The silence in the squad car was quickly becoming awkward. It was the problem with big, emotional moments, Nick mused. They weren't really over even when they ended, not until there was enough time to move past it. The car itself was not helping; in typical bureaucratic fashion, despite the fact that the car itself was practically brand new, the mobile data terminal in it had been salvaged out of the car's predecessor and was badly out of date. The simple act of pulling up the results of a query for Hyperion Leaps' address seemed like it was taking an eternity, leaving him with plenty of time to reflect on their visit to Hyacinth Leaves and what had happened afterwards.
It was obvious to him–and almost certainly equally obvious to Judy–that he had not been paying as close attention as he should have while they were in the townhouse. He had completely missed whatever piece of evidence it was that had clued Judy into the existence of another sibling of Holly, and that was worrying. He didn't expect to catch every single detail that Judy did; part of the strength of their partnership was that each had an eye for details that the other did not. What he did expect of himself, though, was that while they were on duty he would do his best, and he had completely failed at that.
The smell of impending death had brought back too many memories, none of them pleasant. He found it difficult to articulate, even within his own mind, how he felt about showing Judy another one of the vulnerable facets of his life. Equally difficult to sort out was how he felt about her hug. "You know," Judy said suddenly, mercifully breaking the silence, "Maybe you need to do some more research."
"What kind of research?" Nick asked, grateful that she had broken the silence.
"I've got a feeling that Holly's show might be important to why someone attacked her."
"That's what your gut's telling you, is it?" Nick asked.
"Yes, and you've never even watched it. Something about not wanting to waste your precious free time?"
"That does sound like something I'd say," Nick replied in a mock thoughtful tone.
"Well, I think you need to waste some of that precious free time. Why don't you head over to my place after our shifts end so we can watch the first few episodes?"
"Working off the clock?" Nick asked, an eyebrow raised archly, "Why are we going to risk getting in trouble with Mammal Resources and the Police Union?"
He said it teasingly, but he appreciated the unspoken support she was offering by inviting him over.
"Because if my gut is wrong, I don't think Bogo is going to buy that watching a TV show on duty is the best use of our time."
Nick snorted at that. He could only imagine how the chief would react if he caught them watching episode after episode of a police drama on the clock; it would probably make the time Bogo had focused his anger on Clawhauser for neglecting his duties to post on a Gazelle fan forum look like a gentle admonishment. Actually, finding out how the chief reacted to him explaining how watching TV was vital to a case would have almost been worth trying it on the job if they weren't focused on trying to solve the case as quickly as possible. "I suppose I could clear my schedule if you think it's that important," he said, glad that they were able to get back to their usual banter, although he didn't believe for a second that Judy was dropping what he had told her about his past.
He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that, either, but was able to push those thoughts down for later evaluation when the data terminal between the two front seats on the cruiser finally beeped to indicate that it had successfully found the address of Hyperion Leaps. The address listed was one that Nick recognized as belonging to an upscale neighborhood in Zootopia's midtown. "We've got an address for Hyperion Leaps," Nick said, "Let's pay him a visit."
Judy knocked on the door of the apartment. "Mr. Leaps? ZPD, we have some questions for you."
When Hyperion Leaps opened the door, he was easily recognizable from the picture that Judy had seen at Hyacinth's bedside. Despite the twenty or so years that had passed since the photo was taken, the distinctive brown blotches on his white fur made it obvious that it was the same bunny. He was dressed far more casually than he had been in the family portrait in a pair of jeans and a white polo that emphasized his lithe and athletic build. "I figured I'd be seeing you," he sighed, "Come in."
Hyperion's apartment, amusingly enough, closely resembled one of the options Judy had imagined for Nick's place. It had a very modern appearance, with glass and chrome furnishings. It was scrupulously clean; there wasn't so much as a smudge on any of the many pieces of glass that made up the dramatic floor to ceiling windows or the furniture, and there was nothing in the way of clutter. Besides an abstract rendering of what could have been the sun over a field, the only items on the walls were a number of plaques celebrating sales milestones and one for participating in community theater. Hyperion ushered them to his kitchen table and after they introduced themselves he offered them something to drink. Judy didn't think it was a particularly good idea to accept something from a mammal suspected of murder and turned it down. "No thanks, Mr. Leaps."
"Please, call me Hy," he said, taking a seat.
"You said you expected us?" Nick asked casually.
"Well, not necessarily the two of you, exactly, but I'm right, aren't I? You spoke with my sisters and my mother, didn't you?"
Hy, to Judy's eye, did not appear worried that he had been caught; his anxiety seemed more along the lines of worrying that he wouldn't be believed. Of course, it was also possible that acting ran in the family. "We did."
