been helping me write better and better every week. Thanks for reading, more good stuff coming next week.