Unfortunately, as much as Judy wanted to rush over to Snarlbucks to talk to Nick, it wasn't actually lunch time quite yet, so she decided to pass the time by studying the actual video that she received from Evidence, hoping that she would be able to get some new information out of it.
At first, nothing seemed to come from it, mostly because all she could see was the victim falling to the ground dead after passing by the camera, with the witnesses running for their lives a few seconds later. She couldn't even hear any kind of bang to signify a gun being used, but she assumed that was probably because of the fact that the cameras didn't record sound.
"This doesn't make any sense! Ugh…think, Judy, think! There must be something I'm missing." she said to herself, giving herself a few slaps on the head to help her focus.
Somehow this managed to do the trick, as Judy began focusing on the entire video rather than just the area around the victim, and her eyes successfully managed to catch a couple of quick flashes coming from a nearby alleyway.
"Seriously, an alleyway? That's kind of a letdown for a case of this magnitude." she mumbled.
Backing the video up once more, Judy quickly stopped the feed right when one of the flashes occurred. However, even with all of the state of the art tech that the ZPD had on call, the one thing their software lacked was the ability to control the position of the camera. Even if the alleyway was bright enough for Judy to be able to see into, the awkward camera angle made it incredibly difficult for her to see even a few feet into it.
Groaning in disgust, Judy reluctantly closed the video program, ejecting the disc that the video was on before heading out and returning it to Evidence.
Luckily though, Judy managed to waste enough time dealing with the video that it was almost lunch time. Smiling, she rushed up the stairs, intending to get over to Snarlbucks as quickly as possible. Even luckier was that the closest one just happened to be across the street from the precinct.
However, the only problem was that Judy completely forgot to clarify which store to meet at, considering from what she had heard and seen, there were quite a few branches scattered around the main city and the surrounding districts.
Despite the low odds of getting the right one, Judy felt somewhat confident in Nick's ability to figure things out, especially with the one nearby being the only one in the immediate area, so after notifying Clawhauser of her intent to go on lunch, she quickly ran out of the building and across the way to the store.
After Judy made her way into the Snarlbucks, she was admittedly a little nervous, having not seen hide or hair of Nick.
Clutching the case file to her side, Judy walked over and was about to order a coffee when the bell above the door jingled.
Judy quickly whipped her head around towards the door, nearly giving herself whiplash in her haste to find out who entered. Thankfully, it was in fact Nick, his normal half-lidded stare on his face as he looked around the shop.
He didn't really get much time to look around, though, before Judy rushed over, coming to a stop right in front of him. She barely managed to resist the urge to hug him in her joy at him finding the right coffee shop, but Nick somehow managed to get an idea of how she was feeling from the expression on her face.
"What's with the sudden affection, Fluff? I told you I was going to come."
Judy nervously cleared her throat after a few seconds, composing herself before speaking.
"Sorry, I just realized that I forgot to mention which shop we were going to meet at last night. I was worried that I would have to find which one you went to."
"Well, that's commercialism for you, Carrots. Come on, I really could use a nice cup of coffee right now."
"Ooh yeah, me too!"
Both Nick and Judy ordered their coffees without any real issue. However, when it came to actually paying for them, Judy was admittedly a little wary, remembering the first time that they met over at Jumbeaux's.
Nick noticed the look Judy was giving him, but instead of doing what she expected him to do, she was pleasantly surprised to see him actually pull out a wallet.
"See, Fluff? I can pay for my own stuff when I want." said Nick playfully.
Nick pulled out a five dollar bill and paid for his own drink, picking it up once it was finished before taking a sip.
Although still a little curious as to the details behind Nick's sudden change in mannerisms, Judy decided to put it in the back of her mind. After paying for her own coffee, the two of them walked out of the store and sat down on a nearby bench.
After taking a sip and feeling the relief of being more awake, Judy turned towards Nick. However, Nick managed to beat her to the punch, as he began to speak.