Hy Leaps didn't have an immediate response to that, and the silence dragged on until he blurted, "I haven't seen them since I moved out. But my mother thinks I attacked Holly, doesn't she?"
Hyacinth and Holly hadn't mentioned him at all, and Heather had only talked about him after being prompted. To Judy, it meant that he was probably telling the truth about them not seeing him for a couple decades, but just because he didn't spring to mind as a suspect to them didn't mean he was innocent.
"Actually, she doesn't," Nick said, "But it's not what your family thinks that you should be worried about."
Nick's tone continued to be light, but Hyperion caught onto his obvious meaning and swallowed nervously. "And you haven't seen them at all in the past twenty years? You live pretty close to them, you know."
It was true that Hy's apartment was less than two miles from both Holly's apartment and the townhouse that Hyacinth and Heather lived in. "Well, now I do, sure," Hyperion said, "But I just moved back to the city about four months ago."
"You're from the country, right?" Hyperion suddenly asked Judy.
If Nick was going to play the bad cop, Judy was willing to be the good cop and play along for the time being. "Yes, from Bunny Burrow," she replied.
"So you probably have dozens of siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles, right?"
Judy wasn't sure where he was going with his questions, but she didn't see any harm in continuing to answer. "Yes," she said, not mentioning that between her siblings, cousins, and her parent's siblings it was well into the hundreds.
"My family's lived in the city for generations," Hyperion said, "And in the city, you can't afford that many kits, not if you want to be able to pay rent. Maybe it would have been harder to tell that Holly was the favorite if there had been more of us.
"Nothing Heather or I did mattered. Heather got perfect grades, but all that meant was that she had to tutor Holly to make sure Holly passed her tests. Heather was the one who got punished when Holly didn't. Mom pushed me into acting too, but once Holly got cast in that first soap opera, suddenly there wasn't time for me anymore.
"When the agent she found for Holly suggested that Holly change her last name to make it more memorable, Mom said that we were all going to change our last names too. I told her there was no way I was going to do it," he said, smiling faintly at the memory, "It was just after Dad died, and it was like it was the last piece of him, you know? I think that was about the first time I ever really stood up to her. It only got worse from there, though. Everything became a fight, and it didn't matter how much Heather tried to play peacemaker. So when I turned eighteen, I told my mother that I was done dealing with her and left the city and got a job on a farm in Deerset. Eventually I started my own greengrocer's store, and I started franchising it through the suburbs. We're opening one in the city now, so I moved here to set it up."
"That explains why you don't talk to your mother. What about your sisters?" asked Nick.
Hyperion fidgeted before responding, his ears drooping. "Before I left, I was..." he trailed off, apparently trying to find the right word, "Cruel. I told Heather that she was deluding herself, that Mom would never love her the way she loved Holly, no matter what she did. And I told Holly that if she had any decency she never would have let Mom treat Heather and I the way she did."
He frowned, "Just not nearly as politely as that. But when I moved back to Zootopia, you known what I realized?"
That question was apparently rhetorical. "If I stayed angry and unhappy, that was letting her win. That just because she ruined her relationship with me, it didn't have to ruin my relationship with my sisters.
"So when I moved back to Zootopia, I wrote them both letters. Apologized for being an angry idiot."
Hyperion sighed. "I never heard back from either one of them. I understand why, of course. But if there's anything I can do to help you figure out who attacked my sister, please just ask."
He handed over his business card. It read, "Hy Leaps, Founder and President, Green Gable Grocers," with his contact information on the front. The back of the card had the addresses and phone numbers of what were presumably all five of his stores, including the one being opened in Zootopia.
"Were you at your new store last night?" Judy asked.
"Yes, I spent the entire day there with one of the contractors to get the POS set up. I didn't leave until about a quarter to midnight."
When he saw the unspoken question written on Judy's face he hastily clarified the initialism, "Point of Sale. It's what we call the registers, not, you know..."
"We'll need to confirm that," Judy said, "Do you have the contact information for the contractor?"
"Sure, just give me a second," he said, pulling out a bulging wallet and rifling through a number of business cards.
He finally pulled one out and handed it over. "Feel free to stop by the store, too. They'll be doing the shelving and flooring over the next couple days."
Until they had the chance to check his story, it didn't seem as though there was anything more that Hy could tell them. For the moment, though, Judy didn't think that he was involved.
As she and Nick went to leave, Judy paused and turned back to face Hyperion. "Look," Judy said, "We don't know what it was like, growing up with your mother, or whether you need to forgive her. But I think you should know that the only photo your mother has in her room is of your entire family. All five of you."
He seemed surprised at that, and his mouth worked soundlessly. "Just something to think about," Judy said, and pulled the door shut behind her.