A moment after Judy's alarm clock went off, she heard Nick grumble through the wall, "Why does morning have to start so early?"

She smiled. It was good to be back home. She leapt out of bed and got her bath pack. OK, she wasn't crazy about this part of home. She had to share the bathroom with everyone on the floor, not just Nick but the Oryx-Antlersons and everyone else. At least she was the earliest riser on the floor so she always got in there first.

She put on her robe and headed down the hallway. She showered quickly and vigorously. She used to sing in the shower, till the Oryx-Antlersons complained. They agreed with Nick that it was unnatural to be this cheerful in the morning.

She suddenly realized that she hadn't been cheerful while on the drowning case. There had been moments of glee and joy but mostly she was worried, about a lot of things. She knew they weren't all neatly resolved now, but she felt like they soon would be.

Nick emerged from his room as she came back to her own. "Hey, Carrots," he croaked. "You want me to fix some oatmeal when I wake up?"

"Oh, thank you but I can make breakfast."

"I think it's better if we eat in my room. So we don't disturb the neighbors."

"Thank you!" yelled Bucky.

"Yeah, it sure was quiet around here last week," shouted Pronk.

"You two shut your yaps!" screeched the old bat across the hall.

And the hyena by the stairs laughed loudly.

"I'm going to take my shower now," Nick quietly told Judy, who nodded.

She went back in her room and brushed her fur. Then she put on her underwear and police uniform. She could hear Nick coming back and puttering around his room. It sounded like he was making breakfast. She heard the beep of the microwave.

"OK, Fluff, you can come over now."

She smiled and grabbed a package of frozen strawberries. They weren't as good as fresh, but she had been away for almost a week, so she didn't have any fresh fruit just then.

Nick grimaced when he answered the door in his bathrobe. "Uh, I've kind of gone off berries for the moment, Fluff."

"Oh, right, sorry." She should've been more sensitive about that. She went back to her room and threw the berries in the freezer. When she returned, Nick had put on his work slacks under the robe.

"So, Whiskers," he said, handing her a bowl of oatmeal with margarine on top, "what's on your mind?"

She sat in his chair, blowing on the hot food while she decided what to say and what not to say. She didn't want to have a big talk about their relationship, not at the beginning of their work day. And she didn't know if he wanted to talk about his father just then. But she realized that they needed to talk about the drowning case, including her doubts about Ward's guilt.

"...I'm sorry I didn't say something earlier."

"It's OK, Judy. I had the feeling that things couldn't be tied up that neatly. Maybe he's guilty, maybe he isn't. Maybe he had an accomplice. But we had to arrest him. He's the likely suspect and we couldn't just keep going in circles all around the CD."

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"We'll just have to see what happens with Ward today, and after."

She nodded. "Right."

"I'm still turning in an expense report."

She laughed. "Good idea."

"You know what's weird, Judy? I mean another thing that's weird."

"What, Nick?"

"You remember when we thought we'd cracked the missing mammals case and you were the heroine of Zootopia?"

She winced. She'd felt proud at first and then it all unraveled. She lost Nick's friendship, she divided the city, she gave up on her dreams.

"No, Fluff," he said gently, "I mean that you had that big press conference. This is as big a case, isn't it, going back years instead of weeks? Why is there no publicity about it apparently being solved?"

She slowly said, "I think it's because of what Chief Bogo said in the beginning, that most animals thought these were unrelated accidents, if they even knew about the drownings at all. When the mammals went missing, every disappearance was big news and it was seen as a pattern. This was different."

Nick nodded. "Yeah. And maybe it happening over such a long period actually makes a difference, instead of one disappearance after another. It's less dramatic."

"Yes."

"Eat your oatmeal before it gets cold," Nick said, taking a spoonful of his.

"Thank you."

...

When they got to work, Clawhauser greeted them and then said, "Chief Bogo wants to see both of you in his office right away."

Nick looked at her as if asking Is this good or bad? She shrugged. They headed to the chief's office. Judy had noticed but hadn't commented on the fact that Nick, unlike his first couple days on the job, was wearing his uniform to work. Maybe he'd gotten tired of street clothes while in the Canal District. Or maybe he felt more like a real cop now. In any case, it meant that they didn't have to stop at the locker room on the way.

"Have a seat," Bogo told them when they arrived.

As always, they climbed up into the same chair. She remembered being called into Bogo's office before, when she'd seemingly bungled the arrest of Weaselton in Little Rodentia. If the chief was angry, it would be good to not face him alone this time. And if he was proud, well, it would be good to share that with Nick, too.