"So…I see by the uniform that Bogo hasn't fired you yet, huh?"
It took Judy a few seconds for the question to register considering she was still a little flustered at getting beaten like that, but she eventually managed to pull herself together and reply.
"Well, my job isn't fully safe quite yet."
"What do you mean?" asked Nick, slightly confused by Judy's wording.
"The chief's testing me. I'm supposed to solve this one case that even the rest of the precinct had trouble with. If I can't, I'm fired." she said, her expression faltering a bit at the mention of the possibility of her firing.
"Wow…that's pretty terrible." said Nick, unable to think of anything else to comfort Judy.
"Thanks, Nick. You're a doll." said Judy sarcastically.
"That's what I'm here for."
Judy rolled her eyes before deciding to quickly change the subject.
"Anyway, enough about me. What have you been up to since last night?"
Nick sighed heavily before replying.
"Not a whole lot, unfortunately. I couldn't find Fin, so I decided to go ahead and get my phone replaced."
Nick pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed it to Judy, who lightly whistled when she saw the fancy new look of it.
"I managed to talk them into giving me a discount because they misled me about the whole waterproof thing. They were pretty stubborn, though."
"Well, I imagine they were nothing compared to a silver-tongued fox like you, am I right?"
"That would be correct." said Nick, taking another sip, a smug look once again on his muzzle.
The two of them fell silent, sipping their coffees. Nick was aimlessly staring out in space, leaning back in his seat as he placed his arm along the backrest of the bench.
As for Judy, she was trying to figure out the best way to bring up the oryx in the picture still tucked inside the case file under her arm.
However, being the perceptive fox that he was, Nick noticed the folder and raised a questioning eyebrow, causing Judy to sigh heavily when she realized that she didn't have a great way of starting the conversation. Still, she was going to try her best.
"Remember when you mentioned yesterday about knowing an oryx that looked almost like the driver that brought us back here from Tundratown?"
"Yeah. What's your point?"
Instead of answering, Judy pulled out the case file and flipped it open, showing Nick the picture.
"Chief Bogo's probably not going to be happy with me showing a case file to a civilian, but I think this is the only way."
As Nick took a look at the file, an unnerved look on his face thanks to the graphic image, Judy pointed towards the picture, specifically where the oryx was located.
"Is there a chance that you know who this is? He might be very important to this case."
Nick paused, not speaking as he stared intently at the oryx in the picture. However, just when it seemed to Judy like she made a mistake in thinking the oryx was related, Nick's sudden change in expression made her think that she might just have something.
"Oh yeah, I think it might be him! It's a little hard to tell, though. Why is the picture so grainy?" he asked.
"It's the feed from one of the cameras near the crime scene. They're usually not very good quality, remember?"
"Oh yeah…" said Nick, their escapades in city hall coming back to him. "They really should spring for some high definition cameras."
"Anyway, what do you think? Is it him?" said Judy, ignoring Nick's offhanded comment.
"Well, as I've said before, there's not a whole lot of ways that you can differentiate between one oryx and another."
"Don't I know it." said Judy under her breath, her neighbors coming to mind despite the difference in species.
"Anyway, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think it is most likely him."
"Awesome! Do you know where I can find him? I really need to talk to him."
Nick really wanted to point out to Judy how obvious it was considering what she'd already said, but he decided to be nice for once and remain silent.
"Sure, I know where he is. Only problem is that he's on the other side of town."
Judy's expression faltered when she realized just how long they were probably going to have to walk.
"That's going to take us all day to walk!"
Nick admittedly had a snarky comment ready to go, but his ears perked up when he heard Judy mention walking, his interest piqued.
"Wait, didn't you have that dinky little cart I saw you in yesterday? Why don't we use that?" he said.
Nick didn't really seem enthusiastic about the idea of riding in the cart, knowing that even though he was still pretty small like most foxes, the cart was more built for Judy's sake than anything, and she was way smaller than he was. Still, if it meant helping her out, he would have kept his mouth shut about it.
