Chapter Twenty-Six:
Case Number…
Between her and Nick, Judy was normally the one that couldn't wait to get back to work after multiple days off. Yet she was glad she didn't have to get back to the grind until a full day after they had come back. For it gave them a chance to get to know each other better. Granted she was already used to her partner's habits, she was surprised that Grace seemed to have a mixture of each of them. But with each thing Judy learned about the young kit, the more she came to cherish about her.
Come the following day thou; the bunny was finding herself wanting another day with the young kit she had come to love like her own. It was largely for this reason alone that she found herself taking a little longer to get dressed. Normally she would be before her alarm went off and ready to and out the door twenty minutes later. But by the time she was finally ready to go, she was almost half an hour behind her normal schedule. It wasn't until Nick reminded her about how far they were from the precinct now that she started to relax.
After grabbing a quick breakfast, they went down to the parking garage and drove the cruiser over to the precinct motor pool. Once the vehicle was checked in, they took the elevator up to the second floor and walked over to the chief's office in time to see him open the door.
"Officers Wilde, Ms. Locksley," Chief Bogo said letting them in, "I entrust that all of you enjoyed your vacation."
"I had fun," Grace said quietly.
"Honestly sir," Judy said looking at her commanding officer, "I almost wish that we had another day."
All eyes looked at the bunny for a few seconds before Nick asked, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"
"Oh, am I not allowed to have fun?" she retorted looking at him.
"You are, but that sounding like something I would say," he said smiling a little.
"Anyway," Bogo said closing the door to his office, "I need to tell the three of you something before rollcall; now sit."
"Is something wrong, Mr. Bogo?" Grace asked as before hopping up on one of the chairs.
"Nothing's wrong, Ms. Locksley," he assured the young kit, "But a few things have happened since you were here last."
"Like what?" Nick asked.
"The first being Augustus Morris," Bogo said sitting behind his desk, "Both him and Moriarty turned on each other and tried to saw they were an unwitting pawn when it came to the Climate Wall incident. It wasn't until Moriarty's wife spoke up that we found out the truth."
"Which was what?" Grace asked taking Judy's paw in hers.
"The Moriarty's were defense attorney's that would take on any case for the right price," he said looking at the young kit, "Over two-thirds of their losses in the court room were against your mother. The husband went into private practice after his last lose against her and started working for Morris."
"And started to take over Morris's empire once he proved himself?" Nick asked.
"Try payment for services rendered," Bogo said looking at the fox, "Moriarty started to fabricate evidence so Morris would win any case brought against him."
"But how does my mom fit into this?" Grace asked puzzled.
The cape buffalo took a deep breathe before calmly saying, "The jump drive that Victoria gave Clawson had a hidden program that would send an email to Laura's computer and would grant her remote access to via her laptop. She took that information and handed it over to the Bar Association before heading to pick you up."
"You mean she was killed for trying to disbar Moriarty and not for a legendary treasure?" Judy asked.
"No, she was killed for starting an inquiry into Moriarty's activities," he said looking at her, "The info she dropped off was the nail in the coffin in Moriarty's career. As far as that legendary treasure goes, Clawson's tech was able to find the original email that mentioned it. According to him, he got rid of it before he was taken into custody and it was worthless."
"He put an old treasure chest as one of the prizes for the talent contest him and his mate were trying to rig," Judy said as her gaze shifted from her boss to her mate, "Do you think that really is the treasure?"
"Where is that chest now?" Bogo asked looking at her.
"It's sitting in our living room unopened," Nick replied with a smile, "Grace entered the contest as a last minute entry and won it with a song that brought a tear to McHorn's eye. I even have the photo to prove it."
"Show me later and let me know what you find," Bogo replied before handing over a piece of paper, "Which leads me to a slightly funnier problem right now. That is from the prosecuting attorney's office wanting Grace to be at each trail and to take the stand."
"Over my dead body," Nick and Judy said together glaring at their boss.
"Which is exactly what her friend, Daniel Anderson said," Bogo said with a slight laugh before holding up a small stack of papers, "This is a no contact order that he filled in her name against the Prosecuting Attorney's office. According to this; they are not to have any contact with Grace of any kind until after sentencing in both cases."
"Thank you Daniel," Nick said with a slight chuckle, "I knew I liked him for a reason."
"Um, Mr. Bogo," Grace said speaking up, "What's going to happen to those two?"
'While Moriarty is trying to get a plea deal from the Prosecuting Attorney, Morris has already pled guilty to your parent's murders," Bogo said looking at her, "Both of them will be going away for the rest of their lives. Now, let's move on to the second reason I asked you three in here today. A class from a local elementary school is coming here today to see how a police station works. Each of the students will be shadowing different officers; it's because of this, a contest was started a month ago to see who got to ride with you two."
"That does not sound like fun to me," Nick murmured.
"Shut it; fox," Bogo said glaring at his officer briefly before continuing, "From what I understand, the class that will be coming in today is the one Grace will be joining as of this Monday. Which is why I'm giving you an option; you can stay and help out, or I can extend your time off so you come back on Grace's first day of class."
"Is there any way I could be paired with my parents?" Grace asked suddenly.
"I'm going to have to agree with her on this one, chief," Nick said with a slight nod towards his daughter, "Granted it's not going to seem far to the other kits."
"But it is a good idea to place a newly adopted kit with her parents in a situation like this," Bogo said simply, "I talked to the class's teacher last night and she actually agreed to place Grace with you two; if you stuck around today."
"Are you sure that's fair to the contest winner, sir?" Judy asked.
"The rules of the contest was that whoever scored an A on an essay about teamwork would shadow you two and not get in trouble," he said looking at her, "The only A in the class went to a lion cub that is currently in the hospital due to a skateboarding injury. While I may not be a doctor, I think a visit from the two he tried so hard to try and shadow might help his recovery."
"We'll be sure to stop by and see who he's doing," Judy said nodding in agreement, "Is there anything else sir?"
"Just one last thing," he said noticing the time on the clock, "And we are going to have to make this quick." He opened a draw in his desk and pulled out a small wrapped package. "Clawhauser let it slip that your birthday was a few weeks ago, Grace," he said handing the package to the young kit, "All the officers from both Precinct One and Three got together to get you this. Sorry it's late."
"They didn't have to," the young kit said quietly before removing the wrapping paper.
"I know. But they wanted too," he said. They watched as Grace removed the last of the paper and opened the box. Inside was what looked like a police badge, but something was different about it. "As of today; Chief Clawson of Precinct Three and I, Chief Bogo of Precinct One, hereby bestow the honorary rank of Detective to Grace Locksley and the official rank of Detective to both Officers Judith and Nicholas Wilde."
"D-D-Detective?" Judy stammered unsure if she heard her boss right, "We're being promoted?"
"Yes, detective," Bogo said handing the two officers new badges, "For your dedication to the civilians and the city of Zootopia. You two deserve this."