"So, Wilde, you drowned."

"Well, Sir, I guess it was a near drowning. I mean, obviously I'm alive and well, thanks to Officer Hopps."

Judy waited to see if Bogo would show any concern or sympathy. Instead, after pausing a moment, he said, "I ask because I wondered if you wanted to add attempted murder to the charges against Ward."

Nick shrugged. "It seems so minor compared to successful murder."

Judy couldn't believe Nick could joke about this. She blurted out, "Ward might also have killed Nick's father!"

"Yeah, he mentioned that."

"He?"

"Yes, Walter Ward confessed at 3:37 a.m. today, but he said his memory wasn't very good and he didn't really keep track of all of the mammals he drugged over the years."

Judy stared at the chief. "He confessed?"

"And you didn't want to take the time to call us, Sir?"

"I thought you might need your sleep. Besides, my gut is telling me that there's more to this case."

Judy nodded. "That's what we think, too, Sir."

"So now we've got an interesting dilemma. If Ward isn't guilty, whoever is knows that you two were snooping around the Canal District. And you can't really go back. And I can't really send anyone else there. Meanwhile, do we see Ward get sentenced and maybe executed for crimes he may not have committed?"

Judy didn't know what to say. Bogo was right, but she didn't see how this could be resolved, other than maybe by Ward breaking down on the witness stand.

"Does that mean you're not going to approve our expense report?"

"I'd hold off on filing that, Wilde."

"As you say, Sir."

"Chief Bogo?" the anxious voice of Clawhauser came over the intercom.

"Clawhauser, I told you I wasn't to be disturbed."

"I'm sorry, Sir, it's just there's an accountant who's very insistent on having an immediate appointment."

"Well, Wilde, you certainly don't kid around, do you?"

Nick gave an innocent look, although Judy had the feeling that he didn't actually have an accountant on call to prepare the expense report.

Bogo said into the intercom, "Clawhauser, I don't have time for this."

"No, Sir, he wants to see Officer Hopps."

Now Nick grinned.

Bogo threw his top hooves in the air. "Fine. We're through here." He told Clawhauser, "Send the accountant to the bullpen. It should be empty right now."

"Thank you, Sir," Judy said, feeling guilty, even though it wasn't her fault.

She and Nick jumped down from the chair, said goodbye, and left the office. Out in the hallway, they exchanged looks that said they had no idea what this was about.

When they got to the bullpen, she rushed in and gave the accountant a big hug. "Nick, this is my old friend Jaguar." She pronounced it correctly, "Hog-u-are," although the J had given her trouble back at Woodlands Elementary School. He had been in the Carrots Day play with her fifteen years ago, playing the predator that attacked her as prey. He'd said then that he wanted to grow up to be an actuary and look for tax exemptions, but he in fact found a position with the Zootopia Revenue Service, investigating tax evasions.

Judy explained a little of this to Nick, as well as introducing Nick as her partner. She did not mention Jaguar's help when she prepared a simple form to represent Nick's tax evasion weeks ago, but from the expressions on both males' faces as they shook paws, she had the feeling that Nick guessed it, and Jaguar made the connection to the "sly fox I want to do a set-up on."

"Judy, Officer Wilde, the ZRS would like your help on a case."

"Shouldn't you talk to Chief Bogo about this?" She didn't want Bogo to have more reason to be annoyed.

"Well, it's not anything definite I can pinpoint. I'm not even here in an official capacity. But there's a corporation, possibly a dummy corporation. And I can't trace who owns or runs it. All I know is they haven't paid any taxes in over twenty years."

"Maybe they've never shown a profit," Nick said smoothly, as if he hadn't been avoiding filing since adolescence.

"That's what they, whoever they are, claim. But it's a very complex corporation, with lots of subsidiaries and investments, from cruise ships to hotels to restaurants."

The fur stood up on the back of Judy's neck. "What's the name of the corporation?"

"Sealbury."

"Seaberry?" Nick asked.

"No, S-E-A-L-B-U-R-Y. I thought it might be named after a place, but I can't find any town or city, or even any street, with that name."

"Can you email me the information you have?"

"Yes, of course. Thank you, Judy. You, too, Officer Wilde."

"Of course," she said, and Nick said, "No problem."

After he left, she and Nick looked at each other in silence, till she asked, "What should we do next? Should we go back to the Canal District?"

Nick shook his head. "I think it's time for me to take you to meet my mother."