"I would, but Chief Bogo was kind of mad at me for ditching it on that street corner. I don't want to risk taking it out again and letting something else happen to it."
Nick inwardly sighed, relieved that he didn't have to squeeze himself into that clown car.
"Well…what about an actual police car? Wouldn't that be nice to drive around?" he asked, looking excited at the prospect of driving around in those souped-up looking cars he spotted around town every so often.
Judy also looked pretty excited at the prospect as well. Unfortunately, her expression soon fell when she realized something else important.
"I wish. I didn't really ask, though. Besides, I'm technically on probation. I doubt they'd be happy if I tried to take one of the cruisers when I'm not even officially a full-on cop."
Even though Nick was a little put off by Judy putting herself down, he did admit to himself that there wasn't really any way to convince her otherwise, especially since what she said was technically true.
"So now what? We don't have anything to drive, and I really don't have the time to walk all the way there." said Judy, looking despondent.
Nick was about to answer, when he suddenly spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Standing up from the bench, he set his coffee cup on the seat before shielding his eyes with his paw, trying to see what it was he noticed.
"Nick? Something up?" asked Judy, nervously glancing over at his forgotten coffee cup and hoping it doesn't fall over.
"Wait a second…I recognize that van more than anything." he said quietly.
Judy's ears managed to catch most of what Nick said, and her head swiveled in the general direction of where Nick was looking to find an eerily familiar-looking van.
However, before she could actually process how it was so familiar, Nick quickly began rushing over, quickly stopping to face Judy after a few steps.
"Wait here. I'll be right back."
Judy admittedly wanted to just ignore Nick's order and follow him, knowing that was in fact Finnick's van they were both looking at, but then she noticed the tense look on Nick's face when he glanced back towards her, and she reluctantly decided to stay where she was, keeping an eye on Nick's cup to make sure it doesn't spill while watching the inevitable scene that was about to unfold in front of her.
Silently, Judy watched as Nick knocked on the back door of the van, only to be surprised when she saw a baseball bat poking out of the doorway.
Her eyes widening, she briefly considered rushing over and helping him out, but she could see Nick roughly pulling Finnick out of the van, disarming him before tossing the bat into the front.
Even with her sensitive ears, Judy could not hear what the two of them were saying thanks to all the noise going on around her, but she could tell that something was going on considering how animated the two of them were getting.
It even got to the point where Nick ended up grabbing Finnick by the shirt collar, the black and red fabric bunched up in his paw as he lifted the smaller fox so that they were eye-to-eye. Judy was about ready to intervene once more, considering she had a feeling that this was going to happen after how Nick was speaking last night, but thankfully it didn't get any worse than that, which came as a relief to her.
Eventually, Nick returned to where Judy was sitting, Finnick looking incredibly surly as he followed closely behind.
"Good news, Fluff!" he said, Judy quickly snatching Nick's coffee cup before the fox ended up sitting on it in his haste to get back on the bench.
"I'm listening."
Nick gestured towards Finnick as he began speaking, the smaller fox giving Nick the darkest glare he could muster.
"Our friend Finnick here has graciously agreed to drive us to your witness's house."
"Really?" said Judy, looking unimpressed. "He doesn't look too gracious right now."
"Well…let's just say this is a bit of a punishment for ditching us back in Tundratown yesterday."
At this, he gave a dirty look to Finnick, who sulked in response.
As for Judy, she seemed a little weirded out by the proceedings in front of her, but she was more than willing to take the opportunity that was given to her. After handing Nick's coffee over to him, the fox gladly grabbing it and taking a sip, she quickly hopped off of the bench, turning back towards Nick.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Nick admittedly wanted to take a few minutes to rest, having just sat back down, but Judy's eagerness turned out to be pretty infectious, so after a few seconds, he reluctantly pulled himself off of the bench as well.
"You know, you're a jerk, Nick." said Finnick as he followed the two of them back to the van.
"Love you too, Fin."